Derek Lalonde on his relationship with Rick Bowness, Scouting the Jets with Ben Chiarot, an injury update, and everything else you need to know before Red Wings-Jets tonight

The Detroit Red Wings will look to return to their winning ways tonight against the Winnipeg Jets at home at Little Caesars Arena.

At the moment, Jets head coach Rick Bowness is in the midst of a leave of absence to be with his wife Judy, after she suffered a seizure on Sunday.  Per reports, she has since been released from the hospital and is resting comfortably at home.  Assistant Scott Arniel has assumed interim duties during Bowness' absence.

Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde opened his availability Tuesday by sending well wishes to both Rick and Judy Bowness.  This morning, he expanded on Rick's impact on his own career.

"He is one of the renowned good guys in the league," said Lalonde of Bowness, before sharing a story.  "I'm coaching with the Green Bay Gamblers in the United States Hockey League, and Jon Cooper at the time invited me to work [the Lightning's] development camp, which you see all the time for young coaches.  Rick's on that staff, and I've never met him and he took me under his wing.  Unbelievable human being.  He's just that guy you just enjoy seeing...Obviously like anyone else, my thoughts are with him and Judy."

Health Update

On the injury front, there were a number of news items from this morning's skate.

Robby Fabbri was among the Red Wings participating in the optional skate.  Lalonde noted that he would be out a month as of last week, and while the timeline hasn't changed, the head coach is pleased with Fabbri's progress.

Alex DeBrincat, who did not practice yesterday, was on the ice for the skate today.  When asked whether DeBrincat would be able to go tonight, Lalonde said "I think so.  He's had trouble just going through a little bug, so I would expect him.  We are going to wait through warm-ups, we're going to dress 13 forwards in warm-ups and wait for him to give us the OK."

Jeff Petry also took the morning skate, but he will not be available tonight.  "We're gonna give him one more day," said Lalonde.  "He skated again today.  We're gonna give him a full practice tomorrow.  We want to get him in and expect to have him in on Saturday.  So we'll give him one more day to manage his upper body and then hopefully have him in for Saturday."

Scouting the Jets

The Jets dropped three of their first four games of the year but enter Detroit having rebounded and riding a two-game winning streak on the strength of victories over Edmonton on Saturday and St. Louis on Tuesday.

"They create off the forecheck, they spend a lot of time in the zone, underlying numbers they're [a top team] in both those categories," said Lalonde.  "They possess pucks, but they go hunt pucks too."

Offensively, Winnipeg is led by the three-headed monster of Mark Scheifele, Kyle Connor, and Josh Morrissey.  Scheifele leads the team in scoring with seven points in six games with the latter two hot on his heels at six points each.  Morrissey more than doubled his previous career high in points a year ago—putting up 76 of them and finishing fifth in Norris voting.

"I was fortunate enough to coach Kyle at an international event way back in the day [the 2013 World Junior A Challenge] and he was really, really, really good," Lalonde said of Connor.  "We won a gold medal...I'm not surprised he's having the success he is now.  Guys can play fast, but he makes plays playing fast."

Lalonde invoked a different Connor to help explain Kyle Connor's brilliance, describing the Jets winger as "Connor McDavid-esque" in the way he can make plays at top speed.  "Some guys when they play fast, their brain shuts down a little bit," Lalonde added.  "He can make plays with pace, and he's a finisher.  Every shot he takes, it's picked with a purpose."

Ben Chiarot Reflects on his Time with the Jets 

After this morning's skate, The Hockey News sat down with Ben Chiarot to chat about squaring up with the organization that drafted him (when it was still the Atlanta Thrashers) back in 2009 and for whom he played his first six NHL seasons.

Chiarot makes clear that taking on his old team is not a matter of vengeance but rather an experience he looks forward to.  "It's always fun playing against each other," he says.  "It's always exciting getting back out there against your own team.  A lot of old friends on that team, where I started my career, and a lot of good memories there."

In the current Jets team, Chiarot sees a core group with whom he broke into the league that has since graduated to leading roles.  "There was a group of young guys that all started there with [Adam] Lowry, myself, Scheifele, Morrissey," he explains.  "And so a lot of guys now are the captains and assistant captains of the team, so it's just kind of the natural growth of the team.  It's fun to see a friend like Adam Lowry now the captain of the team, Scheif and Morrissey leaders, it's been fun to watch them grow over the years."

To Chiarot, it's no surprise to see those players stepping up into leading roles.  "I always thought Lows and Morrissey and Scheif, they would all be captains at some point," he says.  "Because they're all good players and good people off the ice, so it was only natural that they can take the reins and lead that team.  Not surprised at all."

On the ice, he sees some stylistic similarities to the Jets teams he played on but also some evolution.  "I haven't seen a ton of them [this year], but back when I was there, we had really big teams, big, physical teams," Chiarot says.  "I don't know that they're quite the same as that, but still very fast and good skating team, which is what we always had there."

Where to Watch

Tonight's game will once again be broadcast by Bally Sports Detroit—available on television or via streaming and BSD+.  For out of market fans, it will be on its familiar home—ESPN+.