Moritz Seider Ready to Play on the Road Trip

Detroit Red Wings defenseman Moritz Seider, slightly injured in Tuesday’s loss to the Nashville Predators, was able to fully practice Wednesday.

“As he has gone through practice, it appears he will be ready to go tomorrow,” Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said.

When the Red Wings play in St. Louis on Thursday and Friday in Colorado, they still will be without defensemen Gustav Lindstrom, Marc Staal and Troy Stecher who are all out with illness or injury. Stecher is out long-term.

“Lindstrom will not play either game on the trip,” Blashill said. “…Staal is in Covid protocol with (Tyler) Bertuzzi.”

Filip Hronek has a nagging injury and didn’t practice Wednesday. It was viewed as a maintenance day. His status for Thursday’s is to be determined.

Either Dan Renouf or Luke Witkowski will have to be Detroit’s sixth defenseman Thursday.

Moritz Seider headed to the room, hope he’s ok pic.twitter.com/aPKdm53w8J

— Hockey Realm (@hockey_realm) December 8, 2021

The other Red Wings’ news Wednesday is third liner Vladislav Namestnikov is now on the power play. The Red Wings are still looking for some consistency on the power play. The Red Wings rank 24th at 15.9%. That is an improvement over last season. However, it’s not where the Red Wings want to be.

“We are going to give Vladdie a look,” Blashill said. “Vladdie is someone who has played on the power play in the past and he has done a pretty good job. And we haven’t given him an opportunity. Very little. He has probably earned it with his play.”

Namestnikov Rewarded

Namestnikov is fifth on the team in scoring with eight goals and six assists for 14 points.  All of his points have been at even-strength. Plus, he has a 23% shooting percentage.

“He’s played real good hockey and he’s found the back of the net,”  Blashill said. “I thought he looked excellent on the power play today (in practice).”

One issue on the power play is the Red Wings’ reluctance to shoot. “I think one of the things he can be good at is he is slippery around the net,” Blashill said.

The two-game road set against good teams provides a significant test for the Red Wings, especially after their poor performance against Nashville. They only managed 16 shots on net and couldn’t fight their way through the Predators’ physical defensive play.

The Red Wings have struggled on the road (4-7-1) this season and they need to find a way to play different away from home.

“Get shots on net and gets those pucks to the net and also just take care of the puck better, so we have more possession, Pius Suter said. “That means we have to play less D-zone as well and that’s gonna help us create more.”