Red Wings January 2026 Game Threads

[lordstanley]

1 hour ago, Mr.TaterSalad said:

Is Kasper finally coming back to life here?

Hope so. Then we can call him Kasper The Former Ghost instead of Kasper The Failing Ghost. 

[lordstanley]

Tampa's 11-game winning streak is snapped. They do pick up a point in a shootout loss to St. Louis. Tampa, Carolina and Detroit are tied in points atop the Eastern Conference (tied for 3rd in the NHL right behind Dallas' 63 pts 48gp) with 62 - the Wings have played 49 games, Carolina 48, Tampa 46. 

[buddha]

4 minutes ago, lordstanley said:

Tampa's 11-game winning streak is snapped. They do pick up a point in a shootout loss to St. Louis. Tampa, Carolina and Detroit are tied in points atop the Eastern Conference (tied for 3rd in the NHL right behind Dallas' 63 pts 48gp) with 62 - the Wings have played 49 games, Carolina 48, Tampa 46. 

its weird, two straight losses and the wings will likely be out of the playoffs, but as of now they have one of the best records in the league.

atlantic is so competitive.

[lordstanley]

59 minutes ago, buddha said:

its weird, two straight losses and the wings will likely be out of the playoffs, but as of now they have one of the best records in the league.

atlantic is so competitive.

It is competitive, but we're finally starting to see some separation. Teams 11-16 in the conference are now between 11-16 pts behind the Wings. A few of them have three games in hand - Philly, Florida, Ottawa - but with the possible exception of Florida I don't expect any of those six teams to play better than the Wings in the final 35 or so games the rest of the way, let alone make up a double digit deficit. The Wings are in a playoff spot by 8 points over Toronto and Washington. Even if Toronto and Washington surge and overtake the Wings, the Wings should be able to beat out two of Montreal, NYI, Buffalo, Boston or Pittsburgh. The Wings aren't a great team, but at this point I'd say they have as good of a chance to finish 2nd in the Atlantic than they do of missing the playoffs. Send Gibson to a Caribbean island during the Olympics break and tell him to rest up.

Edited 13 hours ago by lordstanley

[buddha]

ASP played just 9 minutes.  and didnt play at all gor the last 15 minutes of the game.

he's such a liability on defense the wings dont want to play him late in tight games with a lead.

its a must that they get him off the second pair.  they need another defenseman in the worst way.  it doesnt have to be rasmus anderson, but it needs to be a reliable, second lair D.  come playoff time, asp is going to need to be heavily sheltered.

[gehringer_2]

13 hours ago, lordstanley said:

Kasper with the ENG! His first in 37 games. 

some real team leadership there by Raymond, he could have had that himself - he was looking for Casper.

[gehringer_2]

11 minutes ago, buddha said:

ASP played just 9 minutes.  and didnt play at all gor the last 15 minutes of the game.

he's such a liability on defense the wings dont want to play him late in tight games with a lead.

its a must that they get him off the second pair.  they need another defenseman in the worst way.  it doesnt have to be rasmus anderson, but it needs to be a reliable, second lair D.  come playoff time, asp is going to need to be heavily sheltered.

Yup - I think Daniels noted he came out for one shift late, but that was it.

IDK - maybe Yzerman thinks one of the guys at GR is close enough that they'll be ready after the Olympics. Otherwise the closer it gets to the deadline the more I worry about a them making a bad desperation deal.

[gehringer_2]

10 hours ago, lordstanley said:

Send Gibson to a Caribbean island during the Olympics break and tell him to rest up.

and we still have to worry about Larkin. Daniels made a point last night about McLellan holding Larkin to 13min against Boston so we are already seeing the team concerned about his workload.

[Jason_R]

Everyone is talking about it but let’s just tip our cap to Marco one more time. Incredible play. 

[slothfacekilla]

1 hour ago, gehringer_2 said:

and we still have to worry about Larkin. Daniels made a point last night about McLellan holding Larkin to 13min against Boston so we are already seeing the team concerned about his workload.

Maybe it is just me but I feel like Larkin has looked.....pretty bad the last few weeks from what I've seen?  Routinely losing his assignment in the defensive zone, things like that.  I don't know if he's hurt or what but at the very least the team seems like they can win without him playing his best so that's good.

I feel like the wings largely have been sitting ASP late even when he seems to be having a stronger game.  I don't know if they're managing his workload since I don't think he's ever played this many games especially against heavier competition or if it is just purely a lack of trust.  It seems like they just roll Seider - Edvinsson then Johansson with one of them for late stages of games.

[1984Echoes]

36 minutes ago, slothfacekilla said:

... I feel like the wings largely have been sitting ASP late even when he seems to be having a stronger game...

Aljo can play his offhand so Seider-Edvinsson 26 minutes, Chiarot 22 min's, and Aljo 19 minutes.

But also... JBD is getting those extra minutes from ASP.

No offense (3 assists in 33 games)...

But he does seem to be defensively responsible (+8). 

[gehringer_2]

56 minutes ago, slothfacekilla said:

Maybe it is just me but I feel like Larkin has looked.....pretty bad the last few weeks from what I've seen?  Routinely losing his assignment in the defensive zone, things like that.  I don't know if he's hurt or what but at the very least the team seems like they can win without him playing his best so that's good.

I feel like the wings largely have been sitting ASP late even when he seems to be having a stronger game.  I don't know if they're managing his workload since I don't think he's ever played this many games especially against heavier competition or if it is just purely a lack of trust.  It seems like they just roll Seider - Edvinsson then Johansson with one of them for late stages of games.

The thing is, I don't think there is a whole lot ASP can do for the rest of this season. It's not a matter of him just picking up his game. Sometimes he's not in the right place but more often he is just physically out matched, and that isn't going to change before next season -- even  if the team believes it eventually will  So teams are going at him harder now and McLellan doesn't have much choice but to cut his playing time - and that can't go on for too long. 

In the long run, if they still think he can get strong enough to be an asset in the future,, then playing this season will be a plus for his development, but given that the Wings have put themselves in such a good position in the standings, at some point McLellan is going to be pleading with Yzerman that winning games has to take precedence.

Just think how much worse it could be if JBD weren't playing decently. 😱

Edited 48 minutes ago by gehringer_2