The Detroit Red Wings have more work to do, and that labor must — from their perspective — begin on Thursday night when they visit the reigning Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers in Sunrise, Fla.
Detroit, despite a recent hot streak, is still not in playoff position.
That stems from the Wings getting off to a poor start this season, and they were booed off their home ice on Dec. 23, when they lost, 4-0, to the St. Louis Blues.
Three days later, the Wings fired coach Derek Lalonde and replaced him with Todd McLellan.
Since McLellan took over, the Wings are 7-2-0, and that includes a 6-3 home loss to the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday night.
“That was a disappointing night for our group,” McLellan said. “It’s a new experience for us in our few weeks here.
“I’m anxious to see if we respond.”
The Wings will be tested against the Panthers, especially since Detroit will be forced to play without defensive-minded-forward Tyler Motte, who left Tuesday’s game in the second period due to an upper-body injury. He did not return and won’t be traveling with the squad for the beginning of its four-game road trip, which begins with the Panthers.
Detroit’s defense was already compromised due to the absence of goalie Alex Lyon, who is 8-5-0 with a 2.71 goals-against average and a .902 save percentage. Unlike Motte, however, Lyon (upper body) is expected to travel with the team.
The Wings have won the last four times Lyon has started, including the Jan. 7 contest against Ottawa when he allowed no goals but left after one period due to the aforementioned injury.
Wings goalie Cam Talbot could still start on Thursday. He is 10-9-2 with a 2.98 GAA and a .903 save percentage.
Offensively, Alex DeBrincat leads Detroit in goals (19). Lucas Raymond tops the Wings in assists (29) and points (47).
Then there’s veteran Patrick Kane, who has 10 goals and 17 assists in 38 games.
Kane gives a lot of credit to McLellan for the team’s turnaround.
“He’s done an incredible job of changing things,” Kane said. “He has upped the confidence in our room.”
The Panthers, meanwhile, are already a confident bunch.
They are coming off a 2-1 shootout win over the host New Jersey Devils on Tuesday, and the Panthers accomplished that feat with backup goalie Spencer Knight.
Florida, which trails first-place Toronto by just one point in the Atlantic Division entering Thursday, has not been dominant at home so far this season — just a 12-8-2 record.
Winning at home will surely be one point of emphasis for the Panthers, but also prevalent in the thinking of coach Paul Maurice will be his penalty-killing unit.
On Tuesday, the Panthers killed off both their penalties. But in their previous five games, they had allowed seven power-play goals.
“Yeah, we talked a little bit about it,” Panthers forward Anton Lundell said. “We can’t win games from the penalty box.”
The Panthers for the past two games have missed standout defenseman Aaron Ekblad, who has been out due to an undisclosed injury.
On Thursday, the Panthers are expected to start their top goalie, Sergei Bobrovsky (18-10-2, 2.78 GAA, .899 save percentage).
The Panthers are led in goals (27) and points (51) by Sam Reinhart.
Captain Aleksander Barkov leads the Panthers with 27 assists.
Matthew Tkachuk (40 points), Carter Verhaeghe (31 points) and Lundell (28 points) are other Panthers worth watching.
–Field Level Media
