Notes: Mrazek pumped to face Red Wings

DETROIT - It was just 12 days ago that the Red Wings faced former teammate Tomas Tatar, now with the Vegas Golden Knights.
Tonight they welcome another former teammate, goaltender Petr Mrazek, now with the Philadelphia Flyers.

"Yeah definitely it's different," fellow Czech Republic native Martin Frk said. "He's one of my good friends, so it will be tough, especially because he knows everyone who shoot on him. We know what he can do good also when he's in net. We just gotta go and play good overall and show we want to beat him."
Said defenseman Danny DeKeyser: "It will be a little bit different for sure. He's friends with a lot of guys in this room. He was another guy that it was tough to see go. Hopefully tonight we get the better of him."
It will be Mrazek's first career start against the Wings after making 166 for them from 2012 to this season.
"Obviously, I know him well," Gustav Nyquist said. "He's a good guy. I had a lot of fun the time when he was here, together with him, so it will be fun to see him today."
The Flyers' top two goalies, Brian Elliott and Michal Neuvirth, have missed 18 games and 14 games, with lower-body injuries, respectively. That is why the Flyers traded a 2018 draft pick to the Wings to get Mrazek.
On Sunday, Mrazek won his fifth game as a Flyer, meaning the conditional draft pick will go from a fourth-round pick to a third-round pick, provided the Flyers make the playoffs.
"Yeah, it's really exciting, really fun to be in a group that you have a chance to make the playoffs," Mrazek said in the visitors' dressing room after the morning skate. "If we're going to play the way we're playing right now, I think we have a really, really good chance to be in."
Currently the Flyers sit in third place in the Metropolitan Division with 85 points. The Columbus Blue Jackets also have 85 points but have 34 wins in regulation or overtime compared to the Flyers' 35.
"He's been playing really well," former Red Wing and current Flyer Valtteri Filppula said. "We've had some injuries in our goaltending so we really needed somebody and then he's been doing a great job. Obviously, it will be his first time back it'll be interesting and hopefully we can do a good job for him."
The Wings are trying to fight their way out of an 0-9-1 losing skid but know that Mrazek and the Flyers aren't going to make it easy.
"You know Pete can say it's just another game, but again knowing his competitiveness, the personal side of it I'm sure he's pumped to play this game," Wings coach Jeff Blashill said. "I was figuring he'd start it and I'm sure we'll get his best."
Mrazek said he still keeps in touch with quite a few of the Wings. "(Tomas Tatar), he's in Vegas, but with Frky and I talked to (Justin Abdelkader) a couple times," Mrazek said. "So I'm still in touch with those guys." Mrazek said he got a cryptic message from Tatar on Feb. 26, trade deadline day.
"We were playing in Montreal, I didn't know," Mrazek said. "I woke up in the afternoon and he texted me and he didn't say he was traded but he was like, 'I can't believe it happened.' I called him right away and he told me about it so I was excited for him."
Frk said he and Mrazek are friends, at least until the puck drops.
"He did text with me yesterday and I did chat with him a little bit yesterday," Frk said. "He just told me how he's doing. He was asking how we were doing as well. It's right now we are friends but when we get to the game it will be just playing against another guy."
Of course, the Wings know Mrazek well and he knows all of their tendencies.
"I talked to Double-A this morning, kind of joking if he's on a breakaway what he's going to do, if he's going to do the same move that he always does or go backhand," Mrazek said. "It's just another game and when the puck drops, just focus on ourselves."
One of the Philadelphia reporters informed Mrazek that a Flyers win tonight would mathematically eliminate the Wings from the playoffs.
"That's the first time I hear that, from you," Mrazek said. "But we're going game by game here, it's a really important two points for us, we all know how they playoffs is close, so every point we can get, it's big on the road."
Meanwhile, the Wings will be doing their best to deny the Flyers a third straight win against them this season.
"You don't want to give him anything too easy," Frk said. "We know they need every point, so we want to make sure we don't give it to them."
DEKEYSER ADJUSTING TO FATHERHOOD:The Wings may be mired in a 10-game winless streak, but since February 26, DeKeyser has been all smiles.
Becoming a parent for the first time will do that to you.
DeKeyser and his wife, Melissa, welcomed daughter McKinley Ann into the world on Monday evening of the 26th and since her birth the Wings have played nine of their last 10 games on the road.
"We've been gone for so long. My wife's done such a good job and I try to help out as much as I can when I'm home," DeKeyser said when asked if he could offer any advice to expecting fathers. "It's definitely a different world for sure. I don't know if I have any advice, because I'm still so new at it. I'm still learning. I guess my advice would be just to help out as much as possible and I guess, take care of your wife I would say."
While DeKeyser is adapting to fatherhood, the native Detroiter has had to deal with the Wings' winless streak, which is confounding because like much of the season, the Wings have been competitive but can't seem to capitalize on any of their chances.
"It's not like we're not going out there and competing. We're playing hard," he said. "In the L.A. game, the Anaheim game, those were some heavy games. There was fighting and standing up for each other out there. It was good to see.
"But it's just not going our way now. When that is the case, you just (have to) keep on pushing and try to score some goals and somehow get a win."
DeKeyser's season has been somewhat of a roller coaster ride. He injured his ankle in the third game of the season at Dallas and it was originally thought to be a sprained ankle.
However, because the healing process was going slowly, the ankle was reexamined and it turned out DeKeyser suffered a small fracture in a bone in his ankle, causing him to miss 17 games from October 12 through November 17.
Once he returned, it took a while to get back into game shape. DeKeyser was a minus player in nine of his first 10 games after rejoining the lineup. However, in his next 32 games, he was a minus player in only five games.
During this 10-game winless streak, he has been a minus player in six of the 10 games, but DeKeyser is encouraged by his season, considering how he played after he came back from his fractured ankle.
"I think the past couple of months I felt really good on the ice," DeKeyser said. "I feel like I've gotten my skating legs and had some good jump, some good energy out there. I just try to play as hard as I can, be good defensively, chip in a little bit offensively, stuff like that. I've felt good lately.
"It's a shame that it really hasn't gone our way here lately. We're just (going) to try to keep playing hard until the season's over."
In 55 games played, DeKeyser has five goals, four assists and is minus-5. He is third in ice time on the Wings, averaging 20:02 per game and second in blocked shots with 101, trailing only fellow defenseman Trevor Daley, who leads the Wings with 109 blocked shots.
BOBBLEHEAD TIME:The first 7,500 fans at Little Caesars Arena tonight will get the latest bobblehead doll, this one of Frans Nielsen.
Nielsen took a look at his likeness after the morning skate.
"First time I saw it. It's not bad," Nielsen said. "I think I had one in Bridgeport when I was in the AHL with New York. This is my first one in the NHL so it's pretty exciting."
Nielsen seemed pleased with how the bobblehead turned out.
"I like it," he said. "It's got a little beard. I think the hair looks pretty perfect so yeah, not bad. A-plus, yeah."