Author: George Malik

NHL.com’s Mike G. Morreale discusses faceoff stats in his “Rookie Watch” for Monday morning, and it’s worth noting that Marco Kasper’s holding his own in the faceoff circle–and everywhere else:

Marco Kasper, C, Detroit Red Wings: The No. 8 pick in the 2022 NHL Draft ranks second among NHL rookies with 348 face-offs taken and 165 face-off wins. The 20-year-old left-handed shot has 14 points (six goals, eight assists) and averages 14:03 of ice time in 41 games. He is second in neutral-zone face-off wins (63) and third in defensive-zone face-off wins (46).

Continued; I believe that production will come for Kasper eventually, but his competitiveness and work ethic already shine through.

The Detroit Red Wings have lost 2 straight games now in the form of Saturday’s 5-1 loss to Tampa Bay and Sunday’s 4-1 loss to Dallas.

Marco Kasper scored the Red Wings’ only goal, a tip shot 12:01 into the 3rd–after Detroit was down 3-0 thanks to 3 1st period Dallas goals–and the Stars got their 3-goal lead back on another rush play against Alex Lyon, who was solid in goal despite stopping 21 of 25 shots.

Regrettably, the Wings were unable to dent Jake Oettinger more than once despite taking 35 shots and 71 shot attempts, and the Wings just lost puck battles and gave up chances on the rush all evening long.

It was an incredibly frustrating process of watching an inevitable outcome take place, and now the Wings have to regroup and try to earn a road split–after losing 2 straight under coach Todd McLellan for the first time–by winning on Tuesday in Philadelphia.

It also bears mentioning that Moritz Seider was tremendous, taking 5 shots and 11 total attempts, landing 6 hits and having a takeaway and a blocked shot in a team-leading 22:36.

For the Dallas Stars, as the Dallas News’s Lia Assimakopoulos noted, the game was all about bouncing back from a difficult 6-3 loss to Colorado on Saturday, snapping their own 2-game losing streak, and not letting losing “seep in” to what has been a strong season for the Stars thus far:

Both the Detroit Red Wings and Dallas Stars attempted to rebound from difficult Saturday night losses as the teams tangled at the American Airlines Center on Sunday evening.

Detroit had lost a 5-1 decision to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday, while the Stars had lost 6-3 to Colorado.

If Saturday night’s loss was a “gut punch,” this was a kick to the groin. Dallas prevailed via scoring 3 1st period goals, over the course of just under 15 minutes of play, and while Simon Edvinsson (or Marco Kasper?) spoiled Jake Oettinger’s shutout late in the 3rd period, Dallas got their 3-goal lead right back, and they won 4-1.

Detroit out-shot Dallas 34-25, Detroit out-attempted Dallas 71-43, forced the Stars into 21 giveaways and out-hit Dallas 27-17, but it was the Stars who made the Wings look slow and plodding as their quick-strike offense victimized the Red Wings’ defense and Alex Lyon, who was fine.

Moritz Seider had 4 shots and 11 attempts on goal, as well as 6 shots, a takeaway and a blocked shots in 22:26 played, but not even Big Mo could help the Wings survive in Big D.

The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan filed a Sunday evening notebook article which discusses the state of the Red Wings’ goaltending:

Coach Todd McLellan has been with Talbot two previous times (Edmonton, Los Angeles) and will get to more familiar with Lyon, and Husso when needed.

“I probably know Talbs better than (goaltending coach) Alex Westlund does, and that’s a good thing for Cam and I to have that relationship built already,” McLellan said. “Then with the other two, we rely on Westie for his opinion and his thoughts.”

Who plays, though, is a group discussion with McLellan making the final call.

“We talk about it as a group, (and who starts is) a decision that ultimately comes down to me,” McLellan said.

…

Lyon feels the Wings and McLellan have adjusted well to each other since McLellan replaced Derek Lalonde on Dec. 26.

“A lot about being a goalie is blocking out the outside noise, so that objective remains the same,” Lyon said. “They’ve come in and done a really good job and made our lives simpler, so that’s been awesome. But there’s always a nice bump, a feel-good phase, and I always feel like the real work starts after that.

“We just need to be wary of that. There’s been a lot of highs recently, but there will be lows. We have to be mentally prepared for that. It’s going to be difficult (the remainder of the season).”

Continued (paywall)

From the Hockey News’s Caleb Kerney…

Raymond can’t stop collecting points. His goal last night was his 19th of the season and his 50th point of 2024-25. He is the first Red Wings’ player to record 50 points this season.

Last year, it took Raymond 59 games to record the same number of points. He’s only played 45 games this year and is on pace to record 92 points and 34 goals. If that holds true, he will finish the year with a career-high in both categories.

The Red Wings can let the loss roll off their backs tonight in Dallas. Even if they can’t win them all, they can stop the losses from piling up.

And Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen:

Elmer Soderblom continues to raise his offensive profile as he added the empty-net insurance goal in the Grand Rapids Griffins’ 4-2 win against the Cleveland Monsters.

The Griffins lead the AHL’s Central Division by three points over the Texas Stars.

Soderblom has three goals and three assists for six points over the past five games. He has put up five goals and 12 points over his past 17 games. The 6-foot-8 Soderblom started this season with two points in his first 13 games. The Swedish left wing has only had one minus game in his past 10 games.

With Soderblom’s increased offense production comes wonder whether he might be able to earn his way back to the Red Wings if the team has injuries. Soderblom, 23, played 21 games for the Red Wings in 2022-23, but spent all of last season and the first half of this season in Grand Rapids.

A bit after the fact, the Free Press’s Helene St. James offers a few more quips and quotes from the Red Wings’ 5-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday night:

“I thought we were in position a lot of times to prevent, and we just didn’t do our work,” [coach Todd] McLellan said. “Say you’re at your desk but you’re not working, then you’re useless. It’s one thing being there, it’s the other thing getting the job done.”

McLellan didn’t share that feedback with players immediately after the event, though.

“I don’t go in too often after a game,” he said. “I think sometimes you can be too high or too low and you say things that you can’t take back. I’d like to think it through, talk to the rest of the coaches, and watch it again.”

Re-watching it will show the same thing: Andrei Vasilevskiy, a world-class goaltender, made 39 saves, so it wasn’t like all the Wings did was play defense. The problem? They barely played defense at all.

“It didn’t feel like we spent so much time in our end, we just had some breakdowns when we did,” Patrick Kane said. “I thought we did some good things as well, getting pucks to the net, getting some chances. But a couple too many breakdowns.”

The Bolts scored from Cam Talbot’s doorstep two minutes into the game — and essentially, the Wings never mustered a response.

“From the first goal, that kind of set the tone for us,” said Lucas Raymond, who scored on a power play. “It’s a huge part of our game and didn’t get it done. We didn’t reach our standard by any means, and it’s on us. We need to come prepared every game.”

Continued

Of Red Wings-related note ahead of tonight’s game against the Dallas Stars (8 PM EST start on FanDuel SportsNet Detroit/Victory+/Sportsnet/97.1 FM):

1. NHL.com posted a short game preview as there are only 3 games on the schedule today:

Detroit Red Wings at Dallas Stars (8 p.m. ET; FDSNDET, Victory+, SN)

The Stars (28-16-1) have lost two in a row and three of four since winning seven straight and a nine-game point streak (8-0-1). The Red Wings (21-20-4) have lost two of three since their seven-game winning streak. Both teams played Saturday; Dallas lost 6-3 to the Colorado Avalanche with backup goalie Casey DeSmith in net, which means Jake Oettinger is likely to get the start against Detroit. Oettinger has allowed four goals in his past three starts and has given up two or fewer in nine of 12 since Dec. 14. Stars forward Jason Robertson has three goals in the past two games, four in four and seven in 11 since Dec. 29. The Red Wings lost 5-1 at the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday. They’ll be playing the third of a four-game road trip that started with a 5-2 win at the Florida Panthers on Thursday.

2. MLive’s Tyler Kuehl also posted a game preview which discusses the divisional implications of tonight’s game (for both teams)…

As an FYI: Former Red Wings forward Johan Franzen gave a rare interview to Expressen this morning, but the interview is behind a paywall.

The interview promises to go into Franzen’s concussion issues, bullying by Mike Babcock, the end of his career, winning the Stanley Cup with Detroit and his quiet life now, but we’ll have to wait for Swedish folks who can navigate the paywall to show us some excerpts from the interview.

The Detroit Red Wings aren’t going to hold a morning skate today ahead of tonight’s back-to-back match-up against the 28-16-and-1 Dallas Stars (8 PM EST start on FanDuel SportsNet Detroit/Victory+/Sportsnet/97.1 FM), but tonight’s game is definitely going to provide a challenge.

As you know by now, the Red Wings are coming off a 5-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday, but they aren’t the only team feeling the mugglywumps this morning.

Dallas is not happy with itself after dropping a 6-3 decision to the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday, and the Stars have lost 2 straight and 3 of their past 4, but they preceded their rough stretch with 7 straight victories, and I’m certain that the Stars believe that they can get back to “normal” against Detroit.

Field Level Media posted a game preview which distills some important quotes from the Stars’ loss to Colorado on Saturday night…

Matt Duchene scored on the power play 3:24 into the game to give Dallas a 1-0 lead but the Avalanche scored the next five goals.

“We’ve played these guys,” Stars coach Pete DeBoer said. “We beat them in the playoffs (in the Western Conference second round) last year. We’ve played them a lot over the last two years. So anytime you play them, you want to give your best game. I’m not sure we learned anything tonight. We know how dangerous they are and they burnt us. They just made us pay for any of the mistakes we made.”

Jason Robertson scored two goals and set up another. Duchene also had an assist and Casey DeSmith made 30 saves for Dallas.

“They’re a skilled, fast team. We know that. We’re very familiar with it,” Robertson said. “I think we could have done a better job weathering instead of taking on so much water. It’s only a matter of time, if you can’t get enough pushback, that they’re going to break through.”

DallasStars.com’s Mike Heika posted some daunting stats ahead of tonight’s match-up, noting that the Stars have won 7 straight games against the Wings…

The Free Press’s Helene St. James spoke with Red Wings goaltender Alex Lyon about his health, his take on the Red Wings’ coaching change and his desire to continue as a member of Detroit’s NHL team past this season:

This is a a contract year for the 32-year-old Lyon, who until he joined the Wings on a two-year, $1.8 million deal in 2023 was a career minor leaguer with only 39 NHL games to his credit. He has played 60 with the Wings in 1½ seasons, rising from third-string to starter last season. Depending on what happens down the stretch this season, it’s a relationship that could continue. Cam Talbot is signed through next season, but Ville Husso is on an expiring deal, and given how he has struggled (1-5-2 with a 3.69 goals-against average and .866 save percentage), he will not be re-signed. The Wings have 2021 first-round pick Sebastian Cossa developing in the minors, but even if he’s deemed ready to join the Wings for 2025-26, the past couple years have shown the benefit of carrying three goaltenders, as the Wings have needed all of them.

…

Lyon, who spent three years at Yale, has figured out how to handle the turbulence, knowing it takes vigilance.

“I still don’t feel like I belong — I mean, I feel I belong in the NHL, I know I can play here, but I feel the same as I did when I was 23,” he said. “There were times when I wasn’t in the NHL when I felt like I should have been, and whoever’s fault that is — my fault — we could talk about it endlessly. But my approach remains the same. It has to. You have to separate yourself from a lot of things and so that’s what I continue to try to do. I see it as the big picture and I hope I can play 10 more years.”

Continued (paywall) with a video interview: