Video: Holl, Veleno and coach McLellan speak with the media after Thursday’s practice

The Detroit Red Wings took part in day 3 of their 4-day “mini camp” at Little Caesars Arena’s BELFOR Training Center on Thursday, and the team remains without Lucas Raymond (arriving on Friday) and Dylan Larkin (not back until Saturday’s game against Minnesota).

After Thursday’s practice, Justin Holl, Joe Veleno and coach Todd McLellan spoke with the assembled media:

Tweet of note: Vote for Trey Augustine for the AAU Sullivan Award

From Michigan State University comes this reminder:

The return of ‘Ammo’

Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen discusses the Grand Rapids Griffins’ struggles of late, and their hope that the return of Amadeus Lombardi might spark the team’s offense:

Grand Rapids, with Lombardi playing for the first time since Dec. 1, lost 5-2 Wednesday night to Lehigh Valley Phantoms. The Griffins have lost seven out of eight games and only scored 11 goals in those contests. That’s 1.375 goals per game.

“I think I have a lot more to give this group,” said Lombardi who had one assist in the game. “I felt OK at times. I’ll be better Friday. I thought we played well. We generated chances. It will come.”

Lombardi, 21, was off to a tremendous start (nine goals and six assists for 15 points in 20 games) before going down with an upper body injury. The timing couldn’t have been much worse because the Red Wings hoped they were witnessing a breakout season.

While the injury was frustrating, Lombardi has tried to concentrate on the positive.

“It was almost like I got an extra summer,” Lombardi said. “I was able to work out five or six days a week once I healed.  I am ready to be back.

Continued

Tweets from Thursday’s practice: Red Wings’ ‘mini camp’ continues

The Detroit Red Wings’ mini-camp continued at Little Caesars Arena’s BELFOR Training Center on Thursday, ahead of a daunting 27-game sprint through the NHL’s stretch run.

While Team USA prepares for the Four Nations Face-Off Final with a call from the President…

We will leave politics aside for a moment (please?)…

And instead, we’ll focus on what’s going on in Detroit. The Red Wings hit the ice at the BELFOR just after 11 AM, per the Free Press’s Helene St. James:

Again, MLive’s Ansar Khan confirms that we won’t see Lucas Raymond at practice until tomorrow, with Dylan Larkin slated to join the Wings’ lineup for Saturday’s 12:30 PM game vs. Minnesota:

Continue reading Tweets from Thursday’s practice: Red Wings’ ‘mini camp’ continues

A bit more about Dylan Larkin’s appearance on ESPN’s SportsCenter

WXYZ posted some pre-Four Nations Face-Off final comments from Red Wings captain and Team USA forward Dylan Larkin, per his appearance on ESPN’s SportsCenter last night:

“Feeling good. A lot of excitement,” Larkin said. “It’ll be hard to sleep.”

He said he expects the rematch to be a great game.

“It’s such a big hockey game. I expect it to be intense again, but, you know, guys are going to have to stay disciplined, guys are going to have to stay on the ice. We want Brady and Matthew (Tkachuk) to be out there and playing hockey and finishing hockey and scoring big goals,” Larkin said. “I expect it to be intense again, but I expect, you know, a really good hockey game.”

Larkin said that he knows he’s in a different role with this team than he is on the Red Wings, and it felt really good to contribute to the team and get the game-winner.

“I’m looking to play my game tomorrow with speed, and, you know, attack the net,” Larkin said. “To win something, with that jersey on, with the USA on your chest, it doesn’t get better than that. On home soil as well. So we’re fired up for it,” Larkin added.

The Red Wings posted the clip of Larkin on SportsCenter via a Tweet:

Pregame hype begins ahead of tonight’s Four Nations Final

Detroit captain Dylan Larkin will center Team USA’s third line, alongside J.T. Miller and Matt Boldy, as the Americans battle Canada for Four Nations Face-Off supremacy this evening (8 PM EST start on ESPN/Sportsnet/TVA Sports), and the pre-game hype has begun at 8 in the morning:

Here are tonight’s game notes:

F_CANvsUSADownload

As you might imagine, the Canadian Press is already playing up the political tensions between the U.S. and Canada right now, but Larkin told the CP that the rivalry is an organic one:

U.S. forward Dylan Larkin said any bad blood is more about NHL players taking part in a high-level international competition for the first time since the 2016 World Cup. The league missed the last two Olympics, but is poised to return to sports’ brightest spotlight in 12 months.

“We’ve all grown up playing against Canadians, playing against Canada at minor hockey tournaments, going over the border,” he said. “That rivalry starts from a young age. As an American, you learn to not like playing against Canadians.  I’m sure every guy in Canada will say the same about Americans.” 

I am of course a proud American, so I’m rooting for my home country and “my team’s” captain, but I love Canada and Canadians, too, so today I put aside my respect for our brother nation and try to dislike our neighbors.

I hope that the majority of the TD Garden fans respect the Canadian anthem and don’t boo a sovereign country’s song (let’s save the, “Why have an anthem at the start of sports games at all?” debate for another day), and when the puck drops…

It’s business, and a matter of winning the game. It’s not about beating down a country for political gain; it’s about Larkin getting to lift that Four Nations Face-Off trophy when the game is over.

Rooting for captain Larkin

MLive’s Ansar Khan reports that Dylan Larkin’s teammates and coach are looking forward to watching the final of the Four Nations Face-Off between the USA and Canada tonight (8 PM EST on ESPN/Sportsnet/TVA Sports), with the Wings rooting for captain Larkin, even if not everybody is rooting for the American team:

“Just so happy for him,” Patrick Kane said. “It seemed like he started kind of down there in the lineup and not playing as much the first game and then when he gets the chance, he’s going to play well and do all he can with his opportunity. I thought he played great that game and had a couple more chances as well. To see him scoring on the two-on-one and the excitement and just how big of a goal that was, it was cool to see.”

Kane wishes could be on the ice for the U.S., but the next-best thing is being in front of his TV.

“It’ll be fun to watch,” Kane said. “As much as you’re a player and you love playing the game, I’m still a fan of the game. I’ll definitely be on my couch tuning in and paying attention.”

Larkin and linemate Lucas Raymond were the lone Red Wings participating in the tournament. Raymond had three assists in three games for Sweden, which was eliminated from title contention following Canada’s 5-3 victory over Finland Monday.

“For both of them, obviously, an incredible experience that isn’t over yet for Larks,” Red Wings coach Todd McLellan said. “It’s one thing to go and be on the team, it’s another thing to be on the team and be a factor, and both of them were factors for their team. So that’s a real good sign. It gives them experience that they wouldn’t have gotten otherwise. When an organization hasn’t been in the playoffs for a number of years, a lot of players don’t have playoff experience. It might be with other teams. We’ve got guys with Stanley Cups here. But as a group, we haven’t experienced that yet, and it still is different. It’s different when you get there, but this opportunity can’t hurt either of them.”

Continued; Khan reports that coach McLellan wants Raymond to take today off and return to practice on Friday; Larkin won’t rejoin the team until Saturday, when the Wings begin their post-Four Nations schedule with a matinee against the Minnesota Wild (12:30 PM EST start on ABC/97.1 the Ticket).

The pessimist’s view

Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff examines the Red Wings’ remaining 27-game schedule from, well, the pessimist’s viewpoint:

Detroit’s final five regular-season games include four road games – a pair of back to to backs – sandwiched around a home date against the Dallas Stars. The Red Wings have lost eight in a row and 11 of the last 12 games in which they’ve faced the Stars.

As for the road games, Detroit goes to Florida (April 10) and Tampa Bay (April 11). The Wings finish up with games at New Jersey (April 16) and Toronto (April 17).

They’ve lost seven of their last nine visits to face the reigning Stanley Cup champion Panthers. They’ve also lost 20 of the last 24 trips to meet the Lightning on the road.

Detroit is riding a two-game losing streak at New Jersey. In Toronto, the Wings do show three wins in their last four visits, but just four victories in the last 14 road games facing the Maple Leafs.

Quite correctly, the Red Wings point out that since Todd McLellan took over as coach, they’ve slayed some mighty dragons. The Red Wings won against all four current division leaders. There was a home victory over Washington (Metropolitan) and road triumphs at Edmonton (Pacific), Winnipeg (Central) and Florida (Atlantic).

“I think that the way we look at it is we’ve been two different teams so far,” Detroit forward Andrew Copp said. “One before Christmas and one after Christmas, and the one after Christmas has played really good and beaten a lot of top teams in the league. Going to Winnipeg, you win that. Going to Edmonton, win that. Washington, we beat at home. So those are three of the top teams in the league that we beat.”

Detroit’s mettle has been tested and it’s shown no signs of fatigue. It will be tested again over the final 27 games of the season, and certainly down that final five-game stretch.

Continued

HSJ in the morning: Red Wings are preparing for a difficult post-Four Nations schedule

The Free Press’s Helene St. James weighs in on the Red Wings’ preparations for a daunting 27-game stretch run schedule this morning.

As St. James notes, the Red Wings will embark upon a set of back-to-back games against Minnesota and Anaheim on Saturday and Sunday, and then they head to Minnesota for a rematch on Tuesday the 25th…

Then the Wings host the Blue Jackets on Thursday the 27th, and the Stadium Series beckons on Saturday, March 1st, so Detroit has an incredibly busy schedule over the first week of post-Four Nations Face-Off play.

Andrew Copp told St. James that the Wings want to learn from their 6-3 loss to Tampa Bay on February 8th, and go from there:

“We were playing really good before the break, and in that one game [against Tampa Bay], I don’t think we played bad in totality. But we had some mental mistakes, game management mistakes,” Andrew Copp said. “We’re eager to get that bad feeling out of our system and get going again. Todd’s been barking and trying to make sure we’re paying attention to detail. We’re staying in shifts, kind of long, to make sure that not only are we physically ready but our minds are ready to be at tip-top for games that last three hours.”

The Wings (28-22-5) have climbed into the East’s second wild-card spot on the strength of going 15-5-1 since [Todd] McLellan was named coach Dec. 26. The team talked about identity Wednesday, about togetherness and resiliency and handling adversity.

“That has really improved since Christmas,” [Andrew] Copp said. “I feel like we are really jelling as a team in togetherness, and that will be really important to keep as we head down the stretch here with so many games.”

Continue reading HSJ in the morning: Red Wings are preparing for a difficult post-Four Nations schedule

Videos: Dylan Larkin speaks with DK Pittsburgh Sports, NHL.com about the Four Nations Face-Off final

DK Pittsburgh Sports posted a video of Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin speaking with the media at Boston’s TD Garden on Wednesday, ahead of tonight’s Four Nations Face-Off final between the U.S. and Canada (8 PM EST start on ESPN/Sportsnet/TVA Sports)…

And Larkin gave a 5:51 interview to NHL.com about the game and the U.S.-Canada rivalry as well. I can’t embed it, but here it is for your viewing pleasure in link form.