Mason Appleton, Todd McLellan Morning Skate Media | Nov. 7, 2025

Mason Appleton, Todd McLellan Morning Skate Media | Nov. 7, 2025

Well, first off, I think uh congratulations Arnor. What was uh yesterday like for you? Uh was born two days ago. Like we got home from Vegas at 5:30. I got to the airport at or sorry hospital at 6:00 and uh he was born at 6:30. So uh pretty crazy uh 24 hours for me there, but and my wife too obviously not knowing if uh I was going to be there, but it uh it all worked out. It was kind of like out of a movie scene, honestly. But super blessed. Uh, you know, two healthy boys, another healthy boy. Um, but yeah, just kind of, you know, soaking it in yesterday, enjoying it, and, you know, back to work now. Well, congratulations first off, and then secondly, looking on that last game in Vegas, what did you guys take away from that game and then the road trip as a whole? Um, you know, Vegas is a really good team. They didn’t give us much. Um, we didn’t get much ourselves, but we uh, you know, you had a winning road trip. anytime you have more points than games on the road, I think that’s uh that usually makes for a pretty good trip. And uh we liked a lot of it and you know, we just got to carry that back into home ice. We’re at home for a while, especially uh when you’re on the road that that long. You uh set yourself up for a nice home stand if you play well on the road. So, uh yeah, just going to try to, you know, stack some wins here and uh keep playing our game. Check throughout pretty much the entire trip. How important was that to see especially on What did you say? Sorry. the way you guys checked. Yeah, I thought we defended well. Uh you look at some road games or some games where, you know, maybe we got a little bit loose at times and this and that. Uh but I thought we defended the right way basically, you know, the whole trip. You know, Vegas only gets one. Uh like I said, they didn’t give us much, but you know, we didn’t give them a ton either. Goal hunting has been good. We’ve been, you know, limiting limiting off the rush. Uh definitely cleaning up some things that we’ve we’ve worked on the last month or so. So, it’s nice to see that all coming together. How’s the sleep schedule? Uh, rough to start, but I was in a guest bedroom last night, so that was nice. Uh, Todd, uh, is Kane good to go tonight? He is. And, uh, Talbot starting? Talbet is. Uh, just your, uh, decision to put, uh, Johansson there at the point on the second power play unit. What do you want to see from him there? Well, not just Albert going there. It’s moving a couple pieces around. Axe has a real good u shot. He’s played off that flank over in Sweden and that unit doesn’t get that many minutes. So, uh simplifying some things, getting them to think about uh shooting the puck maybe a little bit more. Um so, it’s not necessarily about Albert or Axe, it’s about the whole unit together. When you have a team that has such drastic home and road splits, how do you sort of prepare for that in the two different versions that you’ve seen so far? Well, we’ve, you know, we started at home. We had a what we believed was going to be a real tough schedule. Um, you know, and it was that we we handled it well. And then I think this road trip was good for us uh to get away and and you know, teams always say bond and do all that type of stuff. It’s it’s always good when you win more than you lose. Uh, which we were capable or which we did do. Um, you know, now we come home and I think yesterday I talked about that return uh to to Detroit or to to LA or Edmonton or San Jose when I was there. Uh, everybody talks about, you know, getting your game going again and, you know, coming back from a long road trip and uh it’s usually talked a lot about it usually talk about it a lot more uh when you’re not playing well, it becomes an excuse. If you have a great game, nobody even mentions it. So, uh, I think it’s exactly that, an excuse. And now we got to get our game going at home again and and find it quickly. Find find your game as an individual. Find your your lines game. Find uh the power play game, the penalty kill game. Find it quickly and build on it. What made you want to put Cider and Edmonson back together? Um, just, you know, a little bit of of just like the forward lines, you get things can get stale. Um, you know, they have played together in the past and they have produced. Um, I think Simon’s game has improved since going with with Mo, which is a real good thing. Uh, Benny’s capable of of dealing with with Axe as a young player. Um, he’s been there himself many years ago and and he communicates real well. So, uh, there was comfort in that. And our third pair with uh with Albert and and Hammer has been real solid in my opinion. It’s It’s been real steady and if we can continue to get the play out of those those two then great. And Doc is sitting there waiting to go again. So we feel comfortable with all of it. And then I know you’ve talked in the past about seeing some of the players who have played here before walking around kind of at a different level this weekend. What kind of impact do you think that has on your locker room? Uh you can feel it already. Um, you know, Hank, Zedterberg, Samuelson, Ericson, uh, Lidstrom, I think they all just walk through. I had a good visit with with them this morning. Now they’re walking around. And, um, Dylan Lin’s used to seeing them, but EMTT Finny is is, you know, he’s asking questions. You know, who’s that guy? When did he play here? I’m sure he’s doing that. I’m I would think he is. Um and and that’s always a healthy thing when you’ve got alumni around that have won and um have meant so much to the organization and are willing to come back and give their time again. Uh it’s a pretty special thing. You spent a good amount of time around Jonathan Quick in LA. I’m just curious, what are your what stood out most about him when you his competitive his the fire that he has to play the game? I’m sure you’ve you’ve seen it there. like he puts the pads on and um instantly it goes to compete and no one’s going to beat me and teams management coach even players sometimes talk about um you know players that drag you into the game. They rarely talk about goalenders doing that. But Quickie can do that. he can pull you into a game just through his his fire, his competitiveness, his uh drive, sometimes his scowl. Uh but it’s uh it was really appreciated in all those years in in LA and obviously he’s he’s uh having an impact uh with the Rangers now. Todd, the Rangers have had a considerable amount of turnover with players on the ice, a new coach behind the bench. When you look at film, how are they coming and approaching the game differently from your vantage point? I I think they’re they’re a really good hockey club. Um they don’t give up anything really when you look at it. And when they do, their goalenders are are there bailing them out. So it’s a tough team to score against. Um I do believe that they’re going to score goals eventually and they’re going to score a lot of goals. So that that makes it really tough to play against this team. Uh but but Sully’s Sully and his staff have done a real good job. you can see them taking on some of his um tendencies or personalities maybe as a head coach and the players seem to have been buying into it, but they’re the the best team on the road uh in the league so far and they’ll figure out their their home game. So, they’re uh they’re a dangerous club. Back to Mfiny. Uh it’s been a couple of games now without a point uh for him, but what is the biggest key to maybe uh not having a player like him get too far down on himself after such a fast start? Well, he better not be getting down on himself at all because if if you’re just looking at the stat sheet and evaluating your play, um that’s that’s a really uh slippery slope to go on. We were just talking about on the road trip there were uh there were times, you know, if he if he gave the third assist away, he’d have a bundle of them because he was in on the forche. He created turnovers. He was responsible defensively that led to something else. um you’re 20-year-old rookie in the league. Um you’re not going to get two points every night. Nobody does that even as veterans. Um so don’t evaluate yourself on that. Um if we don’t feel it’s going well, we’ll sit him down and and discuss things with him. And we haven’t really even had to do that yet. So um his confidence level should stay the way it is. And I would tell him to keep his nose out of the stat sheet. just it’s not that really that important when it’s all said and done. Keep doing what you’re doing. And then a few minutes ago, Axe said that one of his biggest adjustments is adjusting to the speed of the NHL. How have you appreciated uh his overall play and what do you feel his biggest uh what the biggest adjustment he still maybe needs to make would be? He gave you the answer that he in my opinion he should give you. Um because there is the pace of the play. The pace with the puck has been really good. He makes some real good plays, but the the uh the play away when when he’s away from the play or something’s going to happen, he’s got to get used to that pace of of reading and reacting a little bit quicker. Um it’s got better uh from where it was in exhibition season. So, he’s improving. Um it’s just the league’s improving with with him at the same time, but uh he’s he’s hard on himself, but he’s also a real good self-evaluator. So, the the answer he gave you is is a pretty accurate one.

Mason Appleton and Todd McLellan speak with the media following Red Wings morning skate at Little Caesars Arena on Friday November 7, 2025.