The Athletic’s Max Bultman discusses the atmosphere in the Red Wings’ locker room as the team’s summer of discontent from Dylan Larkin and inability to re-sign Simon Edvinsson hang over the team like a dark cloud:

“So far … so good,” [coach Todd] McLellan said. “We have some hurdles in front of us that we’re going to have to continue to cross and to deal with, but it’s probably appropriate that we’re (speaking) inside the locker room because the group in here has come to play hockey. They’ve focused on the things that they need to do to get themselves ready. The outside noise through the summer and everything else that’s gone on, they’ve done a good job focusing on what they can control, and that’s the hockey part of it.”

And in my experience the last two weeks, that’s mostly true. You can certainly feel an awkwardness in the air at times, but the Red Wings’ players have been diligent this preseason.

On Monday, new arrival Keegan Kolesar went out of his way to note that “this is a team that’s doing a great job of internalizing everything here and worrying about what’s in this locker room, despite all the noise outside.” Veteran Andrew Copp said the Red Wings “talked about it before camp, and then ever since then, it was honestly pretty normal.”

That’s important, because the Red Wings will have enough challenges this season. Even with Larkin, the team lacks scoring punch down the middle. And since no one knows how much they’ll have Larkin this season, who, aside from the trade request, is working back from an upper-body injury, that issue could very well worsen. That’s a scary thought in the league’s deepest division.

Yet, even with their path to the playoffs narrow, the Red Wings’ collection of rising young players and veterans with something to prove is the kind of set-up teams can rally behind, even — and perhaps especially — if they’re short on superstars.

“I think everyone’s gonna feel important,” Copp said. “I think the team makes sense the way it’s constructed. … Everyone’s just gotta do their job. That’s all it is. Whether we win 5-4 or we win 1-0, it doesn’t matter. We’ve just gotta find a way to win games, get off to a good start and then you start feeling good, momentum builds, everything goes. I think a good start is instrumental for us.”

Continued (paywall)