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Red Wings look to establish winning ways at home at LCA

Pabio November 24, 2024

Detroit — The Red Wings can climb the standings next week by doing something relatively simple: winning their home games.

Now, winning in the NHL is never easy, at home or on the road. Let’s make this established first and foremost in the parity-focused league.

But a team’s chances improve when it plays in front of its home fans and in the comfort of its own rink, and the Wings have a favorable schedule going into doing so.

After Saturday’s game against Boston, they will travel to Long Island on Monday to face the New York Islanders, a team the Wings have beaten twice this season. But then the Wings will face Calgary (Wednesday), New Jersey (Friday) and Vancouver (December 1).

The Wings have already started this home stretch on Thursday with a spectacular comeback 2-1 victory against the Islanders.

“It’s not called Hockeytown for nothing,” said forward Marco Kasper. “The fans are always there.”

Fighting down to the final game to earn a playoff spot last season, the Wings were 23-13-5 in the ACL, firmly establishing an on-ice advantage. They must do the same in the weeks and months to come. After Thursday’s win, the Wings are 4-4-1 in the ACL this season.

“You have to win at home,” said coach Derek Lalonde. “Last year, a pretty successful year, we found ourselves battling in the standings, we took care of the home ice.”

Many Wings players mentioned the loud and energetic LCA crowds in the final weeks of last season as they rushed into the playoff race.

“One of the reasons I came back was the atmosphere at LCA,” said forward Patrick Kane, who re-signed with the Wings as a free agent. “The excitement of playing in this building and the support of the fans, we have to use that to our advantage.”

Thursday’s home victory seemed to take on special significance. The Wings were coming off a disappointing road trip, losing three heartbreaking games in California at the end of the trip.

Scoring two goals in the final five minutes – Lucas Raymond’s winner with just under a minute remaining in regulation – was an important victory on many levels.

“We always talk about taking care of the ice at home, and we did that,” Kasper said. “It was a frustrating road trip. We knew we had to win this game. We went into it with the mindset that we played good stretches of hockey, but our total 60 minutes weren’t there. We stuck to the plan (Thursday).”

Looking ahead, the Wings will also play nine of their 14 games in December at LCA.

“We have an opportunity to be really good at home here until Christmas,” captain Dylan Larkin said.

A difficult affair

There is little job security as an NHL head coach, and the fate of Jim Montgomery is the classic example.

The Bruins were in Detroit on Saturday, but without Montgomery, who was fired several days ago.

All Montgomery did was go 120-41-23 (.715 winning percentage) in two and a quarter seasons with the Bruins. He made the playoffs twice and, in his first season, guided the Bruins to the most successful regular season in NHL history (135 points).

But the Bruins were upset by that record-breaking season in the first round of the playoffs, only reached the second round last spring and are off to a 9-9-3 start this season.

Montgomery, a friend of Lalonde, is replaced by Joe Sacco.

“It’s a tough league, but that’s the reality,” Lalonde said. “The expectations, if you’re not a freshman…you’re one of 32 coaches and I don’t mind that. I look at it more as a reality where, there’s maybe five, six or seven years, It wasn’t the case, but it’s a shame Jim is a good coach, we talk about it often, and again it’s probably just the reality of the job with social networks and the media.

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