Notes: Wings working to get power play going again

DETROIT -- The Red Wings have not been getting a ton of chances with the man-advantage of late but when they do, they haven't been able to capitalize.
In the first 10 games this season, the Wings scored seven power-play goals.

In the second 10, they scored five power-play goals.
In the last 12 games, they have managed just two power-play goals.
On Tuesday in Washington, the team switched up the power-play units, putting Frans Nielsen with Dylan Larkin, Gustav Nyquist, Thomas Vanek and rookie Dennis Cholowski.
The other unit has Tyler Bertuzzi, Andreas Athanasiou, Martin Frk, Michael Rasmussen and either Mike Green or Niklas Kronwall, depending on Green's status.
Of course, then the Wings only got one opportunity, late in the second period, and got one shot against the Capitals.
"Obviously, we haven't been very good on the power play," Wings coach Jeff Blashill said. "I talked to (general manager) Ken Holland yesterday, the one hard thing about our power play is we don't get very many of them, so then it's hard to get any kind of rhythm. So we're hoping that moving Larks into that bumper spot, moving (Athanasiou) to the half-wall spot, where it's more run through him as opposed to running the other side and being a one-timer and we're hoping to get some chemistry going."
Nielsen said one problem of late is that after the Red Wings do get a shot on the power play, they don't get to the rebound first.
"It's been a lot of one-and-done," Nielsen said. "We don't win those second pucks back and then we gotta go back and break it in again. Every time that happens it's at least 30 seconds off the clock. I think that's an area we talked that we got to, once we do shoot the puck, we got to be hard on it and (have) more effort to get it back. Then once you get those second pucks back, that's when the PK is out of position sometimes and that's when you can go through the box and it opens up. It's so important that once we shoot the puck that we're on it and it's not going back to our end again."
Of course, without many chances, it is tough to get the power play in a good groove.
"Unfortunately, I think we've only had one opportunity each game here, L.A. and Washington," Nyquist said. "For sure we got to probably draw a couple more penalties. Probably a little more winning battles, winning the pucks back. I think usually you score on the power play not the first opportunity. It's the second and third when you get pucks back and get their penalty kill running around a little bit. It's a couple of things we talked about we're aware of. We just got to be better."
Cholowski, 20, leads the Wings in power-play points with seven, which includes two goals.
"He's good," Nielsen said. "He's got a lot of poise out there on the blueline. He's a great skater, the way he can walk the blueline. It's rarely that his shots get blocked. He's always gets them through to the net. He's been impressive all year."
Of course, Cholowski is still a work in progress, just like the power play.
"All of us, myself included, know how hard it is to be a defenseman at 20," Blashill said. "We talk about this being a young league but it's really not a young defensemen league and it's really not a young goalie league, it's a young forward league. So the fact that Cholo has done as well as he has at 20 years old is great. Why do I put him in those spots? I think he's been really good offensively. He's got real good poise, he's got real good brain, he has no fear factor whatsoever, which is a good thing offensively. He doesn't seize up in the moment. He's able to stay cool under pressure. He's got a dynamic stick to him where he can really shoot, so he's been real good in those areas.
"I think the other side of it is he's got to keep getting better defensively, something I talked to him about today. It's one thing to get beat, it's another to make poor reads. It's an area he can correct for sure. I don't want him to be a good offensive defenseman, I want him to be a great defensemen and that means creating more chances than you give up."
GREEN, ERICSSON DO NOT PRACTICE: It was apparent that Green was not quite himself Tuesday in Washington in the second game of a back-to-back.
Green, who leads the team in ice time with 21:56 per game, played just 15:46 against the Capitals, a season low.
Green and fellow veteran defenseman Jonathan Ericsson did not practice with the team at BELFOR Training Center Thursday.

"Greener and Johnny are both banged up a little bit and they both played banged up against Washington on Tuesday and so we held them out today and we'll see where they're at tomorrow," Blashill said. "But there's a chance that one or two may not go, and we don't know."
Green missed the first nine games of the season with a virus and Ericsson missed the first seven with an upper-body injury. Ericsson also missed nine games from Nov. 3-23 with a lower-body injury.
CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL VISIT: One of the more special events on the calendar for the Red Wings is their annual visit to the Children's Hospital of Michigan.
The entire team, including Blashill, goes room to room to visit with young patients and their families and also drops off hundreds of toys for the SNOWPILE program.
"You're a dad yourself now and you see kids my son's age with cancer or whatever and it's just terrible to see and it's just wrong," Nielsen said. "I think this is a very important day for everyone in here. Hopefully it can do a little bit, but in the end, you don't want to see that. It's the one thing we do all year that I think everyone really, really wants to do because it's so important."
Nielsen's son, Lou, is two years old.
Blashill has three children and says he counts his blessings every day that they are all healthy and thriving.
"Sitting here today, before you go, it certainly pulls at your heartstrings," Blashill said. "To have the thought that these poor young people and their families could potentially spend Christmas in the hospital and spend a lot of time at the hospital - my niece regularly goes for checkups to that hospital. She's got a blood disorder, DBA, so she actually goes to that hospital. So that part certainly hits home with me. I'm very, very, very, very, very lucky that my three children have been, outside of an early heart surgery for my youngest, have been very healthy."
The joy the kids and their families feel when meeting the Wings radiates back to the team.
"It also gives you a great respect of what these families go through," Blashill said. "Then what usually happens, you go there and they put a smile on your face and it's a great reminder of what's important in life. Hockey's important, job's important, all that stuff's important but what's real important is health and wellness and enjoying your family. Christmas, to me, has always been a super special time. It's the only holiday that I really care a whole bunch about. I can't imagine being in a hospital. So if we can put a smile on their face, we will, but certainly they will to ours for sure. That's the way it always works."