Detroit — It was time to move some bodies and create new looks on the power play Thursday at practice.
The Red Wings have been struggling with the man advantage — a dreadful 2 for the last 31 attempts — a stark contrast to early in the season, when the unit was ranked near the top 10 in the league (it was 20th entering Thursday’s games).
Coach Jeff Blashill had tweaked personnel during Tuesday’s game in Washington, and with Mike Green unavailable for Thursday’s practice, the blender went to work again.
So, in the end, the Wings had Dennis Cholowski, Frans Nielsen, Dylan Larkin, Gustav Nyquist and Thomas Vanek on one unit, with Niklas Kronwall (in for Green), Martin Frk, Andreas Athanasiou, Michael Rasmussen and Tyler Bertuzzi manning the second unit.