Red Wings-Bruins set-up: Rested B’s play 8th game vs. 0-2-and-1-of-late Red Wings, who are busy as busy can be

The 4-4-and-2 Detroit Red Wings will face a well-rested 4-3-and-0 Boston Bruins team on Thursday night (7 PM EDT on Bally Sports Detroit/NESN/Sportsnet 360/97.1 FM) with the Red Wings on an 0-2-and-1 streak as Detroit opens up a stretch of 3 games in 4 nights (and 10 in 17 nights overall).

The Bruins are on the other end of the spectrum, having not played since Saturday’s 3-2 shootout win over the Florida Panthers, and the Bruins have been talking about watching the Kyle Beach interview as a team more than they’ve been talking about playing hockey of late–which is good, because that’s the kind of thing that teams should be focusing on when they’re not playing hockey right now.

You’d expect that from a team that’s had 5 days off between games, so the Bruins won’t really focus in on Thursday’s game until later this morning.

That being said, The Athletic’s Fluto Shinzawa offered Wednesday’s practice lines, which included Patrice Bergeron, who took a “maintenance day” on Tuesday…

As well as the Bruins’ power play units:

The Bruins have had a lot of time off, only playing 7 games, and they’re going to try to get goaltender Jeremy Swayman going against the Wings, as NESN’s Nicole Fasciano noted:

Swayman last found himself in the net for the Bruins during the team’s matchup against the Carolina Hurricanes on October 28.

The Bruins, of course, have found success with their two goalies including Linus Ullmark and Swayman during the 2021-22 NHL season. But even when Swayman has found himself not starting, the rookie goaltender continues to remain prepared when he’s off the ice.

“Of course. I love playing. It’s something that you prepare for, make sure during the offseason that you’re ready to play day in and day out no matter what the schedule is. When it does come, we’re gonna be prepared,” Swayman said.

…

The Bruins schedule has allotted for a generous amount of days separating one puck drop to the next and that has brought a new aspect of preparation to this rookies mentality.

“It’s rare that we get this much time off,” Swayman acknowledged. “It’s something that you want to cherish at the same time and make sure that your body is prepared to get back into game mode.”

Coach Bruce Cassidy also spoke with the Boston Herald’s Steve Conroy regarding Swayman, who’s only played in 3 games…

Because of the B’s spaced out schedule and the fact, that Ullmark has gotten the last two starts, Swayman will be a week between starts and, since the season began on Oct. 16, he’s gotten just three starts.

“Until we get going with the schedule, it’s going to be a challenge for those guys to stay sharp,” said Cassidy.

In a small sample size, Swayman is 1-2 with with a 2.71 save percentage and .893 save percentage.

“He’s been good,” said Cassidy. “Listen, the Philadelphia game (a 6-3 loss), some pucks had eyes. He’d be the first to tell you, he should have made a few stops. But he hasn’t played enough. The Carolina game, we put two in our own net. It’s hard to blame the goalie on those, and I’m not going to. I thought he was good in Carolina, we didn’t score for him. The Dallas game was solid. We got him the goals we needed in the third period. So let’s see where it goes. We haven’t changed our opinion on him. He’s a real good goaltender. He just needs to play some games to build up some game stamina, some game situations, confidence, all of those things. And I think Linus was in the same boat early on. Now he’s played a few more and you’re starting to see him come around.”

And the only real talk of the Red Wings came from the Boston Globe’s Kevin Dupont, who asked coach Cassidy about Moritz Seider:

Cassidy has been particularly impressed by Red Wings defenseman Moritz Seider, the 6-foot-4-inch German who has picked up eight assists in his first 10 NHL games. The No. 6 pick in the 2019 draft, he played last season in Sweden after a one-season tuneup at AHL Grand Rapids. “Real nice player,” said Cassidy. “He’s got some of that [Adam] Fox, [Charlie] McAvoy kind of right-stick ability to move the puck, a young guy with confidence.” Fox and McAvoy each recently signed contract extensions that will pay them $9.5 million per season.

The Bruins’ website posted a practice report and comments made by Swayman and Cassidy on Wednesday…

Here are the Bruins-Panthers highlights, for completeness’ sake…

And Field Level Media’s game preview will serve as our pivot point between the Bruins and Red Wings’ perspectives:

Boston is coming off its most impressive victory of the young season after spoiling the Florida Panthers’ unbeaten 8-0-0 start with a 3-2 shootout victory on Saturday.

Charlie Coyle opened the scoring in the first period against Florida and added the only shootout goal to help the Bruins snap a two-game skid after they had won three of their first four games.

“Sometimes you have something planned, and sometimes you don’t. I’m just glad it went in,” Coyle said of his winning shootout goal.

Coyle is off to a fast start with three goals and two assists through seven games. His goal output is second on the Bruins, behind only star Brad Marchand, who has four goals and four assists for a team-best eight points.

With an aging core, the Bruins are taking advantage of the five-day layoff between games. Boston captain Patrice Bergeron was off the ice Tuesday for a maintenance day, but he returned Wednesday and will be good to go against Detroit.

“You’re gonna value this time at some point,” Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said. “At the end of the day, the season’s here, it’s starting, you want to get playing and get playing on a regular basis. The challenge for us is keeping everybody ready.”

For the Red Wings, rebounding strongly from Tuesday’s 3-0 loss to Montreal is key, as the Free Press’s Helene St. James noted:

“We go out and we address it, which we did,” coach Jeff Blashill said. “We go out and practice to make sure that we’re getting better. Players have to go out and execute at a high level.

“Now, that doesn’t guarantee wins. It’s a hard league. We’re going to play a really good team. But we have to make sure we get back to playing the right way, meaning: hard to play against, tight checking, with tons of emotion and tons of compete.”

Overall the Wings (4-4-2) have had a good start, but atop the list of concerns is team defense (34 goals allowed, 29th in NHL) and the power play (14.3%, 25th). The Wings converted their on man advantages their first two games, but since have gone 3-for-28, or 10.7%.

“You have to be patient, judge things over a long period of time,” Blashill said. “That long period of time isn’t 10 games. We’ll continue to work at it and try on a nightly basis get better at all of our stuff, including our power play. But I don’t know that it’s time to judge now.”

Seider, who runs one of the units and averages north of three minutes a game on man advantages, expressed optimism things are about to change.

“Getting better puck retrievals I think is going to be key for us,” he said. “Sooner than later, we will get our chances and we will look really good.”

There was no word on Dylan Larkin’s status as he continues to be absent with a personal issue at present, but Tyler Bertuzzi will be returning to the lineup after a 2-game COVID-induced absence, and, for now, anyway, Joe Veleno will be remaining with the team, as MLive’s Ansar Khan noted:

The [Red Wings’] compete level was low in Tuesday’s 3-0 loss in Montreal. It needs to be much better Thursday in Boston (7 p.m., Bally Sports Detroit), where the Red Wings have won only once in their past 13 games, including playoffs.

The Red Wings (4-4-2) are 0-2-1 in their past three. The Bruins are 4-3-0.

“We’re going to play a really good team tomorrow night, but we got to make sure we get back to playing the right way, meaning hard to play against, tight-checking, with tons of emotion and tons of compete,” Blashill said.

Having leading goal-scorer Tyler Bertuzzi back will help. He missed the past two games in Canada because he is the only player in the NHL not vaccinated for COVID-19. The Red Wings are 0-3 in games without Bertuzzi, who has six goals and is tied with Lucas Raymond for the team lead with nine points. Their next game in Canada is Feb. 26 in Toronto.

“He’s up to speed,” Blashill said. “He skated at home, he’s put himself in position to step in and have success, so I have no worries about him stepping into the lineup.”

…

Blashill said Dylan Larkin’s status for Thursday is uncertain. Larkin missed Tuesday’s game due to personal reasons and did not practice Wednesday. Joe Veleno will get at least one more game with the Red Wings during this current recall.

“Played really good in the third period against Toronto,” Blashill said. “The first period he was finding his way a little bit, which is understandably so having driven in (hours before the game) and everything is kind of new to him. I thought he played really good in the third and I thought he played OK (Tuesday). I think he needs to be better than that, but he certainly wasn’t alone. He’s going to get another chance (Thursday) to make a claim that he’s a guy who can help us win hockey games.”

As Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen suggested, the Red Wings are reaching a critical point in terms of building their identity:

At 4-4-2, the Red Wings are at a juncture where they need to start to decide, with their play, which way this season is going to go. Their last two games were reminiscent of last season.

“I think we have a group that cares a bunch,” Blashill said. “Sometimes you lose your way a little bit. Certainly, we lost our way last night, but I thought they responded well today.”

They are facing a Bruins team that is 4-3-0 out of the gate. The Bruins have been inconsistent at times, giving up more goals than they have scored this season.

If you want to revisit Blashill or Seider’s remarks from today, you may most certainly do so:

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George Malik

My name is George Malik, and I'm the Malik Report's editor/blogger/poster. I have been blogging about the Red Wings since 2006, and have worked with MLive and Kukla's Korner. Thank you for reading!