Author: George Malik

The Free Press’s Helene St. James posted a mailbag feature this morning. Here’s what she has to say about the Wings’ disappointing 2024-2025 season:

It’s interesting that entering Saturday, the Wings had played 32 games, and were 13-15-4, good for 30 points and sixth place in the Atlantic Division. Last year on Dec. 20, they likewise had played 32 games – and were 15-13-4, good for 34 points and fifth place in the division. That’s not much of a disparity. It wasn’t until the new year that last season’s squad took off and turned the conversation from draft lottery positioning to possibly ending the playoff drought.

It’s hard to picture this season’s team performing a similar resurrection. Last season’s squad could score: At the date referenced above, the 2023-24 Wings averaged 3.50 goals-per-game and 3.25 against, with a plus-8 overall goal differential. This season’s squad’s average is 2.69 for, 3.15 against, and a minus-15 differential. When the 2024-25 Wings have defended well, they’ve struggled to score. When they find their offense, it seems to come at the cost of their team defense.

The list of players from whom much more was expected offensively coming into the season is lengthy: Vladimir Tarasenko, who makes $4.75 million and 31 games in had four goals among 12 points. J.T. Compher, ($5.1 million); with 16 points after 31 games. Michael Rasmussen ($3.2 million); 12 points in 31 games. Joe Veleno ($2.28 million), five points in 28 games. Those are just some of the forwards. On defense, whatever the Wings expected when they signed Erik Gustafsson for two years, $4 million, it wasn’t for him to struggle so much he’d end up a healthy scratch. What an indictment on him that in the game against the Philadelphia Flyers, when Simon Edvinsson got hurt in the first period, Gustafsson was the only defenseman who played less than his average.

The fact is, the Wings are closing in on the midpoint of their season, and there’s been no indication so far that they can gain any traction. They had such a great opportunity this past week with beating the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Flyers and then hosting the Canadiens at home. And what happened Friday? The Wings didn’t give it their best, and they handed their opponent the two points. It was the same the previous week in Philadelphia, it was the same in November in California.

Continued; I want to believe that this year’s Red Wings team has a 2023-2024-like second half of the season in them, but it’s hard to do so right now.

Of Red Wings prospect-related note:

In the ECHL, Carter Gylander stopped 21 of 25 shots as the Toledo Walleye lost 5-2 to the Wheeling Nailers.

Detroit struggled in its two games against the Canadiens, and they’re 1 point down vs. Montreal in the Atlantic Division standings as a result.

Detroit lost 4-3 on Friday and 5-1 on Saturday, and the Wings host the Blues on Monday to close out their pre-Christmas season, having won 3 of their past 11 games.

Things are gloomy and getting desperate for the Red Wings, who also lost defenseman Ben Chiarot in the 3rd period to an “upper-body injury,” so we’re going to cut to the chase here: the Free Press’s Helene St. James asked coach Derek Lalonde if he’s worried about his job security after the game, and here’s what he had to say:

The Detroit Red Wings dropped the first game of their back-to-back slate against the Montreal Canadiens, so the Wings headed into Saturday night’s game at the Bell Centre desperately needing to win against a Canadiens team that was only a point behind Detroit in the Atlantic Division standings.

On Saturday night, the Canadiens went with the same lineup against Detroit–goaltender Samuel Montembeault included–while the Red Wings went with Alex Lyon in goal, and tweaked their lineup as necessary.

Montreal dismantled the Red Wings on Saturday night, responding to Joe Veleno’s goal 6:41 in with 5 straight goals, including a power play goal by Patrik Laine, and the Habs won 5-1.

Montreal now leads Detroit by 1 point in the Atlantic Division standings, and Detroit will try to at least get a couple of points on Monday when they host the St. Louis Blues…but falling to 13-16-and-4 is not good at all.

Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin has struggled to score over the last 11 games, so Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen posted a subscriber-only article noting that Larkin hopes to follow Patrick Kane’s example in breaking out of his slump:

“He’s just been all over the puck and I think he’s elevated it, he’s raised his compete, and it’s great to see,” Larkin said. “I think he’s found a way to get himself out of it and even myself. I need to start to follow that lead and start to play with that jam that he’s been playing with.”

Larkin is looking for his team to play better tonight to salvage a split out of a home-and-home with the Montreal Canadiens. But Larkin clearly is looking to push himself to play at a higher level.  What Detroit coaches, fans and the media have witnessed each time Larkin is injured is this team goes as he goes.

That’s why Larkin looks at Kane, certainly one of the most dominant players in U.S. hockey history, and wonders if he should follow his lead.

“He’s kind of forcing himself into the game and sticking with it when it doesn’t go well. There’s no flow to the game,” Larkin said.  “So stuff like that.”

Continued (paywall)

FYI from WXYZ’s Brad Galli:

Elf on the Shelf!? No, it’s Razor in a Blazer!

The Red Wings are planning a Lucas Raymond plush figure giveaway for Dec. 23. The first 7,500 fans get one pic.twitter.com/rWaTVfMDcc

— Brad Galli (@BradGalli) December 21, 2024

I’ve been saying for a long time now that I believe the Red Wings need to add two players by the 2025 trade deadline–another forward who can provide secondary scoring, preferably in the form of a big body who can go to the net and be physical (I can dream, can’t I?)…

And I’ve been really hammering home the suggestion that the Red Wings desperately need a shut-down defenseman who can spare Moritz Seider some of those tough match-up minutes on Detroit’s second pair.

As we’ve watched the Erik Gustafsson experiment peter out, however, I’ve become more convinced that the Red Wings need to add both that power forward type and a two-way defenseman who can begin to meaningfully address the Wings’ lack of secondary scoring from the blueline over a defenseman that’s just a shut-down guy.

This morning, The Athletic issued “wish lists” for every one of the NHL’s 32 teams, and Max Bultman and I seem to agree about what the Red Wings need on the blueline:

Detroit Red Wings

A long-term second pair D: The Red Wings appear to have found their top defense pair for the next decade in Simon Edvinsson and Moritz Seider, who have been excellent together this season. But there’s still plenty of questions behind them, both this season and for the future. Swedish RHD prospect Axel Sandin Pellikka could be part of the answer in a couple of years, but Detroit has work to do to identify at least one more two-way building block on the back end. — Max Bultman

The Wings definitely need a defenseman who can spare Seider some of the minutes that he and Edvinsson play defensively, but there just isn’t somebody who can be utilized like Shayne Gostisbehere on the back end, and if the team still needs to address David Perron’s absence as a vocal leader who could go to the dirty areas on the ice–and they do–they need to find a genuinely complete two-way defender as well.

The 13-15-and-4 Detroit Red Wings face the 13-16-and-3 Montreal Canadiens tonight at the Bell Centre (FanDuel Sportsnet Detroit Extra/NHL Network/TVA Sports/Sportsnet East/City TV/97.1 FM). Detroit sits 1 point ahead of the Canadiens in the Atlantic Division standings after the Red Wings’ 4-3 loss to Montreal last night in Detroit.

Neither team will hold a morning skate today, but Priyanta Emrith reports that Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis is scheduled to speak with the media at 5:40 PM, which means that coach Derek Lalonde will address the media this afternoon as well.

It should be noted that this game is an NHL Network game for out-of-market fans, which means that if you live in the U.S. and do not get FanDuel Sports Net Detroit Extra, you’re going to have to have access to the NHL Network to watch the game.

Field Level Media posted a very good preview of tonight’s game…

Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen shared this note about Patrick Kane in his overnight notebook:

After going nine games without a point, Patrick Kane is starting to play like he did last season. He scored against Montreal to give him goals in back-to-back games and four points in three games. He has 10 shots on goal in those three games

Kane found room with a shot when there appeared to be no room.

“Exciting finish,” Detroit coach Derek Lalonde said.  “Obviously they had some looks trying to get them out in some certain situations, provide some offense. So unfortunately the tying goal found them again. And I do not want that group to get in a trading goals scenario because you’re going to have up and down play.” 

Kane’s goal was the 476th of his career, tying Joe Pavelski for the fifth-most among U.S.-born skaters in NHL history behind Mike Modano (561), Keith Tkachuk (538), Jeremy Roenick (513) and Joe Mullen (502). It was his 88th career game-tying goal, tying Mullen for the third-most by a U.S.-born player in NHL history behind Tkachuk (110) and Modano (105).

Continued; it’s absolutely essential that the Red Wings receive secondary scoring in order to win games.

The Red Wings acknowledged that they were shaken down by the Montreal Canadiens last night, losing 4-3 to the Habs.

Now that the Wings sit only a point ahead of Montreal in the Atlantic Division standings, MLive’s Ansar Khan notes that tonight’s rematch in Montreal (7 PM EST start on FanDuel Sportsnet Extra/NHL Network/Sportsnet East/City/TVA Sports/97.1 FM) is all but a must-win for Detroit:

“We got to be better with the puck,” coach Derek Lalonde said. “Just the margin of error is not there. We can’t have lapses in our game. We have to be good on special teams and obviously tonight we were not.”

The Red Wings went 0 for 4 on the power play, the last one coming with 3:53 to play. They also allowed a shorthanded goal to Jake Evans in the first.

“We had chances, but we didn’t keep enough out,” Dylan Larkin said. “And they get their power play in the third and they scored and we get ours and we don’t.”

Larkin is glad they face the Canadiens again tonight at the Bell Centre (7 p.m., FanDuel Sports Network).

“We just got to capitalize on our chances and play with a little more intensity, and minimize our mistakes,” Larkin said. “They get a little bit off the rush, but you look at the goals they score and there’s just some key breakdowns. A lot of it, we talk about not breaking the puck out well and coming back to the house and seeing and stopping and puck management. So, we clean those things up, put a little more intensity.”

Continued (paywall)