from Ted Kulfan of the Detroit News,

You don’t want to ever have a bad feeling about yourself or your team going into the offseason," said forward Michael Rasmussen, who has been one of the keys in this turnaround. "Everyone just wanted to finish off these last games well and have a good feeling and take some steps forward in the right direction for the coming years.

"We're just trying to build and put ourselves in the right direction."

Two weekend losses against Ottawa, a team beneath the Wings in the standings, might have been rock bottom.

Players spoke out within the locker room, about the direction this season was headed. Nobody wanted the negativity to continue.

"Everyone collectively was frustrated with how things were going, and as a group we decided to collectively get our heads down and work harder and try to come up with some results,” Rasmussen said. “The past two games have been good for us. Top to bottom, everyone has had great efforts and we’ve come out with two wins."

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from Bob Duff of Detroit Hockey Now,

Frolunda HC was completing a stunning sweep of the defensing Swedish Hockey League champion Vaxjo Lakers via a 5-2 victory. However, from a Red Wings point of view, overshadowing that news was the absence from the Frolunda lneup of defenseman Simon Edvinsson. Detroit’s top pick (fourth overall) in the 2021 NHL entry draft was a scratch for undisclosed reasons.

Edvinsson posted two assists and was plus-4 through the first three games of the series. He is averaging more than 21 minutes per game in ice time during the postseason. However, it now seems noteworthy that during Game 3 – an overtime affair – Simon Edvinsson was limited to 17:31 time on ice. The last time he was seeing that little ice time in a game was Feb. 27.

Perhaps he suffered an injury in that game that limited his performance and with a 3-0 series lead, the decision was made to give him a Game 4 rest. No one can say for certain because in the playoffs, injury details are guarded as if they were state secrets.

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