Download - Detroit Red Wings Clips December 13-15, 2014redwings.nhl.com/v2/ext/DRW_Clips_PDF/DRWClips121514.pdf · Detroit Red Wings Clips December 13-15, 2014 Detroit Red Wings PAGE 3 Red Wings'

Detroit Red Wings Clips December 13-15, 2014

Detroit Red Wings PAGE 3 Red Wings' Sheahan gaining confidence in 2nd season PAGE 4 22-year-old Tomas Jurco flashing skills for Red Wings PAGE 7 Brendan Smith compelled to 'answer the bell' by fighting again; Red Wings

look to flush game PAGE 8 Detroit Red Wings' offense hits a bit of a rut during three-game winless

skid PAGE 10 Wings losing out on valuable points in skills competition PAGE 12 Rough night for Red Wings in 4-1 loss vs. Maple Leafs PAGE 14 Wings' Stephen Weiss 'day to day' with shoulder injury PAGE 15 Red Wings sloppy on defense in loss to Maple Leafs PAGE 16 Wings' Weiss sits against Leafs with injured shoulder PAGE 18 Maple Leafs 4, Red Wings 1: Mistake-prone Detroit runs out of steam in

second period PAGE 20 Second-period analysis: Maple Leafs 2, Red Wings 1 PAGE 21 First-period analysis: Red Wings 1, Maple Leafs 1 PAGE 22 Detroit Red Wings Gameday: Petr Mrazek faces Toronto looking to

continue strong play on the road PAGE 23 Red Wings' Jonas Gustavsson still weeks away; Danny DeKeyser, Justin

Abdelkader close to return PAGE 24 Detroit Red Wings' Stephen Weiss out at least a few days with shoulder

injury, but not long term PAGE 26 Red Wings, goalie Jimmy Howard remain frustrated by shootout woes PAGE 27 Panik, Bernier lead Maple Leafs past Red Wings PAGE 28 Wings downed by Maple Leafs, 4-1 PAGE 30 Notes: Wings injury report PAGE 32 Wings, Leafs face off in final meeting this season PAGE 34 Wings' Weiss injures shoulder, severity to be determined PAGE 35 Red Wings' Ouellet gets chance with DeKeyser out PAGE 37 Florida 3, Detroit 2 (SO): Why the Red Wings lost PAGE 38 Shootout stings Red Wings again in 3-2 loss to Panthers PAGE 40 Gordie Howe 'getting better,' Mark Howe says PAGE 41 Plymouth Whalers: Too early to talk about relocation PAGE 42 Watch out, NHL goaltenders, Johan Franzen hates you PAGE 43 Wings swear they've learned their lesson from Panthers PAGE 44 Gordie Howe showing signs of improvement, son says PAGE 45 Missed chances doom Wings in shootout loss to Panthers PAGE 48 Red Wings surging but looking for payback vs. Panthers PAGE 49 Red Wings' Stephen Weiss out Saturday due to shoulder injury; Petr

Mrazek to start in Toronto PAGE 50 Panthers 3, Red Wings 2 (SO): Florida and shootouts continue to pose

problems for Detroit

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PAGE 52 Second-period analysis: Red Wings 2, Panthers 2 PAGE 53 First-period analysis: Red Wings 2, Panthers 2 PAGE 55 Red Wings big center Riley Sheahan skating better and playing with pace,

leading to more offense PAGE 57 Detroit Red Wings Gameday: Florida Panthers have won four of past six

games against Detroit PAGE 59 Red Wings lineup vs. Panthers: Xavier Ouellet's hockey sense, all-around

game continue to impress PAGE 61 Tomas Tatar, Mike Babcock say Detroit Red Wings' shootout woes more

mental than technical PAGE 62 Red Wings lose in shootout again, this time to Panthers PAGE 64 Trip from Grand Rapids to Detroit is a short one PAGE 66 Wings lose Weiss against Florida PAGE 67 Wings' shootout woes continue in loss to Panthers PAGE 69 Gave: NHL needs 'Holland Rule' to limit shootouts PAGE 72 Wings look to avenge earlier loss to Panthers

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Red Wings' Sheahan gaining confidence in 2nd season

By Helene St. James, Detroit Free Press 12:49 p.m. EST December 14, 2014

Riley Sheahan is juggling several projects. As a dog lover, he's helping four-legged friends gain attention, and hopefully adoption. As a forward for the Detroit Red Wings, he's working on his own legs.

The latter is coming as Sheahan has settled into his second season with the Wings and is ready to challenge himself. He stands at seven goals and nine assists after 31 games, already within two goals of the nine he scored last season over 42 games.

"I'm trying to get my feet going a little more, hold onto the puck and fend off checks a little more," Sheahan said. "I think I have a little more confidence now - if a defender is coming at me, I feel like I can maybe make a move or get around them. It's just something I'm trying to focus on."

This is much appreciated by his coach, who wasn't initially keen on Sheahan.

"The first time I saw him," Mike Babcock said, "I didn't think he could skate. He's a lot better than I thought, obviously. And then, you know, he's gotten better and better. He's better in the NHL than he was in the minors. He was good in the minors. He's starting to skate. He's a big man who knows how to play without the puck. He makes plays with the puck, but he's starting to get some pace to his game. As he gets pace, he's going to be more of a handful. It doesn't matter who he plays with, he seems to help them be good players."

Sheahan's growth has caught the eye of fellow big man Johan Franzen, who of late has been Sheahan's winger. "The more confidence he gets, he can really take advantage of his skill," Franzen said. "He can make those small, nifty plays, and he knows where he has his teammates. Smart guy."

Sheahan, 23, credited his comfort level to having more experience. "It's something I know I have, I've just been a little hesitant in holding onto the puck and making plays," he said. "I'm just taking little steps to get to the point where I know I can be, and it's been good so far."

Off the ice, Sheahan is engaged in a player initiative to help a human's best friend, via the Humane Society. "I pick a dog and take a picture with it, advertise it to get it a little help," Sheahan said. He had golden retrievers for company growing up, and "we always had at least one dog, at one point we had three," he said. "I have a soft spot for them."

Detroit Free Press LOADED: 12.15.2014

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22-year-old Tomas Jurco flashing skills for Red Wings

Gregg Krupa, The Detroit News 8:51 p.m. EST December 14, 2014

Detroit — In Tomas Jurco's first game against the Maple Leafs last week, a loosely played puck suddenly came around a corner in the Toronto zone along the boards up to the half wall and he and Joffrey Lupul moved forcefully to retrieve it.

Using his considerable skating ability, Jurco beat Lupul there, won the battle for the puck, used his body to help shield it and then poked it to a defenseman.

Two passes later, the puck was back to Jurco and on to Gustav Nyquist, who put it past Leafs goalie James Reimer.

In one play, many of the 22-year-old's skills were on display: responsible positioning, expansive vision of the ice, a 6-foot-1, 203-pound frame that is more powerful than it may appear, terrific skating, good hands.

"His skill level is second to none," said Gerard Gallant, who played for the Red Wings long before becoming coach of the Panthers this season.

For three years in St. John, New Brunswick, Gallant coached Jurco in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL).

"Right now, he really works hard and competes and he can play on any line on this hockey team, and I think he's going to be a hell of a hockey player," Gallant said.

Jurco has two goals and nine assists in 28 games, as the Wings got off to a better start than expected.

His coach says the young forward from Slovakia is a vital piece of the developing puzzle, and he currently plays on a line with Henrik Zetterberg and Nyquist, the top assists and goals men, respectively.

"He gives Z. and Nyquist pace, and so he's an important player for us," Mike Babcock said.

"He's scoring on a regular basis. He's real good defensively.

"He's kind of evolving. His role is different. He's used to being kind of a skilled guy, and he's still a skilled guy. But you've got to find your role at the next level.

"He has to be a physical skater, who gives lines pace, who's at the net."

For Jurco, it is yet another stage in his development.

"The more I'm here, the more I think offense," he said. "But in the game, right now, I play really solid, strong hockey defensively — so I can play more, and then create some offense.

"But I'm an offensive player, and the longer I am here, the more offense I will be able to create."

Sister got him started

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They play a lot of hockey in Slovakia.

When he was 5 or perhaps a little younger, Jurco said, his sister Petra wanted to play. Their parents, Peter and Slavka, went to a rink in search of an opportunity.

Tomas was in tow.

As is too often the case in sport, there was no girls' team.

"But they said I could come tomorrow and try it," Jurco said. "And so, I tried it and stuck with it."

Things would eventually work out for Jurco's older sister. Petra Jurčová is a veteran of the Slovakia national women's ice hockey team and played in the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Jurco joined a club, HC Košice, named for his home town. He said his game developed, especially under two coaches who proved important, Miroslav Kozarik and Anton Bartanus.

In 2009, Jurco came to North America.

"Well, the young kid came over, he was 17 years old and he couldn't speak a word of English," Gallant said. "And when he came over, we had a lot of good hockey players. But I think we developed him.

"He had a great skill level. But he needed to find work ethic, he needed to find out how to play the Canadian game.

"He was a great player for us to have, and a treat to have. And he's a great all-around kid.

"From the first day I met Tomas Jurco, I liked him. And I knew he would be the hockey player he is today."

Jurco, whose soft-spoken English is considerably improved five years later, said that with Gallant and an assistant, Mike Kelly, who has joined Gallant in Florida, his game improved.

"The first big adjustment was in juniors," he said. "The first half of the year, I was struggling. It was different hockey than in Europe.

"After that, then, in December, I started adjusting more and more, and I started scoring. And I ended up with a really good season. I scored a lot of goals."

He certainly impressed the Wings, who made him their first choice, 35th overall, in the 2011 NHL entry draft.

"And then, when I came to Grand Rapids, it was to make another step, to make another adjustment, to adjust to men's hockey, because it is much different," he said. "And that took me a few months, too.

"Then, I mean, it was great. My first year, we won the league. It was an amazing year. I learned a lot.

"It was a great experience. I love Grand Rapids, the people there and the city. I have only good memories."

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The second half of his second season with the Griffins, 2013-14 season, the Wings called him up. In 36 games, he had eight goals and seven assists for 15 points, and his solid defense helped keep him in the lineup.

He also tasted his first bit of NHL playoff experience in three games against the Bruins.

Now, in the third year of a three-year entry-level contract, he has jumped from some play on the fourth line, to providing speed for two of the top Red Wings scorers, as well as garnering some power-play time.

"He's definitely an offensive player; the sky's the limit for him," said Stephen Weiss, who has been around the NHL and AHL long enough to have seen lots of players developing.

"Like every young player, it's just a matter of being consistent and getting better every day and every year, and finding out what's going to make you the best player in this league and what you've got to do to stick around."

Jurco spends his offseasons back home, including the extensive workouts required of NHL players in the summer months.

It is a hockey country, and Slovakians know he scored a goal in Sochi in February, and that he wears the winged-wheel crest in the United States.

"Not many games are televised," he said, "but the results are always on the Internet, It's pretty big in Slovakia.

"I mean, I'm not a big star, or anything. But they know I'm with the Red Wings."

Detroit News LOADED: 12.15.2014

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Brendan Smith compelled to 'answer the bell' by fighting again; Red Wings look to flush game

Ansar Khan

on December 14, 2014 at 6:07 PM, updated December 14, 2014 at 6:19 PM

TORONTO - Detroit Red Wings defenseman Brendan Smith wasn't looking to get into another fight late in a game in which the outcome was decided. But he felt he had no choice.

Richard Panik hit Smith a couple of times into the glass with three minutes remaining in the Toronto Maple Leafs' 4-1 victory Saturday. Smith retaliated by slashing Panik and breaking his stick over him with a cross-check. Then it was on.

"The second (hit) probably wasn't as high but the first one definitely caught me right across the face," Smith said. "Then I gave him a hack and a cross-check and he kind of dropped the gloves.

"I didn't want to drop the gloves, obviously, for previous reasons, but I was in one (a fight). You have to answer the bell then."

Smith developed a hand infection from his previous fight, against Nick Foligno in a 5-0 victory at Columbus on Nov. 18. He missed the next five games.

This was the Red Wings' worst game in several weeks. They were outshot 20-5 in the second period and 41-28 for the game. Goaltender Petr Mrazek kept them in it by making several big saves through the first 40 minutes.

Panik scored on a breakaway at 17:50 of the second period and Morgan Rielly scored on a shot Mrazek felt he should have stopped at 1:42 of the third to give the Leafs a 3-1 lead.

Turnovers led to both goals.

"If you go through the whole group, I thought (Darren) Helm probably was our best player, provided the most energy, but we didn't have enough guys," Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said. "I thought Datsyuk's line early was pretty good. But other than that we didn't have enough guys that you'd say, 'Geez, they were good.' "

The Red Wings are winless in three (0-1-2), scoring only four goals during this stretch.

"I think we'd been pretty good offensively the last little bit without scoring," Babcock said. "We didn't play good enough to create offense (on Saturday). We weren't hard enough on the goalie (Jonathan Bernier). We didn't spend any time in their zone."

The Red Wings host Columbus on Tuesday. The Blue Jackets (12-15-2) have won six in a row following a 6-15-2 start.

"I think you should always flush it, but you before you should learn a little bit," Henrik Zetterberg said. "We have a couple days (off) here. We'll be back and play a good game."

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Detroit Red Wings' offense hits a bit of a rut during three-game winless skid

Ansar Khan

on December 14, 2014 at 6:01 AM, updated December 14, 2014 at 10:33 AM

TORONTO -- The Detroit Red Wings began the day tied for the most points in the Eastern Conference. By the end of the night they were just four points ahead of the fourth-place team in the Atlantic Division.

That would be the Toronto Maple Leafs. They defeated the Red Wings 4-1 Saturday at Air Canada Centre to improve to 8-1-1 in their past 10 games.

Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said this game looked a little like the one these teams played Wednesday at Joe Louis Arena: The rested team skated better, made fewer mistakes, had far more scoring chances and dominated territorially against the club playing its second game in as many nights.

The difference? The goaltender (James Reimer) stole two points for the tired team three days earlier when the Maple Leafs prevailed 2-1 in a shootout. This time it appeared Petr Mrazek might do the same for the Red Wings as he single-handedly kept them in it through nearly 38 minutes.

But turnovers cost the Red Wings and Mrazek wasn't able to cover up all the mistakes.

"Obviously, they were way better," Babcock said. "They were way better than us, quicker and executed. We were getting caught, couldn't execute."

Richard Panik snapped a 1-1 tie with a breakaway goal at 17:50 of the second period, following a turnover by Tomas Tatar and a bad change by the Red Wings. Panik tried to make a move but mishandled the puck. It still slid though Mrazek's pads.

"I was waiting for that move," Mrazek said. "I was opening him high glove there, so I was focused on there and he just put it in the five-hole.

"If they wouldn't have scored in the second I think it would have been a different game."

Morgan Rielly then scored a goal Mrazek admitted his should have stopped, at 1:42 of the third, after a neutral-zone giveaway by Tomas Jurco. Rielly fired a shot from the faceoff circle off a rush with no screen or tip.

"It went straight in," Mrazek said. "I thought I had it, but it went through me, too."

Mrazek suffered his first loss of the season (3-1) despite 37 saves. Jonathan Bernier made 27 saves for Toronto.

"I actually thought Petr Mrazek did a nice job to get us through the second period and then we turned the puck over to set up Panik on the breakaway," Babcock said. "Maybe if you get through that things might be a little different, but the bottom line is they were quicker, better, had more energy than we did."

Nazem Kadri's empty-net goal at 16:46 sealed it. Babcock pulled Mrazek for the extra skater with 4:13 to play, trailing 3-1.

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The Red Wings (17-7-7) are winless in their last three games (0-1-2), scoring just four goals during the skid.

The Maple Leafs won the season series from the Red Wings 3-2 with their third win a row against Detroit, which scored just one goal in each of its past four games against Toronto.

"We didn't play good enough to create offense," Babcock said. "We weren't hard enough on the goalie. We didn't spend any time in their zone.

"This is our third game in four nights ... you know, these things are going to happen. If we execute better and don't turn over the puck you're not wearing yourself out in your own zone. But when you do that like we did -- and give them credit, they were skating -- that leads to you turning pucks over and you spend too much time in your own zone."

The Red Wings were encouraged by their play in the first period, when the teams traded power-play goals (Niklas Kronwall for Detroit at 15:27 and James van Riemsdyk for Toronto at 16:27).

"I think we came out good in the first, then they took over in the second," Red Wings captain Henrik Zetterberg said. "They were a little stronger over 60 minutes. Many times we had the puck under control and then they have the puck and it's in our net. We got to be more poised, take care of the puck a little bit better."

Michigan Live LOADED: 12.15.2014

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Wings losing out on valuable points in skills competition

By Chuck Pleiness, The Macomb Daily

Posted: 12/14/14, 5:12 PM EST |

DETROIT >> When Tomas Tatar looks around at all the skill inside the Wings’ locker room he finds it hard to believe when a game ends in a skills competition that they’re so awful.

In six games decided in a shootout Detroit has won once.

What’s more disconcerting is the Wings have scored just three goals on 16 attempts.

“With the skill we have in the locker room I would say we can be one of the best teams in the shootout but it’s opposite,” Tatar said. “I don’t know. Maybe we don’t feel comfortable to go down, I don’t know.

“We just have to be better, everybody,” Tatar added. “It’s hard to talk about it. Like I said, with that skill on the paper I think we can beat any team in the shootout but we don’t get two points. We just have to stay focused, try different things and don’t think about it much. Just use your mind and stay loose.”

Gustav Nyquist has two of Detroit’s goals in the shootout and Pavel Datsyuk has the other.

“We obviously haven’t been good enough,” Nyquist said. “The shooters haven’t been good enough. We’re not scoring enough goals to win shootouts.

“It’s not like we’re not going in trying to score,” Nyquist continued. “Obviously we’re trying to score when we go in there but it hasn’t been going in. It’s something that the guys that are shooting, that get the opportunity, those are the guys that have to figure it out and get this thing turned around.”

While the Wings’ have trouble putting the puck in the net, Jimmy Howard has had even more trouble stopping it on the breakaway.

Howard has been on the losing end of all five of the shootout losses, allowing nine goals on 12 shots. He’s dead last in the NHL in shootout save percentage.

“Yeah, especially when you work on it, it’s tough,” Howard said when asked if losing this way was frustrating. “You guys can come and watch practice. You see that we do work on it. It’s frustrating, it really, really is.”

Petr Mrazek has the lone shootout win, not allowing a goal on the three he’s faced.

“It’s totally mental, like 100 percent,” Wings coach Mike Babcock said. “We’ll just continue to work at it. I go through every player in five-game segments, the goalies in five-game segments. Our goaltenders have been steady, steady, steady consistent, had one blimp kind of like the rest of us. To me that’s the measure of a goalie.

“So we’re just going to continue to work on it like we always do and try to be solution-based and come up with different ways of solving the problem and eventually we’ll solve

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the problem,” Babcock added. “But we’re not going to let it get in the way of how we feel about our team or the direction that we’re going, because in the end they still don’t have the shootout in the playoffs.”

From shooting high or wide, or simply losing the puck off their stick before getting a shot off, you name it and it adds up to a lot of misses in the shootout this season for Detroit.

“At this moment I don’t think so,” Tatar said when asked if he has any go-to moves. “I just try to go down and do the most simple thing to score. But I don’t think it should be like that, you should be confident. Maybe if you’re on a roll you would try more crazier things and the goalie wouldn’t expect it. But right now everybody is trying to keep it a little more simple. You can’t think about it too much, just go and do your thing and score a goal.”

Last year the Wings were 5-9 in shootouts, scoring 11 goals on 51 shots while allowing 14 goals on 48 shots.

“We’ve got to be better at it,” Babcock said. “We’ve got to score for Howie and Howie’s got to make saves for us. That’s the reality of the situation.”

All-time, since it was implemented in 2005-06, Detroit is 44-55 in shootouts.

“We try to treat it like a specialty teams, try to go through it and be as prepared as we can,” Babcock said. “Bottom line is you’ve got to find ways to score goals in those situations and you’ve got to find ways to stop them.

“For me, let’s just win the game,” Babcock continued. “That’s what I focus on. Win the game. We played lots of time until the shootout but let’s just win the game.”

Macomb Daily LOADED: 12.15.2014

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Rough night for Red Wings in 4-1 loss vs. Maple Leafs

Associated Press 12:05 a.m. EST December 14, 2014

Three days after winning at Detroit while getting outplayed by the Red Wings, the Toronto Maple Leafs were better in the rematch and won again.

Richard Panik scored the go-ahead goal and Jonathan Bernier stopped 27 shots to help the Maple Leafs beat the Red Wings 4-1 on Saturday night.

Toronto won 2-1 in a shootout on Wednesday night in a game Detroit had a 42-19 advantage on shots. This time, the Leafs outshot the Red Wings 41-28.

"We were more energetic," Toronto coach Randy Carlyle said of his team's latest win.

That included Panik, whose goal coming off the bench gave Toronto a 2-1 lead with 2:10 remaining in the second period. Defenseman Korbinian Holzer found Panik all alone with a long pass after a Detroit turnover in the Toronto end and the 23-year-old Slovak beat Petr Mrazek between the legs with a gorgeous breakaway move.

"I'm just trying my best every shift," said Panik, who saw less than 9 minutes of ice time. "It doesn't matter if I play five minutes, I'm just focusing on the next shift. Now it's going in the net so I'm really happy and glad about it. Hopefully it will just keep going this way."

Panik now has a career-high six goals for the season, one more than he scored in 50 games last season for Tampa Bay.

"In the minutes he's played, he's always been unbelievable," Holzer said. "You should watch him in practice, he's got some really, really high skill. He's got some nice moves and he showed them on the goal."

Carlyle also credited Panik's play.

"You know that there is more there," Carlyle said. "Because he's in this (fourth-line) situation right now doesn't mean he's going to stay there. At any given time in the game you can feel comfortable, that you can move that player up if things aren't going the way you like. … He's an interchangeable part and he's a dangerous player."

James van Riemsdyk, Morgan Rielly and Nazem Kadri also scored for Toronto, which has won four straight and is 8-1-1 since a 9-2 home loss to Nashville on Nov. 18. During that time the Leafs have outscored their opponents 41-23.

"That's a pretty good team we beat so I think we're very happy with it," said Rielly.

Niklas Kronwall scored for Detroit and Petr Mrazek had 37 saves. The Red Wings have lost three straight, including a shootout defeat against Florida on Friday night.

"They were a little stronger than us over 60 minutes," Detroit captain Henrik Zetterberg said. "There were too many times when we had the puck under control then they have the puck and it's in our net. We've got to be more poised and take care of the puck a little bit better."

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Rielly extended the lead at 1:42 of the third and Kadri added an empty-netter with 3:14 remaining.

Mrazek made his fourth start of the season — his first career outing against Toronto — as the Wings rested Jimmy Howard after playing Friday. Mrazek, a 22-year-old playing his 15th NHL game, is filling in for the injured Jonas Gustavsson.

James Reimer had been expected to start for Toronto after excelling Wednesday in Detroit but he tweaked his groin in practice. Bernier made his 10th start in 11 games.

Kronwall's power-play goal on a one-time with 4:33 remaining in the first period gave the Red Wings the lead, and the Leafs tied it 60 seconds later on the power play as Phil Kessel's snap shot went in off van Riemsdyk in front of the goal.

Both teams had 12 shots in the first period before Toronto had a 20-5 advantage in the second.

Mrazek made a spectacular save in the second period, flat on his back after stopping Dion Phaneuf's slap shot midway through the period with the Leafs on the power play. The rebound went to Cody Franson and somehow Mrazek got a piece of his body or equipment to the shot to redirect the puck off the post and away.

NOTES: The Wings were without veteran C Stephen Weiss, who left Friday's game with an upper body injury. D Danny DeKeyser was also out after suffering an upper-body injury Wednesday … Saturday's game was the 653rd all-time meeting between the Original Six teams. It was also the 899th game coached by Detroit's Mike Babcock.


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Wings' Stephen Weiss 'day to day' with shoulder injury


Stephen Weiss is back among the injured Detroit Red Wings, just as he'd embedded himself in their lineup.

Weiss suffered a slightly separated shoulder injury Friday, and while it appears it's not as bad as initially thought, a return date is murky.

General manager Ken Holland told the Free Press on Saturday that Weiss is "day to day, but might be like Abby at long end." Justin Abdelkader hasn't played since injuring a shoulder Nov. 30, and so far has missed seven games.

The team should have a better feel for Weiss' recovery time next week. "See how he heals over the next few days," Holland said.

Weiss had only just become the success story the Wings hoped for when they signed him in the summer of 2013. He spent most of last season injured, began this season as a healthy scratch, got injured again, and began another road to recovery. He returned to the lineup Nov. 24 and scored two goals, and then crammed 10 points into 10 games. His return coincided with a team-wide goal binge, as he helped flesh out three legitimate scoring lines.

The Wings could get two healthy bodies back this coming week. Holland said defenseman Danny DeKeyser, who suffered an upper-body injury Wednesday, should be ready to play Tuesday, when the Wings host Columbus. And Abdelkader has engaged in contact practice for the past couple days, so his return would seem to be imminent, too. Abdelkader is on injured reserve, but that move was made solely to make room for Xavier Ouellet to come up and sub in for DeKeyser. If it turns out Weiss can't play Tuesday, he could be put on short-term IR to make room for activating Abdelkader.


15

Red Wings sloppy on defense in loss to Maple Leafs


Toronto — The Red Wings were plenty sloppy and a well-rested Maple Leafs team needed little help, as the Leafs pummeled Petr Mrazek with a huge shot advantage, and won 4-1, on Saturday.

The Red Wings played Friday night, with the game ending about 22 hours before puck drop in Toronto. The Maple Leafs last played Wednesday, when they beat the Wings 2-1 in a shootout despite being outshot 42-19.

Mrazek was the best player for the Wings for long stretches before letting in a leaky goal in the third period that iced the game. But, characteristic of their play throughout the evening, the Red Wings offered their goaltender far too little support on the play, after a disastrous line change left most of them in the neutral zone, and Mike Reilly beat Mrazek just over his left leg pad.

The Leafs also got goals from Richard Panik, who broke in alone on Mrazek after another bad line change and Wings turnover, and James van Riemsdyk.

Van Riemsdyk's goal came on the power play, after a bit of stick carelessness by Joakim Andersson resulted in an inadvertent tripping penalty.

Midway through the third period, the Red Wings were credited with 13 giveaways, while the Leafs had 15 takeaways.

Niklas Kronwall and Brendan Smith both had three giveaways.

Kronwall scored the only goal for the Wings, on a point shot during a power play to give them their only lead at 15:27 of the first period.

That lead lasted precisely one minute, before van Riemsdyk tallied.

Nazem Kadri scored into an empty net for the Leafs' fourth goal, in the fifth and final game between the teams.

Maple Leafs have now won four in a row for the first time this season.


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Wings' Weiss sits against Leafs with injured shoulder

10:24 p.m. EST December 13, 2014

Toronto — The Red Wings arrived in the cold and damp to play the Maple Leafs with some good news.

Forward Stephen Weiss missed Saturday'sgame after injuring his shoulder in Friday's 3-2 shootout loss to the Panthers. Weiss, rejuvenated and scoring in recent games after a two-season-plus bout with injuries, injured the shoulder after careening head-on into the boards Friday. .

But, like Justin Abdelkader's shoulder injury, it is not deemed serious — but one that may take a decent interval of inactivity to heal.

While Abdelkdaer says he is hopeful of returning this week, perhaps as soon as Tuesday, against the Blue Jackets in Detroit, Weiss will know more about his status by then.

After Saturday's game, Weiss said that X-rays determined his shoulder injury is not a major concern, but injured shoulders present a problem for predicting when players may return.

"It's a lot like Abby's situation," Weiss said. "It's not that bad, but we'll take some time and see how it goes."

As for Mike Babcock, he was taking a wait-and-see approach.

"Oh, I have no idea," Babcock said. "I have no idea what his situation is — he'll know better in a few days."

Weiss played only two minutes in the second period, and none of the third, in the shootout loss.

He played the previous nine games, scoring four goals and six assists.

In the 10 games since his return, the Wings were 7-1-2.

Acquired before last season, Weiss was projected as a second-line center, who would allow Pavel Dastyuk and Henrik Zetterberg to play more regularly together, while boosting the Wings offensive performance.

And, regardless of now playing on a wing, Weiss had begun to make a significant contribution.

Daniel Cleary was to take his spot in the lineup against the Leafs, Saturday.

Assessment time

Before the game, Babcock evaluated his team's play, saying the defensive performance is strong and the offensive effort good, too — despite some meager results in recent games.

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"In this five-game segment, we gave up eight goals and then two in the shootout for a total of 10," he said. "So, anyway you look at it, you're trying to eliminate chances.

"We try to see how many chances we are giving up a night and we try to keep that as low as possible."

On the offensive side of the ledger, however, the puck needs to go in the net more, despite some continuing improvement over last season, generally.

"We feel we have the puck way more," he said. "We haven't scored well in the last couple games, probably the last three games. But I'm a big believer that if you get big opportunities, you're going to score.

"You're eventually going to get to the goaltender if you're hard on the net."

Bull's-eye on shootouts

Reporters from Toronto were interested in Babcock's take on the increasingly controversial shootout.

"Well how many years we've been doing it?" he shot back. "How many years have they been in the league? Ten years?

"So, they've been asking me for 10 years, and I give the same answer every time: They don't ask me. They don't care what I think."

Babcock has consistently said that because the decision is up to others, with no input from him, his thoughts would have no impact.

But the reporter took another tack, telling Babcock that Darryl Sutter, the two-time Stanley Cup-winning coach of the Kings and a former player, said in an interview earlier in the day that the shootouts are unfair for goalies and should be out of the league,.

Babcock smiled and said, "Well, I got huge respect for Darryl."

And he left it at that.

Howe popular

A memorabilia distributor set up a table for a silent auction near one of the entrances at Air Canada Centre for the premium ticket holders.

Most of the framed photographs on display featured the same player: Gordie Howe.


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Maple Leafs 4, Red Wings 1: Mistake-prone Detroit runs out of steam in second period

Ansar Khan | on December 13, 2014 at 9:44 PM, updated December 14, 2014 at 2:10 AM

TORONTO - The Detroit Red Wings, playing on back-to-back nights, had only one period's worth of fuel in the tank against the rested Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday.

The Red Wings began to unravel in the second period, and the Maple Leafs pulled away in the third, registering a 4-1 victory at the Air Canada Centre.

It was the rubber match of the five-game season series between these Atlantic Division and Original Six rivals. Toronto won the series 3-2 with their third win a row against Detroit.

Richard Panik snapped a tie with a breakaway goal at 17:50 of the second period and Morgan Reilly added to the lead at 1:42 of the third.

Petr Mrazek was terrific through two periods to keep his team in the game, finishing with 37 saves. He suffered his first loss of the season (3-1).

After the Red Wings pulled Mrazek for the extra skater with 4:13 remaining, Nazem Kadri sealed the win with an empty-net goal with 3:14 to play.

The Red Wings (17-7-7) are winless in three (0-1-2) for only the second time this season (they went 0-1-2 from Nov. 2-5).

The Maple Leafs (17-9-3), seemingly in disarray following a 9-2 loss at home to Nashville on Nov. 18, have gone 8-1-1 since then. This was their fourth win in a row.

Niklas Kronwall's first-period power-play goal was the only scoring for the Red Wings, who scored just one goal in each of their final four games against Toronto.

Following an evenly played opening period in which the teams traded power-play goals, Toronto took over in the second, outshooting the Detroit 20-5.

The Maple Leafs capitalized on a neutral-zone turnover by Tomas Tatar and bad change by the Red Wings. Korbinian Holzer made a nice stretch pass to Panik, all alone at the blue line. He broke in alone, made a nice move and slipped a backhand shot underneath Mrazek.

The Maple Leafs could have broken it open in the period. Mrazek made spectacular saves to rob Peter Holland in the opening minute and James van Riemsdyk on the power play later in the period.

Reilly scored following a neutral-zone giveaway by Tomas Jurco. Reilly fired a wrist shot from the faceoff circle that sailed underneath Mrazek's elbow. No screen, no tip, it was a shot Mrazek should have stopped.

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Jonathan Bernier made 27 saves for the win. He was thrust into the starting role for this game after James Reimer tweaked his groin in practice Friday. Reimer made 41 saves in a 2-1 shootout victory over the Red Wings on Wednesday.

The Red Wings opened the scoring when Kronwall blasted in a one-timer at 15:27 of the first period on a pass from Johan Franzen while Darren Helm provided a screen.

The Leafs responded just one minute later, at 16:27, when Phil Kessel's shot deflected in off of van Riemsdyk, past Mrazek.


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Second-period analysis: Maple Leafs 2, Red Wings 1

Ansar Khan


TORONTO - Playing on back-to-back nights against a rested team caught up to the Detroit Red Wings Saturday during the second period at Air Canada Centre.

The Toronto Maple Leafs dominated territorially, outshooting them 20-5 and took a 2-1 lead on Richard Panik's breakaway goal at 17:50.

The damage would have been much worse for the Red Wings if not for the stellar play of goaltender Petr Mrazek, who's faced 32 shots through 40 minutes.

The Leafs took advantage of a terrible change by the Red Wings. Panik was left open at the blue line, took an outlet pass and made a nice move to slip a backhand shot past Mrazek.


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First-period analysis: Red Wings 1, Maple Leafs 1

Ansar Khan


TORONTO - Hooking up for the fifth and final time this season, the Detroit Red Wings and Toronto Maple Leafs traded power-play goals in the first period of their rubber match at Air Canada Centre.

Niklas Kronwall blasted in a one-timer at 15:27 on a pass from Johan Franzen while Darren Helm provided a screen against Jonathan Bernier.

The Leafs responded just one minute later, at 16:27, when Phil Kessel's shot deflected in off of James van Riemsdyk, past Petr Mrazek.


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Detroit Red Wings Gameday: Petr Mrazek faces Toronto looking to continue strong play on the road

Ansar Khan on December 13, 2014 at 3:02 PM, updated December 13, 2014 at 5:46 PM

GAME INFORMATION

• Who: Detroit Red Wings (17-6-7) vs. Toronto Maple Leafs (16-9-3)

• When: 7 p.m. at Air Canada Centre.

• Live coverage: Join the MLive open thread/live updates at 6 p.m. ET and follow Ansar Khan (@AnsarKhanMLive) and Brendan Savage (@BrendanSavage) on Twitter.

• TV: Fox Sports Detroit

• Radio: WXYT-FM (97.1), WXYT-AM (1270) and Red Wings radio network

GAME NOTES

Young goaltender Petr Mrazek isn't fazed by playing on the road in a hostile environment. He'll be looking to stay undefeated tonight when he leads the Detroit Red Wings into Air Canada Centre against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Mrazek is 3-0, with all three wins coming on the road. In fact, all six of his victories during his brief time in the NHL have come on the road.

He's hoping for a little more support. The Red Wings have scored only one goal in each of their past three games against Toronto, going 1-1-1.

The Maple Leafs are 7-1-1 in their past nine games and are coming off two days' rest. Jonathan Bernier will start in goal, after James Reimer tweaked his groin in Friday's practice. Reimer made 41 saves in a 2-1 shootout victory in Detroit on Wednesday.

The Red Wings are coming off a pair of shootout losses but have gained points in nine of their past 10 games (7-1-2).

• Riley Sheahan has six goals and 11points in his past 14games, after picking up only one goal and five points in the first 16 games.

• The Red Wings have scored two power-play goals in nine of their past 21 games.

• The Red Wings are 1-5 in shootouts this season, getting outscored 9-3. But their lone victory came with Mrazek in goal (5-4 at New Jersey on Nov. 28). Detroit is 8-19 in the shootout since the start of the 2013 season.

• Gustav Nyquist has scored in back-to-back games and leads the team with 14 goals. He is tied for the league lead with eight power-play goals (along with Brock Nelson, Joe Pavelski and Evgeni Malkin).


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Red Wings' Jonas Gustavsson still weeks away; Danny DeKeyser, Justin Abdelkader close to return

Ansar Khan on December 13, 2014 at 2:08 PM, updated December 13, 2014 at 2:15 PM

TORONTO - Detroit Red Wings goaltender Jonas Gustavsson got back on the ice this week in an effort to regain some conditioning and face some easy shots, but he's several weeks away from playing.

Gustavsson was projected to miss about two months when he dislocated his left shoulder on Nov. 5, in a 4-3 overtime loss at the New York Rangers.

He skated Saturday morning with a few teammates at Air Canada Centre.

"I've been on 4-5 times this week; it's more for conditioning and trying to be ready when I'm good to go with my shoulder," Gustavsson said. "I still got some work to do with my shoulder before it's good to go.

"I never had this before and you never really know exactly how long it's going to take. It's probably going to be some more weeks before I can go 100 percent."

He's not at the stage where he can test his shoulder.

"All I can do is just skate and maybe get some pucks that hit me more than I try to glove save them," Gustavsson said. "Today was the first time I actually got some shots that were in the mid-area. Maybe get some more drills where it's situations where shooters have a chance to score than just sliding (pucks) along the ice.

DeKeyser, Abdelkader hopeful for Tuesday

Defenseman Danny DeKeyser (upper-body injury) said he felt good after skating on Saturday and hopes to return Tuesday at home against Columbus.

He was injured midway through Wednesday's 2-1 shootout loss to Toronto but finished the game.

"It was in the second period, just took a hit and didn't feel right," DeKeyser said. "I just kind of got my head banged a little bit."

Justin Abdelkader, out since Nov. 30 with a slight shoulder separation, is getting closer to returning.

"Keep getting treatment, keep improving and shooting for Tuesday," Abdelkader said.


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Detroit Red Wings' Stephen Weiss out at least a few days with shoulder injury, but not long term

Ansar Khan


TORONTO - Detroit Red Wings forward Stephen Weiss said his injury is similar to the slight shoulder separation that has kept teammate Justin Abdelkader sidelined for two weeks.

Weiss, however, hopes to return sooner. All he knows is he won't in the lineup tonight against the Toronto Maple Leafs at Air Canada Centre (7 p.m., Fox Sports Detroit).

"Pretty sore today," Weiss said. "Might be a few days. Took X-rays last night. Nothing broken, so that's all positive."

Weiss was injured with less than two minutes to play in the second period of Friday's 3-2 shootout loss to the Florida Panthers, when he tumbled into the boards following a check from Sean Bergenheim.

"I think it's sort of similar to Abby's (injury), hopefully not as bad as Abby's," Weiss said. "Something like that (slight separation). Little bit of a jolt to the AC joint.

"These are tough to really put a time line on. It's kind of just how it recovers, how sore it is. Once you get through that stage and start moving it again, then ready to go."

He said of the hit from his former Panthers teammate Bergenheim: "I know Bergie, I know he's not trying to hit me from behind. I wanted to initiate the contact a little bit earlier and I did sort of turn a little bit right when he bumped me. I just lost my balance. I think partially a little bit my fault, too."

Still, it's a big disappointment for Weiss, who has been playing his best hockey in more than two seasons. He had 10 points (four goals, six assists) in his first seven games back following a groin pull, before being held scoreless the past three games.

"It's brutal," Weiss said. "But it's part of the game. Something that probably could have been avoided. I was pretty down this morning when I woke up, how sore it was. But it won't keep me down. Staying at it and be ready to go when I'm ready."

Here are the Red Wings' anticipated lines and defense pairs for tonight:

Gustav Nyquist-Henrik Zetterberg-Tomas Jurco

Tomas Tatar-Pavel Datsyuk-Darren Helm

Johan Franzen-Riley Sheahan-Daniel Cleary

Drew Miller-Luke Glendening-Joakim Andersson

Justin Abdelkader (shoulder) and Stephen Weiss (shoulder) out.

On defense:

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Niklas Kronwall-Jonathan Ericsson

Brendan Smith-Kyle Quincey

Xavier Ouellet-Brian Lashoff

Jakub Kindl (healthy scratch)

Danny DeKeyser (upper-body injury) out

In goal:

Petr Mrazek (starting)

Jimmy Howard


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Red Wings, goalie Jimmy Howard remain frustrated by shootout woes

Michael Niziolek

on December 13, 2014 at 5:30 AM

DETROIT -- The frustration was easy to see on Jimmy Howard's face as the goalie sat by his locker following a 3-2 shootout loss to the Florida Panthers on Friday night.

The Detroit Red Wings (17-6-7) suffered a second straight shootout loss, dropping the team's record in tiebreakers on the season to 1-5.

"It's frustrating, it really is," Howard said. "We keep having meeting after meeting after meeting about it. We work on it in practice. Just going to have to stick with it."

Howard has been on the losing end of all five of the Red Wings' shootout losses. He's allowed nine goals on 12 shots, and is at the bottom of the NHL in shootout save percentage.

In Friday's loss, Vincent Trocheck and Brandon Pirri scored the Panthers' shootout goals against Howard.

Trocheck managed to find a small opening between Howard's skate and the left post. Howard was down on the ice, and nearly had the entire net blocked doing the splits.

When Howard was asked if he thought he had Trocheck's shot blocked, he shook his head.

"I didn't think I bit on either one of their moves, I stayed with them, but somehow it still went in," Howard said.

Red Wings coach Mike Babcock reiterated that he thinks his team's shootout struggles are all mental at this point.

"That's what it is," Babcock said. "Right now when we get to the shootout we're not a confident group so we just got to keep working on it. There's no sense in hanging our head, or getting disappointed."

But Howard wasn't sure what to pin the team's overall struggles in shootouts on.

"I don't know," Howard said. "I don't know what to say to you guys about it."


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Panik, Bernier lead Maple Leafs past Red Wings

By The Associated Press

Posted: 12/13/14, 11:07 PM EST |

TORONTO (AP) — Richard Panik scored the go-ahead goal and Jonathan Bernier stopped 27 shots to help the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Detroit Red Wings for the second time in four days, 4-1 on Saturday night.

James van Riemsdyk, Morgan Rielly and Nazem Kadri also scored for Toronto, which won 2-1 in a shootout at Detroit on Wednesday night despite being outshot 42-19 in that game.

The Maple Leafs have won four straight and are 8-1-1 since a 9-2 home loss to Nashville on Nov. 18. During that time they have outscored their opponents 41-23.


Panik put the Leafs up 2-1 with 2:10 remaining in the second period. Defenseman Korbinian Holzer found Panik all alone with a long pass after a Detroit turnover in the Toronto end and the fourth-liner beat Mrazek between the legs with a gorgeous breakaway move for his sixth of the season.


Mrazek made his fourth start of the season — his first career outing against Toronto — as the Wings rested Jimmy Howard after playing Friday. Mrazek, a 22-year-old playing his 15th NHL game, is filling in for the injured Jonas Gustavsson.


Kronwall’s power-play goal on a one-time with 4:33 remaining in the first period gave the Red Wings the lead, and the Leafs tied it 60 seconds later on the power play as Phil Kessel’s snap shot went in off van Riemsdyk in front of the goal.


NOTES: The Wings were without veteran C Stephen Weiss, who left Friday’s game with an upper body injury. D Danny DeKeyser was also out after suffering an upper-body injury Wednesday .. Saturday’s game was the 653rd all-time meeting between the Original Six teams. It was also the 899th game coached by Detroit’s Mike Babcock.


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Wings downed by Maple Leafs, 4-1

AP

DEC 13, 2014 10:05p ET

TORONTO -- Three days after winning at Detroit while getting outplayed by the Red Wings, the Toronto Maple Leafs were better in the rematch and won again.

Richard Panik scored the go-ahead goal and Jonathan Bernier stopped 27 shots to help the Maple Leafs beat the Red Wings 4-1 on Saturday night.

Toronto won 2-1 in a shootout on Wednesday night in a game Detroit had a 42-19 advantage on shots. This time, the Leafs outshot the Red Wings 41-28.

"We were more energetic," Toronto coach Randy Carlyle said of his team's latest win.

That included Panik, whose goal coming off the bench gave Toronto a 2-1 lead with 2:10 remaining in the second period. Defenseman Korbinian Holzer found Panik all alone with a long pass after a Detroit turnover in the Toronto end and the 23-year-old Slovak beat Petr Mrazek between the legs with a gorgeous breakaway move.

"I'm just trying my best every shift," said Panik, who saw less than 9 minutes of ice time. "It doesn't matter if I play five minutes, I'm just focusing on the next shift. Now it's going in the net so I'm really happy and glad about it. Hopefully it will just keep going this way."

Panik now has a career-high six goals for the season, one more than he scored in 50 games last season for Tampa Bay.

"In the minutes he's played, he's always been unbelievable," Holzer said. "You should watch him in practice, he's got some really, really high skill. He's got some nice moves and he showed them on the goal."

Carlyle also credited Panik's play.

"You know that there is more there," Carlyle said. "Because he's in this (fourth-line) situation right now doesn't mean he's going to stay there. At any given time in the game you can feel comfortable, that you can move that player up if things aren't going the way you like. ... He's an interchangeable part and he's a dangerous player."

James van Riemsdyk, Morgan Rielly and Nazem Kadri also scored for Toronto, which has won four straight and is 8-1-1 since a 9-2 home loss to Nashville on Nov. 18. During that time the Leafs have outscored their opponents 41-23.

"That's a pretty good team we beat so I think we're very happy with it," said Rielly.


"They were a little stronger than us over 60 minutes," Detroit captain Henrik Zetterberg said. "There were too many times when we had the puck under control then they have

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the puck and it's in our net. We've got to be more poised and take care of the puck a little bit better."


Mrazek made his fourth start of the season -- his first career outing against Toronto -- as the Wings rested Jimmy Howard after playing Friday. Mrazek, a 22-year-old playing his 15th NHL game, is filling in for the injured Jonas Gustavsson.


Kronwall's power-play goal on a one-time with 4:33 remaining in the first period gave the Red Wings the lead, and the Leafs tied it 60 seconds later on the power play as Phil Kessel's snap shot went in off van Riemsdyk in front of the goal.


Mrazek made a spectacular save in the second period, flat on his back after stopping Dion Phaneuf's slap shot midway through the period with the Leafs on the power play. The rebound went to Cody Franson and somehow Mrazek got a piece of his body or equipment to the shot to redirect the puck off the post and away.

NOTES: The Wings were without veteran C Stephen Weiss, who left Friday's game with an upper body injury. D Danny DeKeyser was also out after suffering an upper-body injury Wednesday ... Saturday's game was the 653rd all-time meeting between the Original Six teams. It was also the 899th game coached by Detroit's Mike Babcock.

foxsports.com LOADED: 12.14.2014

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Notes: Wings injury report

DANA WAKIJI

DEC 13, 2014 5:31p ET

Stephen Weiss left the Wings' game Friday at the end of the second period with a shoulder injury.

Although they're injured, several Red Wings traveled with the team to Toronto, even though they won't play in Saturday night's game.

Stephen Weiss, who left at the end of the second period with a shoulder injury after consecutive hits by Dave Bolland and Sean Bergenheim, did not skate.

"Took X rays (Friday) night," Weiss told reporters in Toronto. "Nothing broken, so that's all positive. Pretty sore today. We'll see. I won't be playing tonight. Might be a few days."

Weiss said it was similar to the slight shoulder separation Justin Abdelkader suffered Nov. 30 against Vancouver but he hoped it wasn't as serious.

"These are tough to really put a timeline on," Weiss said. "It's kind of just how it recovers, how sore it is. Once you get through that stage and start moving it again, then ready to go."

Weiss did not blame Bergenheim for the injury.

"I know Bergie, I know he's not trying to hit me from behind," Weiss said. "I wanted to initiate the contact a little bit earlier and I did sort of turn a little bit right when he bumped me. I just lost my balance. I know Bergie's not going to hit me from behind. I think partially a little bit my fault, too."

After missing the bulk of last season with two different core muscle surgeries and several games with a groin injury early this season, this was the last thing Weiss needed.

"It's brutal," Weiss said. "But again, it's part of the game. Something that probably could have been avoided. It's disappointing. I was pretty down this morning when I woke up, how sore it was. But it won't keep me down. Staying at it and be ready to go when I'm ready."

Abdelkader has been practicing without the gray, non-contact jersey this week but is not quite ready to go.

"Keep getting treatment, keep improving and shooting for Tuesday," Abdelkader told reporters in Toronto. "It's hard to say now on Saturday. I'm hoping so, it's getting better."

Defenseman Danny DeKeyser, who was on the wrong end of one of Toronto's 30 hits this past Wednesday, is also hoping to return Tuesday.

"Skated today and I feel good," DeKeyser told reporters in Toronto.

DeKeyser said the hit he took happened in the second period.

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"Just took a hit and didn't feel right after it," DeKeyser said. "I still finished (the game). I just kind of got my head banged a little bit."

Goaltender Jonas Gustavsson, who suffered a dislocated left shoulder Nov. 5 on the New York Rangers' game-winning goal in overtime, was also in Toronto.

"I've been on 4-5 times maybe, a week or so," Gustavsson told reporters in Toronto. "It's more for conditioning and trying to be ready when I'm good to go with my shoulder, to be ready as quick as possible. I still got some work to do with my shoulder before it's good to go."

When the injury first happened, doctors estimated it would be at least two months for Gustavsson to return.

He said he's still weeks, rather than days, away.

"It's tough to go to the next stage before you can use your shoulder the way you need to," Gustavsson said. "So right now all I can do it just skate and maybe get some pucks on me that hit me more than I try to glove save them and stuff like that. Before I can take that next step I feel like maybe I need to be good in my shoulder and the next step is going 100 percent."

Gustavsson participated in some drills Saturday and said it was the first time he took shots in the mid area.

"They said it was fine," Gustavsson said. "It's not like I'm going to take one-timer slap shots up here tomorrow. Maybe get some more drills where it's more situations where the shooters have a chance to score than just sliding (pucks) along the ice. Maybe do more stuff like that and then the better the shoulder feels, the more I can use that arm and actually to do the saves with the arm instead of being big and let the puck hit me."


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Wings, Leafs face off in final meeting this season

JACK CASSIDY

AP

DEC 13, 2014 10:51a ET

Detroit took the first two meetings against Toronto this season to stretch its win streak in the series to four.

The Toronto Maple Leafs have not been entirely pleased with their play of late. They have, however, been pleased with the results.

The Maple Leafs look for their first four-game win streak of the season Saturday night when they host the Detroit Red Wings in the teams' fifth and final meeting this season.

James Reimer made 41 saves and Phil Kessel scored his fourth goal in five games to lead Toronto to a 2-1 shootout win at Detroit on Wednesday, despite being outshot 42-19.

"There's lots of different recipes to win," James van Riemsdyk said. "It's not just a black and white game where you outshoot the other team and automatically win. That's not how this game works.

"There are many other factors - goaltending, goal scoring, power play, penalty kill - different things where you've got to find a way to win games."

Kessel's ability to find the net may be one of those factors, and his current trend of production bodes well for the Maple Leafs (16-9-3) moving forward. Toronto is 10-2-1 this season when Kessel scores.

"We need a couple bounces here or there, but we're winning. That's the most important," Kessel said. "We're working hard. We're doing the little things right."

Reimer, who had not played since Nov. 18 before Wednesday, will likely sit again Saturday in favor of Jonathan Bernier, who is 6-1-1 with a 2.50 goals-against average in his last eight starts. He is 1-0-1 with a 0.96 GAA in two this season against Detroit.

Detroit (17-6-7) enters this contest coming off a second consecutive shootout loss, 3-2 to Florida on Friday. The Red Wings have picked up eight of a possible 10 points in their last five games (3-0-2).

"Right now, when we get to the shootout we're not a confident group so we've just got to keep working on it," coach Mike Babcock said. "No sense hanging our heads or getting disappointed."

Jimmy Howard made 24 saves through overtime before falling to 0-5 in shootouts this season. Howard, though, is 5-1-2 with a 2.34 GAA in his last eight starts.

After going scoreless on the power play in the previous three contests, the Red Wings tallied twice with the man advantage Friday. They are 11 for 38 on the power play (28.9 percent) over the past 10 games.

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"They're good," Kessel said of the Red Wings. "You watch them play, they skate, they work, they got good defense and they got a good goaltender. Every night you play them, it's a tough game."

Detroit took the first two meetings against Toronto this season to stretch its win streak in the series to four before the Maple Leafs claimed a 4-1 victory at home on Nov. 22.

Henrik Zetterberg has six points in the season series, including a four-assist performance in Detroit's 4-1 win at Air Canada Centre on Oct. 17. He has 16 points in 13 career games against the Maple Leafs.


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Wings' Weiss injures shoulder, severity to be determined

By Helene St. James, Detroit Free Press 12:18 a.m. EST December 13, 2014

Detroit Red Wings forward Stephen Weiss suffered a shoulder injury Friday night, but the severity of it won't be known until Saturday.

Weiss was injured during the second period, and didn't return to play in the 3-2 shootout loss to Florida at Joe Louis Arena.

After the game, coach Mike Babcock said Weiss had a shoulder injury, and "he's out."

Shortly afterwards, general manager Ken Holland told the Free Press that that might not be the case. "I just talked to the team doctor," Holland said. "He told me Weiss is going to Toronto, see how he feels tomorrow."

The Wings play today at Toronto.

Babcock said he'd use Daniel Cleary to offset the expected loss of Weiss, and also insert reserve defenseman Brian Lashoff back into the lineup. Petr Mrazek will get the start.

If the injury to Weiss turns out to be extended, the Wings may also look at putting him on IR, and activating Justin Abdelkader. Abdelkader has been out since Nov. 30, but has been through contact practices for the past few days. He was put on IR to make room for Xavier Ouellet, who is filling in for Danny DeKeyser.

Weiss has only just become a factor for the Wings after spending most of last season injured. He's already contributed four goals and six assists in the nine games he's played since returning from injury in November.


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Red Wings' Ouellet gets chance with DeKeyser out


There's a comfort level with Xavier Ouellet that leaves Mike Babcock worry-free even as he has to rely on a 21-year-old defenseman.

Ouellet is back in town for an encore performance with the Detroit Red Wings while Danny DeKeyser recovers from an upper-body injury. It looks to be a short stint, as general manager Ken Holland told the Free Press DeKeyser could be ready to play next Tuesday.

Ouellet played nearly 19 minutes in Friday's 3-2 shootout loss to Florida at Joe Louis Arena, including logging minutes in overtime and killing penalties.

"He's a good hockey player," Babcock said. "He competes hard, he doesn't make a lot of mistakes. He was good."

Ouellet scored his first NHL goal when he was up from Grand Rapids in November, and also had an assist during that five-game span. That's making for an easy transition in his re-appearance.

"I feel really good," he said Friday. "I felt good last time I was here. I've got to be consistent and play the same game I played when I was here last time."

As for jumping from the AHL, where he's a standout, to the NHL, Ouellet said the biggest difference is "the game is more structured, and one-on-one battles, guys are strong and they have experience with all these little tricks. So for me, it's just to play the same game, play strong, and make sure I do everything right."

Part of Ouellet's appeal is that he's got a knack for getting the puck going, which forwards appreciate. "He's really skilled at coming out from piles with the puck and making plays, stuff like that, and that's something we really need," Johan Franzen said. "He's impressed me a lot."

Riley Sheahan, not that long ago a teammate of Ouellet's with the Griffins, also spoke of Ouellet's mobility. "The biggest thing that I notice," Sheahan said, "is when he's going back to get the puck, he's always making a play with it. He's just really comfortable and confident. I think he'll help us a lot."

The ultimate vote of confidence, of course, comes from Babcock, who opted to use Ouellet over reserve NHL defenseman Brian Lashoff. That's because Babcock sees Ouellet as giving the Wings a better shot at success. "I think his brain is his asset," Babcock said. "He's just got good hockey sense, knows how to play, defends, competes, is good defensively, can penalty kill, can play on the power play. When you look at him, he wouldn't necessarily be a combine player or a scout player - 6-foot-4, 240, skate like the wind. He's just a hockey player. He's got good sense, knows how to play."

Saturday: Maple Leafs

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Matchup: Red Wings (17-6-6 entering Friday) at Toronto (16-9-3).

Face-off: 7, Air Canada Centre.

TV/radio: FSD, CBC; WXYT-FM (97.1), WXYT-AM (1270).


37

Florida 3, Detroit 2 (SO): Why the Red Wings lost


In the first period:

Dmitry Kulikov went for tripping Pavel Datsyukk at 3:43. The Wings converted at 5:03, when Datsyuk sent a puck into the crease where Riley Sheahan forwarded it into the net. Tomas Fleischmann scored at 7:10, when he whipped Sean Bergenheim's pass behind Jimmy Howard from the slot.. Johan Franzen went for tripping at 9:42. Jonathan Huberdeau took advantage of a loose puck in a scrum to swipe it through traffic for a 2-1 lead at 13:55. Franzen went to the box again at 15:02. The Wings went on another power play at 17:23. Gustav Nyquist converted with one second left, spinning around to send a backhand deep for a 2-2 game. Shots were 15-12 to Florida.

In the second period:

Howard made a good save on Nick Bjugstad less than a minute in. The Panthers had a 20-14 shot advantage when they went on a power play at 7:26 after Tomas Jurco was called for tripping. It was still 20-14 at 10:19 when Aaron Ekblad was called for high-sticking. Franzen ripped a slap shot from the right point that was blocked. Henrik Zetterberg just missed on a rebound. Sheahan shot wide on a rush with seconds to go. Shots were 21-18 to Florida.

In the third period:

A scuffle broke out between Jakub Kindl and Vincent Trocheck, and Kindl ended up in the box for cross-checking and interference, sending Florida on a four-minute power play. The Wings got their fourth power play at 9:42. Niklas Kronwall had the best chance, firing a shot along the ice only to see Luongo block it with his stick. The Panthers called a timeout with 4:08 remaining. Shots were 27-25 to Detroit.

In shootout:

Pavel Datsyuk sent a forehand wide. Vincent Trocheck sent the puck around Jimmy Howard's left leg. Gustav Nyquist slowed down and basically lost the puck. Brandon Pirri also scored.

Z says:

Henrik Zetterberg said the power play "was a positive. We're doing a lot of good things, and special teams is one of them. I think we prepare good, coaches prepare us good, and when we get a chance now on a power play, we find a way to score. And PK is shutting everything down."


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Shootout stings Red Wings again in 3-2 loss to Panthers


The overall performance was better, good enough, anyway, to yield one point.

The Detroit Red Wings hosted the Florida Panthers Friday at Joe Louis Arena, and ended up losing in a shootout, 3-2, to a team that had just as poor a record in the skills event as the Wings.

"I don't think it should have gone to overtime," Henrik Zetterberg said. "Once again, we had a lot of chances. Got to put the puck in net. We're good players in here. We should be able to score."

Jimmy Howard was critical after allowing shootout goals to Vincent Trocheck and Brandon Pirri, leaving Howard with just two saves on 11 shots faced this season. "It's frustrating," he said. "It's extremely frustrating."

The Wings dropped to 1-5 in shootouts this season, as stymied in saves as in scoring. This time, Pavel Datsyuk and Gustav Nyquist both failed to convert.

Mike Babcock on the 3-2 shootout loss to Florida. Helene St. James, Detroit Free Press

Nyquist and Riley Sheahan both converted on power plays as the Wings picked up points in nine of their last 10 games. Stephen Weiss missed half the game after suffering a shoulder injury.

The Wings departed for Toronto, where they play Saturday, feeling not nearly as bad as after their game with the Panthers 10 days ago, when the Wings put on an embarrassing performance in a 4-3 loss.

"They're a good team," coach Mike Babcock said. "There was not a lot of room out there. I thought we had the better scoring chances in the third period. But the bottom line is they won the shootout, so they get the two points.

"Right now, when we get to the shootout, we're not a confident group. We understand we're affected by it mentally right now."

It looked like the Wings were going to fare better when Sheahan dumped Pavel Datsyuk's rebound behind Roberto Luongo during an early Detroit power play. But Tomas Fleischmann and Jonathan Huberdeau had pulled the Panthers into the lead by the 14-minute mark, Fleischman with a clean shot from the slot and Huberdeau through a traffic jam by the crease.

The power play saved the Wings from trailing after 20. With one second left on Detroit's second man advantage, Nyquist was off balance and falling over but still managed to flick a backhand for his 14th goal of the season.

Jimmy Howard talks after shootout loss to Florida. Helene St. James, Detroit Free Press

The Wings lacked pace to start the second period, but were rejuvenated during a third power play that led to better sustained attack, even as the Wings struggled with

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giveaways. Luke Glendening had a good chance after he glided to the crease, but his shot went up and over.

Denting Luongo again didn't get any easier when a reckless play from Jakub Kindl led to a four-minute Florida power play early in the third period. The Wings killed it off, and used their own power play to try to break the tie. Niklas Kronwall tried a low shot that deflected out off Luongo's stick, as the proceeded to out-chance and out-shoot the Panthers through regulation.


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Gordie Howe 'getting better,' Mark Howe says


Hockey legend Gordie Howe, true to his playing spirit, is recovering after a scary incident 11 days ago.

Son Mark Howe told the Free Press on Friday that, "he's getting better. He's on the upswing."

Gordie Howe, 86, suffers from dementia and has endured a series of strokes since summer. He suffered a serious one in October, and family feared he was going through another serious stroke Dec. 1, when he was unresponsive for 30 minutes. He was rushed to hospital, where tests revealed he was dehydrated.

Gordie Howe since has been released from hospital and is back at the home of his daughter, Cathy, at her family's house in Lubbock, Texas.

Mark Howe, who is at the Detroit Red Wings game tonight against the Florida Panthers in his role as a Wings scout, said that's been key to his father's recovery, as new surroundings makes his dementia worse.

"Marty and Murray have been down there about two weeks," Mark Howe said of his two brothers. "We're starting to finally get positive news after one month of negative news, so it's good."


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Plymouth Whalers: Too early to talk about relocation

Detroit Free Press Staff 5:59 p.m. EST December 12, 2014

The Plymouth Whalers want to hit the brakes on any talks of relocation – for now.

"The (Compuware Arena) transaction is still in its early stages and, therefore, it is too soon to speculate if the Whalers will be relocating in the future or about any potential relocation cities," Whalers governor Mike Vellucci said Friday in a statement. "Currently we are in the stage of simply identifying available and viable markets should we need to relocate the Whalers in the future. As part of the process, we intend to explore all options and work with the Ontario Hockey League, which will be required to approve any potential relocation."

"Make no mistake, (Plymouth Whalers owner) Peter Karmanos, who for the last 30 years has been one of junior hockey's strongest supporters, remains committed to the Whalers' organization."

Two weeks after the Whalers announced they were selling Compuware Arena to USA Hockey, Karmanos told ESPN.com's Craig Custance this week he's targeting Chatham, Ontario, as a new home for the Whalers. Chatham is 75 miles east of Plymouth.

"It was continually a battle to break even (in Plymouth), no matter how good we did as a team," Karmanos told Custance.


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Watch out, NHL goaltenders, Johan Franzen hates you


No Christmas cards for you, NHL goaltenders.

Forward Johan Franzen was asked about the play of teammate Jimmy Howard when something revealing came to light after the Detroit Red Wings' morning skate today.

"I hate goalies," Franzen said. "I don't want to talk about goalies. Seriously, with all my heart. All goalies."

OK, at this point, Franzen was laughing. Of course he doesn't really hate his own goalies. But who does he hate the most?

"The one who saves the most," he said. (Watch your back, Michael Hutchinson of Winnipeg, who leads the NHL with a .941 save percentage.)

And for real about Howard? "Is his (save percentage) up there now, this year? Then I hate him."

Finally, after all this, Franzen thought of something nice to say about Howard: "He gives us a chance to win."


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Wings swear they've learned their lesson from Panthers


The last time the Florida Panthers were in town, the Detroit Red Wings responded with one of their worst games of the season.

Tonight offers a chance for redemption, as the Wings host Florida at Joe Louis Arena (7:30, FSD). Ten days ago, the Wings lost, 4-3, after trailing by three goals.

"I remember they protected their net pretty good," Wings forward Johan Franzen said. "It was tough to get in there. We had a pretty bad start, I think, so hopefully, we learned something from that and come out a little sharper and make it a little harder on them."

The Panthers have gone 1-1-1 since last playing Detroit, most recently losing in St. Louis.

"They work hard and they skate and compete and they make you be focused and start on time and skate," coach Mike Babcock said after the morning skate. "We weren't good last game, and I'm not trying to take anything away from them, because they worked. They were better than us. They'd lost to Columbus the night before, and they were disappointed in how they played. We were disappointed in how we played. Let's see how we do, then."

The only change to the lineup is Xavier Ouellet subbing in for Danny DeKeyser, who is out with an upper-body injury. Babcock said he would pair Ouellet with Jakub Kindl. Up front, the lines are Henrik Zetterberg with Gustav Nyquist and Tomas Jurco, Pavel Datsyuk with Darren Helm and Tomas Tatar, Riley Sheahan with Stephen Weiss and Franzen, and Luke Glendening with Drew Miller and Joakim Andersson.

The last Florida game was the only hiccup in an otherwise excellent stretch that has seen the Wings produce copiously and amass 15 points in nine games.

The key to adding more tonight is, "we've got to skate them and get through the neutral zone quick and get the puck in deep," Sheahan said. "With our offensive abilities, if we have the puck in their zone as much as possible, then we'll be good."


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Gordie Howe showing signs of improvement, son says

Gregg KrupaThe Detroit News 12:13 a.m. EST December 13, 2014

Detroit — Red Wings’ great Gordie Howe, stricken with a serious stroke and a minor one in the past six weeks is improving under the care of his family in Texas, according to his son Mark.

“Both of my brothers have been down in Texas for a couple of weeks, now, and I’m getting some positive feedback,” said Howe, the Red Wings’ chief pro scout, who like his father played for the Wings and is a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame.

“He had his stroke, and he was showing signs of getting better for a couple of weeks. And then, he’s been going downhill for about a month.”

Howe suffered a setback recently, but it was diagnosed as dehydration, and he was released from a hospital after what turned out to be a brief stay.

“Since we got him out of the hospital and got him back home, he’s been eating better and drinking better,” his son said. “He’s been wanting to do his therapy and stuff, again

“So, I’m getting a lot of positive signs, and that’s music to my ears, and I’m excited about it.”

Well-wishes from around the hockey world have poured in since the news of Howe’s illness emerged.

“It was a really tough month on all of us,” Mark Howe said. “I know dad’s still got a lot of fight in him, and some things have gone in a positive direction.”


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Missed chances doom Wings in shootout loss to Panthers

Gregg Krupa, The Detroit News 1:53 a.m. EST December 13, 2014

Detroit — For a second straight game, the Red Wings played well enough to win in regulation only to lose in the shootout, this time against the Panthers 3-2.

Helped considerably by the goaltending of Roberto Luongo, who was outstanding at several junctures, as well as the Wings' failure to finish multiple scoring chances, the Panthers won their fourth consecutive game at Joe Louis Arena since the start of last season.

"When you come that far, you want to get two points," Henrik Zetterberg said. "And we can't get through a shootout.

"Obviously, it's tough. I don't think it should have gone to an overtime.

"Once again, we had a lot of chances," said Zetterberg, "We've got to put the puck in the net.

"We had some good power plays, and created a lot of chances. The penalty kill was outstanding, again. Howie was good in net.

"We can't expect to win games, if we only score two goals. We've got to score more.

Zetterberg picked up his 21st assist on the Wings' second goal by Gustav Nyquist. But he went without a goal for the 21st time in 23 games, dating to Oct. 25.

As for the shootout, Mike Babcock said earlier in the week that the Red Wings problem is entirely mental, and there was vastly more evidence of it, Friday.

Both Panthers' shooters scored, despite Jimmy Howard getting almost all of the first shot, by Brandon Pirri, before it trickled by him. But Vincent Trocheck, a product of the Little Caesars amateur as well as the Saginaw Spirit and the Plymouth Whalers of the OHL , beat Howard easily on the second one.

Pirri had three goals in 12 games and Trocheck two in 17, entering the game.

Pavel Dastsyuk failed in the initial attempt for the Wings, and then Nyquist has the puck roll off his stick as he approached Luongo on the second chance.

It quickly conjured the memory of the NHL decided recently to end the "dry scrape" of the ice with a Zamboni in favor of skaters hand shoveling. Ice surfaces are bound to be less playable as a result.

Despite the loss in overtime, the point put the Wings in a tie with Steve Yzerman's Lightning and kept them a point a head of the Canadiens, who clobbered the Kings with an offensive outburst, last night.

"Well, you want to get the extra point, for sure," Mike Babcock said. "But we did a lot of good things.

"They're a good team for sure. There's not a lot of room out there.

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"I thought we had the better of the scoring chances in the third period. Luongo made two great saves on the power play"

Reminded that he had termed problems in the shootout more about thinking than playing, Babcock said the Wings' paltry performance Friday only added weight to the assertion.

"I mean, you watched it tonight. That's what it is," he said.

"Right now, when we get to the shootout, we're not a confident group. So, we've just got to keep working on it."

It is all beginning to sound a bit like group counseling.

"There's no sense hanging our head or getting disappointed," Babcock said. "We've talked about it. We understand that we're affected by it mentally, right now.

"Let's fight through it, and find a way to win one."

The Wings also lost a third player to an upper body injury. Stephen Weiss left the game after two periods, did not return and Babcock said he is "out" against the Maple Leafs, in Toronto, today.

Babcock said he would play Daniel Cleary and Brian Lashoff, against the Leafs, and Petr Mrazek in goal.

The Red Wings started strong, then hit a lull offensively and defensively in the first period.

Riley Sheahan opened the scoring with the seventh goal of this rookie season at 5:03 as the Wings added to their invigorated performance on the power playthis season.

Sheahan gathered a rebound from a hard shot by Datsyuk, off of Luongo's left leg pad, and wristed it in.

Tomas Tatar also assisted.

For the next several minutes, the Wings played mostly in their zone and didn't have a shot on goal while the Panthers got seven on Howard.

"I didn't think we looked to great in the first," Nyquist told Fox Sports Detroit, between periods.

"We didn't help our D. We got caught down low a couple of times. We didn't win battles in our own zone, so we couldn't get the puck out."

The Panthers first scored at 7:10 when Tomas Fleischmann, whom the Red Wings drafted in the second round in 2002, before dealing him to Washington for Robert Lang, converted a nifty pass from Sean Bergenheim, for his third goal of the season.

Then, at 13:55 Jonathan Huberdeau scored his third of the season, from Nick Bjugstad.

Florida built up a considerable shot advantage, before the Red Wings began to tilt the ice, late in the period.

With just two seconds left in a tripping penalty to Brandon Pirri, and only 39 left in the period, Nyquist used his body against Fleischmann to seize the puck directly in front of

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Luongo. And then, Nyquist whipped a hot backhander into the net for his 14th goal of the season and league-leading eighth power play goal.

Fleischmann said it was important for the Panthers to avoid the penalty box, with the Red Wings power play utterly rejuvenated since the start of the season — and, indeed, much of the previous two seasons, with the loss of key "quarterbacks," like Nicklas Lidstrom and Brian Rafalski.

"We can't get penalties," Fleischmann told Fox Sports Florida, between periods. "And you can see the two power plays they had. They got two goals on them.

"It's something we have to work on."

It was the ninth of 30 games played this season, in which the Wings scored two power play goals.

The teams played a scoreless, much more tight-checking, second period, when the shots were six for each side.

The third period, in which the Wings killed a double-minor to Jakub Kindl, for interference and cross-checking, also was scoreless. The Red Wings regained the advantage in shots, with a 9-4 performance in the final frame of regulation.

The Wings also outshot the Panthers 4-1 in the overtime, which they dominated offensively without scoring.


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Red Wings surging but looking for payback vs. Panthers


Detroit – The Red Wings are 9-1-1 in their last 11 and the big blemish in regulation was a 4-3 loss to the Panthers, who have played them well in recent games.

"They've been good," Mike Babcock said. "They work hard and they skate and compete. They make you be focused and start on time and skate and compete."

The Wings and Panthers meet Friday night at 7:30 p.m. at Joe Louis Arena (FSD, 97.1).

"We weren't good the last time," Babcock said. "I'm not trying to take anything away from them, because they were – they were better than us. They'd lost to Columbus the night before or two nights earlier, and they were disappointed in how they played.

"We were disappointed in how we played (the Panthers). Let's see what we do with it."

'He knows how to play'

After Danny DeKeyser joined Justin Abdelkader in the ranks of the injured, the Red Wings called up Xavier Ouellet, again.

Injuries have occurred this season with some regularity, with Pavel Datsyuk, Stephen Weiss, Brendan Smith, Jonas Gustavsson and others missing time.

But with 57 man games lost to injury, through the start of play Friday, the Wings are considerably healthier than the 93 games they had lost, through 29 contests, last season.

DeKeyser (upper body) and Abdelkader (shoulder) were not expected to play this weekend. Abdelkader said he might return during the middle of the coming week.

The injuries provide another chance for an increasingly familiar face. Ouellet had a couple of good games, after returning to Grand Rapids, with the Griffins.

In five games with the Red Wings, Nov. 20-28, he had a goal, an assist and was plus-3.

It is not so much the offense or the defense, for right now, however, with Ouellet. It is the wisdom on the ice – his "hockey intelligence" – that impresses the watchful.

"I think his brain is his asset," Babcock said. "He knows how to play. I haven't even talked to X. He's just here, he's playing and we expect him to play well for us."

Ouellet, 21, was to play in his ninth career game Friday night.

"It feels good, obviously, like every time. It's exciting for me," said the native of Bayonne, France, who was raised in Terrebonne, Quebec.

Ouellet's father, Robert, played professionally in France and Germany.

"I've got to be consistent and play the same game I played when I was here, the last time," Ouellet said.


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Red Wings' Stephen Weiss out Saturday due to shoulder injury; Petr Mrazek to start in Toronto

Ansar Khan | December 12, 2014

DETROIT -- Detroit Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said forward Stephen Weiss won't play Saturday in Toronto (7 p.m., Fox Sports Detroit) due to a shoulder injury.

Babcock said Petr Mrazek (3-0) will start in goal. Forward Daniel Cleary and defenseman Brian Lashoff will be inserted into the lineup.

Weiss was injured late in the second period of Friday's 3-2 shootout loss to the Florida Panthers, when he was checked into the boards by Sean Bergenheim.

General manager Ken Holland said Weiss was still making the trip to Toronto, however, and listed him as questionable for the game.

"See how he feels in the morning," Holland said.

Weiss has 10 points (four goals, six assists) in 10 games since returning from a pulled groin.

"Obviously, we need him," forward Gustav Nyquist said. "He's been great ever since he got back. It's great to see him on the ice again. He helps our team out a lot. Hopefully it's not too bad."

The Red Wings and Maple Leafs will be wrapping up their five-game season series. Each team has won twice.


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Panthers 3, Red Wings 2 (SO): Florida and shootouts continue to pose problems for Detroit


DETROIT -- A couple of recurring problems resurfaced for the Detroit Red Wings on Friday: The Florida Panthers and the shootout.

Vincent Trocheck and Brandon Pirri scored in the shootout against Jimmy Howard to give the Panthers a 3-2 victory at Joe Louis Arena.

It was the Red Wings' second shootout loss in a row. They are 1-5 in shootouts this season.

"It's frustrating, it really is. It's (expletive) frustrating," Howard said. "We keep having meeting after meeting after meeting about it. We work on it in practice. Just going to have to stick with it."

Howard is 0-5 in shootouts this season, having allowed nine goals on 12 shots.

Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said on Thursday that his team's troubles in the shootout are all mental. They lack confidence.

"That's what it is," Babcock said. "Right now when we get to the shootout we're not a confident group so we just got to keep working on it. There's no sense in hanging our head, or getting disappointed.

"We talked about it; we understand that we're affected by it mentally right now. Let's fight through it and find a way to win one."

Roberto Luongo stopped Pavel Datsyuk and Gustav Nyquist in the shootout.

"We should have gotten the win the shootout," Nyquist said. "We got to figure out a way to win games there. I'm not doing a good enough job on the shootout and we got to score some goals."

Riley Sheahan and Nyquist scored for the Red Wings (17-6-7).

"When you come this far you want to get two points, but we can't find a way to get through a shootout so obviously it's tough," Detroit captain Henrik Zetterberg said. "I don't think it should have gone to overtime. Once again we had a lot of chances. We have to put the puck in the net.

"Howie was good in net. But we can't really expect to win games if we score two goals. We have to score more, especially when you have this many chances."

Few teams have given the Red Wings more problems since the start of the 2013-14 season than the Panthers, who have won five of their past seven meetings with Detroit.

"I thought we did lots of good things," Babcock said. "They're a good team and they play good and there was not a lot of room out there. I thought we had the better of the scoring chances in the third period."

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Red Wings forward Stephen Weiss left the game after the second period due a shoulder injury and won't play Saturday in Toronto, Babcock said. Weiss took a hard hit along the boards by Sean Bergenheim near the end of the second period. He had 10 points (four goals, six assists) in his past nine games since returning from a pulled groin.

The Red Wings killed a four-minute power play (Jakub Kindl was called for interference and cross-checking) five minutes into the third period. They were 5 for 5 on the penalty kill and are 20 for 20 in the past four games.

A pair of even-strength goals by Florida were sandwiched between power-play goals by the Red Wings in a first period in which the Panthers held a 15-12 edge in shots.

Sheahan opened the scoring at 5:03, banging in a rebound from the net-front for his seventh goal of the season. He has six goals and 11 points in his past 14 games, after picking up only one goal and five points in the first 16 games.

Tomas Fleischmann responded quickly, scoring at 7:10 on a one-timer from the slot following a pass by Dave Bolland. The Red Wings couldn't corral a bouncing puck in their own zone, leading to the opportunity.

Jonathan Huberdeau gave Florida a 2-1 lead at 13:55, scoring from close range after some sustained pressure, as the Red Wings got sloppy in their own zone.

Nyquist tied it with 39 seconds to play in the period. He spun around in the slot and whipped in a backhand shot. It was his team-leading 14th goal and tied him for the NHL lead in power-play goals (eight).

This is the ninth time in their past 21 games the Red Wings have scored twice on the power play. They had gone 0 for 10 in their past three games.


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Second-period analysis: Red Wings 2, Panthers 2

Michael Niziolek on December 12, 2014

DETROIT - The Detroit Red Wings and Florida Panthers stayed deadlocked at 2-2 in the second period.

The teams each had two power play chances in the period, but neither was able to sustain much of an attack.

Florida maintained a 21-18 shot advantage for the game, but the teams were even in the period with six apiece.

SECOND PERIOD UPDATES

Red Wings 2, Panthers 2 (1:26): Detroit's Stephen Weiss took a hit to the back, and was sent head first into the boards. The crowd wasn't happy that there wasn't a penalty called on the play.

Red Wings 2, Panthers 2 (5:00): Detroit didn't get much going during its only power play opportunity so far in the second period. Panthers outshooting Detroit 21-18 for the game, teams even for the period with six shots each.

Red Wings 2, Panthers 2 (9:41): The Panthers fail to score on the power play opportunity then Aaron Ekblad gives the Red Wings a 5 on 4 advantage when he is called for high-sticking Darren Helm.

Red Wings 2, Panthers 2 (12:34): The Red Wings' Tomas Jurco called for tripping. First penalty of the second period, third of the game for Detroit.

Red Wings 2, Panthers 2 (14:52): The Panthers and Red Wings going back and forth with the puck. Each with three shots in first five minutes of period.

Red Wings 2, Panthers 2 (19:59): The Panthers take the opening faceoff in the second period with the game tied 2-2.


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First-period analysis: Red Wings 2, Panthers 2

Michael Niziolek on December 12, 2014

DETROIT -- The Detroit Red Wings escaped the first period tied 2-2 to the Florida Panthers thanks to a tremendous goal from Gustav Nyquist.

Nyquist scored a power play goal with 38 seconds left in the period from Henrik Zetterberg. The shot came as Nyquist was on his knees, falling down on the ice. He somehow was able to flick the puck at Panthers goalie Roberto Luongo upper body.

The goal helped the Red Wings close out the period on a positive note after they squandered some early momentum.

Riley Sheahan scored his second goal in as many nights, and seventh of the season, when he put in a rebound on a power play at 5:03.

But Florida responded with a pair of goals to take a 2-1 lead into the first intermission.

Tomas Fleischmann evened the score on a goal from Dave Bolland, and Willie Mitchell at 7:10 then Jonathan Huberdeau gave the Panthers a lead with a goal at 13:55. Huberdeau's shot made it through three defenders who were grouped together right at the goalie crease.

Both teams were called for two penalties in the period, and the Panthers had a 15-12 advantage in shots on goal.

FIRST PERIOD UPDATES

Panthers 2, Red Wings 2 (0:38): Gustav Nyquist scored with a tremendous effort to tie the game 2-2. He flicked a shot as he was falling down at the end of the power play from Henrick Zetterberg.

Panthers 2, Red Wings 1 (2:37): Panthers center Brandon Pirri called for tripping shortly after the Red Wings killed Franzen's interference penalty.

Panthers 2, Red Wings 1 (4:58): Red Wings center Johan Franzen called for interference.

Panthers 2, Red Wings 1 (6:05): Panthers strike again to take a 2-1 lead. Jonathan Huberdeau gets the goal with an assist from Nick Bjugstad. Huberdeau's shot made it between three Red Wings' defenders.

Red Wings 1, Panthers 1 (8:42): Red Wings kill the power play with relative ease, but is being outshot midway through the period 8-5.

Red Wings 1, Panthers 1 (11:18): Red Wings center Johan Franzen is called for tripping Brian Campbell to give Panthers man advantage.

Red Wings 1, Panthers 1 (12:50): Panthers even the score with a goal from Tomas Fleischmann from Dave Bolland, and Willie Mitchell.

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Red Wings 1, Panthers 0 (14:57): Red Wings jump out to an early lead thanks to a power play goal from Riley Sheahan. Tomas Tatar set the play up when the Panthers allowed him to get an open look from the right circle. His shot bounced off Willie Mitchell to Pavel Datysuk, and he sent the rebound right back at goalie Roberto Luongo. Riley Sheahan cleaned up Datysuk's shot for the goal.

Red Wings 0, Panthers 0 (16:17): The Red Wings get an early power play chance. Dmitry Kulikov called for tripping Pavel Datsyuk.

Red Wings 0, Panthers 0 (19:59): The Red Wings take the opening faceoff as it faces the Panthers for the second time this month.


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Red Wings big center Riley Sheahan skating better and playing with pace, leading to more offense


DETROIT - Detroit Red Wings center Riley Sheahan has been skating much better in recent weeks, playing with pace.

That's pretty good for a guy who didn't exactly make a good first impression on coach Mike Babcock.

"The first time I saw him I didn't think he could skate," Babcock said.

"He's a lot better than I thought, obviously. He's gotten better in the NHL than he was in the minors. He was good in the minors and he's starting to skate."

Sheahan can move his 6-foot-3, 222-pound frame. He displayed his quick feet in Wednesday's 2-1 shootout loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs, making a couple of good one-on-one moves to create scoring chances.

He's moving his feet more and contributing offensively. He has five goals and 10 points in his past 13 games, after picking up only one goal and five points in the first 16 games.

He hasn't sacrificed his defensive play in the process.

"He's a big man who knows how to play without the puck," Babcock said. "He makes plays with the puck, but he's starting to get some pace to his game. As he gets pace he's going to be more of a handful. It doesn't matter who he plays with, he seems to help them be good players, so it's an important spot for us."

Sheahan centered what could be considered the second line for much of the season. But with Pavel Datsyuk back in the lineup and playing on a separate line from Henrik Zetterberg, Sheahan the past few games has played on the third line, with Johan Franzen and Stephen Weiss.

Franzen said he is impressed by what he's seen.

"He's a good skater, good mobility," Franzen said. "He's really skilled coming out and making that first pass with the puck and making plays. He's someone we really need."

Sheahan, who had nine goals and 24 points in 42 games last season as a rookie, said he's been more aggressive in the offensive zone.

"I think earlier in the year I was playing fine, but I wasn't really taking chances when I had the puck. I was just a little conservative," Sheahan said. "Now I have a little more confidence when the puck is on my stick. I'm just going to just keep trying to throw it to the net and hopefully good things happen.

"I just have to keep going on the same things I've been focused on right now -- being comfortable with the puck in the corners and using my big body to make plays."

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Sheahan, with his size and defensive ability, provides a different dimension than the club's smaller, more offensive-minded young forwards.

"He plays really good in the D-zone," Tomas Tatar said. "He's using his big body in the O-zone to protect the puck. I think right now he's playing really, really good. He's taking the body for us and tries to open up space on the ice."

Said Gustav Nyquist: "I think he's been playing great Sheahan stepped in right away and showed he can be real productive in this league. Plays real well offensively and defensively. Brings a lot to this team."


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Detroit Red Wings Gameday: Florida Panthers have won four of past six games against Detroit

By Ansar Khan | December 12, 2014

GAME INFORMATION

• Who: Detroit Red Wings (17-6-6) vs. Florida Panthers (11-8-7)

• When: 7:30 p.m. at Joe Louis Arena

• Live coverage: Join the MLive open thread/live updates at 6:30 p.m. ET and follow Ansar Khan (@AnsarKhanMLive) and Brendan Savage (@BrendanSavage) on Twitter.

• TV: Fox Sports Detroit

• Radio: WXYT-FM (97.1), WXYT-AM (1270) and Red Wings radio network

The Detroit Red Wings say they need to skate better and compete harder to have more successful against the Florida Panthers.

Florida has won four of the six meetings between the teams since the start of last season, including two shootout victories. The Panthers prevailed 4-3 just 10 days ago at Joe Louis Arena in the Red Wings' lone regulation loss in their past nine games (7-1-1).

"I feel we always have a tough time against Florida for some reason," Red Wings forward Tatar said. "I feel if we play like (Wednesday's 2-1 shootout loss to Toronto) we will beat them.

"They battle hard. The games we play against them we don't want to battle hard. This is the NHL, things are so tight right now, you're not good enough with just skill; you have to battle hard to help your skill. We need to want to win more than they do and we can get two points."

Detroit's Gustav Nyquist called the Panthers an underrated team.

"I think they're a team that works real hard and sticks to their system and plays hard for each other," Nyquist said. "You know they're going to come in here and skate a lot. They got a real good goaltender in (Roberto) Luongo. They're a tough team to play. Got to make sure we start on time."

Said coach Mike Babcock: "They've been good, so they work hard and they skate, they compete and they make you be focused and start on time and skate and compete. So, we weren't good last game (vs. Florida) and I'm not trying to take anything away from them, because they were better than us. We were disappointed in how we played. Let's see what we do with it."

GAME NOTES

• The Red Wings have gone 0 for 10 on the power play in their past three games, after going six games in a row with at least one PPG (9 for 24, 37.5 percent).

• Detroit's penalty kill is 15 for 15 in the past three games.

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• Henrik Zetterberg has gone seven games without a goal and has just one goal in the past 17 games. He still leads the team with 25 points (five goals, 20 assists).

• Johan Franzen has gone 10 games without a goal, during which time he has five assists.

PREGAME LINKS

Here are some recent stories to peruse until game time:

• Red Wings lineup: Xavier Ouellet's hockey sense, all-around game continue to impress

• Tomas Tatar, Mike Babcock say shootout struggles are all mental

• Mike Babcock: No deal imminent, doesn't expect to sign during season

• Xavier Ouellet recalled; Danny DeKeyser (upper-body injury) out for weekend

• Shootout struggles continue in loss to Toronto

• Red Wings frustrated with another shootout loss but pleased with effort

• Darren Helm, Luke Glendening lead resurgence in faceoff circle

-- Download the Detroit Red Wings on MLive app for iPhone and Android

-- Like MLive's Detroit Red Wings Facebook page


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Red Wings lineup vs. Panthers: Xavier Ouellet's hockey sense, all-around game continue to impress


DETROIT - Xavier Ouellet, of course, would rather be with the Red Wings permanently than do the I-96 shuffle from Grand Rapids to Detroit every time there is an injury on defense.

But he understands this is part of paying your dues on the way to full-time NHL duty.

"I think everybody's been through this, especially in this organization," Ouellet said. "(Gustav) Nyquist, (Riley) Sheahan, (Petr) Mrazek, (Tomas) Tatar, even Smitty (Brendan Smith) have been up and down, up and down for almost two years before being here for regular.

"I'm just going through what everyone else has been through. I understand that. They support me."

Ouellet, recalled from the Griffins on Thursday, is back in the lineup tonight for the Red Wings against the Florida Panthers at Joe Louis Arena (7:30, Fox Sports Detroit), replacing Danny DeKeyser, who is out for at least this weekend (including Saturday's game in Toronto) due to an upper-body injury.

It shows what the organization thinks of the talented and poised puck-mover that h plays over a veteran (in this case, Brian Lashoff) whenever there is an opening on defense. Ouellet appeared in five games with the Red Wings (Nov. 20-28) when Smith was injured. He has one goal, one assist and a plus-3 rating.

"I felt good last time I was here, went down and had a couple good games," Ouellet said. "I'm back here tonight. I've got to be consistent and play the same game I did when I was here last time."

Ouellet would be playing regularly in Detroit if the team had a roster spot open. But the Red Wings don't want to waive or trade a player just to make room. They believe they have eight NHL defensemen, including Ouellet, and teams need depth on the blue line during the course of the season.

"We think he's a real good player," coach Mike Babcock said. "We're going to put him right in the lineup and let him play just because he's played well for us. We need him."

Babcock said Ouellet's brain is his best asset.

"He's just got good hockey sense," Babcock said. "He knows how to play, defends, competes, he's good defensively, he can penalty kill, he can play on the power play.

"I think when you look at him he wouldn't necessarily be a combine player or a scout player - 6-foot-4, 240 (pounds), skate like the wind - he's just a hockey player. I imagine he's getting better each and every day."

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Ouellet said of adjusting between the AHL: "The game is more structured here. In one-on-one battles, the guys are strong, they all have little tricks. I think for me it's play the same game. Play strong, make sure I do everything right."

Babcock said Ouellet will be paired with Jakub Kindl to start the game. That is the only lineup change.

Here are the anticipated lines and defense pairs:

Gustav Nyquist-Henrik Zetterberg-Tomas Jurco

Tomas Tatar-Pavel Datsyuk-Darren Helm

Johan Franzen-Riley Sheahan-Stephen Weiss

Drew Miller-Luke Glendening-Joakim Andersson

On defense:

Jonathan Ericsson-Niklas Kronwall

Brendan Smith-Kyle Quincey

Xavier Ouellet-Jakub Kindl

In goal:

Jimmy Howard (starting)

Petr Mrazek


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Tomas Tatar, Mike Babcock say Detroit Red Wings' shootout woes more mental than technical

By Ansar Khan | December 12, 2014

DETROIT - The Detroit Red Wings worked on their shootout moves at the end of practice Thursday.

But their problems might be more mental than technical.

"I think it's totally mental, like 100 percent," coach Mike Babcock said. "We'll just continue to work at it."

This team, its shooters and goaltender Jimmy Howard, appear to lack confidence in shootouts. They're 1-4 this season and 8-14 since the start of the 2013 season.

"With the skill we have in the locker room I would say we can be one of the best teams in the shootout, but it's opposite," Tomas Tatar said. "Maybe we don't feel comfortable, I don't know.

"We just have to stay focused, try different things and don't think about it much. Just (relax) your mind and stay loose."

The Red Wings have scored only three goals on 14 shots in the shootout. Tatar believes the lack of success prevents them from getting too creative.

"I just try do the most simple thing to score," Tatar said. "But I don't think it should be like that; you should be confident. Maybe if you're on a roll you would try crazier things and the goalie wouldn't expect it.

"But right now everybody is trying to keep it simple. You can't think about it too much, just go and do your thing and score a goal."

Babcock said they'll continue to work on it and try to be solution-based in their search for answers.

"Eventually we'll solve the problem," Babcock said. "But we're not going to let it get in the way of how we feel about our team or the direction that we're going, because in the end they still don't have the shootout in the playoffs."


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Red Wings lose in shootout again, this time to Panthers

By The Associated Press

DETROIT >> A change in the shootout lineup worked perfectly for the Florida Panthers.

Vincent Trocheck and Brandon Pirri had the only goals in the shootout to lift the Panthers to a 3-2 victory over the Detroit Red Wings on Friday night.

Roberto Luongo made 29 saves through overtime and stopped Pavel Datsyuk and Gustav Nyquist in the tiebreaker to give the Panthers their second victory in two meetings against the Red Wings this season.

Trocheck and Pirri haven’t normally been sent out for shootouts but coach Gerard Gallant acted on a hunch.

“We wanted to change it up because we’ve been struggling in the shootout,” he said after his team broke an 0-4 drought in tiebreakers.

Tomas Fleischmann and Jonathan Huberdeau scored in the first period for the Panthers.

Riley Sheahan and Nyquist also scored in the first for Detroit and Jimmy Howard finished with 24 saves. The Red Wings dropped their second straight in a shootout and fell to 1-5 in tiebreakers this season.

“It’s frustrating, it really is,” Howard said after falling to 0-5 in tiebreakers, including a loss to Toronto two nights earlier. “We keep having meeting after meeting about it. We work on it in practice. Just gonna have to stick with it.”

Backup Petr Mrazek, who has Detroit’s lone shootout win, will start Saturday night at Toronto.

Sheahan got the Red Wings on the scoreboard first, flipping a rebound of Datsyuk’s shot past Luongo for a power-play goal at 5:03.

Fleischmann tied it at 7:10 with his third goal of the season. Huberdeau wristed a shot past Howard with 6:05 left in the opening period to put the Panthers ahead.

However, Nyquist backhanded his 14th goal on the power play with 39 seconds left remaining in the period.

Jakub Kindl drew a double-minor for interference and cross-checking early in the third period but the Red Wings allowed just two shots and kept the game tied. Detroit outshot Florida 4-1 in overtime but none of them were good scoring chances.

“We played the game we wanted to play and we took it to the shootout,” Luongo said after his 10th victory. “And in the shootout anything can happen.”

Florida, which topped sluggish Detroit 4-3 here 10 days earlier, outshot Detroit 15-12 in the opening period and had better chances Friday, but managed just 10 more shots in the next 40 minutes.

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The Red Wings have scored just three goals in shootouts this season but coach Mike Babcock said he’s not losing sleep.

“Right now, when we get to the shootout we’re not a confident group so we’ve just got to keep working on it,” he said. “No sense hanging our heads or getting disappointed.”

Stephen Weiss, a longtime Panthers player before joining the Red Wings last season as a free agent, did not return for the third period due to a shoulder injury. Babcock did not say how serious the injury was.

NOTES: Detroit D Danny DeKeyser missed the game with an upper-body injury. The club recalled Xavier Ouellet from Grand Rapids of the AHL to replace him. ... Florida F Scottie Upshall (lower body) and F Aleksander Barkov (upper body) missed their seventh and fourth games, respectively. ... Red Wings F Justin Abdelkader (shoulder) was placed on injured reserve retroactive to Nov. 30, the night he left a win over Vancouver. ... Panthers D Shane O’Brien, recalled from AHL San Antonio a day earlier, was a healthy scratch.


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Trip from Grand Rapids to Detroit is a short one

By Chuck Pleiness, Posted: 12/12/14, 7:53 PM EST

DETROIT >> The drive from Grand Rapids to Detroit is always an easy one.

It’s the two-and-a-half-hour drive back that gets harder for the lucky few that get the call up to the NHL from the Griffins.

Defenseman Xavier Ouellet got to make his second trip to Detroit as he’ll replace Danny DeKeyser in the lineup for at least the next two games.

“Everybody’s been through this, especially in this organization, just like (Gustav) Nyquist, (Riley) Sheahan, (Petr) Mrazek, (Tomas) Tatar, even (Brendan Smith) have been up and down, up and down for almost two years before being here for regular,” Ouellet said. “I’m just going through what everyone else has been through. I understand that. They support me.”

Prior to Friday, Ouellet had appeared in five games this season, recently filling in for an injured Smith, totaling a goal, an assist and a plus-3 rating.

“I felt good last time I was here, went down and had a couple good games,” Ouellet said. “I’m back here. I’ve got to be consistent and play the same game I did when I was here last time.”

The Wings view Ouellet as a top six defenseman for them, but since he has options to return to the American Hockey League without having to clear waivers he’ll be heading back to the Griffins once DeKeyser is healthy.

“I think his brain is his asset, he’s just got good hockey sense,” Wings coach Mike Babcock said of Ouellet said. “He knows how to play, defends, competes, he’s good defensively, he can penalty kill, he can play on the power play, knows how to play.

“I think when you look at him he wouldn’t necessarily a combine player or a scout player – 6-foot-4, 240 (pounds), skate like the wind – he’s just a hockey player,” Babcock continued.

How do you get Mike Babcock to talk about something – his future with the Wings – he said he wouldn’t talk about earlier this season? Ask him an off the wall question.

Babcock was asked Thursday why he wore glasses at Winter Classic.

“Because I should be wearing glasses all the time,” he said. “I have them in my bag. I’m getting to be blind as bat. I’ve got new glasses to hunt in now. My glasses have, what do they call them now, three different things in them … progressive. But I can never get them in the right spot so I can do what I want to do. Does that make any sense? I can watch warmups and I’ll be organized. Or I can go scout a game and sit here and do this, bottom line is I don’t know how to wear glasses, but I should. But that day the wind was blowing straight across and right in my eyes so I put them on.”

The next question he got was if he needed them to see writing on a contract.

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Riley Sheahan continues to impress as he fills the role, almost unexpectedly as the team’s No. 2 center.

“The first time I saw him I didn’t think he could skate,” Babcock said. “He’s a lot better than I thought, obviously. He’s gotten better and better. He’s gotten better in the NHL than he was in the minors. He was good in the minors and he’s starting to skate.”

Sheahan entered Friday with six goals and nine assists.

“He’s a big man who knows how to play without the puck,” Babcock said. “He makes plays with the puck, but he’s starting to get some pace to his game. As he gets pace he’s going to be more of a handful. It doesn’t matter who he plays with, he seems to help them be good players, so it’s an important spot for us.”


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Wings lose Weiss against Florida

DANA WAKIJI DEC 12, 2014 11:18p ET

DETROIT -- The Red Wings not only lost the game in a shootout, they also lost another player.

Stephen Weiss took hits from Dave Bolland and Sean Bergenheim on the same shift at the end of the second period Friday and did not return.

Wings coach Mike Babcock said Weiss had a shoulder injury and was out.

Babcock did not indicate how long Weiss would be out.

"We'll see if we lose him," Gustav Nyquist said. "I don't know if he's back for next game. Obviously we need him. He's been great ever since he got back. It's great to see him on the ice again. He helps our team out a lot. Hopefully it's not too bad."

Weiss has four goals and six assists in 11 games.

The Wings expect Weiss to travel with the team to Toronto.

Danny DeKeyser is out with an upper-body injury after the Toronto game Wednesday night.


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Wings' shootout woes continue in loss to Panthers

DANA WAKIJI DEC 12, 2014 10:17p ET

DETROIT -- Until the NHL decides to try an extra overtime of 3-on-3, it would behoove the Red Wings to win in regulation or in overtime, because shootouts are not their thing.

Although they played a much better game against the Florida Panthers than they did last week, the Wings still could not beat them, falling 3-2 in a shootout.

The Panthers have won their last four games at Joe Louis Arena.

The thing is, the Panthers came into the game with the same dismal shootout record, 1-4.

But Pavel Datsyuk and Gustav Nyquist couldn't score against Florida goaltender Roberto Luongo and both Vincent Trocheck and Brandon Pirri could against Jimmy Howard.

"It's frustrating, it really is," Howard said. "It's expletive frustrating."

Howard, who has given up nine goals in 12 shootout attempts, actually said the word "expletive."

Understandably.

The Wings are now 1-5 in shootouts, leaving five extra points on the table.

"When you come this far you want to get two points, but we can't find a way to get through a shootout so obviously it's tough," captain Henrik Zetterberg said. "I don't think it should have gone to overtime. Once again we had a lot of chances. We have to put the puck in the net."

Wings coach Mike Babcock has said that the Wings' problem in shootouts is mental.

"Right now it is when we get to the shootout we're not a confident group so we just gotta keep working on it.," Babcock said.

Babcock has said the shootout is like a third part of special teams.

The Wings have been great on the penalty kill all season, including Friday night when they killed off a four-minute double minor in the third.

After a horrible start to the power play, the Wings have started to click in the last month and a half.

The Wings got both of their goals on the power play, one from Riley Sheahan, beating Luongo on a third rebound, and one from Nyquist, who is now tied for the league lead with eight power-play goals.

"I know we hadn't scored in three games but we had a couple great looks the past few games," Nyquist said. "We had another good look in the second, spent the whole power play in their zone, created a lot of chances, couldn't find that third goal unfortunately. As

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long as we keep working hard and creating chances we're going to score some goals eventually."

But with the shootout, it's far less commonplace than the power play or penalty kill so it's harder to get that going.

In addition to Howard's struggles, the Wings have only scored three goals, two by Nyquist and one by Datsyuk.

"You know you're not going to get anything for free against this team," Nyquist said. "They play solid defensively, they're a tough team to score on. You never know at that point. We should have gotten the win in the shootout. We got to figure out a way to win games there. I'm not doing a good enough job on the shootout and we got to score some goals."

Or just don't let it get to a shootout.

"There's no sense in hanging our head, or getting disappointed," Babcock said. "We talked about it, we understand that we're affected by it mentally right now. Let's fight through it and find a way to win one."


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Gave: NHL needs 'Holland Rule' to limit shootouts

KEITH GAVE

The Red Wings lost the second point to the Leafs in a shootout Wednesday after the five-minute four-on-four overtime failed to produce a winner.

When the governors representing the 30 NHL teams gathered in New York on July 22, 2005, they voted 28-2 in favor of introducing the penalty-shot shootout in order to end every game with a winner.

The two votes against: Chicago's Bill Wirtz and Detroit's Mike Ilitch. And ever since Red Wings General Manger Ken Holland has been working to fix that horrendous mistake.

He might be getting closer.

This isn't about Detroit's woeful record in shootouts in recent years. But it surfaces from time to time, as it did after the Wings subjugated Toronto all night long Wednesday before losing that second, valuable point to the Leafs in a shootout after the five-minute four-on-four overtime failed to produce a winner.

The Wings' continuing struggles in overtime shootouts was written all over goaltender Jimmy Howard's face.

Moments earlier, Toronto's Mike Santorelli came at him with speed from center ice and fired a shot that eluded Howard through his pads. That gave the Leafs two goals in three tries in the shootout to Detroit's one, by Pavel Datsyuk, and turned a game the Wings had dominated all night into a 2-1 Toronto victory.

"It's really frustrating," Howard said, crushed by the question he knew was coming. "Especially when you work at it. You guys watch practice. You see it. It's just frustrating. It really, really is."

They were at it again in the morning skate Friday prior to the game against Florida, shooters skating in from center ice trying to score -- and trying to have a little fun, keeping score for bragging rights in the dressing room later.

They're not happy either, that an otherwise great team game was resolved by a silly skills competition -- the kind of play that is an extraordinary occurrence in hockey games, the penalty shot. A skater takes the puck at center ice and skates in alone on the goaltender. Best man wins.

Rarely has it been the Detroit goaltender this year, with the lone exception of backup Petr Mrazek's win over New Jersey.

The Wings are 1-4 in shootouts this season. Four of Howard's six losses in an otherwise outstanding season have come by the shootout. He has stopped three of 10 shots in game-deciding shootouts.

But this isn't all on Howard. With several dazzling playmakers and offensive threats like Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg, Gustav Nyquist, Tomas Tatar and others, the Wings should score more consistently in the shootout.

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"We've got to get better at it," Wings coach Mike Babcock said. "We've got to score for Howie, and Howie has to stop the puck for us."

But Babcock offered up an even better solution. Never let games like that get to a shootout in the first place.

"Let's just win the game," he lamented.

Or let's just fix the problem.

That's what the hockey people are saying amid growing concerns about the number of games being decided by shootout, said Wings Senior Vice President Jim Devellano.

"And by hockey people I mean the general managers," he said. "They are addressing it with the league, trying to come up with some ways to eliminate a good portion of the shootouts."

Enter Holland, whose proposal to at least limit the number of shootouts is being tested this season in the American Hockey League -- with considerable success.

According to the "Holland Rule," any game that extends into OT is played 4-on-4 for the first three minutes. At the first whistle thereafter, teams switch to 3-3 for the final four minutes -- or until a goal is scored. Then it goes to a shootout.

The Wings first introduced the concept at their summer "prospects tournament" in Traverse City.

"It was fantastic," said Kris Draper, a special assistant to Holland, "the amount of ice that opens up for the greatest players this game has, giving high-end athletes a chance to do their thing.

"Especially with the longer changes (benches being farther from their offensive zones). Somebody gets a little tired, opens more ice and creates even more scoring chances."

The NHL says the shootout was created largely for fans, most of whom come to games wanting to see an outcome more satisfying than a tie. But if a trivial skills competition can create some excitement for fans, wait until they see 3-on-3 play, Draper said.

"In Traverse City, whichever rink you were at, Rink A or Rink B, when you heard there was an OT going on in the other one, everybody got up and moved over. It created a pretty good buzz. "

It's doing the same thing throughout the AHL and, more importantly, ending more games with teams playing against one another rather than top players trading penalty shots. Through nearly two months of the season, about four out of five overtime games were decided before going to the penalty shots, compared to just over a third the year before.

The Holland Rule works, and if the league can get its players union to go along with some version of 3-on-3 OT hockey -- and here's betting it can -- then we should see it next year.

Meantime, expect to hear the same things around the league from players and coaches who have to live with a rule most of them don't care for.

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"Shootouts are prettying exciting. They're a lot of fun for the fans, I guess," said Florida coach Gerard Gallant, the ex-Wings star. "When you win them, you love them. I just wish we'd win more of them."


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Wings look to avenge earlier loss to Panthers

ALAN FERGUSON DEC 12, 2014 9:59a ET

Detroit (17-6-6) is 7-1-1 in its last nine games, with the lone regulation loss coming Dec. 2.

The only time the Detroit Red Wings failed to earn at least one point in their last nine games was during a visit from the Florida Panthers earlier this month.

The Red Wings seek to avenge that defeat and end a three-game home losing streak to the Panthers on Friday night when they return to Joe Louis Arena (7 p.m. pregame, 7:30 face-off on FOX Sports Detroit).

Detroit (17-6-6) is 7-1-1 in its last nine games, with the lone regulation loss coming Dec. 2. The Red Wings' attempted rally from a three-goal deficit in the third period fell short in a 4-3 defeat.

Gustav Nyquist scored the game's final goal with 59 seconds left. The loss is also one of just three regulation defeats this season at Joe Louis, where the Red Wings are 11-3-3, and their only one in the last seven games there.

Detroit was denied a third consecutive home win Wednesday and its fourth in a row overall despite outshooting Toronto 40-16 in regulation. The Maple Leafs scored on two shootout attempts against Jimmy Howard in a 2-1 victory.

Red Wings coach Mike Babcock was pleased with his team's effort despite the result.

"We got a point. They stole two points, but I'll take it every night," he said. "If you play like that, you're going to win."

Florida (11-8-7) is 1-1-1 since its visit to Detroit and gave up the tiebreaking goal with 1:54 remaining in a 4-2 loss in St. Louis on Monday. The Panthers rallied from a two-goal, first-period deficit, and Aaron Ekblad had the tying goal with 5:06 left.

"Tough way to lose," goaltender Roberto Luongo told the team's official website. "We battled back and carried most of the play. Heartbreaker to lose like that. Obviously, the first (period) was unacceptable. We weren't happy with the way we played. We showed some character the way we came back against a tough team in a tough building."

Ekblad has three goals and four assists in a five-game point streak to open this month. The No. 1 overall pick in this year's draft scored a goal in his first visit to Joe Louis, which is just across the Detroit River from his hometown of Windsor, Ontario.

Vincent Trocheck had a career-high three points in the victory with one goal and two assists, but hasn't registered any points in the past three games.

Nick Bjugstad, meanwhile, scored his fourth goal in three games Monday and has two assists in that stretch. He doesn't have a point in his last three matchups with Detroit.

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Nyquist will try to extend a four-game goal scoring streak against the Panthers while leading the Red Wings to their first home win in the series since April 1, 2012. The teams have split their last four overall matchups.

Pavel Datsyuk had a goal and an assist in the latest meeting, and has seven goals and 12 assists in 14 career matchups. He has seven goals and four assists in his eight games since returning from a groin injury but hasn't been able to re-ignite Detroit's power play.

The Red Wings are 0 for 10 in their last three games after converting at 32.8 percent (19 for 58) in the previous 14. They have killed off 15 power plays in the past three contests and face a Panthers team 2 for 21 with a man advantage in its last nine games.

Florida has also been effectively killing penalties, allowing just one goal in the past 25 times it has been short-handed.
