Red Wings Look to Bounce Back Hosting Ducks

Sunday evening, the Detroit Red Wings will look to bounce back from their return-from-break overtime defeat to Minnesota as they host the Anaheim Ducks.  Here's what you need to know ahead of today's game. 

Detroit lost Andrew Copp late in the second period of Saturday's game against the Wild.  Copp was injured in the scrum that ensued following a heavy hit from Alex DeBrincat on Minnesota defenseman Brock Faber, and he did not return for the third period.  After the game, Red Wings coach Todd McLellan characterized Copp as "doubtful" for Sunday's game against Anaheim.  Assuming Copp cannot go, one of Tyler Motte or Christian Fischer will likely fold back into the lineup as his replacement.  Meanwhile, Alex Lyon will presumably spell Cam Talbot in net.

Like Detroit, the Ducks will be playing the second leg of a back-to-back Sunday evening at Little Caesars Arena.  Unlike the Red Wings, however, Anaheim won the first half of its two-game weekend odyssey, knocking off the Bruins in overtime in Boston.  After blowing a 2–0 lead after the first period, Leo Carlsson won the game for the visitors in OT.

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There was some sentiment following Saturday's Red Wings loss that the defeat (featuring, as it did, a late blown lead to cost Detroit a point) was the team's worst of the season.  That strikes me as a remarkably short-sighted observation, one that is only even remotely conceivable if one completely erases the pre-Christmas portion of the season.

To wit, the Red Wings' last outing against Anaheim is a much stronger candidate for being the team's worst performance of the season, blowing a two-goal lead on the way to a 6–4 loss to a Ducks team that has struggled mightily throughout the season.

That game came in mid-November, and, with McLellan now behind the bench, it hardly seems hyperbolic to suggest the Red Wings are an entirely different team from the one that blew that lead in Anaheim.  They will be looking to prove that difference Sunday evening as they look for their first win following the international break.

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