The Hockey News’s Sam Stockton filed a short notebook article regarding tonight’s game between Detroit and Toronto (7 PM EDT on Bally Sports Detroit/Sportsnet One). Among items of note:
At morning skate, Detroit’s alignment offered a strong preview of what’s to come when the pre-season concludes, topped with a familiar trio of Lucas Raymond, Dylan Larkin, and Alex DeBrincat, who have remained together through the bulk of camp and the pre-season. The second line affords young Marco Kasper the chance to skate on a line with Vladimir Tarasenko and Patrick Kane. That’s a responsibility he’s earned with a strong pre-season, though it is also likely a placeholder with J.T. Compher (the Red Wings’ presumptive second-line center) out of action. Lalonde indicated that Compher (who practiced yesterday) is taking a maintenance day and will play in one of Detroit’s final two pre-season games on Friday and Saturday.
Elsewhere in the forward group, the Michael Rasmussen–Andrew Copp–Christian Fischer takes its accustomed place in the third line slot. Finally, Tyler Motte, Joe Veleno, and Jonatan Berggren comprise the fourth line. Those former two are likely candidates for those roles come the regular season, but this will be an important data point for Berggren (to the extent that important data points can come from the pre-season) in proving his fitness for a bottom six role.
On the back end, the headline is that Moritz Seider and Simon Edvinsson joined forces on the Red Wings’ top pair. That’s a possibility that Detroit fans have been drooling over coming together for the first time. Lalonde stressed after morning skate that the Red Wings view Edvinsson as a top four D, regardless of who his partner is, downplaying the significance of an Edvinsson-Seider pairing while adding that if the two run with the opportunity together, that would be great.
Continued; as Stockton notes, the Wings plan on giving Cam Talbot a full 60 minutes’ worth of action tonight.
