from Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press,

Having special teams they can rely on — especially the power play — is part of the growth the Wings are enjoying this season.

"We had a good start last year, and I remember we just couldn’t get anything going on our special teams," Dylan Larkin said after the Predators game. "Our special teams let us down a lot. Now our special teams is winning us games. It’s different players that are in our lineup now. I just think we’re rolling right now, we’re taking care of the puck on the power play and on the penalty kill, things are going well. We’re blocking shots or getting sticks in lanes or getting big saves."

Larkin ranks second on the team with eight power play points, two behind leader Dominik Kubalik. Adding veteran David Perron in the offseason has been a big part of the transformation — he makes such good decisions with the puck, hustles on retrievals and is dangerous making passes and unleashing his one-timer.

Larkin was part of Wednesday's 5-on-3 kill, along with defensemen Filip Hronek (who later scored the power play goal) and Olli Määttä — who were called to duty because the two skaters the Wings were without were their top defense/penalty killing duo, Moritz Seider and Ben Chiarot.

The Wings' power play is clicking at 21.7% and the penalty kill at 80.7%. At the end of last year, they were at 16.3% and 73.8%, respectively. Of the Wings' 62 goals, 17 have come on man advantages (including pulling the goalie for an extra attacker), five have been empty-netters, two shorthanded, and one four-on-four, with the rest (37) coming at during five-on-five play.

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