Tweets from Friday’s Red Wings practice: some lineup changes are made as the Wings skate the ‘bad’ out of their systems

The Detroit Red Wings laid an egg in the form of a 5-1 loss to the Montreal Canadiens last night, and coach Todd McLellan and captain Dylan Larkin didn’t hold back in terms of criticizing their team’s effort and structure (or the lack thereof).

The Red Wings kick off a home-and-home series against the Toronto Maple Leafs tomorrow night (7 PM EDT start on FanDuel Sports Network Detroit/CBC/Sportsnet Ontario/Sportsnet West/Sportsnet Pacific/97.1 FM), too, so the Red Wings need to resolve their neutral zone coverage and tendency to surrender odd-man rushes in a hurry.

NHL.com previews tomorrow night’s match-up thusly:

Americans to duel in Detroit

Auston Matthews and Patrick Kane, potential teammates with the United States at the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026, will take the stage when Matthews’ Toronto Maple Leafs (1-0-0) visit Kane’s Detroit Red Wings (0-1-0) at Little Caesars Arena (7 p.m. ET; FDSNDET, SNP, SNW, SNO, CBC) for the first game of a home-and-home series that concludes Monday at Toronto. The two forwards have a knack for putting on a show when they face each other; Matthews had 21 points (10 goals, 11 assists) and Kane had 17 points (seven goals, 10 assists) in their 16 previous meetings. After scoring in Toronto’s 5-2 season-opening win against the Montreal Canadiens on Wednesday, Matthews (402 goals) is 19 away from passing Mats Sundin (420) for most goals in Maple Leafs history. Kane (492) needs eight goals to become the fifth U.S.-born player to reach 500. He didn’t score in Detroit’s 5-1 season-opening loss to Montreal on Thursday.

Saturday night’s game is a Hockey Night in Canada match-up, too:

The Red Wings hit the ice at Little Caesars Arena’s BELFOR Training Center at 12 PM today, and they “got skated” from the get-go:

Meanwhile, in Toronto…

Back at the BELFOR…

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George Malik

My name is George Malik, and I'm the Malik Report's editor/blogger/poster. I have been blogging about the Red Wings since 2006, and have worked with MLive and Kukla's Korner. Thank you for reading!