Derek Lalonde shares private moment that may have fueled Detroit Red Wings' January surge

If David Perron is laughing, his coach knows why.

The Detroit Red Wings head into their last game of the month, Wednesday at home against the Ottawa Senators, having won three times during the five-game homestand that segues into the All-Star/winter break. It's part of a marvelous January wherein the Wings have gone 9-2-1, a huge upsurge after limping through December with a 5-9-1 record. The NHL standings are so tight they change almost daily, but the Wings' 26-18-5 record has them in the mix for third place in the Atlantic Division and the wild-card spots in the Eastern Conference.

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There was, apparently, at least one Wing who forecast the revival.

"I want to go back to a little thing," coach Derek Lalonde said after Saturday's 5-2 victory over the defending Stanley Cup champion Vegas Golden Knights. "I like to be very private about what goes on in the locker room, but we beat San Jose (on Jan. 2) in San Jose, and we weren’t sharp. We scored the two goals late to win. And I’m going into the room to address the guys and David Perron is yelling, 'We’re getting 18 points before the break.' And kind of in my head, I’m like, 'Has he not watched us lately?' Like, there’s no way we’re getting 18 points. And we’re sitting here on 19.

"When you have a run like this, against the type of opponents we’ve had, it comes from the room. It’s been a good stretch for us."

Other than the road games against the Sharks and Anaheim Ducks, every opponent has been a team in playoff position. The Senators are near the bottom of the standings, but they have a history dating to last season of bullying the Wings. The best thing the Wings can do is to continue their play: Strong team defense, timely offense, and Alex Lyon in net backstopping it all.

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"It’s been a huge month," Dylan Larkin said. "We’ve been playing to an identity and we’ve won games where we’ve shut the other teams down; we’ve won games in many different ways. It feels really good, and we have a good thing going in our room. We have one more game before the break and it’s a big one."

Patrick Kane, out since Jan. 14 with a lower-body injury, could make his return Wednesday, but given how the Dec. 9 game went against the Senators — Larkin was briefly rendered unconscious on the ice — it's a night Klim Kostin would seem to be needed in the lineup. It hardly makes sense to scratch Christian Fischer considering what a good fit he has been on Andrew Copp's line.

That's for the coaching staff to mull over the coming days. The overriding vibe as January comes to a close is that the Wings look poised to end a seven-year playoff drought. Fans at Little Caesars Arena have been all in on the Lions playoff run — there have been "Ja-red Goff" chants the past two games — but the octopus that landed on the ice Saturday after Larkin scored with 90 seconds to play was a reminder of what happens when the Wings make the playoffs, and players were jubilant.

"I’d love to see a wave," Larkin said. "The guys were screaming from the bench to have her get it up over her head and really get the crowd going, but, we save that for playoffs. That’s the goal in our room. It’s inspiring for us to see how much the city gets behind its sports teams when they’ve earned it, and that’s what the Lions have done."

Contact Helene St. James at hstjames@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @helenestjames. Her latest book, “On the Clock: Behind the Scenes with the Detroit Red Wings at the NHL Draft,” is available from  Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Triumph Books. Personalized copies available via her e-mail.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: The private moment that ignited the Detroit Red Wings in January