"When you're in the middle of it as a coach, you always want more. But in reality, when you get to look at us from afar, we're probably right on schedule if not a little ahead of schedule," Lalonde said on the latest episode of "The Chirp with Daren Millard" podcast.
The Red Wings (25-20-8), who play the Calgary Flames at Scotiabank Saddledome on Thursday (9 p.m. ET; SNW, BSDET, ESPN+, SN NOW), have won four in a row and are four points behind the Washington Capitals for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference.
The Red Wings, who have missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs six straight seasons, made big changes during the offseason.
To help balance their young team, veteran unrestricted free-agent forwards David Perron, Dominik Kubalik and Andrew Copp were signed, as well as defensemen Ben Chiarot and Olli Maatta. Maatta, who could have become an unrestricted free agent after the season,
.
"You beat Toronto at home (4-1 on Jan. 12), the next week you go to Vegas and you win on the road (3-2 on Jan. 19). You're 2-0 vs. Tampa [Bay]," said Lalonde, who was named coach of the Red Wings on June 30. "You flirt with it [the playoffs], it's probably just the parity of the League, but it's going to take some time. That's [general manager] Steve's [Yzerman] job to manage the big picture, to think about the long-term, but us coaches and players in the moment, like any competitive athlete, you want it now. I would say we're right on target."
Last season the Red Wings were 32-40-10 and finished 26 points out of a playoff spot.
"We're a tougher team to play against," Lalonde said. "Things we've asked of our guys, managing their game much better, taking pride in keeping [the puck] out of our net, we're doing those things. It's just our margin of error is really thin.
"There are those levels of frustration at times, but as a group it's an emotional roller-coaster, the ups and downs, the typical season. You can knock this group on sporadic special teams, you can knock this group on sporadic structure at times, but it'd be really hard to knock this group on its compete level. That's the one thing we've talked about where we've been pretty consistent."
"The Chirp with Daren Millard" features interviews with players, executives, alumni and other personalities around the game and is available now on multiple iOS and Android podcast apps. You can share your thoughts on Twitter using the hashtag #ChirpMillard.
--
