from Ted Kulfan of the Detroit News,

“We all get emotional game to game and when you win, you’re happy and when you lose, you’re not happy, depending on the last performance,” Yzerman said. “But overall, in the last month since we got our guys healthy, I’ve seen a lot of positives in a lot of things, and it doesn’t really show in the wins and losses, but in a lot of things, we have a seen a significant step in the right direction.”

Yzerman has been pleased with the progress of the younger players, despite many of them having statistics that are down compared to last year.

"A guy like Filip Zadina, he knows how to score, the goals and assists will come," Yzerman said. "They know what to do. I want to see them develop into better all around hockey players. It's not (just) goals and assists. That's kind of how i watch their progress.

"We're watching all different types of things. From last year to this year, and it's relatively early (in this season), but we're a much harder team to play against. We're playing much better."

more (paid sub.)

The Detroit Free Press has a 3 minute video with Yzerman on the team progress.

added 11:21pm,