Mike Green's accelerating start a boost to Red Wings on many fronts

A dozen years after he entered the NHL, Mike Green decided he needed help in one particular area.

Green sought help from a skating coach, and he and the Detroit Red Wings are seeing the results on a nightly basis. Green is the most productive he’s been since joining the Wings, and ranks among the league leaders in production among defensemen. That’s in large part because Green, who turned 33 in October, feels so much smoother when he is on the ice.

“It’s given me the confidence to skate well and if I can move, then that helps me a lot,” Green said after Wednesday’s morning skate at Little Caesars Arena. “We did a lot of stuff where you are opening up your hips and especially for defensemen, we are always pivoting and what not. Any time you feel stuck and you can’t move, that hurts your confidence.”

Green had a good season last year, scoring 14 goals. But after the season ended, Green thought about how to get better, and so for the first time in his pro career, he sought out a power skating coach, working with Steve Serdachny in Calgary, Alberta. It was a decision prompted by how the league has become so much faster than it used to be.

“I never had one in the past, and I feel like nowadays, you’ve got to be able to skate in this league,” Green said. “I just didn’t want to slow down by any means. He did a great job of getting me to work on my edges and I feel like it’s helped a lot.”

It shows: Green’s 13 assists after 18 games was tied for third among NHL defensemen, and his 14 points ranked in the top 10 among NHL defensemen in scoring. He ranked first among NHL defensemen in even-strength time on ice per game with 21:06.

“The best players are the best players because of the inner drive they have, period,” coach Jeff Blashill said. “You see it with a guy like Mike Green, he’s a very good player, he had a very good year last year, he’s 30-some years old, he could have just been happy, but wasn’t. He wants to get better. That’s why the best are the best, because they keep grinding to get better every day.

“He’s a huge asset to our team. He’s been a big part of our outcomes. He plays tons of minutes offensively and defensively. I think he’s become a way better defensive player over the three years he’s been here — he’s really worked on his lateral gap and and skating forwards instead of necessarily just turning and skating backwards. He’s been a big, big part of our team.”

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The Wings have had success using Green and fellow right-handed shooter Martin Frk on the same power play unit (Frk is currently sidelined by a sore groin), with Green showing an excellent knack for setting Frk up for one-timers.

“It gives you the understanding of when you do have righties and lefties, how much more powerful your power play can be. It doesn’t mean it can’t be really good with all lefties, this team showed that a number of years ago, but when you have the two righties up top, it’s just two real big shot threats. Both of them are shot threats from the top and the flank, and it makes it dangerous.”

The Wings signed Green for three years and $18 million in the summer of 2015, at last adding a rare right-handed shot to a team loaded with lefties. Green was solid his first year (35 points in 74 games) and better than his 2016-17 numbers (36 points in 72 games) alone indicate. He’s the Wings’ only real source of offense from the back end (Green had a .78 points-per-game average; Nick Jensen was next at .28).

Green’s play makes him valuable to the Wings beyond what he does for them on the ice. He is certain to be attractive to a contender around the Feb. 26 trade deadline; in fact the Wings might well get a good enough offer to bite even if they are in the playoff picture themselves. Last March, defenseman Brendan Smith yielded second- and third-round draft picks, and he’s got nowhere near the offensive skills Green does.

Green said he is not letting the fact he is in the last year of his contract be a distraction. After all these years, he’s well versed in the business side of hockey.

“Our schedule is day-to-day,” Green said. “Every game is extremely important. I don’t think you have time to worry about that stuff."

“The chips will fall where they fall.”

Green said he’d like to continue the relationship with the Wings, because he’s liked being in Detroit “a lot. It’s a world class organization and I’ve learned a lot playing here in a short period of time.”

Contact Helene St. James: hstjames@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @helenestjames.