Updated at 7:03 PM: The Detroit Red Wings will face a 2-and-8 Canadiens team tomorrow night in Montreal (7 PM EDT on Bally Sports Detroit Plus/TSN2/RDS/97.1 FM), a team that will be skating without Cole Caufield (AHL stint), Cedric Paquette (suspension), hat-trick-scorer Mathieu Perreault (eye injury) and other players who took part in last week’s 6-1 shellacking of the Wings…
But the Red Wings spoke with the media on Monday very wary of tomorrow’s home team, which will be looking to stomp on Detroit to begin to climb out of one of their worst starts to a season in team history.
The Free Press’s Helene St. James summarized the state of the Wings thusly…
The Wings (4-3-2) had, on the whole, a good October. They played competitively, showed fortitude when they trailed, and rolled four lines and three defense pairings. [Coach Jeff] Blashill described the offense (3.22 goals-per-game average) as “not bad” and the power play (15.2%) as “hasn’t been great, but hasn’t been bad.” His biggest concern is that, “I think we’ve given up too many goals.”
Of the 31 goals surrendered, nine have come during the 34 times the Wings have been shorthanded.
“I actually think our PK has been pretty good,” Blashill said. “We’re improving in our structure on our PK forecheck. My gut (feeling) is generally if you can stay with it even when the goals go in on the PK, if the process is good and you can stay with it, it will even out. I believe that will happen with our PK. Certainly the number of times you give teams power plays, you’re playing with fire. It’s something we’ve talked about since the beginning of the season, is staying out of the box.”
The flip side is making the most of man advantages. Filip Zadina leads the team with two power-play goals after converting against the Maple Leafs, when he connected on a pass by rookie defenseman Moritz Seider for a second time this season.
“It was great to score the goal,” Zadina said. “It gave me more confidence going forward.”
Zadina always draws a little more scrutiny when he plays in Montreal, because when the Canadians didn’t pick him at No. 3 in the 2018 draft, he vowed to “fill the nets” of those who passed on him. He has one goal in five career meetings, and says at this point, he views it as another game. He is trying to take more shots on net, and has looked more dangerous on power plays because he has been set up numerous times by Seider’s slick puck work.
“He’s passing the puck well,” Zadina said. “He sees the options where he can make a pass. He sees the right timing for the pass and it’s easy for us to put the puck on net and create chances.”
And MLive’s Ansar Khan noted the following regarding the Wings’ desire to “tighten up” defensively:
Continue reading HSJ, Khan, Duff: Wings look to improve special teams, not get stomped on by Canadiens