Of Red Wings-related note ahead of tonight’s game between the Wings and Pittsburgh Penguins (8 PM EST start on FanDuel SportsNet Detroit/Sportsnet Pittsburgh/97.1 FM):
- Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen notes the following…
Detroit, 1-1 with Todd McLellan as head coach, are home against the Pittsburgh Penguins tonight (8 p.m., FanDuel Sports Network). Alex Lyon will be back in net, a reward for playing well in the win against the Washington Capitals. The Red Wings are eight points out or a playoff spot, while the Penguins, 6-3-1 in their last 10, are only one point behind the Ottawa Senators. They hold the final wildcard spot in the Eastern Conference.
2. In the multimedia department, DetroitRedWings.com’s Daniella Bruce and 97.1 the Ticket’s Ken Kal preview tonight’s game on the latest episode of “The Forecheck”:
Happy New Year, Hockeytown! @KenKalDRW & I take a look at the last @DetroitRedWings game of 2024 🥂🥳 #LGRW pic.twitter.com/OMjzRyjZ9I
— Daniella Bruce (@daniellabruce_) December 31, 2024
3. MLive’s Ansar Khan wrote a game-day notebook about Joe Veleno’s re-set…
Joe Veleno has gotten looks on the Detroit Red Wings’ top line under Derek Lalonde. Now he’s getting the opportunity under Todd McLellan.
“He’s a hell of a player from what I remember and what I’ve seen and heard,” McLellan said. “He’s got a lot of talent. He can skate. We’ve given him the opportunity. Maybe he can seize it.”
McLellan moved Veleno to the top line with Dylan Larkin and Lucas Raymond during the third period of Friday’s 5-2 loss to Toronto. Veleno assisted on Raymond’s goal in Sunday’s 4-2 win over Washington.
That’s where he’ll be again tonight against Pittsburgh at Little Caesars Arena (8 p.m., FanDuel Sports Network).
“Just continue what I’ve been doing, using my speed, having good sticks on the forecheck, protecting pucks down low and retrieving pucks for those guys,” Veleno said. “Obviously, they like to make plays and they’re going to find each other, but just trying to be at the right spot, go to the net and use my speed and try to compliment those guys.”
4. While the Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan discussed Jonatan Berggren:
With Todd McLellan replacing Lalonde last week, maybe it’s a fresh start.
“A clean sheet,” Berggren said of the new coaching staff’s arrival.
McLellan preached the “clean sheet” at his first meeting with the team, and Berggren took note of it.
“These last two games under him, I’ve played more minutes than usual and of course, it’s a positive thing,” said Berggren, noting he played 12:02, then 15:30 during Sunday’s victory over Washington. “It really feels fun to get those minutes.”
The majority of young players are going to have to wait their turn to get the 20 minutes of ice time star forwards normally get. It’s rare for a young player to step into the major minutes. But when you play as few as Berggren was getting recently, it can put even more pressure on a young player, in a roundabout way.
“It’s tough, and especially when you’re a young guy and maybe too afraid to make a mistake,” Berggren said. “That’s what you think about, that you can’t make a mistake. Now you play over 12 minutes, it’s so much easier. You can come into the game and get into the flow and it’s been real fun. But when you play more minutes, you have to do a more positive things, too.”
5. The Hockey News’s Sam Stockton spoke with Red Wings coach Todd McLellan regarding the Wings’ defensive pairings…
It’s early yet to evaluate McLellan’s vision for Detroit’s roster, but one notable change he’s made has been to the Red Wing D corps, destabilizing the Simon Edvinsson-Mortiz Seider & Ben Chiarot–Jeff Petry top four the team used for most of the season before McLellan’s arrival. The new coach has blended those pairings, placing Chiarot with Seider and Edvinsson with Petry. After this morning’s skate, he explained that choice as follows:
“It balances some things out a little bit. It takes some pressure off two of the younger plays. It sends a signal to Chiarot and to Petry—right now those are the next two in the line—that we value them, but we also expect a lot from them. It’s just not on two kids. But also, with Mo and Simon, it’s just not gifted to them. It’s still an earning process…It also allows us to look at them in different combinations. A lot of the games that [new assistant coach] Trent [Yawney] and I have been watching, they’ve played as pairs. So we, from a distance, have been able to watch them play. We haven’t seen the pairs that we’re using very much, because we just went to them.”
6. And we’ll close with a little bit more about Berggren from Stockton and coach McLellan:
“He seems to be a sturdy solid good puck protector. I think he’s got some offensive instincts in mind. Sometimes those players, they want to stay and play in the NHL, so they’re afraid to make mistakes, and they play a little more conservative. I’d like to see him just turn himself loose a little bit: Make mistakes, we’ll help you, it’s okay. But bring your complete toolset to every game. They’re also trained throughout junior or wherever they’re playing and even in the American League, they’re trained for 18, 19, 20 minutes, and if it doesn’t happen for them early, they still have 15 minutes left in the game to make their mark. Right now, Dylan Larkin and [Lucas] Raymond are getting more minutes. So you have to work your way in with 10 or 12 and feel good about it, and then pretty soon you start biting off 13 and then you get to 14, and all of a sudden, you’re Razor or Larks where you’ve moved up the lineup. But everybody goes through that…[Young players] all want more, which is great and I appreciate that, but with what they get, they have to make it count. So with Berggy, play, let’s go. You have—at least from what I’ve heard—you have a lot of real good tools. He hasn’t hurt us defensively, which is great, but I think there’s some [more] offense there.”
