'Obvious That Everyone Needed A Rest': Can The Maple Leafs Overcome The Schedule Grind And A Rejuvenated Red Wings Led By Todd McLellan?

The Leafs limped into the break but their schedule did them no favors.

DETROIT — The Toronto Maple Leafs will look to avoid a three-game losing skid when they take on the Detroit Red Wings at Little Caesars Arena on Friday.

That will be easier said than done after the Red Wings made a massive coaching change, opting to fire Derek Lalonde and replacing him with veteran head coach Todd McLellan.

"They want to impress the coach, you know, for sure. And a little bit of a new lease on hockey life," Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube said of the Red Wings' players.

"They're a talented team over there. We all know that. We've talked about it before. A lot of good players over there. And we expect a very hard game tonight."

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The Red Wings defeated the Maple Leafs 4-2 in this building earlier in the month. That began a stretch of six games in ten days before Toronto's three-day mandated holiday break. The NHL's schedule is a bit more condensed than usual to accommodate the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament that will shut the season down for two weeks.

During the last couple of games, Toronto's fatigue was evident in their poor showings at home. They fell 6-3 to the New York Islanders on Dec. 21 before losing to the Winnipeg Jets 5-2.

"It was obvious that everyone needed a little bit of a rest there," Maple Leafs forward Max Pacioretty said. "Every team deals with it when teams are waiting for you, and you seem like you've been traveling every day and playing a lot, and we've been playing a lot of hockey."

"It's a good lesson, I think, that in those circumstances you've probably got to tighten up defensively and maybe hold down the forward a little bit better than we did."

Berube echoed Pacioretty's sentiments that there have been mistakes on the defensive side of things, even with Auston Matthews, who is dealing with an aggravated upper-body injury, out of the lineup for those games and the next two contests.

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"We had chances to score in the last couple of games. Didn't go in. It's the other side of the puck that is more concerning for me," Berube said. "We gave up three goals to Winnipeg that, in my opinion, are easily corrected. I talk about details, stick details, little things, you know, that we've got to do better."

The Leafs should be rested enough to correct those mistakes. But the grind is real soon after that. Following Friday's game, they will host a Washington Capitals game that may see Alex Ovechkin return from a leg injury.

And just as their schedule went into the break with six games in 10 days, they begin another stretch of six games in 10 days in the Motor City... Buckle up

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