The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan asked Justin Holl and coach Derek Lalonde about the Red Wings’ imminent home-and-home series against the New York Rangers, who possess a 1-0-and-1 record:
The Wings play two consecutive games (Thursday’s game at Little Caesars Arena) against the Rangers, last season’s Presidents Trophy (best regular-season record) winner, who look just as deep and talented this time around.
This will be a good early litmus test for the Wings.
“They have a real good team, it’s a playoff team and has been for the last couple of years,” Holl said. “It’s going to be a big challenge. But we feel pretty confident if we play our game the right way, we can play with anybody and beat anybody. It’ll be a big challenge but with big challenges come big opportunities too.”
The Wings want to replicate the type of defensive game they played against Nashville.
“It has to look a little bit like (Saturday) again,” Lalonde said. “We don’t want to spend the entire time in our zone like we did at time, but the urgency defensively, and if you give them easy offense with the type of talent they have, it could be a long night for us. We limited odd-man chances, Grade-A chances, and we limited Grade-A slot chances (against Nashville), especially five-on-five. It’ll have to look similar to be successful against a team like that.”
