Detroit Red Wings on team defense, need to protect home ice
Detroit Red Wings Ben Chiarot, Moritz Seider and Todd McLellan, Dec. 1, 2025 in Detroit.
The Detroit Red Wings, winless in four games – including their past two at home entering Tuesday night’s game – face a bruising challenge as they try to overturn that.
The Wings (13-11-2) host the Boston Bruins (15-12-0) – with the two teams separated by just two points despite the Bruins sitting second in the Atlantic Division and the Wings fifth in the wild-card chase – at Little Caesars Arena on Tuesday, Dec. 2 (7 p.m., FanDuel Sports Network Detroit).
When the Original Six rivals last met, on Saturday in Boston, the Wings did some things well – team defense, standing up to the physicality and rallying from two deficits – but ultimately lost, 3-2 in a shootout because their offense failed, especially during five power plays.
‘I think we’ve just got to get back to a shot-first mentality,” Wings defenseman Moritz Seider said Monday. “Really create havoc around their net, try to really penetrate into the danger area zone in front of [Jeremy] Swayman’s net. I think if we do that, we’ll break them down, we’ll beat them.
“If you have to make one point in the game, that was probably the crucial turning point of the specialty teams that we lost. Got to be honest with that, we got to be better than that.”
Seider still sported a bit of a bruise on his cheek Monday from duking it out with Mark Kastelic in the first period Saturday, but while it was the needed response at that time, the Wings and Seider prefer him playing hockey over sitting in the penalty box.
“I wouldn’t say it’s ideal to square up with a guy who probably has over 50 (fights) in his career,” Seider said. “I didn’t really have much of a choice. Obviously, you don’t want to back down.
“I don’t think we need a fighter in our team. We’re a really good team and we’ve just got to match their intensity, and And I think we did that, we just can’t back down from those things.”
The Wings came into Boston off back-to-back 6-3 losses at home, so to hold a team to two goals on the road showed much-needed team defense.
“I actually liked our game in Boston,” said defenseman Ben Chiarot, who took a slap shot off his left thumb vs. the Bruins. “I thought we played pretty well, played fast, played to our strengths. We have a good skating team, use our speed, get in on the forecheck. They like to trap it up, so try and get in behind that and break their structure.”
The Wings won’t have forward Mason Appleton available, as he’s dealing with an undisclosed injury. As for who will start in goal – Cam Talbot (who gave his usual solid performance Saturday) or John Gibson – coach Todd McLellan cleared it up by saying it will be “one of our two.”
The Wings are on an 0-3-1 skid that has them three spots out of the second wild card spot – but that’s only a one-point difference in the tight Eastern Conference table.
“Part of the parity in the league right now is that the majority of teams have played fairly well on the road,” McLellan said. “Anytime the road play is even like that, that means home play is even like that. We’re no different. What are we, 5-5-1 or something on the road?”
Indeed, the Wings are 5-5-1 away from LCA, and 8-6-1 on their home ice.
“It’s just the parity, and the parity always evens out home and road,” McLellan continued. “But we would like to win a lot more and play a lot better at home just to make it more difficult on that parity.”
Contact Helene St. James at hstjames@freepress.com.
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