Patrick Kane reveals plan to get Red Wings back to postseason

The Detroit Red Wings just missed out on reaching the postseason for what would have been the first time in eight years, and it was a seven-game slide in the month of March that included a pair of losses to the basement-dwelling Arizona Coyotes that did them in. 

The positive is that the Red Wings showed signs of promise during the 2023-24 campaign that included finding themselves nine points up on the postseason cutoff point in the month of February. And a major part of Detroit's success was the contribution from future Hall of Famer Patrick Kane.

Kane, who recovered from offseason hip surgery, produced at nearly a point-per-game pace and showed no signs of slowing down. He agreed to a one-year contract to run it back with the Red Wings, and spoke about how his team can make a return to the postseason in 2025.

“I think we all want to build on last year,” Kane said. “And I think there’s definitely expectations going into this season, so that’s always a good thing.

“So, I’m excited about being a part of that and hopefully getting the chance to have a good regular season and playoff hockey again.”

Kane also spoke at length about how Detroit can improve on their special teams play, both with the power play and while shorthanded.

“We can be better on the power play,” Kane said. “I think we can be a top-five unit. I think that would be a good goal. We were maybe around 10 (actually ninth) last year, which is still pretty good, but I still think we can be even better.

“I think I can be better on the power play as well. You look back at numbers, I think I had two goals on the power play, so I had 18 even-strength goals out of 20 goals, which is, you feel like, pretty good, but it should be bolstered up a little bit because you should have more success on the power play. Looking forward to building off that.

Meanwhile, Kane detailed the need to tighten things up defensively: 

"Obviously, we feel we can be a better group defensively,” Kane said. “That’s always a key component to winning and getting into playoffs, and that’s on everyone, right? Not just the guys that are in that role, but everyone needs to play better defensively.

“So I’m sure we’ll go through that as a team and how we want to play in those situations.

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