Author: George Malik

The Detroit Red Wings will battle the Tampa Bay Lightning this evening (7 PM EST start on FanDuel SportsNet Detroit/FanDuel SportsNet Sun/97.1 FM), and tonight’s game is going to be a particularly difficult one.

The Wings lost 5-1 to Tampa Bay last Saturday, but Tampa sits at 26-18-3 after winning a 4-3 overtime decision over the Chicago Blackhawks on Friday night. The Lightning were on a 4-1-and-1 streak heading into last Saturday’s win, but Tampa lost two straight games after defeating Detroit, so the Bolts are looking to get back on a winning trend tonight.

TampaBayLightning.com’s Benjamin Pierce offered the following “Nuts and Bolts” regarding tonight’s match-up:

The Tampa Bay Lightning will go for their second win this season over their Atlantic Division rival Detroit Red Wings on Saturday at Little Caesars Arena…

Tampa Bay has a 39-36-5 record all-time against Detroit, a record which includes a 5-1 win over the Red Wings last Saturday…

Jake Guentzel and Nikita Kucherov each posted 1-2—3 in that win…

Detroit won all three of the 2023-24 matchups in regulation…

Victor Hedman (2-2—4) and Kucherov (0-4—4) co-led the team in last season’s three-game series against Detroit, and Brandon Hagel (1-2—3) also had a point per game…

Kucherov is the franchise’s all-time leading scorer against Detroit with 21-28—49 in 37 games, and Hedman is third with 5-36—41 in 45 games…

Brayden Point is fourth with 19-15—34 in 35 career games against Detroit…

Goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy is 15-4-0 in his career against the Red Wings with a .931 SV% and one shutout…V

asilevskiy won the Jan. 18 game, stopping 38 of 39 shots for a .974 SV%…

Goalie Jonas Johansson is 0-1-0 with an .878 SV% as a Bolt against the Red Wings.

The Associated Press also posted a “Nuts and Bolts”-style preview:

FloHockey is going to air today’s Grand Rapids Griffins-Manitoba Moose game at 3 PM EST, as FloHockey’s Patrick Williams notes:

The Grand Rapids Griffins will go for a sweep of their trip to Winnipeg when they visit the Manitoba Moose this Saturday afternoon in the FloHockey AHL Game of the Week (3:00 p.m. ET).

A four-goal third period Thursday night at Canada Life Centre carried the Griffins (23-12-3-1) to a 5-3 win in the opener of a two-game series with the Moose. Ville Husso’s season-high 39 saves led the Griffins, who also got 1-1-2 efforts from Ondrej Becher and Brogan Rafferty. The Griffins’ veteran base has been excellent all season and was again in the win as Sheldon Dries and Joe Snively both picked up goals. Grand Rapids also had forward prospect Carter Mazur back from injury for the first time in more than three months.

Thursday’s defeat was the third in a row for the Moose (11-22-1-1), who were shut out in back-to-back home games last weekend. Their 0-3-0-0 homestand has followed a road swing in which they won four games in a row against Calgary, Milwaukee, and the Griffins. Hard pressed for offense this season, the Moose lost forward Brad Lambert on recall Friday to the Winnipeg Jets; Manitoba has scored a league-low 77 goals this season.

Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff discusses the “uphill battle” that Red Wings defenseman Jeff Petry will have in terms of returning to Detroit’s lineup thanks to the strong play of one Albert Johansson on the second D pairing:

When he regains his health, where does Petry fit into the picture?

Historically, hockey tradition states that a player can’t lose his job due to injury. It’s supposed to be waiting for him once he’s healthy.

Realistically, unless Johansson’s form suddenly goes south, there’s no way Petry is getting back into the Detroit top four rearguards.

“From my perspective, I don’t see it as being a problem,” McLellan said regarding what happens to Johansson when Petry is back. “I think (Johansson) keeps on playing, in my opinion. But it can change. He can’t give any of his game back because he’s raised the bar so high. Our expectations are going up for him. I don’t think it’s a problem. I think it’s a luxury more than a problem.”

More than likely, when he’s back in the picture, Petry is going to find himself battling with Justin Holl and Erik Gustafsson for ice time in the Red Wings’ third pairing.

Continued

The NHL named its “Quarter-Century Team” for the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday, and the selections caused debate among Red Wings fans and pundits alike.

Without further ado, meet the @DetroitRedWings' Quarter-Century Team! 👏 #NHLQCTeam pic.twitter.com/IR5SRJBM2E

— NHL (@NHL) January 23, 2025

The Hockey News’s Adam Proteau suggests that the Red Wings’ “Quarter-Century Team” is the best one out there…

On the first quarter-century team, Wings icons Pavel Datsyuk, Steve Yzerman, Henrik Zetterberg and Nicklas Lidstrom all are Hockey Hall of Famers. 

Blueliner Niklas Kronwall is a member of the elite Triple Gold Club, with a Cup, an Olympic gold medal and a World Championship gold medal on his resume. Zetterberg, Datsyuk, Lidstrom and second-team forward Brendan Shanahan are also Triple Gold Club members. 

First quarter-century-team goalie Chris Osgood has three Cup wins.

On Detroit’s second quarter-century team are Larkin, Shanahan, Sergei Fedorov, superstar goalie Dominik Hasek and defensemen Brian Rafalski and Chris Chelios. Many teams would dream of having that group as their first team. Five of them won the Cup with Detroit, and Larkin is fourth in franchise scoring since 2000.

These teams are a non-stop parade of powerhouses, and no other team can boast of as many pure gems as Detroit has had in the past 25 years.

But Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff, in a subscriber-only story, argues that the team is laden with stars from the 1990’s instead of the 2000’s:

From the Red Wings on Twitter:

The playoff push is on for the @DetroitRedWings, and Andrew Copp stops by the NHL Tonight: First Shift Podcast to talk about the season.@EJHradek_NHL and Dave Reid take a look at which teams are serious contenders and get you ready for Friday's games!https://t.co/f1Ph9OQRXX

— NHL Network (@NHLNetwork) January 24, 2025

You can also watch the 10:44 interview on DetroitRedWings.com (not embeddable).

From WDIV Local 4:

Update: Here’s more from DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills:

Presented by the Detroit Red Wings Foundation, Red Wings for Reading is a no-cost literacy program that encourages students in K-5 classrooms across the state of Michigan to increase the time they spend reading both in school and at home.

“Reading is really important,” Kasper told DetroitRedWings.com on Friday. “It develops your language and social skills.”

With that message in mind, Kasper enthusiastically read “Dino-Hockey” – a book by Michigan-based author Lisa Wheeler – to the students before answering their questions and helping them select new books during the charter school’s book fair.

“It’s awesome coming here,” Kasper said. “All the kids asking fun questions, teaching them about hockey in a fun way and thinking about how dinosaurs play hockey. It’s a great way of getting kids involved with hockey and great to give back to the community. It’s always fun to come to schools and read to kids.”

As part of the Red Wings for Reading Program, the Detroit Red Wings Foundation has teamed up with United Way for Southeastern Michigan to support their “My Home Library” program, which provides a set of five complimentary books to each student at schools in Southeast Michigan communities that face a lack of adequate access to reading materials.

Approximately 200 students at New Paradigm Glazer will benefit from 1,000 books on Friday. In all, this year’s program will benefit 600 total students, providing 3,000 books over three school visits.

MLive’s Ansar Khan spoke with Albert Johansson, who Red Wings coach Todd McLellan called his “biggest surprise” as he’s learned about the Wings’ roster, on Friday afternoon:

“Probably the biggest surprise for me to date is Albert,” McLellan said following Thursday’s 4-2 victory over Montreal. “I knew nothing about Albert. We get here and he’s kind of parked on the shelf and everybody’s playing and we’re trying to figure players out. I think his rise has been remarkable, really, unless I underestimated him, and that’s on me. But he’s played steady in all three zones. There’s some fierceness in his game. When he gets engaged with bodies and battles, he wins a lot of them. He’s not the biggest guy. We talk about him in the locker room all the time. We’re so happy we have him. He’s the biggest surprise in my mind.”

Johansson, 24, said it was “fun to hear those words.”

“I’m trying not to think about it too much,” Johansson said. “I’m trying to just focus on the next game every day. But I think overall, when your coach is talking good about you, that gives you confidence and a boost in your game.”

The Red Wings (22-21-5) host the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday (7 p.m., FanDuel Sports Network).

Johansson has played the past 10 games, in a top-four role with Simon Edvinsson. When Petry recovers from his injury, Johansson isn’t an automatic scratch.

“I think (Johansson) keeps on playing,” McLellan said. “But it can change. He can’t give any of his game back because he’s raised the bar so high. Our expectations are going up for him. I think it’s a luxury more than a problem.”

Continued;

Update: Here’s more from the Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan:

Detroit Hockey Now’s Tim Robinson notes that the Red Wings’ PK came through in a big way vs. Montreal last night:

Detroit got a small measure of revenge in Thursday’s sin over  Montrreal and the penalty kill was a factor. The PK, ranked 31st in the NHL, held Montreal at bay and een got a shorthanded goal from Andrew Coop. The Wings killed off three Montreal man-advantages.in their 5-2 victory.

“Teams are probably coming in thinking they can take advantage of our penalty kill because our numbers have not been good,” Red Wings coach Todd McLellan said. “They had a chance to strike and swing the momentum back to their side, but our group did a real good job.”

The performance was a morale boost, too.

“It’s huge that the coach trusted us to get that kill,” defenseman Moritz Seider said. “It’s obviously a good feeling to know that, and we did the job. That gave us a big boost.”

Continued

Per the Hockey News’s Sam Stockton, regarding Patrick Kane, Jeff Petry and Tyler Motte, who are all battling injuries:

Kane—whom [Red Wings coach Todd] McLellan said Thursday had picked up an upper body injury during the Red Wings’ Saturday game in Dallas, then aggravated that injury against the Flyers Tuesday night—already missed Thursday’s win over the Canadiens.

The injury comes at an unfortunate time for Kane, who was heating up to his best form of the season throughout the month of January. In the 10 games leading into that game against the Stars in Dallas when he initially suffered the setback, Kane had six goals and 10 assists for 16 points. Against Montreal, Vladimir Tarasenko filled in for Kane on Detroit’s second line position as well as his place on the top power play. While the Red Wings were hardly starved for Kane’s offense against the Habs, they would of course benefit from a hasty recovery that as of this moment does not appear particularly imminent.

Elsewhere on the injury front, Jeff Petry—who has been out since Jan. 2 but took part in Thursday’s pre-game skate—did not participate in Friday’s practice.  However, McLellan clarified that this doesn’t represent a setback for Petry; instead, he is simply adhering to the training staff’s designed recovery plan.  Finally, Tyler Motte—out since Jan. 14 with an upper body injury—took part in practice wearing a full ‘bubble’ face shield.  He also does not have a definitive timeline toward his return, though he is unlikely to play against Tampa.

Continued;

We’ve all got questions as to what happens with Jeff Petry’s return given Albert Johansson’s play, and the same is true with Tyler Motte given how well Elmer Soderblom has played during his recall. We’ll find out when we find out.

The Red Wings practiced on Friday at the BELFOR Training Center underneath Little Caesars Arena, and after practice, coach Todd McLellan confirmed that Patrick Kane (upper-body) will miss Saturday’s game against the Tampa Bay Lightning (who are playing the first of back-to-back games tonight in Chicago).

McLellan also told the assembled media that the team’s starting goaltender for tomorrow is undecided, with Cam Talbot a possibility against the Bolts.

Here’s the Red Wings’ post-practice player-and-coach comment video, which includes Jonatan Berggren, Albert Johansson and coach McLellan: