In Red Wings Land

Notes: Now it’s Hirose turn to play in his hometown | DetroitRedWings.com

“It’s pretty exciting,” Hirose said after practice. “You never really, growing up, know if you’re going to be able to play at the NHL level in that rink. I’m sure once we get there, it will be a little bit more exciting. Right now. I’m just taking it day by day.”

Hirose is expecting a good cheering section at Scotiabank Saddledome Thursday night, including parents Susan and Chris, but doesn’t have an exact number.

I bet Taro Hirose will score his first goal of the season tonight against the Flames. He’ll be playing with new linemates too. He’s been bumped down to the 3rd line and 2nd power play unit based off of yesterday’s practice.

#RedWings in practice:
Bertuzzi-Larkin-Mantha
Glendening-Nielsen-Athanasiou
Hirose-Filppula-Ehn
Helm-de la Rose-Abdelkader

Daley-Hronek
Ericsson-Green
Cholowski-Biega
Bowey
(No DeKeyser, Nemeth, Erne)

— Dana Wakiji (@Dwakiji) October 16, 2019

Danny DeKeyser (mid-body), Patrik Nemeth (illness) and Adam Erne (upper body) are apparently all doubtful for tonight.

Blashill said there were no immediate plans to call another player up.

”No, we’ll leave it at 12,” Blashill said. “If something happens where one of those other guys couldn’t play, we’d probably go 11 (forwards) and 7 (defensemen).”

Around the League

31 Thoughts: Taylor Hall contract status looms over slow-starting Devils | Sportsnet

Thought #22 is a cool nugget about the Anthony Mantha’s four goal game and the Red Wings’ top line of Mantha, Dylan Larkin and Tyler Bertuzzi.

“[Larkin] told us they had a play they wanted to try,” head coach Jeff Blashill said last week, referring to the group of Larkin, Mantha and Tyler Bertuzzi.

Assistant coach Dan Bylsma handles the pre-game planning in this department, letting the trio know about opponent tendencies and what to look for. Blashill loved Larkin stepping up in that situation.

“The best lines in hockey drive their teams to winning. It goes beyond points. For them to have the confidence to say they wanted to try that is great for us.”

It’s going to be pretty fun watching these three continue to develop as a trio this season. The sky’s the limit for them.