Red Wings' young defensive duo may help team end playoff drought

While both players are outstanding on their own, when paired together, they create one of the best defensive pairings in hockey and a game-changing duo for the Red Wings.

After Sunday's game, that pairing has played 497 minutes of 5-on-5 hockey together. In those minutes, the Red Wings are outscoring teams by a 29-18 margin and controlling the pace of play in every underlying metric. They have a better than 54 percent share of scoring chances, high-danger scoring chances, expected goals and total shot attempts despite starting the majority of the shifts in the defensive zone.

In other words, the Red Wings are putting them in the toughest defensive situations, against other teams' best players, and they are still able to generate more offense and outplay those opponents.

What is so significant about that is how badly the Red Wings play when neither player is on the ice.

In 975 minutes of 5-on-5 hockey with neither player on the ice, the Red Wings are being outscored by a 30-48 margin, while all of their scoring chance and expected goals shares drop to 45 percent and below. 

All of those numbers come via Natural Stat Trick.

That is a night-and-day difference and not only makes them one of the best defense duos in the league, but it also makes them one of the most valuable. If the Red Wings want to solidify their playoff position, and perhaps even make themselves a team worthy of making a run in the playoffs, management has to do something about their second-and third-defense pairings. They need more depth to take some of the pressure off these two and make it so that not everything falls on them. 

In the meantime, they are keeping the Red Wings in it and giving them a chance. If the playoff drought does in fact end this season, they will be the biggest reason why.