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New York Times
a day ago
- Sport
- New York Times
Inside Marco Sturm's road to coaching the Bruins: An L.A. mindset, a big AHL risk and an NHL reward
The beer was cold. Todd McLellan's Manhattan Beach house was comfortable. McLellan, then head coach of the Los Angeles Kings, had serious business to discuss with one of his assistants. It was 2022. After three straight postseason no-shows, the Kings had made the playoffs. Phillip Danault and Viktor Arvidsson, respectively signed and acquired in 2021, gave Anze Kopitar, Dustin Brown, Drew Doughty and Jonathan Quick desperately needed reinforcements. Quinton Byfield, Jordan Spence and Alex Turcotte were rising. Advertisement 'The teardown,' recalled McLellan, now head coach of the Detroit Red Wings, 'was basically over in L.A.' The wind off the Pacific Ocean blew under the Kings' wings. The Southern California sunshine sparkled on the resurgent club. But as he sipped his beer in McLellan's basement, Marco Sturm told his boss he wanted to say goodbye to all of it. The Boston Bruins do not care that Sturm has never been an NHL head coach. By hiring Sturm on Thursday, the franchise acknowledged the former Bruins player will develop in conjunction with his rebuilding roster. But general manager Don Sweeney identified Sturm's three AHL seasons of postseason qualification and player development as critical to his decision. Those components do not always go hand in hand. The AHL is complicated. The league has everything: high-end picks assured NHL promotions, struggling first-rounders with tattered confidence, undrafted free agents with chips on their shoulders, older players fighting Father Time. Mix in impatient GMs, agents grousing about benched clients and half-empty buildings, and a three-hour bus ride can feel like 20. But the thing about the AHL and its resources is that all of this goes through the head coach. You cannot help but grow. 'You're ultimately responsible for everything,' said McLellan, who coached the AHL's Houston Aeros for four seasons before entering the NHL as a Wings assistant in 2005. 'Yeah, there's a manager there. But when it's all said and done, everything there runs through you.' By 2022, Sturm had checked multiple boxes. In L.A., he oversaw the power play. He was the head coach for Germany's national team for three seasons. In the 2018 Olympics, Sturm coached the Germans to silver. But he did not have North American head-coaching experience. Sturm knew that would decrease his odds of running an NHL bench. It just so happened that the Ontario Reign, L.A.'s AHL affiliate, had an opening. John Wroblewski had left the club after two seasons. The Kings were happy with Sturm, first hired as Willie Desjardins' assistant in 2018. McLellan, who replaced Desjardins the following season, thought highly enough of Sturm to retain him after a week of consideration. Advertisement But Sturm believed that assuming more responsibility in the AHL would serve him better than staying at McLellan's side. McLellan understood the reward and the risk. In 2000, he left the security of the WHL's Swift Current Broncos to coach the Cleveland Lumberjacks in the IHL. It got him into pro hockey. But the IHL collapsed in 2001. In Sturm's case, raising his hand for Ontario would not guarantee him a return ticket to the NHL. 'You decide to invest in yourself a little bit,' McLellan said. 'It's not about the position. It's not about the prestige. It's not about money. It's about improving your skill set so that later on, it pays off. Was there a risk for Marco? Of course there was. But there was also a reward there.' Zdeno Chara played 1,680 career NHL games. It was the most of any player drafted in 1996. But Sturm (938) accomplished one thing Chara did not. Sturm, the No. 21 selection that year, never played a single AHL game. So it was with a sense of unfamiliarity that Sturm, 43 at the time, accepted the Reign position. With Chris Hajt and Brad Schuler as his assistants, Sturm made winning and development his top priorities. 'We want to win hockey games in the American League and put a good product on the ice. We want to develop players at the same time,' Reign general manager Rich Seeley said. 'It's not one or the other. It's both.' It did not take Seeley long to notice Sturm's presence in the dressing room. He radiated positivity. Players felt welcome, appreciated and settled. Sturm defined roles and told them what he expected. They responded. 'He made you feel comfortable early,' said forward Jeff Malott, a first-year Reign player in 2024-25 after arriving from the Winnipeg Jets system. 'I was an older guy in the American League. He gave me the space to play and figure out my game in a new environment.' Advertisement Systematically, Sturm followed the Kings' defense-first model. Sturm designed a hybrid in the Reign end: zone on some occasions, man-to-man on others, smothering at all times. This followed L.A.'s organizational philosophy. It also reflected the influence of Darryl Sutter, Ron Wilson, Claude Julien and Terry Murray, some of the coaches Sturm played for. 'If you can't check and defend,' Seeley said, 'it's going to be hard to be successful in the NHL.' The Reign went 34-32-6 in Sturm's first year. Spence scored 45 points, third most on the roster. Byfield scored 15 points in 16 games. Spence would play 71 games for the Kings the following season, and Byfield has not played in the AHL since. In 2023-24, Ontario went 42-23-7. Sturm helped Akil Thomas emphasize consistency. He got Brandt Clarke to understand the value of defending. Thomas and Clarke advanced to L.A. full time in 2024-25. Joe Hicketts, 27 in 2023-24 and a first-year Reign defenseman, was transitioning from the Iowa Wild. From what he's heard, Hicketts' previous club has shifted priorities. 'They've taken a development mindset,' Hicketts said of the Wild. 'Coming to Ontario, Marco wanted to win. The organization had goals that they wanted to win. Marco pushed us to meet those goals and expectations. It was a welcome change of scenery for me. Getting to know him over the last two seasons, he truly cared about us not only as players but as people. He was willing to help us out with anything we needed.' In 2024, Sturm earned interviews with the San Jose Sharks to replace David Quinn. He was runner-up to Ryan Warsofsky, then a Sharks assistant. This season, the Reign won 43 games, their highest total under Sturm. He rolled four lines. He encouraged his forwards to forecheck hard. He was precise about the quantity of clips he showed in video sessions. He got Samuel Helenius (20 games with the Reign, 50 with the Kings) to bear down on faceoffs, finish checks and be strong on the boards. Sturm helped the 6-foot-5, 208-pound Malott focus on getting to his spots to maximize his size. Malott scored 23 goals and 28 assists, third most on the team. On March 23, Malott scored twice in a 7-4 win over Iowa. Three days later, he was recalled by the Kings. Malott never returned to Ontario. Advertisement 'Oh, it was fun. Yeah, it was good,' Malott said of his 18 NHL games, including six in the playoffs against the Edmonton Oilers. 'Yeah. Yeah. It was a good stretch there. Genuinely did feel prepared. There's a lot less to think about when you feel confident in the systems.' As captain, Hicketts had a regular monthly meeting with Sturm, along with a handful of older players, to discuss anything that required addressing. But Sturm's door was always open. Hicketts was at his offseason home in Grand Rapids, Mich., when he heard the news of the Bruins hiring Sturm. He was happy for Sturm. But he was also bummed to say goodbye. Sturm, among other things, had convinced the Reign to reserve day rooms for the players for road games against the Coachella Valley Firebirds. The bus trips the Reign used to take to play the San Jose Barracuda became flights. 'When you're sad to see a coach leave,' Hicketts said, 'I think it's a good indication you enjoyed playing for him and his entire staff.' In 2007-08, his second full Bruins season after arriving in the Joe Thornton blockbuster, Sturm scored a career-high 56 points. It was probably not a coincidence that the Bruins made the playoffs for the first time since 2003-04. As a coach, Sturm insisted on the marriage between individual and team results. 'At the core,' Hicketts said of Sturm's philosophy, 'it was trying to get each individual to put their best product on the ice so the team as a whole could succeed. That is what this generation of athletes in hockey wants. They want to succeed. But they want the team to succeed with it.' Sturm also experienced rock bottom as a player. On May 1, 2010, he tore the ACL and MCL in his right knee. He never played for the Bruins again. On Dec. 12, 2010, the Bruins traded him to the Kings for future considerations. Sturm's unavailability that season gave Brad Marchand the opening he needed to become an NHL full-timer. Advertisement 'If you have a player in your organization looking for somebody that's been through it before, he's touched every base,' McLellan said. 'There's not a base Marco hasn't experienced. He can get to any individual in your organization based on that experience.' Sturm has foundational players in David Pastrnak and Charlie McAvoy. He has five returning defensemen who can execute his in-zone strategy. He will wait for Sweeney to supply him with more forwards to pursue pucks. Sturm will make the Bruins hard to play, like they were before they lost their way in 2024-25. 'The Bruins have some DNA from many, many years ago that never really leaves,' McLellan said. 'So I'm sure that's going to show up in their game.' When McLellan heard that Sturm got the job, the news made him feel really good. He likes Sturm and his family a lot. But the hire also put McLellan on notice. He now has a friend and ex-colleague coaching a division opponent. 'Our job in Detroit,' McLellan said, 'just got tougher.'
Associated Press
15-05-2025
- Sport
- Associated Press
Jim Hiller will return as LA Kings' head coach, general manager Ken Holland says during his intro
Jim Hiller will return next season as the Los Angeles Kings' head coach, new general manager Ken Holland says. Holland praised Hiller and looked ahead to their new partnership Thursday during the Hall of Fame hockey executive's introductory news conference at the Kings' training complex. Holland is returning to the NHL after a one-year absence, taking over as the replacement for Rob Blake. The 69-year-old former GM of the Detroit Red Wings and the Edmonton Oilers immediately made it clear he isn't in Los Angeles to blow up a team that has made four straight playoff appearances, only to lose to the Oilers in the first round every spring. Holland won't make an immediate change behind the Kings' bench — or even in the front office, where he plans to retain the assistant GMs and hockey executives who worked for Blake. 'Jim is going to be the coach,' Holland said. 'Jim Hiller did a fabulous job in leading the team to 105 points. They were good defensively. They were good on special teams. The team played hard. I thought three weeks ago that this was a team that had the potential, the ability to go on a long playoff run. He'll be a better coach next year for the experience that he went through this year.' Holland and Hiller spent two hours in discussion Wednesday, the GM said. Hiller, who replaced the fired Todd McLellan in February 2024, was an assistant coach to Mike Babcock in Detroit a decade ago while Holland was the Wings' general manager. The Kings tied the franchise records for victories (48) and points this season under Hiller, only to lose four straight playoff games to Edmonton after going up 2-0. Los Angeles is a consistent playoff team with star power and solid depth, but Holland knows his job is to get the Kings off this franchise plateau. 'I'm hoping to add something to it, maybe a little different idea,' Holland said. 'I'm looking forward to getting going. ... I understand that this is a marketplace that's really competitive. You talk about all the competition for the entertainment dollar, so it's important that you win and you compete. Got to find a way to make the team a little bit different, a little bit better. I think the experiences they've been through here will benefit us down the road.' Blake voluntarily left the team less than two weeks ago, according to president Luc Robitaille. Holland called the Kings 'a legitimate Stanley Cup contender' this season, and he praised Blake for his rebuilding job. The Kings' search quickly zeroed in on Holland, who spent the past year working in the NHL's hockey operations division after he left the Oilers by mutual consent. Robitaille said the Kings are 'very fortunate' to hire Holland. 'He knows the path of what it takes to get to the championship,' Robitaille said. 'That's a hard thing to do, and that's a hard thing to learn. His experience, what he's done over the course of his career, is very important for this franchise to get to that next level.' Holland won one Stanley Cup as an assistant GM in Detroit and three more during his 22 years as the Wings' general manager. In 2019 he moved on to Edmonton, which made the playoffs in all five years of his tenure and even advanced to Game 7 of last year's Stanley Cup Final before falling to Florida. Holland said he wasn't sure whether he would return to a front office after he left Edmonton, but he's ready. He spent the winter watching games every night at home in British Columbia when he wasn't working alongside NHL director of hockey operations Colin Campbell. 'I'm excited to be back in the saddle,' Holland said. 'I've got a lot of energy. I had an opportunity this past winter to get my batteries re-juiced.' Holland called Los Angeles 'one of the great sports cities in all the world,' and he is already getting to know the breadth of the city in a way he never did as a visitor: He spent the past two nights in a hotel in Manhattan Beach, the beautiful seaside enclave where most of the Kings' players and executives live. 'My wife is excited, and my grandkids are really excited,' Holland said. 'Let me tell you, they're looking forward to coming to LA, watching some Kings games and going to Disneyland.' ___ AP NHL:
National Post
10-05-2025
- Sport
- National Post
LEAF NOTES: Once students of tactics, Toronto now studied by rivals
Article content The Maple Leafs had been trying to copy other clubs' tactical blueprint for years. Article content Article content But as they put together a fourth straight 100-point season and try to make it to the conference final, other teams are leaning over for a peek. Article content 'I look at the Leafs now,' Detroit Red Wings head coach Todd McLellan to local media this week. 'I watch Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews be willing to not quit on a play, but not over-pressure it. Lay it into the corner, go down and do the work, eat up another minute, go to the bench and say, 'OK, we'll get them next time'. Article content Article content 'And I think they're managing the game much better now. They are way more prepared to win. I think Chief (Craig Berube) has done an outstanding job there of getting those players to learn how to win versus just learn how to score.' Article content McLellan interviewed for the Leaf headmaster position last summer and was thought to be general manager Brad Treliving's second choice after Berube. Article content ONCE A LEAF Article content As Treliving watches Matthew Tkachuk push the Panthers deep in playoffs each year, he must always ruminate how different life would have been for as Calgary Flames as GM there had Tkachuk not wanted out in a trade. Article content A similar thought must cross the minds of older brass in the Leaf hockey office when they look at Tkachuk's Florida teammate Carter Verhaeghe, who scored early in Friday's Game 3. Article content One of previous GM Lou Lamoriello's first moves was sending Toronto-born Verhaeghe to the New York Islanders, 10 years ago, part of a 5-for-1, picks-and-prospects trade to get speedster Michael Grabner. Article content At that stage the third-round draft pick winger had played two games in the organization for the Marlies when his Niagara Ice Dogs were eliminated from the 2014 OHL playoffs. Article content 'Toronto was a long time ago,' Verhaeghe said this week. 'But it was a good experience, coming up and getting an opportunity. I remember the pace was a lot different than junior and how it opened my eyes. (Marlies coach) Steve Spott treated me fairly, but I was only there a couple of weeks.' Article content Spott is now Pete DeBoer's assistant with the Dallas Stars. Article content Article content O, NA-TA-LIE Article content So much so that Morris was recognized on the subway during game night this week and was serenaded by a car full of fellow commuters with, you guessed it, O Canada. Article content Wearing her Leaf sweater, she had her I-phone out to record the tribute, while another passenger posted video of her singing along to blogTO. Morris was a contestant on Canada's Got Talent in 2024, with a rendition of Beyonce's 'I Was Here' and Jessie J's 'Mamma Knows Best', earning herself fifth place.
New York Times
18-04-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Red Wings' latest playoff miss reveals fatal flaws as drought reaches 9 seasons
DETROIT — When the Detroit Red Wings returned from the NHL's midseason break in February, head coach Todd McLellan posed a public challenge to his team: 'Who are we?' 'Are we (the team from) October to December?' he asked. 'Or are we December to February?' The December-to-February Red Wings were the NHL's hottest team, going 15-5-1 since McLellan was brought in the day after Christmas as a midseason replacement for previous head coach Derek Lalonde up until the 4 Nations Face-Off break. Advertisement Things were much less rosy from October to December. Detroit had stumbled mightily to start the season, limping to a 13-17-4 opening record, second-worst in the Eastern Conference, and prompting Lalonde's firing. The turnaround under McLellan raised a natural blend of hope and skepticism about how long the hot streak could continue. Over the next two months, the Red Wings delivered the answer to McLellan's 'Who are we?' question — sort of. After Thursday's season-ending 4-3 overtime loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs, the story of the 2024-25 Red Wings is complete. And it is complicated. Under McLellan, they'd become more assertive. They battled. They improved from the beginning of the season. But their fatal flaws still caught up with them. It was the return of a too-familiar trope for the Red Wings in the last three seasons: working themselves into a playoff race by late February, only to wither at the most important time of year. The playoff drought in Detroit — a franchise that made the Stanley Cup Playoffs every year from 1991 to 2016 — is up to nine years, tied for the fourth-longest in NHL history. And what's left of this latest season ended too soon are hard truths about what went wrong and what it will take to finally break through. Here's an astonishing fact about the Red Wings before Christmas: In 34 games, only two of Detroit's 13 wins came against teams that went on to make the playoffs. In the season's first month, the Red Wings lost at home on opening night to the lottery-bound Pittsburgh Penguins; they lost to the only team whose playoff drought is longer than their own, the Buffalo Sabres; and they lost three times — all by three or more goals — to the New York Rangers, who ended the season as possibly the NHL's most disappointing team. By late November, with the Red Wings coming off three straight losses to the Anaheim Ducks, Los Angeles Kings and San Jose Sharks, a coaching change already seemed possible. In hindsight, it's hard not to wonder what might have been if general manager Steve Yzerman had made the switch then. Advertisement But Detroit waited until the decision became virtually unavoidable. The Red Wings lost five straight from Nov. 29 through Dec. 7, then three more into the Christmas break, culminating with a 4-0 home loss to the St. Louis Blues on Dec. 23 with fans booing the team off the ice. That night, Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin spoke of 'a lot of disconnect' from his team on the ice. 'A lot of skating, a lot of hard work, but we're not getting anything accomplished.' The writing was on the wall. 'At Christmas, it was not good,' Larkin said recently. 'It was bad. We struggled, and felt like it was going to be the longest four months to the end of the season that could be possible. And we were just going to put our equipment on and go out there and play, and suck it up.' McLellan was introduced on Dec. 27, a game day against Toronto. His first game behind the bench came before his first practice. Coming in, McLellan spoke of improving the team's spirit. He wanted Detroit to play 'harder, to play faster, and a little bit smarter.' And after his first game, a 5-2 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs, he observed that the team looked 'mechanical.' At the next day's practice, McLellan told his team to 'play f—ing hockey, you've done it your whole lives.' The quote went viral, inspiring T-shirts, and spoke to Detroit's need to play freer and more instinctively. It also illustrated how McLellan's presence energized a team that needed it. Validation came quickly. After that first practice, the Red Wings went on a seven-game win streak from Dec. 29 through Jan. 12. A second seven-game win streak starting a week and a half later made the resurgence look like more than just a new coach bump. In many ways, it was. Under McLellan, the Red Wings shot more. They gave up fewer shots the other way. They had better starts. Promising rookies, such as 21-year-old center Marco Kasper and 24-year-old defenseman Albert Johansson, seized roles in the top half of their lineup and succeeded. Kasper excelled as the first-line left wing and second-line center. Another young forward, Elmer Söderblom, got a midseason call-up and proved he learned to make better use of his 6-foot-8 frame. Advertisement Star left wing Lucas Raymond took another step forward after a breakout campaign a year ago. Right wing Alex DeBrincat found more consistency, both as the team's top goal scorer and in his off-puck tenacity. Detroit's power play was among the league's best. There was real reason for optimism. 'I feel like we're really gelling as a team, togetherness and all that sort of thing,' forward Andrew Copp said in late February. 'That will be really important to keep as we head down the stretch here. There's just so many games, and it could be any one line, or any given player on any given night. And we're going to need everybody.' But the momentum stopped there – and needing everybody was a big reason why. In the first game back from the two-week 4 Nations break, Copp suffered a season-ending pectoral injury. And with that, Detroit's depth issues came roaring back to the forefront. Without Copp between Kane and DeBrincat, Detroit moved Kasper from top-line wing next to Larkin and Raymond into Copp's second-line center spot. The Red Wings never managed to fill the top-line void, despite trying multiple options and disrupting an already-thin bottom six in the process. At the same time, Larkin and Raymond didn't look like themselves after returning from the 4 Nations, where both had been top players for their countries. On nights when the Red Wings' elite power play didn't convert, their inability to generate five-on-five scoring re-emerged. The penalty kill, worst in the league, did not meaningfully improve. And the goaltending took a turn for the worse at the wrong time. A six-game losing streak from Feb. 27 through March 10 began with two consecutive losses to the Columbus Blue Jackets, one of Detroit's biggest opponents in the Eastern Conference wild-card race. 'You look back to those two Columbus games … those were big games for us,' DeBrincat said. 'And losing both of those … it's tough to get the confidence back when you're in a good position and you drop out of it. But there's no excuses. I think we just didn't play well enough throughout that stretch, and it really cost us.' Advertisement The Red Wings lost 11 out of 14 games starting with the two losses to Columbus. Some nights they couldn't score enough, others they didn't get stops and sometimes they just got goalied. Taken all together — and lumping in the Red Wings' pattern of struggling at the same point in the last two seasons — a concerning underlying issue emerges: Detroit's inability to stop the bleeding when adversity hits. That was true within games and over losing streaks. It calls into question their mental toughness. 'Once you hit three (losses), you've got to really get yourself out of the ditch quick,' McLellan said recently. 'And we can be mentally firmer upstairs in fighting our way out of that. Maintaining the positive streaks wasn't difficult for us for the most part. … It's when it goes bad, can we dig ourselves out of the ditch quicker to make it stop at three instead of it getting to four or five? And we didn't do that down the stretch.' The best teams find ways to snap those losing streaks before they spiral. And they do it in part through another hard-to-quantify trait: consistency. 'Whether it's preseason Game 1, or Game 82, or Game 5 of the Eastern Conference playoffs, the best players that I've been around — and there's a lot of them here, all of them, I mean we have a lot of great players here — the guys who have been to the top, those guys played the same way,' Detroit goaltender Alex Lyon said. 'And they're just as competitive in preseason Game 1, and they take it very seriously. And guys here do as well. It's just the fruits haven't (bore) themselves.' Detroit looked closer to achieving that aim this season than in years past, even during its slide. Some of the losses, such as the Stadium Series defeat on March 1 in Columbus and a 2-1 loss to Ottawa in mid-March, came when they had tilted the ice in their favor but couldn't solve an elite goaltending performance on the other side. Advertisement It's natural to wonder if the playoff drought and hyperfixation on ending it amplified the pressure during those hard times. Frankly, it feels impossible that it wouldn't. Now that drought continues and the noise from outside grows louder by the day. Some changes to the group are expected this offseason, Yzerman's seventh as Detroit GM, but the core of the roster will likely remain the same. That core will share the burden of ensuring the Red Wings are prepared to take control next February. On April 12, with Detroit's fate in another team's hands, McLellan watched the Toronto-Montreal game that would mathematically eliminate the Red Wings. 'I was swearing at the TV again, going like, Toronto, you've had so many chances, put them in, put them in,' McLellan said. 'But then I'm thinking, 'This is insane. I'm sitting there cheering for another team.' We had complete control — or not complete control, but we started with the same amount of available points as every other team at the beginning of the year. And we didn't get enough.' The game went into overtime, Montreal earned the point that officially eliminated the Red Wings, and McLellan turned off the TV. With that, the page turned on Detroit's season, and the work began again.
Yahoo
17-04-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Dylan Larkin nets 30th goal of season in Red Wings 5-2 win over Devils
The Detroit Red Wings continue to play hard, facing the end on a high note. They won their third consecutive game Wednesday at Prudential Center, defeating the playoff-bound New Jersey Devils, 5-2, in what was the Wings' penultimate outing of the season. Advertisement The Wings (39-35-7) have won one game before and two after they were eliminated from the 2025 playoff race. Even as they have nothing left to fight for, the focus has been on finding meaning in the last week. For Jonatan Berggren, it has meant scoring in consecutive games to reach 12 goals on the season. He's faced stretches of being on the outside of the lineup, and it was only earlier this week that coach Todd McLellan spoke of the need for Berggren to take advantage of the opportunity that comes with playing on the top line. OPINION: It's popular to fire Steve Yzerman, but Chris Ilitch should give him 1 more season Detroit Red Wings right wing Jonatan Berggren (48) celebrates his goal against the New Jersey Devils during the first period at Prudential Center, Wednesday, April 16, 2025 in Newark, New Jersey. For Alex Lyon, unlikely to be re-signed after the Wings added Petr Mrazek at the trade deadline, it meant making 28 saves to win a second straight start. Advertisement For Dylan Larkin, it was a chance to reach 30 goals for a fourth consecutive season. For Alex DeBrincat, to creep within two goals of reaching 40. For rookie Marco Kasper, a chance to edge within a goal of reaching 20. For the Devils, already locked into third place in the Metropolitan Division and coming off playing the night before on the road, it was a chance to rest multiple players, including No. 1 goalie Jacob Markstrom, and give a start to Nico Daws in just his fifth appearance of the season. MORE: For Todd McLellan's Red Wings, all along it's been about building good habits The Wings celebrated a goal 7:38 into the game, a minute into a power play, when Vladimir Tarasenko did what he hasn't done enough of all season and took a grade-a shot on net. The puck went in — but the Devils successfully challenged because J.T. Compher's stick caught Daws' left pad and then glove, which impaired Daws' ability to play his position prior to the goal. Advertisement Instead it was Berggren who showed off his shot for a second straight game, catching a puck that glanced off Simon Edvinsson's skate and turning it into a 1-0 lead late in the first period. Compher ripped one beneath the crossbar to make it 2-0 at 6:20 of the second period. The Wings extended their lead three minutes into the third period when Patrick Kane dropped a pass for Moritz Seider, who found Edvinsson, who picked up his second assist of the game when he passed the puck to Larkin. Former Wing Daniel Sprong had a hand in putting the Devils on the board during a power play midway through the third period, firing a shot that Erik Haula deflected. The Devils pulled within a goal with about five minutes to go when Dawson Mercer took advantage of Detroit's sloppy defense. DeBrincat replied with his 38th goal of the season to restore a cushion with 2:51 to go and Kasper added an empty-net goal in the final seconds. It's the first time the Wings have won three in a row since early February. They wrap up the season Thursday at the Toronto Maple Leafs. Advertisement Contact Helene St. James at hstjames@ Follow her on X @helenestjames. Read more on the Detroit Red Wings and sign up for our Red Wings newsletter. This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Red Wings score: Dylan Larkin nets No. 30 in win vs Devils
