Of Red Wings-related note this evening:
- DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills previews tonight’s game between the Red Wings and Canadiens:
The Detroit Red Wings will try to secure two big points when they kick off their four-game homestand with an Atlantic Division battle against the Montreal Canadiens at Little Caesars Arena on Thursday night.
“We take pride in taking care of our home ice, especially against guys in our division and around us [in the Eastern Conference standings],” Lucas Raymond said. “It’s a big stretch for us obviously, and I think everyone is looking forward to it.”
Puck drop for the third battle of the season between Detroit (21-21-5; 47 points) and Montreal (24-19-4; 52 points) is set for 7 p.m., with broadcast coverage on FanDuel Sports Network Detroit and the Red Wings Radio Network (97.1 The Ticket in Detroit).
The Red Wings trail the season series 0-2-0 after getting swept in a back-to-back set last month, first dropping a 4-3 decision at Little Caesars Arena on Dec. 20 then a 5-1 score at Bell Centre on Dec. 21.
“I can speak for myself, it feels like almost a new season since then,” Alex DeBrincat said. “We know what we’re capable of. We’ve had some tweaks to different things, and it’s been working well. Obviously, the last three games haven’t been as good, but I think it’s more execution based.”
2. MLive’s Ansar Khan discusses the ways in which the Red Wings can create offense without Patrick Kane (out with an upper-body injury)…
Vladimir Tarasenko moves into Kane’s spot on the line with Andrew Copp and Alex DeBrincat as well as his place on the right flank on the first power-play unit. Tarasenko has just two goals in his past 23 games – both coming Jan. 14 against San Jose – and only six goals and 19 points in 46 games.
“We’ve all been waiting for him to blossom and he’s been waiting for this opportunity,” McLellan said. “The two worlds collide now and I think it’s great for him to have the chance to blossom. I thought he played fairly well on the road, just didn’t get rewarded with a lot of offense.”
Kane has 16 points in the past 12 games (six goals, 10 assists), and registered at least one point in every game of the seven-game winning streak from Dec. 29-Jan. 12.
He was injured in Sunday’s 4-1 loss to Dallas but returned to the game and played in Tuesday’s 2-1 overtime loss to Philadelphia.
“Obviously, he creates a lot of offense for us, but next-guy-up mentality,” DeBrincat said. “We need to figure out a way to get in the O-zone and create stuff without him. I think we’ve had our chances. I think we still need to do a better job of getting in front of the net. And when the D shoot, it creates a lot of havoc for the goalie and pucks lay there and we can get some dirty goals like that.”
3. As did the Free Press’s Helene St. James…
“We’re starting to get to know the team a little bit better,” coach Todd McLellan said. “It creates opportunity on a line and it creates opportunity on the power play. So we have a plan where we’ll use a player, but then there’s a backup plan if it’s not going well. We haven’t scored a lot lately anyhow, so maybe it’s time to shuffle it up a big. You never want to do that at the cost of a player like Patrick Kane or anybody else, but he’s not playing and we have to find a way to get through it. The opportunity is right in front of some players, so take advantage of it.”
There’s no one to whom that more applied entering the Canadiens game than Tarasenko. When general manager Steve Yzerman signed the 33-year-old former 40-goal scorer last summer for two years at $4.75 million per season, it was expressly to soften the blow of losing so much scoring from last season’s team (David Perron, Robby Fabbri, Daniel Sprong, among others). But the return on that investment has been paltry: Four goals the first 40 games, followed by two in the Jan. 14 loss to the San Jose Sharks — for six goals among 13 points after 46 games.
“We’ve all been waiting for him to blossom, and he’s been waiting for this opportunity,” McLellan said. “The two worlds collide now and I think it’s great for him to have the chance to blossom.”
Speaking last week during the Wings’ trip to Florida, Tarasenko said, “I can do more, obviously. Try to help the team as much as I can and trust the process.”
Tarasenko played in the top six earlier in the season.
“He’s got a great shot,” DeBrincat said. “So try to battle for it and get it to him in a good spot. It’s the good spots he goes to — he knows how to score and he knows where to be — he’s right there to bang it in.”
4. The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan notes that tonight’s a milestone game for Dylan Larkin…
Thursday’s game will be the 700th of captain Dylan Larkin‘s career.
“He’s a Red Wing,” McLellan said. “That may sound strange, but he’s 700 games as Red Wing and that’s special. When you play for an Original Six team that drafted you that long, in today’s business, that’s special. He is a Red Wing and we’re happy to have him.”
McLellan coached Larkin in 2016 for Team North America at hockey’s World Cup tournament.
“He was a kid then, and now he’s a man,” McLellan said. “He’s provided good leadership in and around the group. His legs and sense on the ice are valuable tools for us. We ask a lot of him, a lot of responsibility playing the (No.) 1 center hole, and he’s accepted it quite well.”
5. Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen discusses the Red Wings’ “offensive confidence,” or the lack thereof…
The Red Wings were scoring more after McLellan arrived, but their confidence has waned again.
“A lot of our offense and offensive confidence came from the power play, when we were scoring a lot,” McLellan said. “So that has to get back to where it was… I think when you start games like we did in Tampa and Dallas and fall behind it affects offense. You get a little more tentative, you don’t want to make more mistakes because if you fall behind two, three, we’re less likely to win, so we start playing reserved and tentative.
“When we’ve had good starts and we’ve been on top of teams, you scored and you feel good, and now you can keep that pace up. It may sound strange but getting scored on first affects the mentality of offense as well. We want to change that if we can.”
Then, there’s one more important change needed
“Individuals just flat-out have to find ways to produce, whether they’re net-front guys or rebound-type players or they can score from distance,” McLellan said. “Any type of outnumbered rush we have to capitalize.”
6. As did the Hockey News’s Sam Stockton:
As for what it would look like for Detroit to rediscover the best of its game, McLellan stressed that “we want to play as direct as we possibly can” and again emphasized the importance of not just getting pucks to the net with volume but being quick to recover the rebounds and second pucks that emerge from chances that don’t strike the net.
When asked by The Hockey News what differentiated the struggles of the most recent road trip from the strong home form the Red Wings showed at the start of the month, DeBrincat said, “A lot more connection and communication and stuff like that. I think our D zone was a lot better…I think there’s a lot of things we can clean up and execute better.”
Meanwhile, McLellan suggested that slow starts were a key factor in driving Detroit’s road struggles, making the first 10 minutes of tonight’s action paramount.
“I think when you start games like we did in Tampa and Dallas and you fall behind, it affects offense,” McLellan said. “You get a little more tentative. You don’t want to make more mistakes, because hey if we fall behind two or three, then we’re less likely to win, so then you start playing reserved and tentative. When we’ve had good starts and we’ve been on top of teams, you score, now you feel good, you can keep that pace up.”
