“It’s been a good vibe in the group,” Michael Brandsegg-Nygård said. “We just have to keep going.”
Unfortunately, that group was without Patrick Kane (upper body) for practice at Little Caesars Arena’s BELFOR Training Center on Tuesday afternoon. McLellan said the veteran forward, who didn’t play on Sunday, will not travel with Detroit for its midweek back-to-back road set.
“He did skate [on Tuesday], which is a good sign,” McLellan said Kane, who has two goals and three assists in five games this season. “We’ll evaluate him when we get back for the Saturday game.”
McLellan highlighted how a group effort will be needed to replace Kane’s presence on the club’s power play, which entered Wednesday operating at 22.2 percent. During Tuesday’s practice, Marco Kasper was on the top unit alongside Larkin, Lucas Raymond, Alex DeBrincat and Moritz Seider.
“We don’t really know what we have or what it will look like,” McLellan said. “We needed some good practice time, which we had [on Tuesday]. Kasp is there. He is his own player. If we expect him to be Patrick Kane and do some of the things that Patrick does, then we’ll probably be disappointed. But if we view Kasp, if it is him, for what Kasp is and the strengths he has then he can be just fine there. He’ll fill that hole, or whoever goes there will fill that hole. We still expect a high-end performance out of that special team.”
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