Red Wings Game Day Notebook 10.14.23 and Where to Watch

At two days' remove from a season opening defeat in New Jersey, the Detroit Red Wings return to action for their home opener this evening, a 7:00 o'clock tilt with the Tampa Bay Lightning.

"We were a better team, by far, at times, but then there was times [sic] when we were on our heels.  It's what's gonna happen," said head coach Derek Lalonde on Friday afternoon of his team's effort against the Devils.  "That's what our division is gonna look like...We probably did enough to be successful last night, but it was not good enough, and we need to find more."

Against New Jersey, the Red Wings raced to a blistering start before a frenetic second period allowed the Devils to wrest control of the game away.  Despite a valiant third period comeback bid, Detroit was unable to turn the result around and fell 4-3.

Per Lalonde, the difference between the first and second periods wasn't an issue of the pace escalating beyond Detroit's capabilities but instead a simple matter of puck management.

"They had one and a half scoring chances in the first period, because we had the puck the whole time because we managed it. In the second period, Ville bailed us out because we didn't manage the puck," said Lalonde.

"The second period, literally, there was like eight Grade As a piece, and it felt a little more comfortable for them, and they came out of it up 2-1," assessed the second-year head coach.  "We want to be good in transition like anyone else, but we don't want to trade chances."

Added centerman J.T. Compher, "Your defense starts in the offensive zone, and right when the puck turns over, if you can get above their outlets, make them come through you, it's just gonna make their life a lot harder.  I think it's going to be a really important detail for us this year."

With the Lightning next on the schedule, it's an issue that requires immediate attention.  As Lalonde warned,"If we feed Tampa's offense [with turnovers], it'll look like the second period last night."

To Lalonde, a challenging start confronting a pair of '23 playoff teams with aspirations for more in '24 is something the Red Wings need to embrace if they are to realize their own yearnings for the postseason.

"I think you're going to find nobody's coming down to us, so we have to get to them," he said Friday. "Last night was an opportunity missed.  Tomorrow's another opportunity against an elite team."

-Derek Lalonde confirmed after this morning's skate that Robby Fabbri will miss tonight's game and is now "day-to-day."  He added that the injury isn't expected to require extended time on the shelf and that Detroit "hope[s] to have him Monday."

-This evening, the Red Wings will respond to Fabbri's absence by rolling with 11 forwards and seven defensemen.  That means the 11 healthy forwards and six defensemen coming out of the Devils game will be back in action, and defenseman Olli Maatta will make his season debut.

Of having seven defensemen on the bench tonight, Lalonde said "I think it's very valuable.  You can chase some match-ups.  We've got some special teams needs in there.  Get those D coming back after special teams.  You get a feel if someone's not going, if someone's not having a top night.  I can go back to the other night [and] would have loved Olli for some defensive match-ups in that game on the road.  So, it'll be a work in progress."

-The Red Wings will call-up a spare forward from AHL Grand Rapids as insurance, but, because of the short-term nature of Fabbri's injury, don't expect this to be the break a player like Jonatan Berggren is waiting for.

"We're not going to bring up one of the younger guys that's still raw in their development to stand up in the press box tonight," said Lalonde after morning skate.  

With that in mind, a player like newly acquired Zach Aston-Reese, Taro Hirose, or Austin Czarnik would seem a much more likely call-up in this circumstance than Berggren, Elmer Soderblom, or Marco Kasper.

-In the season opener, Moritz Seider played 26:14.  This morning, Lalonde indicated that that might be a bit more than his standard workload but that the game unfolded in a manner that necessitated more of the German blue liner:

"You look around the league, all the top D, that's right about the wheelhouse," Lalonde said.  "That's not uncommon.  What we're trying to do where he is—we'd like a little bit less than that, but just how that game played out—all the special teams, plus we were chasing it, we tie it late, we're trying to score late.  So his numbers creep a little higher than what we had probably hoped and want to do going forward, but that's how it played out."

In that response, it sounds as though ideally Detroit may want to keep Seider's minutes bit below where they were in the opener, but the reality of playing in competitive games is that Seider—the Red Wings' top defensive option in just about any situation—will wind up pushing up toward that 26-minute mark with some frequency.  

To be sure, Detroit (for good reason) perceives Seider as that type of top-end defenseman, so it would stand to reason that his minutes wind up in the "wheelhouse" of that class of player around the league.

With Tampa coming to town, the Red Wings are in for another serious test.

"They've been a top team in the league for a really long time—as long as I've been in the league," said Compher.  "So you know you're gonna get a good opponent that's gonna play hard, play detailed, and those are fun games to play—to play the best teams in the league and see how you do."

Of course, to Lalonde, it is a particularly familiar foe.  The Detroit bench boss served as an assistant to Jon Cooper between 2018 and 2022, winning two Stanley Cups and reaching a third Cup Final.

"I've been in that room," he said Friday.  "I'm not surprised [by their strong showing in their season opener against Nashville].  It's still one of the best cores in the league.  The best player arguably in the league [Andrei Vasilevskiy] is out, but their first period the other day was amazing, and they looked phenomenal."

For Lalonde, it is often small plays that illustrate just how dangerous the Lightning can be: "Watching the third period, a rimmed puck come[s] to Kucherov, and he takes it off his skate, and he saucers it 40 feet over three sticks onto Stamkos' stick.  That is elite, world class."

"We definitely don't want a track meet," said Ben Chiarot this morning of the forthcoming match-up.  "We want to play a structured, defensive game.  I think that's how we're going to have success."

Mortiz Seider described Tampa this morning to The Hockey News as a "very confident team." "They know what it's like to win," he continued. "They know what it's like to get points even though you don't play your best game, and that's something that we always have to keep in the back of our heads. Be ready at any moment, get emotional, get emotionally engaged, and play with a lot of heart and an attitude, and then I think we'll be just fine."

"I thought we played really well in the first," said Alex DeBrincat of the season opener in New Jersey, which doubled as his regular season Red Wing debut. "In the second period, I think we got a little bit run and gun with them, and that's their game. It's not really our game. We got to limit their chances. 

"Also, I think [if] we bury a couple in the first period, it's a different game," he continued. "We had a ton of chances in that first period to score and get a lead; they just didn't go in. So battled a little bit of adversity there. We kept in the game the whole game, but ended up not being good enough. So we got to come out a little bit stronger and maintain it for 60 minutes."

At an individual level, DeBrincat got his campaign off to the right start with a third period equalizer on the power play.  A broken play after a Dylan Larkin drive to the net front, the winger demonstrated the exact quality that made the Red Wings covet him: decisiveness.  

As the play developed, he crept from a wide and low one-time position below the dot into the high slot.  When the puck came to him, DeBrincat wasted neither time nor movement in wiring the puck past a helpless Vitek Vanacek.

To Lalonde, it was a neat illustration of the reason the Red Wings acquired the winger.  "Last year we had some really good team games going, and we couldn't find that goal," the coach explained. "Unfortunately, we let the last four minutes go, but that's exactly what we're looking for. We had a great team game going, we're playing extremely well on the road against a top team, and we need that goal late, and he gives it to us. Unfortunately, we didn't finish it off."

At an individual level, there was a mild sense of relief for DeBrincat at getting his first pelt on the wall straight away.  After things never quite clicked a year ago Ottawa, a goal on opening night helps put any questions around fit to bed quickly.

"It's nice to get it out of the way," DeBrincat told The Hockey News.  "Sometimes it sits on you for a few games, and maybe you grip your stick a little bit too tight, but definitely nice to get it out of the way and try to win some hockey games."

This evening, in his home debut, the Farmington Hills-born forward has managed to keep ticket requests in check, estimating he'll only be on the hook for six or seven of them.  "I just buy em for my family and let friends get them on their own," DeBrincat says with a smile.  

This evening's game will mark the first Bally Sports Detroit broadcast of the season, with the familiar voices of Ken Daniels and Mickey Redmond in the booth.  Within the market, the game will be available on Bally Sports Detroit and the Bally Sports+ app for cord-cutters.  Out of market, the game will be available through ESPN+.