Detroit — Saturday night, Hockey Night in Canada airing the game, and against the Toronto Maple Leafs. What more could a Red Wings fan want?
For the second time in about a month, the Wings and Leafs will meet at Little Caesars Arena on arguably the best night of the week for hockey,
The fact it is the Leafs as the opposition guarantees a loud and rowdy crowd and only makes the atmosphere that much better.
“The crowds are great,” coach Jeff Blashill said. “Generally, unfortunately, there’s too much blue in the building (the Leafs’ color) but that’s the reality of their fan base and that actually makes for a wild and fun crowd.
“The crowds are going back and forth with different chants and hopefully we can keep them quiet through much of the game as possible.”
Be it The Olympia, Joe Louis Arena, or now LCA, the emotion has always been a little different when the Leafs are in town. The Leafs are a unique opponent in Detroit because of the proximity to Canada and their loyal fan base just across the river, and the heated Original Six rivalry.
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Many hockey fans in Detroit grew up watching the Leafs regularly on the Hockey Night on Canada broadcasts, so there’s a familiarity there, too.
And for Wings’ players, a game like Saturday’s has a bit more spark than a typical game on the schedule.
“Definitely, and I’m sure the guys in the locker room do (feel the same way),” forward Joe Veleno said. “Saturday night, it’s at home, we’ve been getting good crowds at home all year, and we’ll know we’ll have a good crowd (Saturday). Especially against Toronto, an Original Six matchup, it’s going to be a fun one.
“We’ll all be excited to play.”
The Leafs (33-14-4) are among the elite teams in the NHL, and in Auston Matthews (76 goals in his last 100 regular season games), they have one of the prolific scorers in the game, along with a long list of high-profile and offensively dynamic players.
“They’re a fun team to play against,” Blashill said. “Too many times it probably gets too offensive, certainly for my liking or any coach’s liking, but it seems to be lot of chances going on and it’s an entertaining product for sure.”
Line juggling
With Dylan Larkin back practicing and centering his line, Blashill tweaked the bottom two lines.
Joe Veleno centered Vladislav Namestnikov and Michael Rasmussen, while Adam Erne was bumped to the fourth line playing with Carter Rowney and Sam Gagner.
Having Veleno and Rasmussen, two natural centers, playing on the same line was an interesting wrinkle. Rasmussen did play a few games on wing in early January, and Veleno has also played both positions.
Blashill feels Rasmussen, playing on wing, has a chance to be an effective net-front player, while Veleno’s defensive instincts are best suited playing center.
“But he’s fine at both,” Blashill said. “They’re both learning how to be good defensive centers in the league. In the end, they’ll both end up in the middle of the ice.
“We’re trying to get four lines we feel confident we can play against most anybody. You’d like to have your lines in a spot where you can play everybody. It gives us a chance to see that and we’ll see how it goes.”
Ice chips
Jakub Varana (shoulder surgery) took a few turns on the power play, and played a bit defensively on some drills, as he eases back into a return to playing.
“We’re trying to get him slowly moved into different spots that eventually when he is in the lineup, he’ll see,” Blashill said. “One of those is on the power play. We’ve tried to get him on defensive zone reps and get used to that, so hopefully when he does get final clearance to play, he is going to hit the ground running.”
… Veleno has been sent to Grand Rapids for game action twice recently while the Wings had extended breaks in the schedule. He is prepared for the shuttle now, when necessary.
“I’m used to it and I know what I have to get accomplished when I go down there,” Veleno said.
Hockey locker rooms being what they are, the Griffins had a nickname ready for their sometimes teammate, Veleno.
“The rental,” Veleno said. “That was the joke around there. And then only showing up for home games, and that stuff. They always find something to bug me on a little bit.”
ted.kulfan@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @tkulfan
Maple Leafs at Red Wings
Faceoff: 7:30 Saturday, Little Caesars Arena
TV/radio: BSD/97.1
Outlook: The Maple Leafs (33-14-4) have been among the Atlantic Division’s leaders all season, but are 5-4-1 in their last 10 games…C Auston Matthews leads the NHL with 36 goals, while G Jack Campbell (Port Huron) is 23-8-4 with a .920 SVS.