Reimer starts, Derek Lalonde on Tkachuk & the Panthers' swagger, Fabbri inching closer to a return, and everything else you need before Detroit-Florida tonight at LCA

Tonight at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, the Red Wings will be entertaining yet another 2023 playoff team from the Atlantic Division.  This time around, it will be the Florida Panthers, who bounced back from a rocky start to their '22-23 campaign to stage an improbable yet dominant run to the Stanley Cup Final.

From a personnel perspective, James Reimer will start in goal for Detroit, and Jeff Petry will be the odd defenseman out tonight.

Scouting the Panthers

It's been a relatively slow start to '23-24 for the Florida Panthers.  

They are 4-3-1 out of the gate, scoring 2.75 goals-per-game while conceding 2.88 goals a night.  Both special teams are struggling; the power play is 23rd in the league at 14.29%, and the penalty kill is tied with the Minnesota Wild for the worst mark in the NHL at 67.86%.

Defensemen Brandon Montour and Aaron Ekblad are out and not expected to return until Thanksgiving.  Their absence is palpable in comparing this team to the one that marched to the Cup Final last Spring.  Nonetheless, the confidence gleaned from a playoff run like the Panthers enjoyed doesn't just evaporate with the changing of the seasons.

"I think that's the team they expected to have," said Derek Lalonde after Thursday morning's skate, when asked about Florida's playoff march.  "A little swagger to them.  You go through something like that, there's probably no situation that's too big for them.  I think they expect to be there again this year, and they have the makings of being there."

That swagger starts with Matthew Tkachuk—whom Florida dealt for the summer before last and who was the fulcrum upon which the team's season swung a year ago.

"There's an 'it' about him; there's a swagger about him," said Lalonde of the bruising winger.  "I remember doing my TV gig last year [Lalonde served as a studio analyst for Sportsnet on Canadian television last postseason] and watching him operate—it's such a small thing...they won in Boston to make it 3-2, and the cameras are in there, and he's like 'we'll be back here.'  And I'm sitting back like 'I believe him.'  And if I believed him watching on TV at 11:30 at night, I'm sure the people in that room did.  He just has a way about himself."

Even without Montour and Ekblad, Lalonde sees a similar style to the one Florida deployed to such devastating effect last season.  "They still play the same," he said.  "It's a tempo team.  They're on top of you.  If you're not clean or precise out of your zone, they're gonna make you pay."

When asked what about Florida's game translated so smoothly to the playoffs, Lalonde said "One, they were very good.  They're talented, they're deep, but they just had that swagger, that 'it.'...The way they played I loved it.  It was aggressive, it was assertive, and they earned it."

Lalonde added that he admires the man behind the bench in Florida, saying with a smile, "I'm a big Paul Maurice fan.  I joke that I probably lost some sleep because I had to watch Paul Maurice's pressers after every game, and he's where I hope to be someday where he goes into a press conference and doesn't give two craps about anything.  That's when you know you've made it in your life.  I'm obviously still young in this league."

Sergei Bobrovsky is expected to get the start in goal for the Ice Cats.  He enters tonight's game at 3-3-1 with a .903 save percentage and 2.87 goals against average

Reimer on Taking on an Old Team, Acclimating to Detroit, and Moritz Seider's Defense

When James Reimer assumes the crease this evening, he will be taking on a team for whom he played for three seasons between 2016 and 2019.  By his accounting, whatever advantage may be drawn from that familiarity cuts in both directions.

"I think the edge goes both ways," Reimer told The Hockey News.  "I think it's a wash when it comes down to it, but honestly, since I played there, there's been so many changes, right?  There's only a few guys from when I was there, so it's almost like playing a brand new team."

When it comes to settling in in Detroit, Reimer says, "There's a little bit of a learning curve, just with communicating with the guys and how we defend and how we give them chances, what our tendencies are, and stuff like that."

One of the Red Wings who has made the biggest impression on Reimer with the benefit of day-to-day exposure is Moritz Seider.

"Getting to see Mo [Seider] up close too, he's a special player in the sense that he probably doesn't the recognition," says Reimer before catching himself.  "I mean he won the Calder so I guess he does get the recognition, but I'd say one of the best two-way defenders that I've had the pleasure of playing with.  He obviously wants to score, he quarterbacks our first PP unit, but his commitment to defense is really impressive, and his diligence and his desire to be a top defender is really cool to see."

To Reimer, what makes Seider so special is the simultaneous presence of other worldly puck skills and an extraordinary willingness to put in work defensively.

"I don't how to say this without insulting some of the best players out there...but usually, if you have a lot of skill, you're not inclined to block shots," says Reimer.  "And Mo—he's got a ton of skill and yet he's not scared to defend, he's not scared to get in shot lines, and he's not scared to get hit with the puck.  He wants to be the guy on both ends of the ice, which is rare."

Tonight will be Reimer's fourth start of the season, and, as was expected entering the year, he is on pace to play a dozen or so fewer games than he did in San Jose a year ago (43).  With a lighter in-game workload, he has turned his attention to providing value to his team in new ways.

"When you're playing a lot, what you're really doing a lot is just managing your workload away from games," Reimer says.  "Your practices and your routine away from games is just more in tune to making sure you're 100% for games.  And here, obviously, you're making sure you're 100% for games, but you get more time to work on other stuff in your game and just being there for the boys in different drills and fill that role where you can help them."

Fabbri Inching Closer to Return

Robby Fabbri—who hasn't played since the Red Wings' opening night loss to New Jersey thanks to a nagging lower body injury—has resumed practicing.

After yesterday's practice, Derek Lalonde provided an update on his status, saying that Fabbri is "closing in" on a return. ”We were asked to ramp up his workload this week and looking into potentially sometime next week to maybe play," Lalonde added.

Where to Watch

Tonight's game (a 7:30 PM start) will once again be broadcast by Bally Sports Detroit—available on television or via streaming and BSD+.  On cable, the game will be on BSD Extra, with the Detroit Pistons-New Orleans Pelicans game on the main Bally Sports Detroit channel. For out of market fans, it will be on its familiar home—ESPN+ and Hulu.

The Silky Mitten State

Be sure to check out THN Detroit's new podcast: The Silky Mitten State. I'm joined by Connor Earegood of The Michigan Daily, College Hockey News, and THN's new NCAA site. We'll be chatting Red Wings, college hockey across the state, and anything else related to hockey in Michigan that catches our attention. Be on the look out for a new episode every Friday.

You can find full episodes on either Spotify or Apple Podcasts: