Morning news: recaps, the blame game and an unpleasant statistic

Of Red Wings-related note this morning:

  1. MLive’s Ansar Khan filed a morning recap of last night’s 5-1 loss to the New York Rangers:

“Our start felt really good,” [coach Derek] Lalonde said. “I was very confident the momentum of that start is going to lead to a good night. And then even despite being down 2-0, our second period start again, we had pop, we had energy. We get the early goal (from Moritz Seider at 1:27), we have some looks, and then bang, bang on the power play and you’re down 4-1. It turns into a bit of a frustrating night.”

It’s early, but the Red Wings haven’t looked like the improved defensive team they need to be to progress this season.

“It’s not something you just flip a switch and it happens,” Ben Chiarot said. “It’s not just guys knowing the structure. We have a lot of offensive-minded players, guys that want to go on offense, to get those kind of guys to buy into playing defense, it takes time. Talk about buying into what the coaches are preaching and we’re in that process right now. It doesn’t just happen one night, two nights. It takes time. And you got to have lessons like tonight to make you change in a hurry.”

2. The Free Press’s Helene St. James also filed a morning recap:

As tough as the early schedule looked, the Detroit Red Wings have made it even tougher on themselves.

They head to Nashville, Tennessee, on Saturday to play the Predators smarting from two straight losses, the latter of which exposed their special teams and their team defense. The Wings are 1-3-0, their sole victory coming against the Predators a week ago at home. Like the New York Rangers, who beat the Wings twice in a four-day span, the Predators were a preseason Stanley Cup favorite, though they’ve started the season winless in four. But the Wings can’t be worried about the Predators’ problems — they have too many of their own.

“We’re playing stiff competition, which is good for us early in the season,” defenseman Ben Chiarot said after Thursday’s 5-2 stinker. “It’s a good measuring stick. It shows us where we have to get to, and we have a lot of work to do. Thankfully it’s early in the season and we can kind of learn our lesson early as opposed to fooling ourselves early on, winning a couple easy ones, and then facing teams like this down the stretch when we really need those points.”

3. The Athletic’s Max Bultman is already laying blame at the feet of GM Steve Yzerman’s roster-building, or the lack thereof:

But when general manager Steve Yzerman went into the offseason, he did little to address it, at least with respect to the roster. When offense-minded defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere left in free agency, Detroit replaced him with a similar player in Erik Gustafsson, who has already been scratched twice in this young season. It brought in a new defense-minded forward in Tyler Motte, but he’s not used high enough in the lineup to make a major difference. The Red Wings did bring in a heavier top-nine scoring forward in Vladimir Tarasenko — at the expense of an even heavier top-nine forward in David Perron, who was also one of the team’s core leaders the past two seasons.

On paper, after the dust had settled on the Red Wings’ offseason, it didn’t look like much had changed.

And on the ice, so far, it’s looked the same way.

Again, it’s early in an 82-game season. And Thursday night, as coach Derek Lalonde made a point to emphasize, the biggest culprit of the latest lopsided loss was special teams. The Rangers scored on their first three power-play attempts and raced out to a 4-1 lead by the middle of the second period. The score was 5-1 soon after.

4. Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff reports the following…

Their 1-3 record is the worst start to a Red Wings season since the 2018-19 campaign. That year saw Detroit stumble from the gates 0-5-2. The team ended up 32-40-10, missing the playoffs.

It’s just the second time in 30 years that the club has found itself with a losing record four games into a season. In 1993-94, the Wings opened 1-5.

Red Wings-Rangers wrap-up: Wings’ emphasis is on defense after Panarin, Rangers sweep home-and-home series

What a mess. The Detroit Red Wings are 0-and-3 heading into a Saturday matinee against the winless Nashville Predators–in Nashville–after sustaining another body blow in the form of a 5-1 loss to the New York Rangers on Thursday night.

The Rangers ended up sweeping the home-and-home series, having won 4-1 on Monday night (so that’s an aggregate score of 9-2 Rangers), and after the Red Wings head to Nashville, they face a gauntlet of three Wild Card rivals in the Islanders, Devils and Atlantic Division-rival Sabres next week, all before wrapping up October against the Oilers and Jets.

If the Red Wings aren’t making changes to their roster in short order, perhaps we’ll see more movement by Halloween, because the Wings’ efforts over the past two nights have been largely inexcusable.

In any case, the Red Wings’ opponent simply let the good times roll on Thursday night, and Artemi Panarin, who scored a hat trick and added an assist, has posted a total of 11 points over the course of only 4 games. He told the New York Post’s Mollie Walker that he’s having a delightful time thus far:

Continue reading Red Wings-Rangers wrap-up: Wings’ emphasis is on defense after Panarin, Rangers sweep home-and-home series

Red Wings-Rangers quick take: Panarin’s hat trick powers Rangers to second consecutive win over Red Wings

The Detroit Red Wings battled the New York Rangers for the second time in four days on Thursday night, and the Red Wings probably want the Rangers to go away and not come back after this one.

Detroit surrendered an Artemi Panarin hat trick en route to a 5-2 loss that made Monday’s 4-1 loss to the same Rangers feel like a slap on the wrist by comparison.

The Rangers’ power play went 3-for-4, Cam Talbot surrendered 5 goals on 19 shots–and he was one of the Wings’ better performers…

And Detroit is now 1-and-3, having played one good game and three flat ones (at best) over the course of the first week of the schedule, and the winless Nashville Predators are on the docket for Monday (2 PM EDT start on Bally Sports Detroit).

Continue reading Red Wings-Rangers quick take: Panarin’s hat trick powers Rangers to second consecutive win over Red Wings

Tweet of note: Daniella Bruce and Ken Kal preview the Wings-Rangers game on ‘The Forecheck’

Per Daniella Bruce on Twitter:

Tweets + Video: Quick starts opposite Talbot; Seider and coach Lalonde speak with the media

The Detroit Red Wings will start Cam Talbot and welcome Christian Fischer back into their lineup as the Red Wings face the New York Rangers in the back half of a home-and-home series this evening (7:30 PM EDT on ESPN+/Hulu/97.1 FM).

Detroit is looking to avenge a 4-1 loss to the Rangers on Monday evening, and it appears that the Rangers will dress the same lineup that won Monday night’s game.

There was one change for the Rangers tonight: Jonathan Quick will battle Talbot this evening:

Then there’s this:

After a long wait, the Red Wings posted a morning skate video clip of Moritz Seider and coach Derek Lalonde speaking with the media:

Red Wings-Rangers morning skate Tweets II: no changes tonight for NYR

The Detroit Red Wings have held their morning skate at Little Caesars Arena ahead of tonight’s rematch with the New York Rangers (7:30 PM EDT start on ESPN+/Hulu/97.1 FM), and there’s good news from the Wings’ side in that Andrew Copp and Dylan Larkin, who missed the Wings’ skate, are good to go tonight.

The New York Rangers hit the ice at 11:30 AM for their morning skate:

I’m not a fan of this shorthand:

Continue reading Red Wings-Rangers morning skate Tweets II: no changes tonight for NYR

Post-Red Wings-Rangers morning skate Tweets: Larkin, Copp OK to go; Fischer, Gustafsson return to lineup

The Detroit Red Wings will attempt to assuage Monday’s 4-1 loss to the New York Rangers as the Wings and Rangers complete the back half of a home-and-home series this evening (7:30 PM EDT on ESPN+/Hulu/97.1 FM).

The morning skate was a little worrisome as Dylan Larkin and Andrew Copp were unable to participate in the skate, which confirmed that Cam Talbot will start opposite Igor Shesterkin tonight.

After the morning skate, we received good news regarding Larkin and Copp: