Red Wings focused on getting necessary reps, rest amid busy schedule 

TORONTO -- The Detroit Red Wings held an optional practice at the Toronto Maple Leafs’ Ford Performance Centre on Thursday afternoon, with the players who participated using the on-ice session to run through some shooting drills and get their legs under them following Wednesday’s 4-1 win over the Chicago Blackhawks at United Center.

“Some stuff to clean up,” Michael Rasmussen said about Detroit’s most recent game. “Turned the puck over a little too much, but definitely some positives. We generated a lot off the rush, didn’t give [the Blackhawks] too many crazy good looks. It was a good win.”

Joe Veleno said Thursday’s skate was beneficial for him, especially as he looks ahead to the club’s busy weekend.

After facing the Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena on Friday, the Red Wings will travel back to Detroit to host the New York Rangers at Little Caesars Arena on Saturday.

“It always feels good to get out on the ice,” Veleno said. “Feel like you can always get better every day. It doesn’t have to be anything hard or demanding on the body, but just get some touches in sometimes will feel good. Getting up some confidence up a little bit, shooting, getting little reps in and just working on your game.”

Detroit has another jam-packed stretch of three games in four days with travel next week. The Red Wings will visit the Pittsburgh Penguins next Wednesday, then fly to California to battle the Anaheim Ducks next Friday (Nov. 13) and Los Angeles Kings next Saturday (Nov. 16). They’ll wrap up their West Coast trip against the San Jose Sharks on Nov. 18.

Veleno said when the schedule gets busy like this, it’s all about the team using its time wisely on and off the ice.

“I think we were smart about today, some guys being off the ice and some guys getting some touches in,” Veleno said. “Even when we’re not at the rink, what we’re doing outside the rink, making sure we’re taking care of our bodies---eating well, recovering well. We’ve got to put in a good stretch here with all these games coming up.”

Since not every player skated on Thursday, head coach Derek Lalonde was asked what Detroit’s lineup might look like against Toronto.

“We came out of last night healthy,” Lalonde said. “We’ll have some roster decisions for tomorrow. Would like to get [Justin] Holl in, would like to get Motter [Tyler Motte] in. Something we’ll discuss through tomorrow morning and go from there.”

Having the luxury of health and depth can make for tough lineup decisions, according to Lalonde.

“There could be some accountability on performance from some players in the lineup,” Lalonde said. “We’ve had two pretty good team games, pretty consistent, over our last six periods. Might take advantage of having healthy bodies on the back-to-backs and the three-in-fours, so there’s a lot that goes into it. Something we’ll contemplate in the next 24 hours here.”