MLive’s Ansar Khan discusses some of the storylines that the Red Wings find themselves amidst as they hit game #41 of the regular season tonight vs. Chicago, noting that the Red Wings can push themselves a game above .500 tonight:
“For our group, it’s important because we’ve established some energy, a belief system that seems to be growing each day,” McLellan said. “Not even talking about where we’re going next week, just tonight. It’ll be a challenging game. They’re playing some good hockey right now. Bedard is obviously heating up, and when your young leader is feeling good everybody else probably feels good around him. That’s all we’re looking at. We’re not talking about momentum going into Florida next week or anything like that. We deal with the moment.”
The Blackhawks are 6-9-0 since Anders Sorensen replaced Luke Richardson as coach on an interim basis on Dec. 5. At 14-25-2, they’re last overall with 30 points.
Having a player like Bedard makes them dangerous, however.
“His skill-set, obviously the shot, but his resiliency to fight through things,” McLellan said. “If you’re getting picked first overall – I saw it with Connor (McDavid) — odds are your organization isn’t really close to the Cup, but they’re expecting that young man, Connor and some other guys, (Toronto’s) Auston Matthews, to lead teams into the future. … Those players are special, They’re so unique.”
McLellan might opt to match his top line of Dylan Larkin, Lucas Raymond and Marco Kasper against Bedard’s line with former Red Wing Tyler Bertuzzi and Ilya Mikheyev.”
“I think for us, it’s just about playing our game with speed,” Raymond said. “I think that’s the way we kind of kill opponents with our speed and be clinical down low and then try to play as much offense as possible.”
Continued (paywall)