The last time the Red Wings' power play ranked in the top half of the NHL, their top unit was centered by Pavel Datsyuk. That was in 2015-16, Jeff Blashill's first season as head coach.
Detroit has the worst power play percentage in the NHL in five seasons since. It ranked third to last in 2019-20 and second to last in 2020-21, and at one point this year it endured an 0-40 drought. The power play did more bad for the team than good.
So on Wednesday, Blashill and the Red Wings hired Alex Tanguay as an assistant coach. The former Avalanche All-Star will replace Dan Bylsma as the primary technician of Detroit's power play.
"To me this was step one, hiring a coach who I think has an opportunity to make the individual players on the power play better," Blashill said Wednesday. "That was probably the most critical thing."
Tanguay knows a thing or two about the power play. That's where he scored nearly a quarter of his 283 goals and nearly a third of his 863 points during his 16-year NHL career. He also oversaw the power play for the AHL's Iowa Wild the past two seasons, including an operation that ranked fifth in the league in 2019-20. Tanguay has a feel for producing offense with the man advantage that Blashill believes will translate to Detroit's young players.
One of the most important elements of a good power play is putting the right players in the right spots. To that end, Tanguay will review Detroit's formations from the past couple seasons to identify any miscast roles.
"Is there a guy we’ve had in the net-front who maybe is better on the flank or maybe better in the bumper? Those are all the things we have to look at," said Blashill.
And once those roles are adjusted, Tanguay can home in on execution. Most power plays in the NHL use the same concepts. It's the little details that make a big difference.
"I’m very confident Alex can put a structure together, can have a foundation of a power play," Blashill said. "But to me it was more than that. Where I’m really confident Alex can help our guys is in those individual situations on the power play."
For example, Adam Erne manned the bumper spot for the Wings this year. It looked like a good fit. Now it's Tanguay's job to help Erne with the nuances of that position.
"He can help Adam through video, through little drills, through the way he sees the game. Help him find ways to get open more, and that’s a critical thing on the power play," said Blashill. "He can help our flankers find ways to evaluate and scan and know their best options. Find ways for our net-front players to be a little bit more dangerous.
"That’s where I thought Alex was pretty unique, because of the way he sees hockey and because he was a really cerebral offensive player himself. He can bring those experiences to our players."
If power plays are similar across the league, they've changed a lot since Tanguay broke in with the Avs in 1999. Back then, Tanguay recalled, most teams used two defenseman up top and three forwards down low. Nowadays things are more spread out. Tanguay watched it all happen before retiring in 2016.
He knows the concepts that work. As he told Blashill and Steve Yzerman during the interview process, "This is not about reinventing hockey."
"It’s about putting players in situations to succeed and to facilitate for them," Tanguay said. "Certainly we’re going to try different things and make some adjustments to make the power play better and more consistent. And it’s going to be an everyday challenge. When you have young players, it takes them time to assimilate that. It takes time to put them in a confident frame of mind where every time they go on the ice they can execute."