Yahoo Sports Red Wings Striving for Connectivity vs. Visiting Blackhawks
DETROIT—This evening at Little Caesars Arena, the Detroit Red Wings (18–18–4) will host the Chicago Blackhawks (14–25–2) with an eye toward extending their five-game winning streak, already a season long.
David Banks, Imagn Images
One quality new coach Todd McLellan has repeatedly stressed in his short time in Detroit has been the importance of moving up ice in a five-man unit. This morning, after the pre-game skate, McLellan expanding on the value of that precept:
"The game is really fast, and if you can get five people into an area, it makes it almost impossible to make a pass or handle the puck from a defensive standpoint. So we'd like to see five guys within our system, our structure in the picture almost all the time. Obviously the game's gonna get stretched out a little bit, but you can't forecheck with just two players, you can't forecheck with three, you have to have five. And then the same thing coming back into our zone: You can't defend with two or three, you have to defend with five and be positionally sound. And when you talk about owning the important ice, and we're working toward that. I'm sure you've all heard that word 'connected.' And another way of saying that is just making sure all five guys are doing their job. One isn't lazy, one's not skating, and all of a sudden it affects the other four. That's what we're talking about."
Defenseman Moritz Seider pointed out that the difference between a connected and scattered team is apparent when the Red Wings break out of their own zone, telling The Hockey News yesterday, "I think you can definitely see that on the ice. When things are clicking pretty easily, everybody's in their spots, and you beat the forecheck pretty well. When it's not going that well, the defensive team is not breaking out as clean, the forechecking team gets a stop somehow—maybe intercepts a pass and then stuff breaks down from there...We can eliminate those things by just being clean, on our tape, making it real hard for the forechecking team to just intercept anything or even get a piece of a body anywhere."
Seider also noted that connectivity is valuable for more than just clean exits, as it sets up Detroit for success as they enter the attacking third of the rink, observing, "I think [a clean, connected breakout] just sets up our forecheck even better. Obviously, if we can break out the puck clean and have a five-man unit coming up the ice, even though we may not enter with full possession every time, the odd time we have to chip it in, we'll be able to recover it even faster with five guys on the offensive side of the red line."
One other element of the Red Wings' game McLellan called attention to was a tendency toward second periods that haven't been as strong as Detroit's starts or closes. This morning, when asked about why that may have been the case or how the Red Wings can address it, he said, "We talked about our conditioning element, but if that was the case, then the third periods would look ugly too, so I think we just wander away from the game plan a little bit. We're not as direct as we are when we start games, and we seem to find a way to get it back in the third. So we're gonna focus on trying to fix that over the next little bit. You're never perfect throughout the game. There's gonna be lulls. There's gonna be ups and downs. We've just gotta make those less common and shorter."
Tonight's game against the struggling Blackhawks should, in theory, provide a good opportunity for Detroit to assert sustained control over the evening's proceedings.
Lineup
Tonight, expect to see a Red Wing lineup that is identical to the one Detroit finished Tuesday night's overtime win over the Senators. That means Christian Fischer will be the healthy scratch, Marco Kasper will play first line right wing minutes next to Dylan Larkin and Lucas Raymond, and Joe Veleno will center the fourth line.
Red Wings sticking with the Veleno/Kasper flip at today’s practice. Still no Petry, also no Lyon
Kasper-Larkin-Raymond
DeBrincat-Copp-Kane
Berggren-Compher-Tarasenko
Motte/Fischer-Veleno-Rasmussen pic.twitter.com/A7uCiC6xIF— Sam Stockton (@_samstockton) January 9, 2025
On the back end, expect the Red Wings (still without Jeff Petry) to line up exactly as they did against Ottawa: Ben Chiarot and Seider on the first pair, Simon Edvinsson and Albert Johansson on the second, and Erik Gustafsson and Justin Holl rounding out the third pairing. In net, Cam Talbot will start, after relieving the injured Alex Lyon after one period against the Sens Tuesday.
Where to Watch
Tonight's game is scheduled for a 7 pm puck drop and will be broadcast in the usual spots: FanDuel Sports Network Detroit in-market, ESPN+/Hulu out-of-market, and 97.1 The Ticket on the radio.
Also from THN Detroit
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Red Wings Practice Report: Kasper Stays on Top Line, Lyon "Day-to-Day"
What Has the Red Wings Coaching Change Meant for Their Goaltenders?
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Insider Reveals Red Wings Trade Target
