Fresh off an emotional season opener that ended in disappointment, the Detroit Red Wings face what at least will start as a celebratory event at Little Caesars Arena.
The home opener against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday (7 p.m., Bally Sports Detroit) offers an opportunity for the Wings to even their record after they dropped their opener against the Devils in New Jersey. The Lightning are without elite goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy, but still possess the sort of skilled players that pose a challenge.
“The start of the season always seems like it’s high energy,” Wings captain Dylan Larkin said Friday. “Crazy things are happening out there. Everyone is so excited for the new season, you see crazy scores, you see games with lots of penalties, you see questionable hits or things coming out of nowhere. It’s always emotional and we have to manage that, make sure we stay out of the box.”
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The 4-3 loss to the Devils was tarnished by the six penalties the Wings took, including two each by veterans Jeff Petry and David Perron. That marred an excellent start and solid response in the third period. Ville Husso is slated to start again in net, but there could be changes among the skaters. Forward Robby Fabbri suffered an undisclosed injury late in the game (he scored with 34 seconds to play) and is unlikely to be available before Monday at the earliest. Coach Derek Lalonde said the Wings would recall a forward from Grand Rapids before Saturday’s game, though he left open the possibility that defenseman Olli Määtta draws back into the lineup and the Wings use 11 forwards and seven defensemen.
“I did not like sitting Olli out,” Lalonde said. “Felt like we could have used Olli (in New Jersey). But it was a pretty good game on the whole from our D-corps. We maybe could have had an argument, outside of Mo (Seider), having anyone a healthy scratch in game one.”
The Wings left New Jersey saying they should have gotten at least a point in the game. At times, they outpaced one of the elite teams in the Eastern Conference.
“That first game is so hard,” Lalonde said. “You don’t know what to expect. You think you’re prepared — I liked our camp. I don’t know if we could have played a better first period. I think we out-chanced them 10-2, but didn’t find ourselves with a lead. Then we didn’t handle the second period very well, and got what we deserved, and that was a deficit going into the third. But we’re tied on the road with four minutes left. We needed a point out of last night.”
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Red Wings want to manage emotions, set tone in home opener
