Notes: Nielsen tied for team lead in assists but still looking for a goal

DETROIT-- The good news for Red Wings center Frans Nielsen is he is tied with Gustav Nyquist for the team lead in assists with 14.
The bad news is Nielsen has not scored a goal in his first 20 games this season.

"You want to get some goals for sure but at the same time I think you can't get frustrated about it," Nielsen said after Tuesday's practice at the Belfor Training Center. "I know it's going to come. I just gotta keep playing my game and hopefully one turns into more."
It is the longest drought to the start of the season of Nielsen's career.
In his rookie season in 2007-08, Nielsen played in just 15 games and scored in his 14th against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Prior to this year, that was his longest season-opening goal drought.
Nielsen usually gets his first goal in the first seven games of the season.
After joining the Wings as a free agent in 2016, Nielsen scored in the team's first game in Tampa.
Last season, Nielsen scored in the Wings' fourth game in Arizona.
But Nielsen knows better than to try to force the issue in an attempt to score a goal.
"That's the important part. Don't start cheating out there because they're not coming, or don't play the right way and force offense," Nielsen said. "I gotta be myself and play my game. I've played almost 800 games now. It's worked so far, so I just gotta keep playing my game. I know it's going to come."
Nielsen missed four games with a concussion from Oct. 30-Nov. 6 but has been fine since his return.
"I think since he's come back he's been really good," Wings coach Jeff Blashill said. "I think he went through a stretch where he wasn't playing good enough hockey early. Again, he's another guy that's self-accountable so I think he recognizes that. He's been way better lately. He's just way more confident with the puck. I don't know why the goals haven't been there. I think he's had a pretty good impact on a fairly consistent basis, night to night."
Blashill said he hasn't seen Nielsen passing up shots, which can happen if a player loses confidence.
"I don't feel like I am, either," Nielsen said. "There might be times on the power play where I might look pass instead of shooting sometimes, but 5-on-5 I definitely . . . if I can get it there I'm trying to get it to the net every time. I think I just gotta keep having that mentality and like I said, hopefully you get one and then hopefully those keep going in."
One thing that is likely a factor is that Nielsen is only averaging 1.40 shots a game, the lowest average of his career, not including his first two seasons in which he played 15 and 16 games, respectively.
"I think I'm a little bit low in the shots there," Nielsen said. "So yeah, that's down a little bit, but I'm not sure by how much. I think at least from my time in New York I was around two-plus shots per game. I think I'm a little below that now."
In 2015-16, his last season with the New York Islanders, Nielsen averaged 2.23 shots per game.
In his first two seasons in Detroit, Nielsen has averaged 2.05 and 1.70 shots per game.
Just as when a team is struggling to score, it usually takes a puck to take a funny bounce off a defenseman and go in the net to break out of it.
"I haven't been in this position before," Nielsen said. "But again, it's one of those things you can't control. You just got to go out there and try and play your game the same every night and just hope that it's going to bounce your way and it's going to keep rolling on."
RASMUSSEN THROUGH 22: Through his first quarter of the season, rookie forward Michael Rasmussen is fifth on the team with five goals.
Andreas Athanasiou leads with 10, Dylan Larkin and Anthony Mantha have nine apiece and Tyler Bertuzzi has six.
"Definitely a big adjustment for me, especially the first bit there but I think I've gotten better as it went on here," Rasmussen said. "For sure it's different but as you go up levels from when I went from midget to junior, junior to here or whatever, it's always different levels and that, so you just gotta get used to it and I think I've done an okay job of that."

Blashill believes Rasmussen has made strides since the beginning of the year.
"I think he's done a good job," Blashill said. "He hasn't been perfect but I think he's gotten better. Even last night (in 7-5 loss to Columbus), he had at times tough stretches but then he's a big reason why the power play scored because his urgency on the power play to recover the puck and then go to the net front.
"I think he's an elite net-front guy and I think he keeps working on the other areas of his game. We got to remember he's a young kid and it's hard to be real successful in this league as a young kid. Some people do it but it's really hard. I think as his body gets bigger and stronger, it'll help him even more but that's going to take years, not weeks or months."

The Wings made Rasmussen a healthy scratch a couple of times in order for him to work on some things off the ice but getting a lot of time in the weight room is a challenge in the thick of the season.
"It's hard, we play a lot of games and when we don't play games, we usually have days off, which we need," Rasmussen said. "As best I can, I get my workouts in. It's really important."
Rasmussen said he's achieved a bit of a comfort level with his linemates, center Luke Glendening and wing Bertuzzi, but has gotten help from many of his teammates.
"I think my linemates Bert and Glenny have been really great to me," Rasmussen said. "Glenny's one of the best leaders I've ever been around. Playing on his line's awesome. Obviously, I live with Larks (Larkin). He's just a really good role model and friend to me. My stall mates, Frans and Mo (Mantha) are really good guys. Mo's kind of been in my shoes. He gives me good tips and pats on the back. I wouldn't say it's one guy. It's a lot of guys for sure."
Glendening is not the biggest player on the team, standing 5-foot-11 to Rasmussen's 6-foot-6, but when Rasmussen tries to take face-offs against Glendening in practice, it doesn't seem to matter.
"He's real good," Rasmussen said. "He's one of the best in the league. He's got different tactics. He's really strong on his stick, which is important for a center. It's not by mistake that he's real good at it."
This season Glendening is winning a career-best 58.31 percent of his face-offs, best on the Wings among players who regularly take draws.
While Rasmussen works to get better as an individual player, he's also thinking about how the team can break out of its three-game funk.
"I think just get back to our game," Rasmussen said. "We gotta shoot the puck a little more, take care of the puck, stop on pucks. I think that goes for a lot of guys in the room. Definitely me last game. I gotta do a better job of that. I think we'll be okay here."