Working on details, maintaining growth mindset important for Red Wings early on this season

ELMONT, N.Y. -- The Detroit Red Wings had a productive practice at UBS Arena on Monday morning, skating with the mindset of carrying over the positives from Saturday’s 5-2 win over the Nashville Predators into their next road game against the New York Islanders on Tuesday night.

“We’ve done a pretty good job off our couple losses of problem-solving some areas we need to improve on,” Red Wings head coach Derek Lalonde said. “Emphasis today: a bit of our arrivals and track. I thought we did a pretty good job with it. So continue to grow our team, hopefully build off a pretty good effort the other night in Nashville.”

Vladimir Tarasenko played a key part in helping the Red Wings earn their second win of the season on Saturday, getting Detroit on the board with his second goal of 2024-25. The 32-year-old forward said he believes the hard work the club put in during Monday’s practice will prove advantageous against the Islanders.

“I think being in the league -- we have guys that have been in the league a long time -- we know that you have to forget the [last] game,” Tarasenko said. “The next game is coming. You have another very tough building to play in, another tough team, so we have to be ready. It’s important to get a good practice in before. I think we’ve worked pretty hard, and it’s time to get ready for tomorrow.”

Including Tarasenko, 11 different Red Wings players notched at least one point against the Predators. Detroit also converted on one of its three power-play chances in Nashville, which Lalonde said proved to be a decisive goal.

“Our power play has been getting looks, but when it goes in the back of the net it allowed us to win, if you will, the second period,” Lalonde said. “There’s just momentum, but our defensive effort was good. We want to continue in that area, especially against an elite opponent like [the Islanders].”

Lalonde had no new updates health-wise following Monday’s practice, just restating that Tyler Motte (upper body) remains day-to-day. Motte did not play against the Predators, which had an influence in Lalonde’s decision to shuffle Detroit’s lines ahead of Saturday’s road tilt.

“Obviously Marco [Kasper] gave us some really good minutes in all situations,” Lalonde said. “Gave us some jump and little bit of the spark we were looking for. It allows us some flexibility. We saw Joe Veleno on the wing, [which] allows us to maybe see some other guys on the wing. The center-wing, I think, is very valuable. It balanced our lines really well. It was a quality win, but it was a good team win in that we were able just to roll our lines on the road.”

The Red Wings’ defensive combinations were also shuffled against the Predators, notably with Moritz Seider and Simon Edvinsson making up the club’s first pairing. The young blueliners also skated next to each other on Monday.

“I think we find each other pretty good,” said Edvinsson, who scored an empty-netter for his first goal of the season on Saturday. “We have pretty similar games, and I think we think the same. It felt good playing next to him and it was an overall good game.”

The Red Wings want to have another good game on Tuesday and, according to Lalonde, they’ll be rewarded more often than not when they place trust in their process.

“We’re pretty good with judging ourselves on performance,” Lalonde said. “There are a couple losses in there where our actual performance isn’t awful -- not good enough and we want to keep growing it, but I think we’re pretty good. It’s the beginning of the year, everything gets a bit magnified. And just happen to have a two-game losing streak on the front end, against a really good team, it can be magnified, but I think our guys do a pretty good job on digging in on the things we need to work on. We did that in Nashville and we’re going to look to do it again tomorrow.”