Red Wings Out for Redemption Against Lightning

DETROIT—Saturday night, the Detroit Red Wings host the Tampa Bay Lightning at Little Caesars Arena, with an eye toward a stronger performance than last Saturday's effort in Tampa, when the Bolts rolled for a 5–1 victory.

"I thought we started slow in their rink, just on our heels right from the beginning. It wasn't our best game," assessed Detroit defenseman Ben Chiarot after Saturday morning's pre-game skate.  "When we start fast, get on teams, get shots to the net early in the game, get us momentum, I think that's when we're at our best, and we didn't do that in their rink."  That was precisely the sort of start the Red Wings enjoyed Thursday night against the Canadiens, en route to a season-high 45 shots on goal and a 4–2 victory.

Sunday will mark exactly one month since new coach Todd McLellan (and his top assistant Trent Yawney) were hired, but Saturday morning, he stressed that there remain chunks of the game he and Yawney haven't had the chance to fully imprint their vision on the team.

"There's a lot of...segments of our game where we're just figuring things out as a staff and figuring out what we're doing," McLellan said Saturday morning.  "Trent and I are catching up.  I think the day that I got hired, I said there's no way that we're gonna be able to adapt or change everything.  We just don't have the practice time...When you take a paint brush and just wipe it all out, it can be dangerous too.  There were some really good things that they were doing here before, so we don't have to fix everything, but there are areas that we still haven't gotten to."

One area McLellan has repeatedly emphasized from the moment of his introduction is confidence and spirit.  To Chiarot, Detroit's ability to bounce back from a difficult road trip against the Habs Thursday illustrates McLellan's success in generating that kind of belief.

"Confidence is everything in sports, I think, and he's been able to create that within the group," Chiarot said after morning skate.  "And the group has done a good job of taking it and running with it, and when we lose it for a little bit like we did on the trip, getting it right back with things like...getting those shots to the net, playing in the offensive zone, good things happen for us, so it's been a good lesson for us in how to gain momentum and confidence and how to keep it."

Detroit will look for that confidence to manifest in another fast start Saturday night against the Lightning (a 7 PM puck drop on FanDuel Sports Network Detroit and 97.1 The Ticket).  Per McLellan, the Red Wings will be rolling with the same lineup from Thursday night, down to Cam Talbot in net.

Bookmark The Hockey News Detroit Red Wings team site to stay connected to the latest news, game-day coverage, and player features. Never miss a story by adding us to your Google News favorites.