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DETROIT—It's been a grim month of March in Hockeytown, with the beloved Red Wings limping through the stretch run. Again. Yet despite a 3–10–0 record since the calendar turned over from February, Detroit remains within spitting distance of the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. Of course, grabbing that spot requires the Red Wings to start stringing together wins in a hurry, beginning Saturday night at Little Caesars Arena against the Boston Bruins.
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"We've been lucky enough, I guess you could call it, that no one's really seized that spot, and it's tough games this time of the year," forward Lucas Raymond told The Hockey News after Saturday morning's skate. "I think that shows, but not playing good the way we've been wanting to and still being in it is huge, and we gotta seize that opportunity."
"We haven't gotten the results we've wanted over the last 10 games or so, but we're still right in it, so we know that if we play our game...we might not technically control all our own destiny, but we feel like if we take care of our business, we'll be in pretty good shape," added defenseman Justin Holl.
Coach Todd McLellan likened Detroit's recent struggles to golf, saying his team needs to learn to not allow one mistake spiral into disaster. "You're on the golf course and you have a bad tee shot, it doesn't mean you have to have a bad round," McLellan said after Saturday morning's skate. "You go from playing birdie golf to playing par golf during that time. You clean things up, you get on the green, you try to play safe and put it in, and you take your par instead of your birdie. When we get into a bad drive situation, all of a sudden we're swinging away and it gets worse, instead of managing it."
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Clock Ticking on Red Wings' Playoff Hopes After 4–3 Loss to OttawaDETROIT—Not quite 13 minutes into the Red Wings' 4–3 loss to the Ottawa Senators Thursday night, Senators captain Brady Tkachuck caught up to Detroit forward Lucas Raymond as he rushed the puck through neutral ice, dumping Raymond to the ice, then pinning him there with an arm around his neck. With Tkachuk and Raymond still entangled, Ottawa rushed the puck the other way until Tim Stutzle used a burst of speed to get around Moritz Seider and beat Alex Lyon with a well-placed wrist shot. The goal made it 2–0 Senators, though the Red Wings had a 10–3 edge in shots, but that was the story of the night for the home team: Bullied away from the puck and beaten with it, even if the final score suggested a narrow margin. Despite Goaltending Struggles, Red Wings Don't Perceive Cossa as Solution (Yet)
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Lineup
As they look to revitalize their season, Detroit will be offering a slightly different look to its forward lines, reminiscent of the combinations that McLellan used to close out Thursday's loss to the Senators. Wingers Alex DeBrincat and Patrick Kane will now flank Dylan Larkin on the top line, while Lucas Raymond and Michael Rasmussen will now skate on Marco Kasper's wings on line two.
"Well not just Dylan and Raymond, the group as a whole," explained McLellan, when asked whether the tinkering was meant to spark his top two scorers. "We started last game with a set of lines and by the time we got to the third, we pulled them apart, but the most energy and jump and attack time that we had was with lines that look similar to what we are going with today."
Cam Talbot will start in net for the Red Wings.
Injury Update
On the injury front, McLellan did not have an update on Petr Mrazek, who remains unavailable after suffering an upper body injury in Utah. Meanwhile Elmer Soderblom remains out as well, but he is at least closer to getting back to action.
"Elmer is still gonna be day-to-day, but I don't see him playing in St. Louis," McLellan said, alluding to the Red Wings' Tuesday night game against the Blues. "I don't know for sure though. That's how close he is, but how far away he is."
Re-Tooling Bruins Pose Unique Challenge
Following the trade deadline, the Bruins are a different team to the one that beat Detroit 3–2 in Boston on Dec. 3. Most notably, erstwhile captain Brad Marchand is off to Florida, where he made his Panthers debut Friday night, assisting on the overtime winner, but Marchand is not alone amongst the departures. Charlie Coyle, Brandon Carlo, and Trent Frederic are all also out the door.
McLellan pointed out Saturday morning that while those sorts of departure theoretically deplete a roster, it can also invigorate the players who remain, with bigger roles.
"Well they're a different team now," said McLellan of the current state of the B's. "For me personally, having come out here, I know them with all the pieces that they've had in the past...There's a lot of players there [now] that are getting opportunities, that have moved up the lineup a little bit as they retool. When players get that chance and they take advantage of it, they can be a handful, because they've been sitting in the weeds and wanting more and asking for more and trying to play for more, and now it's in front of them, so they can be a real dangerous team when those types of players get hungry."
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