The Hockey News’s Sam Stockton reports that the Red Wings’ “blueprint” under coach Todd McLellan builds upon a foundation established at the team’s practices:

Since McLellan’s takeover, the Red Wings’ practices provide a clearer distinction between coaching eras than the underlying numbers. Sessions at the BELFOR Training Center in Little Caesars Arena offer an obvious manifestation of McLellan’s other mantra: “harder, faster, smarter.” McLellan has lengthened practices while also raising the tempo to each skate and all the while introducing new drills to provide a combination of competition and levity.

“I think there’s just a really good purpose to every practice,” defenseman Moritz Seider told The Hockey News before the Red Wings set out for their road trip. “We just either try to emphasize a new system or we’re really focusing on the next game that’s upcoming. I think today you could really see from the outside that we’re a skating team, we try to go with pace and speed out there, and that’s exactly what he told us we’re gonna need.”

Of course, all that skating in practice wouldn’t count for much if it hadn’t correlated to results. McLellan’s “road map” has proved so effective, because he demonstrated from the moment of his arrival that the changes he chose to implement would bear fruit in a hurry. As Andrew Copp put it before the trip, “He’s got a clear, concise message. He’s in command. Everything on video makes total sense. He’s the one doing the video every time, so he’s got the presence.”

“It can start with practice,” Copp added. “It can start with the effort, the pace and intensity that we have, but ultimately, the results are gonna dictate whether you have momentum or not. You can play good and not win and still feel good about yourselves, but that can only last for so long really. And if you are playing the right way, you’re going to get wins. I would say it probably started in practice and bled over to the games, but the games are the ultimate confidence builder.”

…

“You can practice as hard as you want, but if you can’t translate it onto the ice, I think it’s very stressful and painful situation for all of us,” Seider said. “Obviously, getting the results gives us a little more confidence, a little more happiness in practice. Even if it might be a little longer…we still have a smile on our face and work through it—put our work boots on and grind. And then obviously if it translates on the ice, it’s all worth it.”

Continued

97.1 the Ticket’s Will Burchfield discusses how the Red Wings have “found their game” since coach Todd McLellan took over the team on December 26th:

The Red Wings were second to last in the East and eight points out of a playoff spot when McLellan replaced Derek Lalonde the day after Christmas — a move that, if anything, should’ve happened sooner. They were embarrassed the next night on home ice by the Leafs. They’ve been the best team in the NHL since, their 15-3-1 run rocketing them up eight spots in the standings with contributions coming up and down the lineup.

Kane had to laugh and admit, “I’m not sure any of us really thought we’d be in this position right now, but what a spot we’re in.”

“We’ve put ourselves there, and you gotta give Todd a lot of credit, too,” said Kane. “He’s done a great job job of coming in and settling things down and making sure we’re playing aggressive. Even when we get back on our heels a little bit and things aren’t going our way, to keep pushing forward and try to turn the game in our favor.”

The game turned against the Red Wings in the third period in Seattle. A 4-2 lead with under 10 minutes to go became a 4-4 tie when Cam Talbot allowed two goals that he’d probably like back. Panic might have set in for the fans watching at home. On the bench, the players remained calm, said McLellan. Kane pointed to Seider as one of the team leaders “coming up and down the bench telling us to stay confident, hang in there, we’re in a good spot.”

“And that’s huge,” he said. “That keeps us in the right mindset and wanting to play on the attack.”

The line of Kane, Soderblom and center Joe Veleno responded with a strong shift, and the crisis was over. Both teams survived a hectic overtime, before the Wings got the goal they needed in the shootout. McLellan keeps going back to one word to describe Detroit’s winning ways: “Belief.”

“The spirit and the belief system has gone up,” he said. “They’re playing to the structure that we put in. It’s easy when you’re winning. You can get people to believe in things a lot simpler than if you’re losing. They’ve been attentive, they’ve worked hard in practice and they want to win. They’re a hungry group.”

Continued at length, with some intriguing comments from Andrew Copp. This is a real must-read.

His 22nd…

Drop a HBD for Simon! 🥳 pic.twitter.com/7ppRfPXZ0e

— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) February 5, 2025

Red Wings prospect Axel Sandin Pellikka is going to play in the Swedish Beijer Games for the Tre Kronor, and the Swedish news agency TT posted an interview with ASP:

Axel Sandin Pelikka makes his debut for the Tre Kronor: “Awesome”

He makes his debut in both Tre Kronor and in the Globe [Arena].

Defensive talent Axel Sandin Pelikka, 19, is looking forward to taking a new step in his career.

“It’s going to be cool, I hope it’s very yellow in the stands,” he said.

The Tre Kronor’s meeting with the Czech Republic on Thursday in the home-held tournament, the Beijer Hockey Games, will be the first hockey game in a newly-renovated arena which is popularly still known as the Globe, but officially named the Avicii Arena.

For just over a year, the arena has been renovated on the inside, at a cost of over 800 million Swedish Kronor, including new seats and stands all the way down to the stage, black chairs that will make the arena warmer, and a new ceiling.

Of Red Wings-related note this morning, after Detroit’s 5-4 shootout victory over the Seattle Kraken:

1. We start with the bad news of a sort. The Free Press’s Helene St. James notes that Red Wings coach Todd McLellan confirmed Frank Seravalli’s report that Jeff Petry’s injury required surgery, and that the veteran defenseman will be out for 6-8 weeks. St. James accentuates the positive, however:

Coach Todd McLellan said after Tuesday’s morning skate at Climate Pledge Arena that Jeff Petry, out since Jan. 2 with an upper-body injury, “won’t play for a while. He had surgery and he’ll be out for about 6-to-8 weeks depending on healing time. It’s unfortunate for him as an individual and it’s certainly for our team.”

The Wings have been rolling along without Petry, though, buoyed by the quick work McLellan and assistant coach Trent Yawney made of the defense pairings shortly after arriving on Dec. 26. They split up Moritz Seider and Simon Edvinsson, instead pairing Ben Chiarot with Seider and then finding, to their delight, what a good fit rookie Albert Johansson makes with Edvinsson. Justin Holl and Erik Gustafsson round things out on the third pairing.

“One, we found Albert,” McLellan said. “That allowed us to kind of settle everything out. Breaking up Simon and Mo was something we talked about on the flight in, when we got hired. They were getting a lot of attention as young defensemen – there was a lot of that was being asked of those two, and we forgot that we had some pretty good veterans, too. So a little bit of balance, make everybody important. Albert comes along and he does his thing, and it kind of just slots everybody in the right places. That’s how we got to that.”

2. MLive’s Ansar Khan took note of the historic nature of Patrick Kane’s shootout goal last night, with Kane scoring an all-time NHL-best 53rd shootout goal:

The Detroit Red Wings defeated the Seattle Kraken 5-4 in a shootout on Tuesday evening and into Wednesday morning, sweeping their 4-game road trip through Western Canada and the Pacific Northwest.

The Red Wings’ 7th straight victory affords the Wings the first Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference at 28-21-and-5 for 61 points in 54 games played, one more point than Saturday’s opponent, the Tampa Bay Lightning (which holds 2 games in hand upon Detroit as of Wednesday morning).

It’s almost inconceivable to say this, but the Red Wings sit 1 point behind the 3rd-in-the-Atlantic Ottawa Senators, and only 6 points behind the Atlantic-leading Florida Panthers.

The Red Wings probably aren’t going to climb that high, but as mashed-up as the Eastern Conference’s Wild Card race is, it will behoove the Red Wings to close out the pre-Four Nations tournament schedule by earning their 8th straight win.

The Detroit Red Wings attempted to push their winning streak to 7 games at the expense of the Seattle Kraken on Tuesday night.

On Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, Detroit time, the Red Wings had to work for their 5-4 shootout win over the Seattle Kraken. The process wasn’t pretty–Detroit gave up 1-0, 2-1, 3-2 and 4-2 leads, Joey Daccord was tremendous for Seattle in stopping 36 shots, Cam Talbot was wonderful at times and shaky at others in giving up 4 on 27…

But Raymond, Seider, Berggren and Soderblom all scored in regulation, overtime solved nothing, and the Red Wings got the only goal they needed in the shootout–from Patrick Kane, who set an NHL record for the most shootout goals in history with 53.

It was a very late-night victory for the Red Wings, but it was necessary to sweep the road trip, and Detroit did just that. 4 wins in 4 games, 7 straight overall.

The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan filed an evening notebook article which discusses Alex DeBrincat’s goal-scoring aplomb, noting that DeBrincat’s overtime winner against the Vancouver Canucks on Sunday was historic in nature:

DeBrincat reached the 50-goal mark as a Wings’ player in his 135th game. DeBrincat is the fastest to reach 50 goals with the Wings since Brett Hull did it in 130 games from 2001-03.

The winning goal was one DeBrincat has scored often in his career. On a rush, able to unleash an accurate and effective one-timer, and finding the right places on the ice to get prime scoring opportunities.

“Their guy got lost in our zone when we picked it up,” DeBrincat said of the game-winning goal in Vancouver. “I saw it was going to be a long 3-on-2 (rush), and Raymond was the late guy. I gave it to him and he made a great play back to me.”

Since becoming Wings’ coach, Todd McLellan has spoken glowingly about DeBrincat’s ability and instincts for the game. DeBrincat’s ability to be so effective net-front, making life difficult for opposing goalies, despite DeBrincat’s smaller size, was one area McLellan has been impressed with.

“You almost appreciate him more when you’re around him more,” McLellan said. “You see him shift after shift and there is more to his game than his shot and goals, which we all know him for. But the work he does in and around the blue paint, screens, his thought process on the power play, how he gets open, his shooting and competitiveness … I’m glad he’s on our team.

“It’s a skill (playing net-front) and he (DeBrincat) has been taught, somebody taught him how to move through the eyes and not just stand there, and we’re reaping the benefit of it now.”

Continued (paywall)

Red Wings coach Dan Watson and defenseman Moritz Seider spoke with DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills about the expectations for the team heading into tonight’s game with the Seattle Kraken (10 PM EST start on FanDuel SportsNet Detroit/KONG/KHN/97.1 FM):

“We can be full right now if we want to be, but in late March or April when we’re not full, we’ll regret it if we don’t come and compete tonight,” Detroit head coach Todd McLellan said after Tuesday’s morning skate at Climate Pledge Arena. “That will be the message tonight. This group has never given us any indication that they’re not ready to go. Expect the same effort, the same grind and the same type of input into the game for most of the nights that we’ve been here.”

In the second half of its weekend back-to-back set, Detroit grinded its way to a 3-2 overtime victory against the Vancouver Canucks on Sunday. Alex DeBrincat scored twice, including the game-winning goal in the extra frame, and goalie Alex Lyon made 25 saves to help the Red Wings improve to 12-10-3 on the road this season.

Moritz Seider, who is set to play in his 300th career NHL game on Tuesday, said he believes a huge part of the club’s current win streak has been its defensive structure.

“We try to play really hard in front of our own net,” Seider said. “Obviously, [opponents] are going to get chances, but we try to eliminate second and third opportunities, sweep the crease, make it easier for goaltenders — to let them see the puck as often as we can — and capitalize on our chances. On [Sunday] we didn’t even play our best, but we found a way to capitalize on the limited chances we had and got away with a win.”

Speaking of Detroit’s defense, McLellan confirmed that Jeff Petry (undisclosed) recently underwent surgery and will be “out for about 6-8 weeks, depending on healing time.”

“It’s unfortunate for him as an individual and certainly for our team,” McLellan said about Petry, who has six points (one goal, five assists) in 34 games this season. “But we’re going to work hard with him to get him back.”

Continued

Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen spoke with Grand Rapids Griffins coach Dan Watson regarding Red Wings prospect goaltender Sebastian Cossa:

“Every day before practice, he’s prepared for practice,” Watson said. “And that’s a growth that I’ve seen from when I first saw him in Toledo all the way till now. And it’s translating into wins, form, and good performances on the ice.”

His focus and preparation has helped Cossa, 22, post a 14-8-3 record with a 2.20 GAA and .920 save percentage. His focus and competitiveness even extended to the AHL All-Star game where he helped the Watson-coached Central Division team beat the Atlantic Division 2-1 in the shootout to win the AHL All-Star Challenge. Cossa and Milwaukee Admirals goalie Mike Murray combined to give up only seven goals in four games for the Central Division.

…

Cossa faced obstacles this season, like the fact that the Red Wings have three goalies playing in Grand Rapids. Ville Husso and Jack Campbell both have considerable NHL experience.

“The three goalies probably right now was throwing him off a little bit,” Watson said. “But to spin that to a positive, he’s had more time in the gym to get stronger. He’s had more time off the ice, do other cognitive learning things that resources that we have here. And then in that it’s. For him, it’s all about his daily habits and what he does, his routine.”

Even with three goalies sharing time, Cossa will still get close to 40 games this season.

“His development,” Watson said,”I think is on the right track and the right path.”

Continued