Red Wings and Avs game-day notebooks

Of Red Wings-related note this afternoon/evening:

  1. MLive’s Ansar Khan filed a game-day notebook which discusses the Red Wings’ inability to win one-goal games of late:

The Colorado Avalanche are 8-1-0 in games decided by a goal. The Red Wings are winless in four (0-2-2) and each game was decided by a goal. Detroit’s past six losses were one-goal games, including three in overtime. Had the Red Wings (10-12-4) flipped even half of those games they might be sitting in a playoff position today.

“No doubt it increases the frustration level,” coach Derek Lalonde said. “The encouraging part is our process. We could be sitting here talking about a three-game winning streak. The underlying numbers are probably telling us we should have won all three games but we didn’t. We got to find a way to create our own breaks, make the play in the end which the opposing teams made and stay with it. But there’s no doubt about it, there’s definitely a huge frustration level to it because we’re a pretty good group on holding ourselves accountable on performance and we’ve done some good things.”

Defenseman Moritz Seider added: “I think we have to take away the positive first, that we are in every single game until the last second. And obviously, on the other side, we have to find ways to win those hockey games. I mean, you’re putting so much on the line, and it’s really frustrating when you don’t get the results you’re looking for. We just have to make sure we mature a little bit and find ways to win hockey games, because those are all winnable games.”

2. DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills posted a game-day preview as well…

“You have to look at the positives,” Jeff Petry said. “You also have to look at the things that we need to work on because I think that’s where frustration comes in, is when you’re making the same mistakes over and over. Making sure that we’re learning from those as well. I think we’ve done a pretty good job of responding, making sure we’re cleaning up the areas we need to and growing off the things we’re doing well.”

Back in front of Hockeytown faithful, the Red Wings concluded a two-game road trip with a 2-1 loss to the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday. Alex DeBrincat scored his 11th goal of the season for Detroit, which will try to build off a perfect 5-for-5 night on the penalty kill in Ottawa.

“We spent almost nine minutes on the penalty kill, and they only had three shots with one chance,” Red Wings head coach Derek Lalonde said. “I thought we were aggressive on it. I thought our details were way better, our rotations. That’s a top power play.”

Eight of Detroit’s last nine games have been determined by a single goal, and Lalonde wants his club to keep pushing through and learning from these close contests no matter the result.

“No doubt increases the frustration level, but the encouraging part is our process,” Lalonde said. “We could be sitting here talking about a three-game winning streak, and the underlying numbers are telling us we probably should have won all three games, but we didn’t. We got to find a way to create our own breaks.”

3. As did Colorado Hockey Now’s Aarif Deen…

Ross Colton is making his return for the Colorado Avalanche just 40 days after breaking his foot. He was expected to miss 6-8 weeks but is making his way back into the lineup before the six-week mark.

Colton skated in a burgundy sweater at morning skate at Little Caesars Arena, signifying he’ll be on the second power play. He’ll also start on the wing, head coach Jared Bednar confirmed. Colton was moved to the wing and played in the top six earlier in the season when Jonathan Drouin, Artturi Lehkonen, and Valeri Nichushkin were unavailable. At the time of his injury, Colton was among the league leaders in goals. He has eight in just 10 games, four of which were scored on the man advantage. Colton had only three PPGs all of last season.

The Avs are hoping to get a jolt from his return as they take on a struggling Red Wings team that has just three wins in their last 10. In their last game, Colorado lost 5-3 to the Carolina Hurricanes despite scoring the first goal. It was goalie Scott Wedgewood’s first start with the team since being acquired.

Wedgewood will play Sunday in New Jersey but Alexandar Georgiev gets the nod vs the Red Wings. He’ll go up against Ville Husso, who was recalled from the AHL following injuries to both Cam Talbot and Alex Lyon. Husso has not yet won a game this season in five games (0-3-2, 3.69 GAA, .877 save percentage).

4. And Colorado Hockey Now’s Colleen Flynn…

Ross Colton will return to the Avalanche’s lineup against the Detroit Red Wings after

While [Colton, a] Robbinsville, New Jersey native sounds like he’s making lunch with the team rather than getting back into the top six, his presence has truly been missed. He notched nine points in 10 games with four power-play goals (just one behind the team leader, Mikko Rantanen).

Colton held down the third-line center position last season but has played in various positions and lines this season. He was successful on the top line with Rantanen and Nathan MacKinnon on the left wing and is expected to stay on the wing.

“Wherever they need me — if they need me to play center one game I’ll play center. Even back when I started the season with guys in and out of the lineup, I was playing one shift center then the next shift I was back on the wing with different guys. Probably start on the wing tonight, and kind of go from there. As the season goes on, progresses, I don’t like to look too much into that, fill in wherever they need me to be.”

Colton was in a second power-play unit jersey in morning skate and head coach Jared Bednar said he will start with Casey Mittelstadt and Valeri Nichushkin on the second line Saturday night.

The Avalanche were 9-8-0 without Colton and have lost three of their last four games. Mittelstadt has been in a slump the last 10 games so Colton’s return could spark something for him and the team.

5. The Avs made Colton’s return official on Twitter…

6. And the Avs posted pre-game interviews with Colton and coach Jan Bednar.

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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!