Red Wings Aim to Keep Building Piece by Piece vs. Kraken

DETROIT—This afternoon at Little Caesars Arena, the Detroit Red Wings (19–18–4) will look to make it seven wins in a row, with the visiting and struggling Seattle Kraken (18–22–3) for a Sunday matinee.

Heading into today's game, coach Todd McLellan emphasized incremental growth, while stressing that the process of imprinting his identity on his new team remains in its infancy.  "When I got here, I believe I said that it would take us six, seven, eight games to really figure guys out," McLellan said.  "We're starting to do that.  We're having discussions now in the coaches room—actually, we were just talking about a player and now I'm asking, 'Are we seeing this right?  Is this really who he is?' And, 'Well no, he's been better in this area,' or 'Yeah, that's who he is.'  That's starting to happen."

It's still too early to tell just how much of Detroit's early success under McLellan is the 'coaching change bump' as opposed to something more long-lasting.  However, one area where McLellan has undeniably excelled is balancing short-term results with implementing his vision for the term.  In theory, this should be the most experimental, learning-on-the-fly moment in his tenure, and during that spell, the Red Wings' record is impeccable.

When asked by The Hockey News after yesterday's practice what aspects of this run feel sustainable to him, McLellan said, "Throughout this streak, we've had the opportunity to grow every day.  We add just a little piece in.  We added another little piece in today to the whole system, and the players have grabbed it.  It hasn't been overload.  They've been able to take little pieces and put it all together.  There's still a lot of that to come, and I think that's sustainable, where they are able to grab little things and put it into play.  Hopefully, it helps the way we play, but if we can keep doing that, we can move it forward and not be stuck in one spot."

Detroit will look to continue that slow and steady progress this afternoon against Seattle.

Where to Watch

This afternoon's game has an unusual start time (3 pm scheduled puck drop), but it will be broadcast in the usual places: FanDuel Sports Network Detroit for in-market fans, Hulu/ESPN+ for out-of-market fans, and 97.1 The Ticket on the radio.

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