The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan filed his afternoon notebook article, discussing the Red Wings’ desire to close out their pre-Four Nations Face-Off schedule with a crucial win against the Tampa Bay Lightning tomorrow (1 PM EST start on ABC/Sportsnet/97.1 FM):
“I dislike the last and first games coming out of the All-Star breaks or Christmas breaks or whatever,” McLellan said. “Because it can get away on you. A 1 p.m. afternoon game (Saturday), so they’ll probably be waking up in the morning and their wives have the bags packed for the kids already and stuff like that. We have a task in front of us and we expect a lot from each other. So while there will be distractions, expectations are high from player to player and from coach to player and back and forth, that we give each other all we have. Let’s focus and get it done.”
Forwards Dylan Larkin and Lucas Raymond aren’t getting much of break since both will competing in the 4 Nations Face-Off; Larkin for Team USA and Raymond for Sweden. But both feel the Wings will be ready mentally to finish this part of the regular-season schedule the right way.
“All of the games are important,” Raymond said. “Against divisional opponents, it always means more, especially the way the standings are right now. But at the same time for us, we need to play our game and the way we’ve been doing it the last seven games and just keeping that momentum.”
Still, regardless of Saturday’s outcome, the Wings will be heading into the break in a significantly better frame of mind knowing they are in the thick of the playoff chase and the season has been transformed by the 15-4-1 record since McLellan has taken over.
“With the way we’ve been playing and how our line is playing, before Christmas I remember thinking just maybe trying to get there (in the schedule), grinding mentally to get there and something to look forward to,” Larkin said. “The way the guys have responded post-Christmas and the way things are going, you almost don’t want to stop when you get on a roll like this. The break will be good for guys but when you are playing this well, you want to keep it going and keep playing.”
Continued (paywall)
