How Detroit Red Wings will handle 2 games at the same time Monday in 2 locations

Derek Lalonde used his weekend well: Divvying up who would play where as the Detroit Red Wings face a rare situation Monday of playing two games at the same time in two different locations.

"Very unique," Lalonde said Monday after the home-group's morning skate at Little Caesars Arena. Patrick Kane will be among those who'll play in that group against the Pittsburgh Penguins, in a game rescheduled from Saturday because the Penguins couldn't fly. Another group will head to Buffalo to play the Sabres in a previously scheduled game.

"It actually works fine," Lalonde said. "We get the two teams going. I don't know if it's ideal, six games in six days. It will be a little taxing on a couple guys who will do back-to-backs, or three-in-fours, but we're pretty spread out, so it's going to work.

"But we accomplished it where we beat them up so bad in practice, guys are begging for games. So it's not that bad of a schedule coming up here."

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The Wings play again Tuesday in Pittsburgh, then Thursday at home against the Toronto Maple Leafs, Friday at home against the Ottawa Senators, and Saturday at Toronto.

Lalonde and his assistants will coach Monday in Detroit, while Grand Rapids Griffins coach Dan Watson and his staff are in Buffalo.

Cam Talbot is scheduled to be in net for the first two periods vs. the Penguins and Sebastian Cossa in the third.

In Buffalo, Alex Lyon is earmarked for the first two periods, and Jack Campbell for the third.

The Wings were at LCA on Saturday afternoon when news filtered in that the Penguins were having plane issues and the evening's game would be pushed back till at least 8:30 p.m. — maybe even later.

"We were here for a while," Kane said Monday, estimating the team was there for five or six hours. "I think we got the notification that the game was delayed till 8:30 right when I got to the rink, so we were just kind of sitting around, watching golf, hanging out and doing different things. Just waiting to hear an update. Then they called off our meeting, and then we kind of knew it was getting canceled.

"But it's nice we get another crack at it."

With the Detroit Lions in action Monday across Woodward Avenue at Ford Field, Lalonde had a little fun with the Wings' video staff.

"I'll be watching," he said. "I hope there's not a challenge. Our video guys are very, very invested in the Lions, and we've lost some actual attention-span man hours from our video coaches."

Contact Helene St. James at hstjames@freepress.com . Follow her on X @helenestjames .

Her latest book, “The Franchise: Detroit Red Wings : A Curated History of the Red Wings,” will be available October 2024. Her books, “On the Clock: Behind the Scenes with the Detroit Red Wings at the NHL Draft,” and “The Big 50: The Men and Moments that made the Detroit Red Wings” are available from Amazon , Barnes & Noble and Triumph Books. Personalized copies available via her e-mail.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: How Detroit Red Wings will handle 2 games at the same time Monday in 2 locations