Tweet of note: The Forecheck previews the Red Wings-Blackhawks game

Daniella Bruce and Ken Kal discuss tonight’s Red Wings-Blackhawks game on The Forecheck:

Tweet of note: Mazur recovering in GR

Red Wings prospect and Grand Rapids Griffins forward Carter Mazur has been recovering from an undisclosed injury which followed a bad high ankle sprain during training camp, and the Griffins posted a Tweet of Mazur actually practicing as he recovers:

Three Blackhawks things: Kane on Chicago sports, Nazar among friends and an interview with the Hawks’ coach

Red Wings forward Patrick Kane spoke with the Blackhawks media corps today, and he admitted that he’s still following Chicago sports teams…

Detroit native Frank Nazar will also be at the arena this evening to play against the Red Wings, and he won’t be alone:

And this video of coach Anders Sorensen speaking with Blackhawks broadcaster Darren Pang sets up a 4-minute video which cannot be embedded, but is a good “listen/watch”:

Wings no longer out-shot

The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan took note of the fact that the Red Wings are no longer being out-shot by a significant margin:

The Wings were outshot in 24 of 34 games under former coach Derek Lalonde, generally an ineffective way to win games. With McLellan at the helm for six games (heading into Friday’s contest against Chicago), the Wings have outshot their opponents three times and matched the opponents’ total the other three games.

The Wings haven’t been outshot and have posted a 5-1-0 record in the process.

McLellan spoke after Tuesday’s victory over Ottawa (both teams had 33 shots) about the importance he feels getting shots on net are.

“I’ve always been a real big believer that volume of shooting is important,” McLellan said. “I know the analytics departments and analysts will say, ‘Well, it’s the quality of shot.’ I (believe) it’s the quality of the shot off the rebound that’s really important. You break defenses down by taking a shot and then grabbing it and reattacking. The action is one thing. The carrot is what we’re hoping for. The other night, when Simon (Edvinsson) took the shot, the carrot was Joey (Veleno) working in and getting rewarded.”

McLellan was referring to Veleno’s third-period, game-tying goal in which Edvinsson shot from the point. Senators goaltender Anton Forsberg couldn’t control the rebound and let the puck bounce into the slot, where Veleno batted home the rebound. It was the classic demonstration of the importance of simply putting a shot on net, and you never know what’ll happen.

“You can cycle to death all you want and often you don’t get anything off of it,” McLellan said. “I just believe (in shooting the puck). I’ve been selling that to the players and our (defensemen) are doing a good job of creating opportunity with the shot, and the forwards are capitalizing on secondary chances or getting teams out of position.”

Continued

In groups of five

The Hockey News’s Sam Stockton spoke with Red Wings coach Todd McLellan and defenseman Moritz Seider regarding the “connectivity” with which the team is playing as 5-man units which skate up and down the ice as one:

Defenseman Moritz Seider pointed out that the difference between a connected and scattered team is apparent when the Red Wings break out of their own zone, telling The Hockey News yesterday, “I think you can definitely see that on the ice.  When things are clicking pretty easily, everybody’s in their spots, and you beat the forecheck pretty well.  When it’s not going that well, the defensive team is not breaking out as clean, the forechecking team gets a stop somehow—maybe intercepts a pass and then stuff breaks down from there…We can eliminate those things by just being clean, on our tape, making it real hard for the forechecking team to just intercept anything or even get a piece of a body anywhere.”

Seider also noted that connectivity is valuable for more than just clean exits, as it sets up Detroit for success as they enter the attacking third of the rink, observing, “I think [a clean, connected breakout] just sets up our forecheck even better.  Obviously, if we can break out the puck clean and have a five-man unit coming up the ice, even though we may not enter with full possession every time, the odd time we have to chip it in, we’ll be able to recover it even faster with five guys on the offensive side of the red line.”

Continued

Red Wings are living in the present tense

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)

Tweet of note: ‘Todd’s brought in a new message, a new voice’

Red Wings forward Christian Fischer had this to say to FanDuel Sports Network Detroit:

Lather, rinse, repeat

I’m fully willing to admit that Vladimir Tarasenko’s first-half-of-the-season performance has been tremendously disappointing, but the job that The Athletic’s Sean Gentille and Dom Luszczyszyn do on him while engaging in a set of power rankings…Ain’t pleasant:

23. Detroit Red Wings, 18-18-4

Dec. 20 rank: 23
Sean’s ranking: 22
Dom’s ranking: 23

You would be forgiven if you forgot Vladimir Tarasenko was a member of the Detroit Red Wings — we certainly did with how quiet he’s been this season. Was there evidence he was probably washed last season? Definitely. And this year just feels like further proof of that. Maybe Todd McLellan can get more out of Tarasenko in the second half. But even if your expectations for him were already low, it’s hard not to be disappointed with just four goals and 14 points in 39 games.

Continued (paywall); I don’t believe in bagging on players to bag on them. Tarasenko’s got to step up and step up in short order, because the Wings need all the secondary scoring that they can get. But I’m not gonna go around saying somebody’s washed up because they’re struggling.

Video: Justin Holl and Todd McLellan speak after the Red Wings-Blackhawks morning skate

New father Justin Holl and Red Wings coach Todd McLellan spoke with the media after the morning skate ahead of tonight’s game between the Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Blackhawks (7 PM EST start on FanDuel SportsNet Detroit/CHSN/NHL Network/Sportsnet East/Sportsnet Ontario/Sportsnet Pacific/97.1 FM):

At this point, Petr Mrazek’s slated to battle Cam Talbot in goal…