Three articles, one point: the Detroit Red Wings’ players and coaching staff are doing their best to navigate through the chaotic situation surrounding the team, from the messy GM search over the course of the summer to Dylan Larkin’s trade request, the bungled contract negotiations with Simon Edvinsson, and questions about the commitment from ownership to help the team win.
MLive’s Ansar Khan kicks us off with coach Todd McLellan’s take on how the Red Wings will try to change their trajectory from an also-ran or a draft lottery team to one that can compete for a playoff spot:
“We’re trying our darndest to change it,” Todd McLellan, entering his second full season as coach, said. “We’ve adjusted some things systematically. We want our guys to play harder and heavier and have brought a couple players in to do that. We’re going to have to spend less time in our zone. We’re going to have to spend more time in the O-zone. Will it be different than last year? I can’t read into the crystal ball, but we’re going to do everything we possibly can to make it better.”
Larkin won’t be in the lineup for Friday’s season-opener against the New York Rangers at Little Caesars Arena (6:30 p.m., TNT) due to an upper-body injury. His future with the organization is unclear. Edvinsson practiced with the team during training camp but there’s no telling when the restricted free agent will sign.
“We’re trying to keep everybody unified, everybody believing in the purpose and the goal,” McLellan said. “We’re not putting our heads in the sand and pretending some of these issues don’t exist. Once we deal with them internally, that will give us a chance and that can be our rallying point.”
Moritz Seider insists that the Red Wings can only focus upon themselves…and proving their critics wrong:
“We’re just worried about our own locker room, and we don’t really care what other people think,” Moritz Seider said. “It’s a great feeling, proving people wrong, and I think we have a great chance in this locker room to do so.”
The Red Wings need to score more. They ranked 22nd in goals per game (2.91) and 30th in five-on-five goals. Free agent Viktor Arvidsson, coming off a 25-goal season in Boston, and former first-round picks Michael Brandsegg-Nygard and Nate Danielson, can help compensate for the offense lost with the departures of Patrick Kane and James van Riemsdyk. They need more secondary scoring to support Alex DeBrincat (41 goals), Lucas Raymond (25 goals) and Larkin (34 goals), if he sticks around.
“We have to find ways for other guys to manufacture offense,” McLellan said. “They’re going to have to put a concerted effort into scoring some ugly goals. That can be a tip-in, a deflection, a screen. It can come from a player not named Raymond or DeBrincat.”
With 7 of their first 8 games taking place at Little Caesars Arena, NHL.com’s Nicholas J. Cotsonika noted that the Wings are preaching “early urgency” in order to start well, especially given that the Red Wings are diving into the regular season after an abbreviated preseason…
“There has to be some early urgency from everybody,” coach Todd McLellan said on the first day of camp. “You don’t have time to wade into it.”
Moritz Seider believes that the Red Wings are ready to go thanks to a very intense training camp…
“There was more intensity compared to other camps,” he said. “Even some of our new guys mentioned that, that it was something they haven’t seen before, and I feel that’s a good sign.”
Asked what made it intense, Seider said: “I think it starts with mental toughness. It’s something we emphasize. We want to be sharp whenever we go out there. We don’t want to waste any time. I feel like you can see it even in between drills. Like, (McLellan) explains the drills. Two seconds later, everyone is in the spot. It’d kind of robotic, almost, but everyone is, like, dialed in.”
And coach McLellan duly noted that the Wings don’t want to stumble out of the gate for good reason:
“Last year we didn’t perform very well on opening night,” McLellan said. “It gave us a chance to bark a little bit, and we put it back together, and we were better after that. We went on a little run right away. So, as far as this year goes, it’s a brand-new season, unpredictable to start with. We’ll play the game. The games (around the NHL so far) have been sloppy, in my opinion, watching again last night, so if we can eliminate that, we’ll give ourselves a better chance of winning, and come Saturday morning, we’ll have a blueprint more to work off of.”
The Red Wings play seven of their first eight games at home. They must take advantage of it and bank as many points as possible.
“Early early urgency,” McLellan said, repeating the word “early.” “Another reason why we adopted that moniker, if you will. It’s a chance to put our game together here at home. I don’t think fatigue should be a factor in these first (seven or eight) games. We’re not traveling all over the place (and have only) one back-to-back, so we should have good practice time.
“But we should feel good about being in our building and playing in front of our fans, and we’re going to get (seven out of eight) cracks at it right off the bat, so I’d like to see us have some real good positive results.”
The Detroit News’s Bob Wojnowski wraps things up by noting that the Red Wings theoretically have what they need to prove their critics incorrect…But…
“There should be motivation enough just to prove these people wrong,” defenseman Moritz Seider said. “Obviously everyone has an opinion, rightfully so. But we’re here to prove them wrong and try to write our own story.”
They have no choice. Dylan Larkin is not coming back as the hometown hero, if he’s coming back at all. He’s not expected to play in the first two games. An injury slowed him in training camp and his availability is uncertain. Just like his future, as trade rumors percolate. Just like a lot of futures.
Steve Yzerman is not coming back as the hometown hero either, and when you see the ongoing dysfunction, you wonder about the timing of his ouster. Did it come too late? Or was the middle of the summer even worse timing?
The Wings’ bright young defenseman, Simon Edvinsson, is back in Sweden, skating with his former club. Interim GM Shawn Horcoff supposedly has the authority to get a contract done with the unrestricted free agent, but like everything else, there’s no sign of direction.
Todd McLellan is trying his best to block out the noise, to normalize the daily routine, but he can’t fake stability. To break the monotony, the team took a day away from the rink this week for a bonding event. They played paintball, where the strategy is the same as on the ice — work together, protect each other, don’t be afraid to take the shot.
“We’re trying to keep everybody unified, believing in the purpose and the goal,” McLellan said. “And we’re also being realistic. We’re not putting our heads in the sand and pretending some of these issues don’t exist. But deal with them internally, that can be our rallying point. We are what we are, and we are who we are, and if we give each other the best we have, that’s pretty good.”
Wojnowski feels that someone needs to step up and help the Red Wings navigate their way out of their chaotic situation, regardless of whether that’s a player, coach McLellan, Shawn Horcoff, or Christopher Ilitch, who treats the teams he runs like a business and not a family:
The problem with the Wings — beyond the talent deficit wrought by questionable transactions — is the accountability tag can be slapped on many, but sticks to few. Yzerman, who also hasn’t offered his side, didn’t fortify the team sufficiently at trade deadlines, as the Wings narrowly missed the playoffs three years in a row. That’s on him. A lot also is on Ilitch, who’s struggling to juggle the Wings and Tigers.
And what about the players who inconceivably collapse every March? What about the goaltending that swings from good to mediocre, with 33-year-old John Gibson the current example? What about the mental discipline, non-existent in clutch situations and big games?
Coaching accountability might be next, but McLellan has been in charge less than two full years. He delivers strong, unflinching assessments, and if players get bothered by that, they need to toughen up.
Wojo continues at length, and his conclusion is simple; talking about making the team tougher, mentally, physically, and otherwise, has been the talk of the team for the last half-decade or more, but none of it matters until it’s backed up with actions.