Mason Appleton, Marco Kasper, Todd McLellan Morning Skate Media | Oct. 15, 2025

Mason Appleton, Marco Kasper, Todd McLellan Morning Skate Media | Oct. 15, 2025

opportunity for a few more minutes here tonight. What kind of thrill is that even? Uh yeah, it’ll be good. Um, you know, I don’t I don’t know the status of um but uh yeah, whatever the opportunity is, just try to take advantage of it and you know, play my game. Didn’t get a chance to talk to you in Toronto, but how satisfying was that goal coming in the last minute like that? Uh it’s a big one obviously uh you know to to win the game to score the first with a new organization like it’s a you know important goal for the team, important goal for me. So, uh, yeah, I felt real good and, you know, we didn’t love we didn’t love a lot of that game, but at the end of the end of the season, when you’re looking back on your point total, uh, you don’t remember how that one went in Toronto, you just remember the two points. So, uh, yeah. Uh, wins a win, but, uh, a lot to get better on. Do you have to make any adjustments to the way you play when you come up to play with Clark? And no, no, I mean, I think I think it’s kind of tough to try to change your game too much. I mean, maybe just little like a little tweak here and there, but uh you know, I am who I am as a player and I’m just going to try to provide that and complement uh those guys with my game. It’s been almost a month now since you started Traver City. Do you feel well integrated with the team and everything? Certainly. Uh honestly, I think it only took a week or two to feel like that. Uh I think it’s a great great group of guys here. They were all super welcoming and uh yeah, it’s been a really easy transition. It was kind of a broken play with a shot block that kind of landed right on your stick. What did you see? Has that is that occur? Uh yeah, I think the if a shot got through, it would have went to Stolars’s left. So, he kind of faded that way a little bit and then the block came in where I kicked out. Uh when I got my eyes up, I saw that uh you know, my left side of the net was open. So, just try to get it there quick. Thoughts on your first road win of the season and the way that we played on Monday? Uh I think it was a huge win. Um uh it’s a tough game. They they obviously came to play and I mean maybe we we we had we had too many giveaways in the first period that kind of like fed into that their offense and they they were kind of rolling us over a little bit in the second and third period but uh nonetheless huge win for us helps helps us playing unreal. I mean that’s that’s huge for us and uh to get a wound like that is is always big and I think we just got to keep building on that and uh yeah try to to to get something like make some things better next time and uh make it easier for for us to win this game a big three game home stand coming up here. How advantageous is it? Do you feel the fan base when you guys are out there? Does that make sense? Yeah. Yeah, for sure. I mean it’s it’s huge. Um they they always show up. I mean, it’s it’s it’s great for us to to have them in the building to play at home is is huge and uh really looking forward to the next three games and tonight facing the Panthers twotime champions. How do you guys approach and embrace that challenge? Yeah, I mean, you know, they’re they’re they’re a really good team obviously and one of the last two Stanley Cups. So, we just want to go out there. Um we know they’re going to pressure a lot. Uh pressure on five on five, five on four, like they’re going to pressure all the time. So, we got to be ready for that and uh skate a lot and and win some battles for your line. What makes you you three a good mix? What strengths and you guys kind of balance off of each other? Yeah, I think I mean obviously K and K are really good offensively, but we also try try to to balance it with with with staying responsible defensively. We just get out there, get the job done in the own can we can play in the offensive zone and uh create some chances. I think that’s what we’re going to try try to do and uh yeah, just uh just roll and uh we’ll see we see how it goes. You talk a lot about their chemistry together. How do you fit yourself into that mix when you have two guys that are really established with each other and then you know you jump in and you’re trying to create chemistry with them too? What’s I mean obviously you know they’ve played together for a long time so you’re just trying to read off each other but also just talking sometimes in practice or on the bench uh helps a lot just uh getting out there sometimes being more responsible sometimes getting like creating some some space and also like trying to find the right spots and then making the right plays is just what I’m trying to do. Thank you Marco. Morning. What can you tell us about Lucas? uh not going to play tonight dayto day upper body encouraging to see him test it out though. Yeah. Yeah. And uh Mason, is that somebody you see could uh be a good fit there for? It’s a start for us. We’ll see where it goes. Uh he went in um into that spot in Toronto the other night. I thought he did a good job. Um he’s got some experience. He can play both ends of the rink, which is important. that line takes on not only offensive responsibilities but some defensive ones against the other team’s top players. So, um we think he can give us something on both sides of the puck. Todd, it looked like Talbot was in the starter crease out there. How do you make a decision on a, you know, game as good as he had, but then also wanted to keep him keep everyone fresh and all that? Well, we’re we’re only seven days into into the regular season. We’ve played three games. Um, we’re coming off a day off. Uh, the performance that Talbs had, in my opinion, he earned the right to go back in there again. Um, we have a game on Friday. We we know that Gibby’s got to play and will play and will play a lot and well. Um, but we’re just making a decision for today. Todd, uh, Finn’s got a couple of assists last couple of games. How important is that for a young guy’s confidence just starting out his career to to to be in the stat column there contribute? Yeah, it’s it’s you know it’s interesting because the young player that comes from junior tends to be a scorer. Uh if you’re playing in the NHL at 20, you’re probably not a checking um you know don’t play for the Swift current Broncos on the fourth line as a checker. You just don’t make it that way. You make it as a scorer. Um yet when you get here it’s hard to score. So what am I saying? It is a better reward for uh the work he’s done and it does um you know acknowledge it on paper. You’re able to open it up and you can see it and it probably makes him feel good. But you know had he gone without the assist I still think he’s been effective in in creating for others and and um and using his speed. Um, what will be interesting over the next little bit for all three of them is let’s see where it goes now because all the uh the excitement and the hype and the adrenaline kind of levels out and now it becomes everyday hockey and um I’m confident that all three can push through that phase and continue to develop and contribute. And is Soderbone back in tonight? Almer is. Yeah. What what do you need to see from him to just kind of maybe just that consistency to to challenge to stay in the lineup? Well, you just you answered it answered some consistency last year when he came. He was able to use his hands and his size and some pace. Um Elmer’s a north south player in my mind. Um and is real effective with the puck. Without the puck, he’s got to get more involved in the game to uh to create and keep plays alive for his teammates. One of the new additions to your staff this year was your goalie coach, Michael Leighton. And he goes from I’m curious just I was talking to Cam about it. He goes from the last three years, uh, Michael’s coaching 19, 20 year olds in Windsor and then Cam is literally double their age. What’s it been like kind of getting to know him and his addition to the staff and what he’s kind of gone through adjusting to coaching guys who are earlier in their career to two veteran goalies you have right now? Well, I think the other day he told me and I I not the other day when we were interviewing him then he reminded me that he had played for 18 years or 19 years like he is he throughout his career he was just as long in the tooth as some of you know Talbs obviously is older than Gibby but uh he played for that amount of time. He knows what it’s feels like to put the equipment on. Uh we’re not reinventing the wheel with our goalenders. for helping them uh polish things up and uh keep them confident. Um you know, work them in certain areas and uh Michael’s well equipped to do that based on his actual playing career. Um it’s different when you have um a coach that hasn’t played that long and you’re looking at Talbs and you know, you don’t connect that way. Um I think the strength right now is that connection kind of with the two veteran goalies. Is there something too when you have such you got some young kids who are getting opportunities and when it comes to having the communication from the back is that something you see as a as an asset for that? Um if you’re asking me the go how the goalie communicates with the Dmen. Yeah. Um well I think it’s important there you know when you look back and you see um goalenders that are playing with you um you know Axe for example he looks back and he sees Cam Talba. Well, Axe was playing pee-wee hockey in in Sweden and Talbs was still in the league. So, it’s it’s it can be intimidating. Um, it shouldn’t be because our goalenders should be working with them and helping them. Um, and I believe both of ours do. So, uh, I think there’s comfort in in knowing that. After Saturday’s game, Cam said that good teams find a way to win even though given the major shot disparity. How encouraging was it that two games against the Maple Leafs, you walk away with four points? Well, we’ll take them. I think I said after the game when when everything gets tallied up near the end of the year, no one’s going to say, “Well, you know, was that game number three in Toronto? Did that make the difference? You guys got outshot?” We’ll all forget about it really. Uh but once the points are in the bank, it’s you don’t give them back. You keep them. And um it’s real important. Um you know, as a divisional opponent, you can see how erratic the games are early in the year. we do to them one night what they did to us the next night. Um you know in that game we just couldn’t get ahead. We we couldn’t sustain uh being ahead and then handing off a good shift. We were receiving a lot and I thought we did that to them the night prior. So it’s it’s erratic right now. Um we got to find our consistency in our game and and keep rolling it out. There’s a list of reasons why Florida might get off to a sluggish start. Um but they’re not. So, like they’re deep. I would think at this point they know how to play under Paul. When you’re prepping for them, is that what you see? Like do you see their system be second nature? What do you see there? There’s there’s not any hesitation. They play with their foot on the gas and everybody plays the same game. when you’ve won as much as they’ve ha they have, there is there’s nobody on a flight or a drive home or sitting in the, you know, in their apartment, condo, wherever they live that’s doubting whether or not uh what we’re doing is right. Um when you haven’t won, every now and then if it doesn’t go right, there could be a player that goes home and goes, “Well, why you know what, maybe we should be doing it this way.” Uh they don’t have that. They have players that come in and fit their system and they have a a belief in what they do is the right way to do it and proof is in the pudding. So, it’s pretty easy to sell. When you talk about, you know, being more receiving than giving and getting more hemmed in the zone, what’s usually going on in those instances, is it more of what the team’s inability to doing or is it the other opponents that they’re doing? It’s both. Um, you know, I’ll use us as an example. the other night where you playing here against Toronto, we we had some zip in our game. We we had real good legs. Uh we won some races to pucks and now you’ve got it and you can maintain possession. Um if you spend your first 15 seconds of a shift chasing the opponent, your shift’s done. Really, when you get the puck, the 20 25 second mark, you’re tired, there’s not much going on, you dump it in, they have it again, and you just never get ahead. Um against Toronto that night at home, we got ahead. we had the puck and could do things with it. Uh in Toronto we couldn’t. Uh was it legs? Was it execution? Was it the opponent? Uh was it situational? It was all of those things. Um you know those you have those nights and um somebody in the coaches room says the goalender wears the same color jersey as as the skaters and plays all 60 minutes. So they’re pretty important and Talbs proved to be really important. Todd, what did you see from JVR then when he stepped in there? Um, he was excited to play. Um, so that that’s the first thing you see. You could body language and and his expression. He’s going back to Toronto. He spent a lot of time there. He was really excited to play. Uh, and then I thought when he got into the game after a shift or two, it just came back to him. It’s like riding a bike. Um, you know, the goal he scored was for me was veteran savvy. um some calmness uh to it and a a great set of hands. So that kind of describes him to a te. So did he play to his identity? I’d say yes.

Mason Appleton, Marco Kasper, and Todd McLellan speak with the media following Detroit’s morning skate at Little Caesars Arena on Wednesday October 15, 2025.