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Wings’ PK getting on track

Detroit Hockey Now’s Tim Robinson notes that the Red Wings’ PK came through in a big way vs. Montreal last night:

Detroit got a small measure of revenge in Thursday’s sin over  Montrreal and the penalty kill was a factor. The PK, ranked 31st in the NHL, held Montreal at bay and een got a shorthanded goal from Andrew Coop. The Wings killed off three Montreal man-advantages.in their 5-2 victory.

“Teams are probably coming in thinking they can take advantage of our penalty kill because our numbers have not been good,” Red Wings coach Todd McLellan said. “They had a chance to strike and swing the momentum back to their side, but our group did a real good job.”

The performance was a morale boost, too.

“It’s huge that the coach trusted us to get that kill,” defenseman Moritz Seider said. “It’s obviously a good feeling to know that, and we did the job. That gave us a big boost.”

Continued

A brief set of Red Wings injury updates

Per the Hockey News’s Sam Stockton, regarding Patrick Kane, Jeff Petry and Tyler Motte, who are all battling injuries:

Kane—whom [Red Wings coach Todd] McLellan said Thursday had picked up an upper body injury during the Red Wings’ Saturday game in Dallas, then aggravated that injury against the Flyers Tuesday night—already missed Thursday’s win over the Canadiens.

The injury comes at an unfortunate time for Kane, who was heating up to his best form of the season throughout the month of January. In the 10 games leading into that game against the Stars in Dallas when he initially suffered the setback, Kane had six goals and 10 assists for 16 points. Against Montreal, Vladimir Tarasenko filled in for Kane on Detroit’s second line position as well as his place on the top power play. While the Red Wings were hardly starved for Kane’s offense against the Habs, they would of course benefit from a hasty recovery that as of this moment does not appear particularly imminent.

Elsewhere on the injury front, Jeff Petry—who has been out since Jan. 2 but took part in Thursday’s pre-game skate—did not participate in Friday’s practice.  However, McLellan clarified that this doesn’t represent a setback for Petry; instead, he is simply adhering to the training staff’s designed recovery plan.  Finally, Tyler Motte—out since Jan. 14 with an upper body injury—took part in practice wearing a full ‘bubble’ face shield.  He also does not have a definitive timeline toward his return, though he is unlikely to play against Tampa.

Continued;

We’ve all got questions as to what happens with Jeff Petry’s return given Albert Johansson’s play, and the same is true with Tyler Motte given how well Elmer Soderblom has played during his recall. We’ll find out when we find out.

Video: Berggren, Johansson and coach McLellan speak to the media after Friday’s Red Wings practice

The Red Wings practiced on Friday at the BELFOR Training Center underneath Little Caesars Arena, and after practice, coach Todd McLellan confirmed that Patrick Kane (upper-body) will miss Saturday’s game against the Tampa Bay Lightning (who are playing the first of back-to-back games tonight in Chicago).

McLellan also told the assembled media that the team’s starting goaltender for tomorrow is undecided, with Cam Talbot a possibility against the Bolts.

Here’s the Red Wings’ post-practice player-and-coach comment video, which includes Jonatan Berggren, Albert Johansson and coach McLellan:

Friday’s post-practice Tweets: Kane still out for Saturday vs. Tampa

The Red Wings practiced today at Little Caesars Arena’s BELFOR Training Center, ahead of tomorrow’s game against the Tampa Bay Lightning (who play tonight in Chicago). The Wings did so without Patrick Kane (upper-body injury) and Jeff Petry, and they did so hoping to build upon last night’s 4-2 victory over the Montreal Canadiens.

After practice, Red Wings coach Todd McLellan spoke with the media:

Tweets from Friday’s practice: Kane, Petry absent, but Thursday’s lineup remains intact

The Detroit Red Wings hit the ice at Little Caesars Arena’s BELFOR Training Center just before 12 PM Friday, the day after Thursday’s 4-2 victory over the Montreal Canadiens. The Wings are preparing for a pivotal game against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday evening.

Detroit sits only 4 points behind the Lightning in the Eastern Conference standings, but Tampa Bay has 2 games in hand on the Red Wings, so it’s crucial that the Wings win both tomorrow and on Saturday, February 8th, when the teams wrap up their season series.

Continue reading Tweets from Friday’s practice: Kane, Petry absent, but Thursday’s lineup remains intact

Doing what I’ve gotta do to pay the bills

We’re still underwater bills-wise, so I’m continuing to do fundraising.

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Albert Johansson, the ‘biggest surprise’

The Hockey News’s Sam Stockton notes that Red Wings coach Todd McLellan singled out Albert Johansson as a superb surprise after last night’s 4-2 win over the Montreal Canadiens:

After the Red Wings’ 4–2 win over the Montreal Canadiens last night, coach Todd McLellan—who has now been in Detroit for just shy of a month—revealed the biggest surprise of his tenure.

“Probably the biggest surprise for me to date is Albert [Johansson],” the coach said in his post-game media availability.  “I knew nothing about Albert.  We get here, and he’s kinda parked on the shelf, and everybody’s playing, and we’re trying to figure players out.  I think his rise has been remarkable, really.  Unless I underestimated him too, and then that’s on me, but he’s played steady in all three zones.  There’s some fierceness in his game.  When he gets engaged with bodies and battles, he wins a lot of them.  He’s not the biggest guy.  We talk about him in the locker room all the time.  We’re so happy we have him.  Biggest surprise in my mind.”

In last night’s win, Johansson played 18:35 last night against the Canadiens, throwing a hit and blocking two shots. He broke the 18-minute plateau for the first time in his NHL career during last week’s Detroit win in Florida, and in the four games since, he’s broken it three times (including a career high 20:27 in Dallas over the weekend).

Continued; he’s a plucky little bugger for sure.

ESPN’s Power Rankings reveal a pair of crucial games against the Bolts

At this time of year, power rankings are mostly irrelevant to the Red Wings’ cause, and I feel that to be the case right now…But ESPN’s power rankings for this week point out that the Red Wings have a pair of pivotal games to play against the Tampa Bay Ligthing both tomorrow and on February 8th, with both taking place at Little Caesars Arena:

24. Detroit Red Wings

Previous ranking: 20
Points percentage: 51.04%

Jan. 25, Feb. 8 vs. Lightning. Given the ties between the franchises — including current Detroit GM/former Tampa Bay GM Steve Yzerman — games between the two are always must-see affairs. And with the Red Wings currently chasing the Lightning in the standings, these will matter even more.

Next eight days: vs. TB (Jan. 25), vs. LA (Jan. 27), @ EDM (Jan. 30

Continued; the Wings go West to play the Oilers, Flames, Canucks and Kraken on January 30th, February 1st, February 2nd and February 4th, and then the Wings get a break before that February 8th game vs. the Bolts, which closes out the Wings’ pre-Four Nations schedule.

Right now, the Wings are only 4 points behind the Bolts in the Eastern Conference standings, with Tampa having 2 games in hand over Detroit, so it’s crucial that the Wings win the next 2 meetings against the Lightning.

Morning news round-up: Wings-Habs recaps, and praise for Larkin and the penalty-kill

The Detroit Red Wings won 4-2 over the Montreal Canadiens last night at Little Caesars Arena.

The Red Wings now sit only 3 points behind Montreal, 5 points behind the Wild Card-holding Tampa Bay Lightning, and 6 points behind the Boston Bruins, who sit 3rd in the Atlantic.

This morning, four Red Wings pundits discuss last night’s result:

  1. The Free Press’s Helene St. James discusses the Wings’ ability to “not be too cute” over the course of a strong start to last night’s game:

“I think we can skate with anybody,” defenseman Moritz Seider said after the Wings’ 4-2 victory over the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday. “We have to have a shooting mentality. Don’t necessarily be too cute, and at the start, really focus on playing north-south hockey — get pucks to the net, really grind their D out. I think that’s stuff we can do over and over again.”

The Wings (22-21-5) will need to do it over and over again: Even when they had won seven in a row earlier this month, the closest they got to the playoff picture was two points out, with two teams ahead of them. Since that streak, they’ve gone 2-3-1, and now there are a handful of teams ahead of them.

That’s where Thursday’s game can help. The Wings had jump from the get-go, they scored first, and they scored five-on-five, with a man advantage — and with a man disadvantage. It wasn’t hard for McLellan to answer what he liked best.

“I liked our start,” McLellan said. “I thought everybody got into the game. We were aggressive, we looked fast. I challenged the group before the game, because part of the pre-scout was the two games that they had played against Montreal pre-Christmas. In that game, we looked slower and a little indecisive, and wanted them to give us a guideline of whether we’ve made progress.

“We were aggressive, we were quicker, we played faster. For the most part, that was how we looked 10 days, two weeks ago, so that’s a good sign for us.”

2. MLive’s Ansar Khan focused on Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin’s 700th game and 650th and 651st points:

Continue reading Morning news round-up: Wings-Habs recaps, and praise for Larkin and the penalty-kill