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Edvinsson a pleasant surprise

The Athletic asked its NHL writers which players have surprised in a positive way at the halfway point of the NHL season, and Max Bultman made an obvious choice regarding the Detroit Red Wings’ roster:

Detroit Red Wings

Simon Edvinsson: This is always what the Red Wings had hoped and envisioned for Edvinsson — but the surprise is how quickly he’s been able to reach this level. He spent most of the first half playing on Detroit’s top defense pairing, and even now that new coach Todd McLellan has split up Edvinsson and Moritz Seider, the 21-year-old blueliner is having a great season. Despite having just 25 games of NHL experience coming into the season, he’s been a very good defender right away, and he’s added 15 points in 36 games through Wednesday despite not getting any power-play time. Edvinsson looks like a top-pairing caliber defender for a long time to come. — Max Bultman

Continued (paywall)

HSJ in the morning: McLellan building a rapport with the Red Wings’ players

As Red Wings coach Todd McLellan attempts to establish a rapport with the Wings’ players, the coach has asked several players to come to his office to meet, as Jonatan Berggren and Marco Kasper told the Free Press’s Helene St. James:

“It’s always a little scary when the coach brings you in,” Berggren said. “So I was a little bit nervous, but it was a good meeting. He just wanted me to let loose a little bit and play my game. Don’t think about mistakes. He knows I’m an offensive player and he wants me to make plays, and don’t be afraid to make them. It was nice things to hear when you’re an offensive guy.”

Berggren had four goals, three assists and a minus-6 rating in 32 games under former coach Derek Lalonde. Berggren recently scored breakaway goals, including a game winner, in back-to-back games and also has an assist and a plus-1 rating under McLellan, who has increased Berggren’s ice time by about two minutes.

“He’s done a lot of really good things to increase our confidence level in him,” McLellan said. “You’re never in the same place twice, so you’re giving it back or you’re gaining it, and he’s done a good job at this point of gaining it in our eyes. That’s always a good thing for him and others if they approach it that way.”

It’s certainly Kasper’s approach, too. When McLellan wanted to send a message to players that their second-period performance against the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday wasn’t good enough, he put Kasper on the line with Dylan Larkin and Lucas Raymond, and moved Joe Veleno to center the fourth line. (McLellan made sure Veleno understood it was not a demotion.)

“It’s a first for me to have a coaching change midseason,” Kasper said. “You just try to go on with what you’re doing. You try to play really well, practice really well. Work hard and show him what you can do on the ice. Right now, vibes are really good in the locker room.”

Continued; St. James also posted a video of Berggren, Kasper and coach McLellan’s remarks:

Hard times

My apologies for not covering last night’s game. My anxiety continues to persist, and I’m dealing with depression as well this week.

I tried to grind through things from last Friday on through the weekend and early this week, but things came to a head on Tuesday, and I was unable to do my blogging duties.

I’ll be back as soon as possible. I’m in a lot of pain and discomfort right now, and my medications aren’t helping at all.

On Kane’s resurgence and McLellan on the Wings-Sens match-up

DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills posted a game-day notebook which focuses on Patrick Kane’s resurgence…

Kane is currently enjoying a four-game point streak after he recorded two assists against the Jets, which marked his second consecutive multi-point game and seventh multi-point performance of the season.

In his last 10 games, Kane has notched 11 points (five goals, six assists).

“I think I could kind of feel it coming, even when I was struggling a little bit,” Kane said about his recent production. “I could kind of feel chances starting to come and create a little bit more. I felt a little bit unlucky at the start of the year, but at the same time you’re still not playing as well as you should have.”

As well as coach McLellan’s take on the challenges which the Senators present:

Fifth in the Atlantic Division, the Senators have gone 4-4-0 on their current nine-game road trip and are coming off a 4-0 shutout loss to the St. Louis Blues last Friday. Leading Ottawa in scoring with 40 points (12 goals, 28 points) is Tim Stutzle, who is just three points ahead of captain Brady Tkachuk (37 points) and four in front of Drake Batherson (36 points).

Netminder Linus Ullmark is week-to-week with an upper-body injury and hasn’t played since Dec. 22 for the Senators, who have since divided the starting duties between goalies Leevi Merilainen, Anton Forsberg and Mads Sogaard.

Detroit and Ottawa most recently met on Dec. 5, when the Red Wings fell short on the road, 2-1.

“They’re obviously a great team,” McLellan said about the Senators. “They’ve turned the corner, in my opinion. [Head coach Travis Green] has done a really good job. The test will be to play against them, but more importantly, it’ll be how do we respond to some, not adversity, some feel good time now? Are we prepared to build on it? Are we prepared to just sit on it? Are we going to give it back? One of those three things is going to happen, and I’d like to think the built part will show up. But until we take the test, we don’t know.”

Video: Moritz Seider, Alex DeBrincat and coach McLellan speak prior to the Wings-Senators game

The Red Wings held their morning skate ahead of tonight’s game vs. Ottawa (7 PM EST start on FanDuel SportsNet Detroit/TSN5/97.1 FM), and afterward, coach Todd McLellan confirmed that Alex Lyon will start tonight, and that Jeff Petry remains out after suffering an upper-body injury during Saturday night’s win vs. Winnipeg.

The Senators also skipped their morning skate in lieu of team meetings at their hotel, per TSN 1200.

After the morning skate, Moritz Seider, Alex DeBrincat and coach Todd McLellan spoke with the media at Little Caesars Arena:

A bit about Axel Sandin Pellikka’s playing future

Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff wonders aloud whether the Red Wings should bring Axel Sandin Pellikka over to North America as soon as Skelleftea AIK’s season is over, all while referring to an article in Expressen in which Red Wings VP of hockey operations Nicklas Lidstrom spoke about Sandin Pellikka’s potential:

Now, of course we are all aware that rushing a kid into action isn’t the style the Red Wings prefer to implement with their prospects.

“It is very elaborate and very careful,” was how Red Wings legend and the club’s vice-president of hockey oeprations Nicklas Lidstrom was describing the method the club prefers with young players to Swedish website Expressen.

Here’s the thing, though. We’re not suggesting that Detroit should put Sandin Pellikka into a top-four role like Edvinsson. Heck, he doesn’t even need to play in the top three pairings to contribute effectively.

The Red Wings could opt to go with an 11-7 lineup, because really, is anyone going to miss the presence of Christian Fischer or Tyler Motte? Give the kid some spot shifts, but mostly, let Sandin Pellikka make the power play cook.

After all, it’s what he does best. Just ask Lidstrom.

“We see his skill with the puck in the power play,” Lidstrom said. “It’s the kind of role we’d see him in Detroit as well.”

The potpourri of skills and hockey IQ that ASP brings to the ice can even wow the greatest Swedish defenseman of them all.

Post-morning skate Tweets: Lyon starts, ‘no timeline’ for Petry; Sens skip morning skate in lieu of team meeting

Ahead of tonight’s match-up between the Detroit Red Wings and Ottawa Senators (7 PM start on FanDuel SportsNet Detroit/TSN5/RDS/97.1 FM), the Red Wings held their morning skate. MLive’s Ansar Khan reported that Alex Lyon will start tonight, and that Jeff Petry remains out on the Wings’ defense.

After the morning skate, the Wings’ media corps spoke with Detroit’s players and coach:

There’s also this:

Also: Here’s the Senators website’s Wings-Sens preview…

Continue reading Post-morning skate Tweets: Lyon starts, ‘no timeline’ for Petry; Sens skip morning skate in lieu of team meeting

A pair of promotional Tweets

FYI:

Monday/Tuesday news round-up: Red Wings ‘In Work Phase’

Catching up after I became a bit ill on Monday afternoon:

  1. MLive’s Ansar Khan posted an article discussing the Red Wings’ situation as having improved under coach Todd McLellan:

“For sure, things change quickly,” goaltender Alex Lyon said. “It’s like you’re so far down one week and then the next week it feels like you’re on top of the world. But we got to be careful of getting too high. We learned that lesson last year. It’s not about the standings; it’s not about the playoffs. It’s about playing the right way and focusing on the process and having good practices. But certainly, it’s a bit more fun to be playing when you’re feeling like this.”

The Red Wings play their next four at home before their schedule gets much more difficult. According to tankathon.com, the Red Wings currently have the second-toughest remaining schedule (their opponents have a .571 points percentage). And they play 23 of their final 39 on the road.

That’s all outside noise to players. They’re focused on the day-to-day task of winning and playing games that matter in the standings is important.

“I’ve played on teams where you’re kind of out of the playoffs with 20 games left or it doesn’t look very bright and it’s not fun to play those games,” Patrick Kane said. “We kind of worked ourselves back into a position where we’re playing these meaningful games. But that just shows how tight it is. I mean, things can change overnight. That’s why every game’s so important from here.”

2. The Free Press’s Helene St. James also discussed the Wings’ belief that their “honeymoon phase” under coach Todd McLellan is over…

Continue reading Monday/Tuesday news round-up: Red Wings ‘In Work Phase’

Red Wings alumnus Dwight Foster passes away

Per the Red Wings:

Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff has more:

He wound up playing four seasons with the Red Wings. Foster would scored 14 goals in 1982-83 and 13 goals in 1984-85. Known as a determined checker, he was receiving votes for the Selke Trophy in both 1983-84 and 1984-85.

The Red Wings were reporting news of Foster’s death via the club’s social media sites. He would settle in the Detroit suburbs following his playing days and was a regular participant with the Red Wings Alumni. Foster’s son Alex also played in the NHL. Alex Foster suited up for three games with the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2007-08. Today he is a partner in a mortgage company based in Oakland County, Mich.