Red Wings-Sabres morning skate Tweets and game preview: it’s Husso vs. Reimer as two struggle-streaking teams meet in Buffalo

The Detroit Red Wings face a difficult task in battling the Buffalo Sabres this evening (7 PM EST start on FanDuel SportsNet Detroit/MSG-B/97.1 FM). Buffalo has an 11-13-and-3 record because the Sabres, who started well, have dropped 6 straight games, most recently losing 5-to-2 to Utah on Saturday afternoon.

Given that the 10-13-and-4 Red Wings are also on a losing 5-game losing streak (0-3-and-2), something is going to have to give tonight, and Field Level Media reports that the Sabres believe that they’ll prolong Detroit’s pain:

“I think we’re starting games really well and I don’t know if it’s a bit of complacency or what it is, but we’ve got to fix the second periods,” forward Jason Zucker said. “It seems like we come out in the third and get a bit of that fire back and start playing again. We’ve got to fix it.”

Buffalo had a three-game winning streak and a winning record before the skid. The Sabres are looking to end a 13-season playoff drought. Detroit has the second-longest postseason drought, spanning a franchise-record eight seasons.

The good news is that one of these teams will emerge with a much-needed victory.

“We just need to get back to executing the way we know how to,” Zucker said. “It’s not a care thing, this room cares. This room has a lot of guys that care and want to do the right thing. It’s about doing it time and time again.”

The Red Wings and Sabres split the first two games of the four-game season series. Buffalo won the first meeting at home, 5-3, on Oct. 26. Detroit collected a 2-1 home victory on Nov. 2.

Buffalo held an optional morning skate today at the KeyBank Center…

Greenway may play tonight, but Mattias Samuelsson is out…

And the Sabres’ PR department filed this Wings-Sabres stat sheet:

If you’re interested in reading tonight’s game notes, here they are:

gn-2024-12-09-0443-DET@BUFDownload

The Buffalo News’s Lance Lysowski took note of the Sabres’ struggles in his game preview…

Skid: The Sabres (11-13-2) carry a six-game losing streak into their matchup with the Detroit Red Wings (10-13-4). Three of Buffalo’s losses during that span were games in which it outplayed its opponent, but the 5-2 loss to Utah on Saturday irritated Ruff because his players were offside several times and careless with the puck.

Buffalo entered Monday four points behind the New York Rangers for the last playoff spot in the Eastern Conference and only two points ahead of Montreal for last place.

The Sabres’ power play is in a 1-for-22 skid over their last nine games and the team has a negative-10 goal differential during the losing streak. Many of Buffalo’s forwards are struggling to score and its defense corps had one of its worst games of the season Saturday.

But BuffaloSabres.com’s Justin Alpert noted that the Sabres have played the Red Wings very closely:

Scouting the Red Wings

Losses are losses, but during Detroit’s five-game winless streak, each game has been decided by one goal. Now 10-13-4, the Red Wings sit one point behind the Sabres (11-13-3) in the Atlantic Division standings.

Monday marks the third of four meetings between the Sabres and Red Wings this season. Buffalo won the first matchup 5-3 at home on Oct. 26, while Detroit took the rematch 2-1 – with two power-play goals – at Little Caesar’s Arena on Nov. 2. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen started both games in net for the Sabres.

In the two games combined, Buffalo has carried play with a 57-percent share of shot attempts, 59-percent share of shots on goal and 56-percent share of scoring chances at 5-on-5.

Forward Lucas Raymond leads Detroit in both assists (18) and points (27). Captain Dylan Larkin has 20 points, including a team-leading 12 goals.

With goalies Cam Talbot and Alex Lyon nursing lower-body injuries and unavailable for Monday’s game, either Ville Husso or Sebastian Cossa will start in net. Husso has an .884 save percentage in six games. Cossa, the 15th-overall pick in 2021, awaits his NHL debut after being recalled Dec. 2.

And The Athletic’s Sean McIndoe took note of the negative atmosphere in Buffalo right now:

It’s been a rough week in what some are calling the NHL’s most hopeless market. They’ve lost six straight, and their GM is trying to calm nerves. That part is not going well.

I’ll be honest, that doesn’t sound unreasonable to me. But I’m not a frustrated Sabres fan who hasn’t seen a postseason in going on 14 years, so I might be feeling just a bit more charitable than others. And the money line about palm trees and taxes came in the context of a defensive availability that may have tip-toed a little too close to making excuses.

It all led to fans showing up to Saturday’s loss with inflatable palm trees, which is pretty fantastic. They also chanted “Fire Kevyn,” which isn’t as funny as well-executed prop comedy but probably matters quite a bit more. It definitely feels like we’re nearing some sort of tipping point in Buffalo, yet again.

This week starts with tonight’s matchup with the Red Wings, a fellow self-proclaimed Atlantic playoff contender that’s crashing and burning to the tune of five straight losses. And if that wasn’t enough of a Hopelessness Bowl for you, the Sabres’ next opponent is the Rangers.

That could be two wins that take some of the heat off. It could also be two losses that crank the temperature in Buffalo even higher. Not quite palm-tree high, mind you, but still pretty high. If you see a Sabres fan, hug them. They could use it these days.

On the Red Wings’ side of things, MLive’s Tyler Kuehl posted a game preview…

Like the Wings, the Sabres entered the new season with the expectations that they at least challenge for a Wild Card spot. However, despite a good stretch of games in late October, Buffalo has stumbled down the Atlantic Division standings, leaving many fans and critics to doubt whether this team’s rebuild is actually nearing its end. The Sabres have lost six straight games, including a disappointing 5-2 loss to the Utah Hockey Club this past Saturday.

Both teams are down near the bottom of the division, though they are not entirely out of the playoff race. The Sabres are fifth in the Atlantic, one point ahead of the Red Wings. Buffalo is four points back of the last Wild Card spot.

This is the third of four meetings between the two division foes. The Sabres and Red Wings have split the first two games, with the home team winning each time.

As did the Free Press’s Andrew Birkle…

The Red Wings have dropped five straight games, with two of those losses coming in overtime and all five losses coming by one score.

There have been high-scoring losses, low-scoring losses and everything in between, but no matter how you look at it, the Red Wings aren’t getting the results. If the Wings can’t turn it around soon, head coach Derek Lalonde could be in danger of losing his job.

It’s easy to point fingers at a coach when the results aren’t going a team’s way, but there is plenty of blame to go around. Big offseason signing Vladimir Tarasenko has been a disappointment, scoring just four goals this season and at one point going 16 games without scoring a goal. Patrick Kane hasn’t been as good as he was last year and just recently returned from injury. And the Wings need help on the blue line, where they haven’t been as sharp they were last year, either.

All in all, it’s starting to be put-up or shut-up time for the Red Wings.

After playing the Sabres on Monday, the Wings won’t be in action again until Thursday when they go to Philadelphia to play the Flyers.

It is entirely possible that Sebastian Cossa may start tonight’s game, and Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff and the Hockey News’s Sam Stockton make impassioned pleas for the Wings to start him tonight, while the DHN’s Kevin Allen is more circumspect…

The Red Wings haven’t yet named a starting goalie for tonight’s road game against the Buffalo Sabres (7 p.m., FanDuel Sports Network). Coach Derek Lalonde will name his choice at the morning skate. Ville Husso has stopped 85 of 92 (.923) shots for Detroit over the past three games. When asked over the weekend about how Husso has played, Lalonde said: “He’s excellent. Again, those kind of numbers have been good. He’s given us quality saves, quality times… Gives us an opportunity in the end.

As is the Free Press’s Helene St. James…

“We’ve been very happy with Ville and his play this past week,” coach Derek Lalonde said. “But now we’re getting into five games in a 9-10 day stretch for him, and that’s asking a lot of him. We’ll have a better feel in the morning.”

Alex Lyon and Cam Talbot both are nursing lower-body injuries. They skated before practice Sunday, but aren’t expected to be available before Thursday’s game against the Flyers in Philadelphia at the earliest.

For Cossa, it has been a wait-and-see game since he was called up a week ago, after Talbot was injured Dec. 1. Experiencing the NHL as a backup and in practice has been a great lesson for the 22-year-old, who the Wings selected at No. 15 overall in the 2021 draft.

“Just the intensity of the play, the execution — it’s the highest level of hockey in the world,” Cossa said. “Seeing it day-by-day, I’ve been taking a lot away from Hus, and even Talbs and Lyon as they’re getting back, just seeing their day-to-day routines and how they perform at this high level.

“Definitely first day or two, I saw the raise of intensity, the skill of the players. I’ve felt a lot better the past three, four days.”

And St. James posted a video of Cossa and Lalonde speaking with the media…

Detroit Hockey Now’s Tim Robinson took note of the Red Wings’ revised line combinations…

Detroit Lines

(as of Sunday’s practice)

DeBrincat – Larkin – Raymond

Rasmussen – Kasper – Kane

Tarasenko – Compher – Copp

Berggren/Veleno – Motte – Fischer

Defensive Pairings

Edvinsson – Seider

Chiarot – Petry

Gustafsson/Johansson – Holl

Goalies

Husso – Cossa

And MLive’s Ansar Khan discussed the reasons for the Wings’ forward line shake-ups:

“Just got to find a way to flip some of these games and we need goals,” Lalonde said. “We’re doing some pretty good things away from the puck, defending pretty well. It’s frustrating we’re not finishing. This stretch of late is a lot different than the stretch we had early when we weren’t scoring; we weren’t getting looks. We’re getting some good looks here of late, so hopefully we can start finishing. A little bit of some of those lines maybe getting some different skill-sets to hopefully complement some guys.”

Following Saturday’s 2-1 loss to Colorado – the Red Wings’ past seven losses have come by one goal, three of them in overtime – Lalonde said his team needs to be harder at the net and get some greasy goals.

“Maybe take a little more shot-scramble game,” he said. “We have some DNA where guys, they want time and space so they kind of hang out at the outside and it’s just hard to produce in today’s NHL like that. People own the middle of the ice, you got to break them down just getting pucks to the net. I would still like to get some scoring throughout our lineup from guys that have in the past and I think if they are willing to continue to do the work on getting to the inside, some harder-area hockey, I think we’ll get some secondary scoring.”

After the Sabres’ morning skate…

The Sabres also posted Lindy Ruff’s 8:34 pre-game media conference on their website.

Meanwhile, in the Red Wings prospect department…

When the Red Wings’ morning skate started…

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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!