Red Wings-Penguins morning skate Tweets: Alex Lyon to start, lineup appears set

The Detroit Red Wings host the Pittsburgh Penguins this evening (8 PM EST start on FanDuel SportsNet Detroit/Sportsnet Pittsburgh/97.1 FM), and MLive’s Ansar Khan reports that Alex Lyon is going to start this evening…

And the Red Wings will stick with coach Todd McLellan’s initial lineup…

The Penguins will be skating later this morning as well:

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Mid-day HSJ: On McLellan’s philosophy and Yzerman’s observations

The Free Press’s Helene St. James weighs in regarding Red Wings coach Todd McLellan and GM Steve Yzerman’s press conferences:

“What we’ve asked the players to do is play harder, to play faster and a little bit smarter,” he said. “Those are three simple things that I think we can control without any type of tactics or systematic structure play.

“And then the last thing is, the spirit of the team has to improve. When something like this happens, the spirit of the team is at a low. We’re going to work hard to build that back up.”

General manager Steve Yzerman made the coaching change during the three-day Christmas break, relieving coach Derek Lalonde and assistant coach Bob Boughner of their duties. Trent Yawney will be McLellan’s new right-hand man alongside Alex Tanguay, who retained his job.

Yzerman pointed to the Wings’ 13-17-4 record and especially how listless the team looked in Monday’s 4-0 loss to the St. Louis Blues.

“I can’t give you the exact date or time, but as our season started and has progressed to today, you start to think about, how do you improve your team, how do we get going in the direction we want to or playing the way we want to,” Yzerman said. “You look at all different types of things. The first option is player personnel, to move things around and what not. And then as we’re getting closer to yesterday, start to think, we might have to make a change here. 

“My thought process is, our team isn’t performing to what my expectations are. Whether anybody agrees with that or not – I have my own expectations of the team and why they aren’t, is because our players aren’t playing to each of their individual expectations. I have my own own expectation of each individual player. So collectively, we are where we are and we’re playing the way we are, and a decision comes at some point.”

Tweet of note: It’s a work in progress

Red Wings coach Todd McLellan made it very clear that he and assistant coach Trent Yawney are in a unique situation, having been parachuted in to help the Red Wings team mid-season, and as such, McLellan told the media that he is going to take 5-7 games to get to know the players, that he’s going to preach playing with more energy and enthusiasm…

And that initial changes to personnel and systems will not be drastic, as CBS Detroit’s Rachel Hopmayer notes:

On the Leafs’ side

It appears that the Red Wings will start Cam Talbot against the Toronto Maple Leafs this evening (7 PM EST start on FanDuel Sportsnet Detroit/Sportsnet Ontario/TVA Sports/97.1 FM) and that Ben Chiarot and Simon Edvinsson will return from their upper-body injuries. The Hockey News’s David Alter offers updates from the Maple Leafs’ morning skate:

Continue reading On the Leafs’ side

Videos: Quick clips from Galli

WXYZ’s Brad Galli posted a quick clip of Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman’s press conference from earlier this morning…

And he posted a clip of Todd McLellan doing some on-ice teaching:

Also:

Tweets of note from the Seider/Larkin/Kane presser

Red Wings defenseman Moritz Seider, forward Patrick Kane and captain Dylan Larkin spoke with the media today after the morning skate. Here are some Tweets of note ahead of tonight’s match-up with Toronto (7 PM EST start on FanDuel Sportsnet Detroit/Sportsnet Ontario/TVA Sports/97.1 FM):

Continue reading Tweets of note from the Seider/Larkin/Kane presser

Tweets of note from Todd McLellan’s introductory presser

New Red Wings head coach Todd McLellan spoke with the media ahead of tonight’s match-up with the Toronto Maple Leafs (7 PM EST start on FanDuel Sportsnet Detroit/Sportsnet Ontario/TVA Sports/97.1 FM). McLellan addressed his hiring and the developments at Detroit’s morning skate.

Here are some Tweets of note from McLellan’s presser:

Continue reading Tweets of note from Todd McLellan’s introductory presser