Here's everything you need to know about this afternoon's game between the Detroit Red Wings and Vancouver Canucks at Little Caesars Arena.
Here's everything you need to know about this afternoon's game between the Detroit Red Wings and Vancouver Canucks at Little Caesars Arena.
Detroit coach Derek Lalonde knows it’s unrealistic for his team to stay fully healthy for 32 games. He knows that someone’s going to get hit, or someone’s going to strain a muscle. That’s the nature of playing in the NHL.
But right now, with 13 healthy forwards and seven healthy defensemen revitalized by the All-Star break, Lalonde is running with the opportunity. For a coach who had to cobble together lines from a roster decimated with injuries at times this season, his team has an opportunity to strike. With the goal of making the playoffs in sight, now they have to capitalize.
With Vancouver coming to town tied for first in the NHL standings, Detroit will get a valuable test right out of the gate. But they do so with the rust of an extended nine-day break leaving a whole lot to figure out on the fly.
“Even our first couple drills today, we weren't sharp,” Lalonde said after his team’s second practice after the break. “We had trouble connecting some easy, 10-foot passes. That's the worry about playing tomorrow, but, in reality, just gotta put your nose down and do it. And I think maybe an approach of trying to play simple as much as we can early on to get to game pace.”
The Canucks split their two games since the break, suffering a 4-0 shutout in Boston on Thursday. They feature the NHL's second-ranked offense averaging 3.71 goals per game. Their defense ranks fourth, allowing 2.57 goals per game. Some familiar faces dot the lineup, including defenseman Filip Hronek and forward Pius Suter.
Lineups
The tradeoff for depth is the burden of decisions. With a healthy group all around featuring the returns of Patrick Kane and Ben Chiarot, Lalonde will have a decision to make as to who sits out.
At Thursday and Friday’s practices, Detroit kept Alex DeBrincat, Dylan Larkin and Lucas Raymond together while David Perron, J.T. Compher and Kane composed the second line. It seemed as though Kane might play with DeBrincat upon the former’s return — their line clicked during Kane’s previous 19 games before the injury. However, Lalonde has opted to spread them out for now. He also kept the third line of Michael Rasmussen, Andrew Copp and Christian Fischer together, a unit that has excelled on the forecheck.
With those three lines pretty much solidified thus far, the fourth line leaves room for experimentation based on what identity the group wants to take on. Joe Veleno and Robby Fabbri appear as mainstays, while one of Klim Kostin and Daniel Sprong will rotate in that third spot. In Kostin, the Red Wings get a more physical roleplayer, while Sprong brings speed and scoring down the lineup.
“We can create some depth in our bottom six that can score goals. We can also create some depth that needs to be a little bit heavier,” Lalonde said. “So I think there’s certainly a matchup aspect to it. We’d like to keep it more on kinda where we were with the D early on, where we trusted all of them and we had a little bit of a rotation, but also we had a little bit of accountability on it.”
On defense, the return of Chiarot shifts the blue line back to its usual look. He skated on his usual second pairing with Jeff Petry that past two practices, while Shayne Gostisbehere and Olli Maatta made up the third pairing with Justin Holl rotating in. One of Maatta or Holl will probably sit Saturday afternoon.
So Fresh, So Clean
Not only are the Red Wings back to their full strength in health, but the long break also gave them a chance to recover from wear and tear. With a banged up roster, other players took on increased roles that only further wore them down, but the extra days allowed for them to heal.
“I think the break’s huge just kind of for a physical and mental reset,” Fischer said. “... It’s tough during the season playing so many games to kind of have even four or five days just to kind of let your body (recover). There’s a lot of bumps and bruises that guys play through. It feels pretty good when you don’t get hit for five or six days.”
With that full complement, Fischer explained that Detroit can play to the identity it wants, one that carried it to a 9-2-2 record since the calendar flipped to 2024. Such success stems from the way that depth translates to a hard matchup for opponents, leading to chances down the lineup.
“When we’re at our best, I think we’re actually — all four lines — a really good forechecking team,” Fischer said. “We have a lot of speed through almost all four lines.”
Forechecking, speed and a whole lot of pressure, that’s how the Red Wings want to win games. Once they establish those fundamentals, Fischer feels that their overall wealth of talent can take over. That’s especially true with all hands available.
Fischer also credited the January success to special teams wins. The penalty kill posted an 84.4% kill rate in its past 13 games, while the power play scored at 27.7%. With healthy players comes even more options to strengthen each set of units, and the Red Wings should want to maintain that success.
A Race to the Finish
In the previous two seasons, the Red Wings flirted with making the playoffs, but each time they fell apart down the stretch. Even last season, they were in contention to make the playoffs at this point in the year, but they fizzled out in a glaring series against Ottawa.
This time around, Detroit wants to break down the playoff door, even if some teams’ transition into a tight checking style after the All-Star break will make that difficult. There are no free points past February, and they’re going to have to earn everything they get.
The Red Wings aren’t the only ones with big dreams. All but three teams in the Eastern Conference either occupy a playoff spot or sit within eight points of Detroit’s second wild card position. Depending on who gets hot, a lot of teams have a shot to make the playoffs.
“You can’t afford to lose two or three in a row, especially our side (in the Eastern Conference) — it’s so damn tight,” Fischer said. “It could come down to an overtime win or loss. There’s a lot of things we look at and everyone looks at, it’s gonna be really tight but that’s fun. You want to play meaningful games — tomorrow’s a huge one.”
Where to Watch
Today’s game (a 1 p.m. start) will be on its usual television home of Bally Sports Detroit. Out of market fans can also watch on ESPN+.
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