Both the Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan and DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills discuss topics related to the Wings’ road-heavy second-half-of-the-season schedule, with Kulfan noting that the Wings are attempting to become a better road team…
“You have to be prepared to start because you can lose games quickly on the road,” [coach Todd] McLellan said. “With momentum and fans and energy in the buildings, you’re playing back-to-backs often on the road. Your starts are important. The start against L.A. was not the start that we wanted. Here again (Thursday), when we were rolling a month ago, we were coming out of the gate. We were aggressive, we were the attacking team. (Now) we’re dipping our toe in the water a little bit and trying to wait to see what happens.”
Against Edmonton, a pair of fluky bounces hurt the Wings early. Ben Chiarot’s attempt at clearing the puck went awry when the puck skipped over his stick directly to Draisaitl, who one-timed a power-play goal. Then goaltender Alex Lyon was unable to cover up a bouncing puck, leading to Jeff Skinner tapping in a loose puck all alone in front of the net.
But the Wings settled down and played a sound, impressive road game, ultimately leading to a shootout victory behind the goaltending of Lyon.
“We’re just taking it one day at a time, which is important for us,” Lyon said of the upcoming road-heavy schedule to the finish line. “We can’t get ahead of ourselves. I don’t really want to look too far ahead, just want to stay in the moment. The coaches have done a good job of bringing us back and bringing us in when things get wonky.”
Making safer, smarter decisions during games, said McLellan, will be crucial on the road.
“You have to understand game management,” McLellan said. “In my mind, you have to pick your spots, when to go and not to go, and you have to win games in different ways. Sometimes you have to outscore mistakes or out-check your way there. You do those things, and you give yourself a chance.”
And Mills discusses the larger picture of the Red Wings’ attempts to build together as a team:
Following their 3-2 shootout win over the Edmonton Oilers at Rogers Place on Thursday night, the Detroit Red Wings finished the month of January with a 10-3-1 record and a four-game winning streak, marking the first time since January 2012 that the club has won 10 games in a calendar month. Detroit also collected 21 points over its last 13 games, which is tied with Edmonton for the third most behind the Washington Capitals and Carolina Hurricanes (22 points apiece).
“I think there’s been progress in a lot of areas of our game,” head coach Todd McLellan said after the Red Wings’ practice at Downtown Community Arena attached to Rogers Place on Friday afternoon, before they departed for Calgary. “There’s still plenty of room for improvement and introduction of some other concepts. Right now, we’re trying to get healthy, rested and ready to play.”
Michael Rasmussen believes Detroit will continue to find success if it keeps playing the right way, like how the team did for most of the night in Edmonton.
“We’re shooting the puck a lot more,” said Rasmussen, who scored his eighth goal of the season on Thursday. “We’re playing better defensively, playing quicker. Penalty kill has been a little bit better. Those are some of the positives. I think we need to get a little bit better on our starts and just the consistency with that. Just keep building with that and sticking with the things that are making us successful.”
Friday’s practice offered an opportunity for the Red Wings to keep building on their game, as McLellan said the coaching staff emphasized execution to the group and “picked two or three things to work on.”
“We have the luxury of staying overnight [in Edmonton], so everybody got a pretty good night’s rest,” McLellan said. “We know there were some players that were run pretty hard last night with high minutes, so we have to manage that a little bit.”
