Todd McLellan said Monday he hadn't even seen the St. Louis Blues, the Detroit Red Wings' next opponent, play this season.
Just as well: When the teams met Dec. 23 at Little Caesars Arena, the Wings were at the nadir of their season, looking so lifeless in a 4-0 loss that it prompted general manager Steve Yzerman to replace Derek Lalonde with McLellan.
On Tuesday, the teams meet in St. Louis, with the Wings in a different kind of situation: Trying to resuscitate their playoff aspirations. While the Wings (34-33-6) won only four times in March, the Blues won 12 times, and have been the hottest team in the NHL.
"They’ve won nine in a row and someone is probably going to stop that at some point, so hopefully it’s us," Patrick Kane said. "That would give us a lot of momentum and confidence the rest of the way. But it’ll be a great test for us.
"They’re firing on all cylinders right now and it seems like they have been ever since they hired Jim Montgomery as coach there."
Montgomery was hired by the Blues on Nov. 24, one month and two days before McLellan's arrival in Detroit. The Wings have enjoyed two seven-game winning streaks under McLellan, but have struggled since late February. To that end, Monday's practice was heavy on self-improvement.
"We worried a lot more about the Detroit Red Wings than we did the St. Louis Blues," McLellan said. "We have to. We’re at that stage. Some of the areas that were slipping, we spent a lot of time trying to adjust or correct. I’d like to think it’ll pay dividends down the stretch. Practice time is quite valuable at this time of the year and we have to take advantage of it when we can."
The Wings are three points and three spots out of the second wild card in the east. They earned a bit of a boost in confidence by dispatching the Boston Bruins on Saturday. But the Bruins and Blues are on opposite trajectories.
