DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills posted a Red Wings-Penguins preview ahead of tonight’s game (8 PM EST start on FanDuel SportsNet Detroit/Sportsnet Pittsburgh/97.1 FM) which discusses both the importance of tonight’s game to the Wings’ players…
“New Year’s Eve, I think it’s easy to get up for those games,” Joe Veleno said. “Especially when you’re playing at home. Obviously, there’s no better feeling than to play in front of your home crowd on such a special night.”
As well as the Wings’ attempts to find secondary scoring:
As this season progresses, like every other NHL club, Detroit is seeking more secondary scoring. According to Copp, he believes the Red Wings’ confidence with the puck is starting to rise.
“We have to score more goals and keep more out defensively,” Copp said. “We can improve in all aspects of the game. It feels like we’ve kind of found a little bit of offensive confidence with some combinations, but it’s just like everything else – you got to continue to put the pedal down.”
When McLellan was asked how to get more players going offensively, he explained that “the concept comes first, and then we try to pull everybody into it.”
“There are some offensive concepts that we’ve begun to talk about,” McLellan said. “Some of the beliefs that we have that we’re trying to implement into the players. Blend our beliefs with theirs. Saw some of the attempts [on Sunday] – the volume, the secondary opportunities that were created off the first one are really important.”
