Moritz Seider & Todd McLellan Practice Media | Oct. 21, 2025

Moritz Seider & Todd McLellan Practice Media | Oct. 21, 2025

you had the two kids score at first already. Any advice for Michael Brand and Gingard to get on the board now? Um, no, just keep doing what you’re doing. I think he’s uh he’s playing great, especially with JC and Andrew. I think they’re um creating a lot of um movement and momentum for for our whole team and um no, it will definitely come. You know, a lot of road games coming up. What’s the mindset for you guys going into all these road games? Uh we got to have a good start. I think that’s that’s obviously a big thing for us. We want to get going right from the start. Other than that, I think we want to keep it simple. Um don’t want to fuel their um power play in any kind of situation. Um I think those are usually like momentum changers. Um, and then we just got to have a road mentality. Be very simple with the puck, get shots early, uh, make them defend, kind of pin them in, uh, in their own zone, and then hopefully strike on offense. Say, what did you think of, uh, see Johansson last game in particular, just physical play? Um, I mean, that’s exactly what we need from everyone. I think he’s, uh, he’s just stepping up. um growing into a role of being just a very mature uh defenseman and I think it’s very promising to see. Other than that, I think he’s very very skilled otherwise too and um if we can bring that physicality a little bit more obviously then he’s going to be a a big part of the team. These games against the Sabres the last couple of seasons have been very very competitive on on a short end. How do you avoid kind of falling into maybe looking at the Sabres as kind of a trap game so to speak? Uh, no. We I think we never do that. Uh, I think those those games are always a little different. Um, I think they’re they’re definitely a little bit more emotions than other games in it. Um, especially because they play such an interesting um, yeah, playing style of almost like lingering behind and waiting for for for easy offense where you got to be prepared and um, no, we just got to be dialed in right from the start. Make it hard for them to even create chances and then I think we have a good chance. Uh Patrick won’t make this trip. Um he did skate today, which is a good sign. And uh we’ll uh evaluate him when we get back for the Saturday game, I guess it is. Yep. And in the meantime, are you putting MBN up there with Casper and Well, that’s where he was last game. And um you know, we’ll look at lineups. We’ll look at what the opposition has. remember we’re playing on the road, but we feel like uh Brands can play in that position and and u and contribute, but also uh you know, I think they those three would feel good playing together, which is important. It just doesn’t affect one guy, it affects all three. And I think he would fit that hole well if we went that direction. You know, there obviously things like scale and fiscality leaguing a player, but with a young player, is trust really something that can’t be said enough about? is probably a hog story. Yeah. Um and you know that word’s really important. Um you’re talking to the coach and obviously coach player trust is is essential. We’re the guys that are calling their names. Hey, you’re up Branser. You’re up EMTT. Get ready to go. That that’s us signaling to them that we trust them and and we’ll put them on the ice. But just as important is the trust that the teammates have um that those individuals going on the ice can get the job done. um and and maybe more important. Um so, um they’ve they all three of them and and and other newcomers. We don’t talk about Bernard Docker at all. Like he’s earned the trust of of the coaching staff and and of his teammates and and there’s others, but uh um you know, the focus seems to always be on the rookies, which is is fine, but others have have contributed. Todd, there’s not many players who see the ice like Patrick Kane does on the power play. I looked like Casper was there today. What do you hope he can bring to that unit? Well, whoever ends up there, Casper had his his run there. Um, you know, we planned the other day, we were planning uh, you know, obviously without Kaner and we were planning without Razer just in case. As it turns out, he played, but no power play time. So, we don’t really know what we have or what it’ll look like. We needed some good practice time, which we had today. Uh, Casp is there. um he’s his own player. If we expect him to be Patrick Kane and and do some of the things that uh that Patrick does, well then we’ll probably be disappointed. But if we uh view Casp if if it is him uh for what Casp is and the strengths he has, he can be just fine there. He’ll he’ll fill that hole or whoever goes there will fill that hole. And we still expect a high-end performance out of that special team. And then the penalty kills been on a good run here lately. Is there anything in particular you’re seeing from that group that you really liked? No, I I think that the the leadership of the kill um some of the the veteran type players, now the rookies are important, too, but the veteran type players, Cop, Comper, Rasmusen, Appleton, they tend to be the first, you know, three or four guys that are over the boards unless Larks has taken a face off. Uh they’ve really accepted the challenge up front and they’ve taken some pride into it. um you know and they uh maybe they’ve given up something else for opportunity on a power play or something but they’ve accepted that role and they’ve done a good job and uh that makes a big difference when somebody is is leading the group these last couple of seasons uh the Red Wings and Sabres games against one another have been very very competitive for the most part. How what is the biggest message to maybe look avoid looking at this game as sort of a trap game so to speak? Well, the last thing that um you know, we we shouldn’t even be talking about this. Like, it’s not like we’re you know, we’ve been in first place for the last seven years and and they’ve been out of it and we’re wheeling into town like we, you know, like we own the place. That’s that’s not who we are. We’re we’re competing with them for um every inch and every point possible. So, I don’t think our minds can go there one bit. Um, I don’t buy the trap game theory at all. Every team in the NHL is is very skilled, talented, has chance to win on any given night. Um, and um, yeah, it’s even a hard question for me to answer because I just I don’t see it that way. I don’t believe that um, at all. And then a player like Elmer Sodblum, in the games that he has played, what have you liked the most about his game? And what do you need to see more out of him in order to to give him more playing time? Yeah, it you know, for Elmer, for anybody in our forget about Elmer, for anybody in our roster, when when we’ve won more than we’ve lost, sometimes roster decisions are made just to get some other people up and running, too. And uh it’s not that they’ve been um the players that come out haven’t been disasters or their games really fallen off or they need a wakeup call. Um sometimes we just try and keep players alive because we know we’re going to need them. Um, you know, in Elmer Elmer’s case, we had him out, we put him back in. I thought he played better than he did um, you know, in the games prior. He he did some of the things we asked of him. Um, but we we looked at the lineup that Edmonton had and and we talked about size and pace and maybe he drew the short end of the straw uh, when it came to it. But, uh, Elmer’s fine. He’s working on his game. He’s a big man that can control things with his size. And uh I think he’s got a a nice set of hands and can shoot the puck. So all those tools are are very usable tools for him and we want to see that show up game after game. But but um you know he you anybody else shouldn’t be reading too much into this. We just needed to get some other guys in the lineup.

Mo Seider and Todd McLellan speak with the media following Detroit’s practice on Tuesday, October 21st at the BELFOR Training Center inside Little Caesars Arena.