DETROIT — Todd McLellan has had some fiery postgames early in this Detroit Red Wings season. He’s called out his team on multiple occasions, including on opening night, wondering when exactly they would learn their lesson.

So it was notable on Tuesday night to hear a decidedly different tenor from the Red Wings’ head coach, on the heels of a tight, back-and-forth 3-2 win over the New York Islanders.

“When we came off after the game,” McLellan said, “I said, ‘Maybe we’re finally getting it.’”

What a thought that could be for a Red Wings team that ended Tuesday night atop the Atlantic Division after what’s been a roller coaster first 34 games. There’s a lot of proving left to do, of course. And it wouldn’t be the first time this Detroit group has shown a spark of poise, only to let it slip.

But on Tuesday, it was the way the Red Wings found a win that left McLellan so encouraged.

Detroit got out to a ho-hum start, without a shot on goal in the first eight minutes. This was the Red Wings’ first game back from a six-game road trip, mind you, but McLellan has been pretty clear about what that should mean for a team. Asked Monday about the challenge this type of game can present to teams, he shot it down preemptively.

“Sometimes I think it’s because we do exactly what we’re doing right now,” he said. “We talk about it, and we plant it in between our ears, and we begin to believe it.”

Whether it was a legitimate cause for the Red Wings’ sluggish start Tuesday or not, the important thing was what came after. The Red Wings found their legs. Even when they allowed the game’s first goal, and ran into a hot goaltender in Ilya Sorokin through 40 minutes — putting all kinds of pressure on the Islanders, only to come up empty — they didn’t go away.

And when they took a 2-1 lead early in the third period, only to then let New York tie it up soon after, they didn’t panic then either. They waited it out, retook the lead on a late power play goal, and then skated out with a hard-fought 3-2 win.

So you can see where McLellan allowed himself to believe that his team might be having a light-bulb moment — especially when you consider the last two weeks as a whole, with the Red Wings 6-1-2 in their last nine.

That thought still came with a dose of caution.

“Just when you think you’ve got it, though,” McLellan said, “you can’t give it back.”

That’s where Detroit finds itself approaching the season’s midpoint. For all their faults, the Red Wings have indeed looked like a team starting to figure some things out.

It’s hard to know how to factor the Red Wings’ recent run of success with the schedule it’s come against, with their strong trip through Western Canada, including trips to some of the league’s bottom-dwellers, but the Islanders — even without Bo Horvat — represented a team that has given Detroit fits in two prior meetings this season. Those games went in New York’s favor by a combined 12-2 margin.

So, yes, to see the Red Wings grind out a late regulation win, while missing Patrick Kane to an upper-body injury, is promising.

But as anyone who has watched this team over the past few years can tell you, the most important tests are still to come.

Here’s else what stood out Tuesday:

1. Alex DeBrincat gets plenty of attention as the Red Wings’ leading scorer, but it still might underrate how clutch his scoring ability has been for this team.

That was on display twice on Tuesday, both times on the power play.

First, shortly after Detroit had tied it, he ripped home a rocket past Sorokin to give the Red Wings their first lead. But it was his second goal that perhaps better captured his value, following his own puck after the Islanders’ Ryan Pulock blocked his first attempt and burying the second effort.

“Just putting it to the net, honestly,” DeBrincat said. “He blocks the first one and slides out of the way, so just trying to get it to the net as quick as I can, hopefully catch the goalie off guard. Luckily it went in.”

It was DeBrincat’s third multi-goal game in his last four outings, and notably, this one came without Kane, his frequent linemate and set-up man. As of late Tuesday night, his 20 goals were tied for third in the NHL.

“His competitiveness rubs off on everyone else, and then his ability to shoot it in the net’s second to none,” McLellan said. “That combination is great. Sometimes those scorers don’t — they score, and that’s basically it. He does so many other things that he almost drags the rest of the group into the game.”

Red Wings rookie defenseman Axel Sandin-Pellikka had his bumps early but has played more confidently lately. (Rick Osentoski / Imagn Images)

2. As good as DeBrincat has been recently, just as important a development for the Red Wings has been the play of Tuesday’s other goal scorer: rookie defenseman Axel Sandin-Pellikka.

Sandin-Pellikka certainly had his share of bumps early this season, and realistically, he probably isn’t done with them. But over the last two weeks, it’s been impossible not to notice the confidence he’s playing with.

“I thought Axe played better defensively on this trip than he has (previously),” McLellan said Monday. “And lo and behold, his offense opened up. We sometimes forget that this guy’s only 20 years old. … That was a big trip for him.”

That jumped out once again on his goal Tuesday, as he worked down the right flank off a face-off and then snuck one past Sorokin, who he had seen “cheating a little bit for the back-door tap-in.” That tally gave him his seventh point in his last seven games.

“He’s been great,” DeBrincat said Tuesday night. “He’s defending well, and he’s playing well with the puck. So, you know, all we can ask from him, and he’s playing strong in our own zone. And when he gets the puck in the O zone, good things happen.”

Sandin-Pellikka is most likely always going to be more offensively tilted. But he’s smart enough and competitive enough to think that he doesn’t need to be a true specialist, either. That he’s starting to put those tools together into more complete performances bodes well for the Red Wings, and the results he’s getting now are almost certainly a product of that confidence.

“And it’s wavered at times,” McLellan said. “Even with the coaches, it’s wavered with him at times. But we’ve all stuck with it, and we’ve tried to guide him through some of the rough patches and push him a little bit, and he’s broke through a level. And now he’s got to work to that next level, and do that throughout his career.”

3. It wasn’t the busiest game John Gibson will see this year, with the Islanders mustering just 18 shots on the night, but he stopped 16 of them for his sixth straight win in net.

Just like the team as a whole, it’s too early to say Gibson’s out of the woods from his early-season struggles, but there’s no doubt a run like this changes the outlook for a veteran goaltender Detroit is counting on.

“He just looks bigger, more confident, relaxed,” McLellan said. “There’s not a lot of garbage lying around. Makes all the saves right now that he should be making. So he’s settled in, which is a good thing for us.”

4. The Red Wings had some roster news prior to Tuesday’s game, with forward Jonatan Berggren being claimed off waivers by the St. Louis Blues.

Once a source of excitement after a 15-goal rookie season in 2022-23, Berggren had played in less than half of Detroit’s games this season, getting just under 12 minutes a night, and didn’t seem to have a real path to meaningful playing time anymore.

When Kane went down with his injury, the Red Wings instead called up John Leonard, the AHL’s leading goal scorer, to fill in for him.

“Berggy’s a real good hockey player,” McLellan said Tuesday, before the claim was official. “He’s a good human being. And when opportunity dries up in one spot, you’ve got to think about the individual a little bit, too. Maybe he’ll get an opportunity. … He’s an offensive producing player that probably hasn’t produced enough offense when we’ve put him in the lineup. He’s been somewhat reliable, though, defensively, and sometimes these things just happen.”

5. The Red Wings’ task of staying hot will be tested going into the Christmas break.

They may be catching the Utah Mammoth shorthanded, with star forward Logan Cooley out, but the Mammoth still have plenty of firepower up front that Detroit will have to contend with, with Clayton Keller, Dylan Guenther, Nick Schmaltz and J.J. Peterka.

And after that, they’ll see last year’s Eastern Conference top-seed Washington Capitals twice, followed by the powerhouse Dallas Stars.

In other words, as encouraging as the last two weeks have been for Detroit, McLellan’s comment about not giving it back is about to be tested.