PREVIEW: Red Wings continue four-game homestand with matchup against Capitals on Sunday

DETROIT – In their penultimate game before wrapping up the 2024 calendar year, the Detroit Red Wings will welcome the Washington Capitals to Little Caesars Arena on Sunday night.

Puck drop between Detroit (13-18-4; 30 points) and Washington (24-9-2; 50 points) is set for 5 p.m., with broadcast coverage on FanDuel Sports Network Detroit and the Red Wings Radio Network (97.1 The Ticket in Detroit).

Todd McLellan lost his first game as head coach of the Red Wings, 5-2, against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Friday. Trailing by five to start the third period, Detroit showed late life when Lucas Raymond and Simon Edvinsson scored in a span of 3:51 roughly halfway through the frame, but went on to drop its fourth-straight contest.

After holding his first official practice with the Red Wings at Little Caesars Arena’s BELFOR Training Center on Saturday afternoon, McLellan said he wants to become more familiar with the players and entire coaching staff as quickly as possible.

“The situation, like I said [after Friday’s game] is brand new for me,” McLellan said. “The foot is on the gas pedal right now, and it hasn’t come off. I’m tryingto learn on the fly right now myself. How much do we share with them? How much can we share until we’re getting in the way and we’re becoming the problem? And that can happen, we can overload them and go the other way instead of moving the train forward. We’ll figure all this out as we go.”

Several of Detroit’s skaters, including Patrick Kane, said they enjoyed the structure and speed of Saturday’s practice.

“Really good pace,” Kane said. “Slowed it down a few times to make some corrections, talk some things out and sort it out so everyone understands. It almost felt like a first day of Training Camp, where you’re back at it with a new coach trying to learn some things and get the pace. I thought it was a good first practice, for sure.”

McLellan also talked about how Saturday felt a little like the start of an NHL Training Camp.

“The Red Wings have their video staff, and we’re trying to blend stuff together,” McLellan said. “The amount of time it takes to flip stuff around, the video coaches did an unreal job today, in a stressful situation, just to get us ready for a meeting. You don’t have that when you’re planning for Training Camp because you’ve got six months---three months, probably---to get prepared, and we had three hours. But the on-ice part of it was good. We targeted two areas that we thought we needed to work on. The group was attentive, they asked good questions. Usually, that’s a good sign.”

Goalie Cam Talbot, who has McLellan as his bench boss for the third time of his NHL career, said the 57-year-old’s message to the Red Wings ahead of Saturday’s on-ice session was to “come out and work.”

“That’s what we’re all going to do from here on out,” Talbot said. “We’re going to learn as we go. It’s not easy when you change coaches midseason. You can’t change everything all at once. There’s a process to it, and I think that was the message. We’re going to work on things every practice and continue to build, and as we’re building we’re going to learn and get better.”

Sunday’s game marks the second half of a back-to-back road set for the Capitals, who are coming off a 5-2 victory over the Maple Leafs. Washington, which is currently second in the Metropolitan Division, saw captain Alex Ovechkin score on Saturday – his first game since he fractured his left fibula on Nov. 18.

Dylan Strome leads the Capitals, who went 10-5-1 in 16 games without Ovechkin, with 39 points (11 goals, 28 assists) this season. Aliaksei Protas is second on the club in points (30) and Connor McMichael is third (29 points). In net, Logan Thompson and Charlie Lindgren have combined for a 2.50 goals-against average and .910 save percentage.

“I know what [McLellan] brings to the table,” Talbot said. “Trent [Yawney] as well. Both of those two, they work so well together. Everywhere they’ve gone they’ve had really good success. Once the team, we change a few things up and everybody buys in, I think you’ll see us turn it around.”