Ahead of tonight's matchup against a direct wild card rival in the Canadiens, Detroit must brace for the absence of Patrick Kane
DETROIT—Tonight, the Detroit Red Wings will look to snap a three-game losing streak as they entertain the Montreal Canadiens—winners of 13 of their last 17 games, arguably the hottest team in the NHL—on home ice at Little Caesars Arena.
The Red Wings just concluded a four-game road trip with three successive losses, scoring just once in each defeat. Now Detroit must re-kindle its five-on-five offense, and compounding the difficulty of the task for Detroit will be the absence of Patrick Kane.
Per coach Todd McLellan, Kane picked up an upper body injury during the Red Wings' loss in Dallas Sunday that persisted into Tuesday's defeat in Philadelphia and will keep him out of tonight's action. McLellan described Kane as "day-to-day for now."
"Obviously he creates a lot of offense for us, but next guy up mentality," said winger Alex DeBrincat—who has spent the bulk of the season and nearly the entirety of McLellan's tenure on a line with Kane—of the circumstances. "I think we need to take that load off of him and hope he comes back sooner than later, but for the time being, we need to figure out a way to get in the O zone and create stuff without him."
Jan 12, 2025; Detroit, Michigan, USA; Detroit Red Wings forward Patrick Kane (88) gets into position for a face-off against the Seattle Kraken during the third period at Little Caesars Arena. Trending Detroit Red Wings Stories
The most direct "next man up" in the context of Kane's absence is Vladimir Tarasenko, who will take Kane's spot on the Red Wings' second line and top power play unit. "Vladdy will be one of the guys that gets an opportunity—with Patrick coming out—he'll get an opportunity," said McLellan of that dynamic. "We've all been waiting for him to blossom, and he's been waiting for this opportunity, so the two worlds collide now."
When Detroit set out on its road trip last week, the Red Wings were squarely in the wild card hunt, but just as their ascent up the standings was rapid to open the month, they now go into tonight's game teetering back on the brink of playoff irrelevance. Entering tonight's action, Detroit sits five points back of the playoff cut line, with Montreal first among the five teams between the Red Wings and the second wild card spot in the East. A loss tonight would represent a significant setback for playoff aspirations that were always a reach after the team's start to the season.
As for what it would look like for Detroit to rediscover the best of its game, McLellan stressed that "we want to play as direct as we possibly can" and again emphasized the importance of not just getting pucks to the net with volume but being quick to recover the rebounds and second pucks that emerge from chances that don't strike the net.
When asked by The Hockey News what differentiated the struggles of the most recent road trip from the strong home form the Red Wings showed at the start of the month, DeBrincat said, "A lot more connection and communication and stuff like that. I think our D zone was a lot better...I think there's a lot of things we can clean up and execute better."
Meanwhile, McLellan suggested that slow starts were a key factor in driving Detroit's road struggles, making the first 10 minutes of tonight's action paramount.
"I think when you start games like we did in Tampa and Dallas and you fall behind, it affects offense," McLellan said. "You get a little more tentative. You don't want to make more mistakes, because hey if we fall behind two or three, then we're less likely to win, so then you start playing reserved and tentative. When we've had good starts and we've been on top of teams, you score, now you feel good, you can keep that pace up."
Tonight's game is a scheduled 7 pm puck drop, with FanDuel Sports Network Detroit on the television broadcast and 97.1 The Ticket on the radio.
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