from Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press,

“For a team that’s learning how to win, I think we’re doing a good job of staying in games,” Nedeljkovic said. “There are a few games where we’ve come from behind in the third period — we found a way to win in Buffalo. We came up a little short against Florida, but we were right there. (Tuesday) was a huge game to build off for confidence. We have the lead and kind of let them back in and we found a way to win. That’s what good teams do. It’s not always going to be pretty, but they find ways to win and at the end of the day, two points is what matters.”

Beating good teams like the Oilers and Capitals builds confidence. The Wings look like a significantly better team than the previous two seasons — and they should, based on their increase in talent. Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider rank first and second, respectively, in the rookie scoring race. (Raymond did not practice Wednesday because he had a maintenance day, according to coach Jeff Blashill. Filip Hronek and Marc Staal were also off.) All in all, there's enough depth to roll three lines capable of scoring and three solid defense pairings.

“We’ve infused some talent, so that gives you chances to make plays that can get you back in games,” Blashill said. “That’s not necessarily a learning process as much as our talent has grown and matured, and we’ve infused some. Last time we played Washington, or coming back against Florida — we stayed in the game longer.

“There’s a maturity level, when you get down by a couple goals, to not play loose, to understanding there’s still lots of time and you have to keep playing the right way.. If you get down and you start giving up tons of chances, it’s likely one of those is going in and now you’re down more goals. It doesn’t do any good. You have to make sure your game plan stays the same as when the game started.”

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