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Christian Fischer ready to return to Wings’ lineup

Red Wings forward Christian Fischer hasn’t played in 8 games, but he’s returning to the lineup for tonight’s game between the Red Wings and Florida Panthers (7 PM EST start on ESPN/97.1 FM). The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan spoke with Fischer about his return to the lineup:

“It feels good to get back in there,” said Fischer, who had been a mainstay on the Wings’ fourth-line with his checking and high energy level. “I’m just going to play the same way I’ve always had. It’s never fun sitting out.”

With the Wings going on a seven-game win streak after that loss to Toronto, and Fischer out of the lineup, McLellan didn’t make any changes to a lineup that was winning. But it was difficult for a player like Fischer, who has rarely been a healthy scratch in his career.

“You’re still part of the team and there’s two or three guys on every team who aren’t playing every night,” Fischer said. “You don’t want to be in that position but you sit there for those games, and we go on a great win streak and there’s a bigger picture here as a team, than individually. You look at that and be a good teammate and that’s all you have to do.”

When McLellan came aboard he talked about a “clean slate” for every player, and Fischer understands that also, with an opportunity to show the new coaching staff what he, or any player, can offer the lineup.

“You get a new coach midseason and it’s kind of everyone is in the same boat,” Fischer said “Todd doesn’t really know too much about you and you can show what you have. My game hasn’t changed for a long time and I know what I can do and I’m just going to keep doing that.”

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Compher weighs in on the Stadium Series jerseys

The NHL unveiled the Red Wings and Columbus Blue Jackets’ Stadium Series jerseys today, and the Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan asked University of Michigan alumnus J.T. Compher about them:

“Sharp,” said forward J.T. Compher, who is also a former Michigan player. “I like the script on the jersey. It’s going to look real nice. (The helmet) has a little Michigan flair to it. I’m excited to see it all together.”

The game is still about six weeks away, but with the increased amount of advertising on it and the date simply rapidly approaching, players are beginning to get enthused.

“It’ll be super fun once we get there,” Compher said. “I know that weekend can be real fun for the families and the team and a good bonding experience. I’m sure the fans will be very excited. It still feels a ways away with everything we have in front of us right now, but I’m sure once we get there it’ll be exciting.”

Compher went to games at Michigan Stadium, but with hockey season intertwined with football, never had an opportunity to see a game at Ohio Stadium.

“I know what it’s like to be in the big stadiums going to Michigan, so it’ll be a very cool atmosphere,” Compher said.

Even in hockey, facing Ohio State was a huge rivalry game. The NHL is building slightly into the Michigan-Ohio State rivalry, obviously, in leading up to the Wings and Jackets game.

“My first year was the first year of the Big Ten and every weekend was a rivalry with Michigan State and Ohio State and even Minnesota,” Compher said. “It was always a fun weekend. Sometimes the games would be matched up with the football game, the same weekend, and that added a little extra incentive.”

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A bit more about Vladimir Tarasenko from the Panthers’ captain and coach

Florida Hockey Now’s George Richards asked several Panthers–and Red Wings coach Todd McLellan–to weigh in on Vladimir Tarasenko’s homecoming to the team with which he won last year’s Stanley Cup:

“He was important for us,” Florida captain Sasha Barkov said. “He has been in the Cup Finals, had won the Cup, and he brought that veteran leadership to us. It was fun to watch him in practices and games in how hard he shot the puck. He was an unbelievable teammate. He brought everything to us. It will be fun to see him tonight.’’

Added Paul Maurice: “He was a great mentor. Vladi loves the game, loves to talk hockey, is completely immersed in it. We moved him around, played him in a bunch of different places and then he found his home with Luostarinen and Lundell. He was constantly on the bench, talking about plays. It was great for those two guys to have a veteran guy with a very high hockey IQ engaging them in the game. And, he scored some pretty big goals.’’

Tarasenko, who did not speak to the media following Detroit’s morning skate at the IcePlex Thursday, has struggled a bit with his new team.

On Tuesday, he scored twice in Detroit’s 6-3 loss to the San Jose Sharks. It was the first time he scored in a span of 20 games.

New coach Todd McLellan hopes Tarasenko’s game Tuesday gets him going.

“He has had the puck on his tape a fair amount, and he has had looks at the net,” McLellan said. “A lot of what he was taking was either blocked or deflected, not quite getting there. Those two [goals] were lasers. They were released and he knew where they were going. I don’t know if he picked a spot, but he picked an area, and that’s what really good scorers do.”

Videos: Christian Fischer and coach McLellan speak for the Wings after morning skate; coach Maurice, Aleksander Barkov, Gustav Forsling join the fray

The Red Wings posted a clip of Christian Fischer and coach Todd McLellan speaking after the morning skate today…

And Florida Hockey Now’s George Richards posted clips of coach Paul Maurice, captain Aleksander Barkov and forward Gustav Forsling speaking ahead of tonight’s Wings-Panthers game (7 PM EST start on ESPN/97.1 FM):

Continue reading Videos: Christian Fischer and coach McLellan speak for the Wings after morning skate; coach Maurice, Aleksander Barkov, Gustav Forsling join the fray

Tweet of note: Red Wings prospect Anton Johansson signs 2-year extension in Sweden

Via Red Wings Prospects on Twitter, Wings draft pick Anton Johansson has signed a 2-year contract extension with Leksands IF of the SHL.

As I recall, the Red Wings have one more year with which to sign Johansson, so if they were to ink Johansson to a deal before June 1st of 2026, he’d probably stay with Leksands IF till the 26-27 season ends.

The Red Wings believe that the big, right-shooting defenseman is part of their future plans, and this contract doesn’t necessarily complicate things that much, but he would stay in Sweden until he’s pretty much ready to play in the NHL.

Panthers, Wings weigh in regarding Vladimir Tarasenko

The Miami Herald’s Jordan McPherson asked Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov, coach Paul Maurice and Red Wings coach Todd McLellan to weigh in regarding Vladimir Tarasenko, who won a Stanley Cup with Florida last season:

“Vladdy loves the game,” Maurice said. “He likes to talk hockey. He’s completely immersed in it. We moved him around a bunch of different places, and then he found his home with [Eetu] Luostarinen and [Anton] Lundell and just was constantly on the bench talking about plays. It was great for those two guys to have a veteran player who’s really, really high hockey IQ. Engaged them in the game, and then he sort of pretty big goals for us.”

Added Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov: “He was important for us. Obviously, he’s been in the Cup Final and won the Cup. He brought that to us, that veteran leadership. He worked really hard. It was fun to watch him in practice and the games, like how hard he chased the puck, how hard he works still. Just an unbelievable teammate. He brought everything to us.”

Now, Tarasenko is trying to bring everything he can to the Red Wings, who he signed a two-year, $9.5 million deal with this offseason and who had a season-long seven-game win streak snapped on Tuesday against the San Jose Sharks. In that San Jose game, though, Tarasenko scored two goals, his first multi-goal game of the season and his first goals since Dec. 1.

“He has had the puck on his tape a fair amount, and he has had looks at the net,” Detroit coach Todd McLellan said. “A lot of what he was taking was either blocked or deflected, not quite getting there. Those two shots [against San Jose] were lasers. They were quickly released. They were he knew where he was shooting. I don’t know even know if he picked the spot, but he shot to an area, and I think that’s what really good scorers do. If you have time, you pick your spot. If you don’t have time, you shoot to an area and and you get it off quick enough so that the goalie has to do the job. And Vlad, he did that the other night. I thought that was perhaps his best game since I’ve been here. We tried to get him on the ice a little bit more to reward him for that, so hopefully it carries over.”

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Red Wings and Panthers’ websites post game previews ahead of tonight’s ESPN game

The Detroit Red Wings and Florida Panthers face off this evening (7 PM start on ESPN/97.1 FM), and the Red Wings’ morning skate revealed that Sergei Bobrovsky and Cam Talbot will face off in the crease, with Christian Fischer returning to the Red Wings’ lineup.

After the morning skates, DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills posted a game preview…

Detroit (20-19-4; 44 points) and Florida (26-16-3; 55 points) will drop the puck at 7 p.m., with TV broadcast coverage of Thursday’s Atlantic Division clash airing exclusively on ESPN and radio coverage on 97.1 The Ticket in Detroit.

After facing the Panthers, the Red Wings will battle the Tampa Bay Lightning (23-16-3; 49 points) on Saturday and the Dallas Stars (28-14-1; 57 points) on Sunday before wrapping up their road swing against the Philadelphia Flyers (19-20-6; 44 points) next Tuesday (Jan. 21).

“This is a huge test, four good teams,” Andrew Copp said. “Teams that we haven’t really faced yet this year and [aside from Philadelphia entering Thursday] are above us in the standings. This is going to be a really good measuring-stick road trip.”

Detroit is looking to respond after a 6-3 loss to the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday, which ended its season-high seven-game winning streak. Two goals from Vladimir Tarasenko and one goal from Lucas Raymond saw the Red Wings pull within 4-3 just before the midway mark of the third period, but Detroit ultimately couldn’t find the equalizer.

“I think that’s the biggest thing, to learn from what happened [against San Jose],” Copp said. “I didn’t think we were horrible. We didn’t manage the game as properly as we wanted to, and then we made some big mistakes that ended up with the puck in the back of our net. We have a lot better, and I think we’ve shown that we have a lot better.”

Calling their most recent loss “a bump in the road,” Red Wings head coach Todd McLellan also discussed the significance of using Tuesday’s game as a learning experience.

“If we take the opportunity to learn from that bump and try and fix a few things — we won’t get them all fixed — but fix a few things, we can take advantage of a loss,” McLellan said. “If we don’t learn from it and we don’t fix it, it can compound. Then, we’ve really got to work at it. It’ll go one way or the other, but it doesn’t mean our tasks get any easier.”

As did FloridaPanthers.com’s Jameson Olive:

Continue reading Red Wings and Panthers’ websites post game previews ahead of tonight’s ESPN game

Red Wings-Panthers morning skate Tweets, game previews and game notes: Bobrovsky vs. Talbot; Fischer joins the Wings’ lineup

The 20-19-and-4 Detroit Red Wings face off against the 26-16-and-3 Florida Panthers this evening in an ESPN game (7 PM EST start), and the Panthers have already completed their morning skate at Amerant Bank Arena:

The Panthers have actually lost 2 of their past 3 games and 4 of their past 8, but they’re coming off a 2-1 shootout victory over New Jersey on Monday.

Here are tonight’s game notes:

Continue reading Red Wings-Panthers morning skate Tweets, game previews and game notes: Bobrovsky vs. Talbot; Fischer joins the Wings’ lineup

A wee bit of news about Patrick Kane’s hip

As The Athletic’s Chris Johnston discusses free agent defenseman John Klingberg’s attempts to return from double hip resurfacing surgery, there’s a nugget of good Red Wings-related news from one Patrick Kane at the end of Klingberg’s article:

Kane had the resurfacing done on his right hip — not both sides like Klingberg — but sounded an optimistic tone when asked how his body responded to contact and the return to the day-to-day rigors of NHL life.

“Since I’ve been back, I’ve felt no pain, nothing, with the hip joint,” Kane said. “That’s obviously been a huge positive.”

Luszczyszyn discusses the Wings’ resurgence

The Athletic’s Dom Luszczyszyn discusses the Red Wings’ resurgence ahead of “16 stats” this morning:

It’s only been nine games, but it does feel like this is a brand new Red Wings team — the team that fans have been promised since the rebuild began.

Aside from a penalty kill that is still terrible, the Red Wings have made massive strides since McLellan arrived. At five-on-five the team is finally average, cleaning things up considerably on the defensive front. They’re right around break-even by goals and xG, a huge step up from where they were previously: hovering around 45 percent. The power play has seen the biggest change scoring 18.7 goals per 60 and generating 11.8 xG per 60.

The power play has been the driving force of the team’s offensive surge, giving the team’s stars some much-needed momentum toward being the players they’re paid to be. Dylan Larkin, Lucas Raymond, Alex DeBrincat and Patrick Kane — all four are scoring above a point-per-game pace under McLellan. They’ve found their rhythm and it’s translating to better work controlling play at five-on-five. All four are earning at least 53 percent of expected goals, a mark no Red Wing touched under Derek Lalonde. Raymond, at 51 percent, was the only forward above break-even.

Control the play, control the game. That’s been McLellan’s ethos at every stop he’s been to and the Red Wings are buying in from the get-go. Good defense leads to good offense and it’s easier to practice that when players are seeing that work lead to big point totals. The Red Wings have been a team with a lot of talent buried by a system ill-served to get the most out of it. McLellan’s experience as a coach that gets things going in the right direction is exactly what this growing team needed.

The Red Wings aren’t quite out of the woods yet though. Standing in front of them is an epic mountain to climb.

That’s where they can truly prove they’re ready to take the next step, showing their stuff against the league’s toughest schedule in the season’s second half. In 23 of Detroit’s remaining 39 games, the Red Wings will be up against teams projected to finish the season with over 100 points. The average Net Rating of their opponents is plus-12, five higher than the next toughest schedule. They’ll also play 23 games on the road.

All that is why our playoff model is still tough on Detroit’s playoff chances, especially after the team struggled to start the season despite playing the league’s easiest schedule. 

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