Struggling Red Wings Shuffle Lines Seeking Balance

After a futile California swing, there could be no denying that the Detroit Red Wings (7-9-2) were due for a shuffling of the lines.  The lineup had been something of a moving target during the 0-2-1 tour of the Golden State, with no shortage of mixing and matching from a desperate side seeking something positive to hang onto.  On Wednesday afternoon, Red Wings practice from the Belfor Training Center in the bowels of Little Caesars Arena offered the first glimpse of what coach Derek Lalonde believes to be the lineup that might pull Detroit out of the doldrums that threaten to derail the season before Thanksgiving:

There's nothing new to see in the defense corps, but there are two somewhat substantial shifts, both teased at in California: the promotion of rookie Marco Kasper and last summer's marquee acquisition Vladimir Tarasenko.

When asked about the shifting lineup, Lalonde began at Kasper, explaining what he's looking for from the 20-year-old in second line duty between Patrick Kane and Alex DeBrincat.  "Marco's playing very well," Lalonde said of the youngster, who scored his first two NHL goals during the road trip.  "You can see it in his game.  And there's times when he's playing with pace, he can drive, and I think that can help Patty.  You saw in practice today, we put DeBrincat there too.  Especially on home ice, maybe get them so favorable match-ups...[Kasper] can transport pucks out of his zone.  He can middle lane drive and help on the forecheck.  There is a purpose with that line, and putting Marco there."

That point about match-ups on home ice feels an especially salient one here. Since the Red Wings drafted Kasper with the eighth overall pick in 2022, the book on him has been that he plays a high-floor, mature, responsible game with questions about his offensive ceiling. He's spent significant stretches of the season playing with Tarasenko and Jonatan Berggren (two players who clearly skew toward the offensive side of the game), so it's not as though he's been starved for potentially productive linemates. However, in placing him with Kane and DeBrincat in a top six role and even more explicitly in that hint about usage/deployment, Lalonde is clearly casting Kasper in a role he hopes can spark some more offense.

As for Tarasenko's promotion to the top line beside Dylan Larkin and Lucas Raymond, Lalonde explained, "I've been fairly happy with Vlad, his play of late. Again, we knew we were going to have a fluid six, a fluid nine. It's the make-up. Sometimes that feels like a negative. I think sometimes it's a positive. We do have offensive guys. We have guys that can complement guys. We have guys that can finish. I just think it's more of spreading our lineup out a little bit...I think hopefully Vlad can be productive with those two."

He went on to return to the notion of balance in explaining his thought process in breaking up what had been his regular top line (DeBrincat, Larkin, and Raymond), saying, "the Cat-Larkin-Raymond line had been a positive for a while.  The underlying numbers were good, but they do get in a little bit of a habit of trading some chances when they've not been at the top of their game.  At times, they've looked like a top line in this league, but at times, it's about spreading out our depth a little bit."

It's clear Detroit needs to find more offense at five-on-five and shake free of its dependence on the power play for scoring.  This realignment, in service of a more even distribution of the team's scoring threats, is how Lalonde believes the Red Wings can find that added offense.  That premise will be put to the test tomorrow night at Little Caesars Arena, when the Red Wings host the New York Islanders.

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