My apologies, but I was indisposed for a couple of hours. Here are a belated set of Saturday notebooks, ahead of Sunday’s 3 PM match-up against the Seattle Kraken. Seattle won 6-2 over the Buffalo Sabres earlier on Saturday, rallying from a 2-0 deficit by scoring 6 straight goals.
Anyway, to the notebooks!
- The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan reports that the Red Wings are well aware of their tenuous status as in the Atlantic Division/Wild Card playoff race, and as such, the team’s 6-game winning streak can only mean the start of something more:
“We’re one game over .500, have a negative goal differential of minus-16 goals. If that is the map to complacency, shame on us,” said coach Todd McLellan, when asked if the Wings have to guard against complacency given this current win streak. “We’ve worked to feel good. Do we want to give that back? I don’t know the group well enough to say we have it under control.
“We’re not going to win the next 41 games. That’s very unrealistic. If a loss does come, and it’s an honest loss, we have to move on from it. But if it’s a complacency loss or give yourself permission to be crappy on a certain day, and the group can do that too, we’ll deal with it.”
The Wings are 6-1-0 under McLellan, who took over for Derek Lalonde on Dec. 26. After an ugly loss against Toronto to open McLellan’s tenure, the Wings have won six consecutive games and changed the trajectory of their season.
Suddenly the playoffs are a possibility. They’re better offensively than they were at any point this season under Lalonde. But, simply, the mood around the locker room is livelier with the winning and optimism.
“We know we had the potential in this group and we’re starting to realize some of it,” defenseman Justin Holl said. “We can’t get complacent, like we’re the greatest team in the world. We just have to continue to play every night and keep this thing rolling as long as possible.”
McLellan and assistant coach Trent Yawney have largely made small tweaks into schemes Wings players have accepted and thrived in. But it appears, mainly, a new voice has done wonders for a group that was sinking in the standings.
“Every time you get change, whether it’s a new coach or trade or whatever, there’s some sort of energy that is injected,” Holl said. “We managed to take that energy and translate it into some wins. Those wins make you feel good about yourselves and there are better vibes around the locker room.”
2. MLive’s Ansar Khan wrote a notebook article which discusses the Red Wings’ suddenly prodigious power play:
The Red Wings have scored at least one power-play goal in each of McLellan’s seven games as coach. They are 11-of-23 (47.8 percent) during that stretch to move up to third in the league (27.3 percent).
It’s helped fuel their six-game winning streak. They’ll try to make it seven in a row Sunday at home against Seattle (3 p.m., FanDuel Sports Network). The last time the Red Wings won seven consecutive games was Jan. 12-23, 2012.
It’s also been a while since the Red Wings (19-18-4) scored on the power play in eight straight games (March 19-April 2, 2016), which they would do by converting against the Kraken. The same personnel is having more success on the power play, so what’s the reason?
“We know we have two really good units, but we really focus on moving the puck fast, try to beat players with our puck movement,” Moritz Seider said. “And if we can move the puck fast, we got to move our guys faster than the PK does. And I think those are kind the key things Todd tried to implement. You can really see that on the ice. I think we’re (hungrier) for battles. We get puck retrievals more often and can sustain the puck in the O-zone more. And then obviously, you get (opponents) tired. This is where we have to be really effective.”
McLellan credited assistant coach Alex Tanguay, in charge of the power play, for having the units well-prepared.
“They have some cues they work off of. Their language they understand,” McLellan said. “(Tanguay) can make quick changes on the bench. I give a lot of credit to him. There are a few things that we’ve all talked about that maybe we can apply to what he’s already put in place and the players have been receptive to that as well. There’s a lot of talent on both units. Confidence level is high. Power plays waver, though. Two weeks from now we could be talking about it going dry. But it doesn’t mean they’re not capable of doing it. Just sometimes it doesn’t go your way. Right now, it’s going our way.”
3. The Hockey News’s Sam Stockton posted a notebook article which discusses the Red Wings’ injury situation…
On Saturday at noon, the Detroit Red Wings—now exactly halfway through the 2024–25 regular season at 19–18–4—held practice following Friday evening’s 5–3 win over the Chicago Blackhawks. It was another spirited skate, but it did not feature the two Red Wings’ presently unavailable due to injury: goaltender Alex Lyon and defenseman Jeff Petry. After the session, coach Todd McLellan provided an update on both players, ahead of Sunday’s home game against the Seattle Kraken.
While Lyon did not participate in his team’s practice, he did take the ice before the full group went out. Of that development, McLellan said, “That’s certainly a good sign, so obviously, if he can do that, he’s gonna be getting a lot closer.” McLellan then added, “he won’t play tomorrow.” On Petry (who is presently on injured reserve), McLellan was not so optimistic, saying, “Petey didn’t skate, not close to skating yet. On IR, it’s gonna be a little while for him.”
After tomorrow’s game against Seattle, the Red Wings will be home Tuesday night against the San Jose Sharks, before beginning a four-game road trip in South Florida Thursday against the Panthers. It sounds as though Lyon will be available by the end of that trip, while Petry’s return still has no clear timeline.
4. And the Free Press’s Helene St. James posted a clip of Justin Holl, Patrick Kane and coach McLellan speaking with the media:
It mirrors the Red Wings’ Saturday presser clip:
