Notes: Wings ready to face very different Islanders team

DETROIT -- This New York Islanders team is a very different one from the team the Red Wings faced last season.
John Tavares is now with the Toronto Maple Leafs, the team the Wings beat Thursday night in overtime.

Barry Trotz, fresh off a Stanley Cup win with the Washington Capitals, is the new head coach.
Lou Lamoriello, last with the Leafs, is now the Islanders' president and general manager.
After struggling defensively a year ago, the Islanders (13-11-3) are now 14th in the league, allowing 2.93 goals per game after allowing a league-worse 3.57 goals per game.
Last season goaltender Thomas Greiss was 13-8-2 with a 3.82 goals-against average and .892 save percentage.
This season Greiss is 9-6-1 with a 2.61 goals-against average and .918 save percentage.
"They're a team, first off, that has a lot of firepower up front," Wings coach Jeff Blashill said. "I should say on the back end, too. They've obviously gotten very good goaltending through the year and I think Barry Trotz does a really good job with team defense. He's made them a real good defensive team. They'll be a hard, hard match like it is every single night in this league."

Islanders captain Anders Lee leads the team with 11 goals in 27 games and has a four-game goal streak. He is tied for the team lead with Josh Bailey in points with 22.
Last year's rookie phenom, Mathew Barzal, has three goals among 18 points.
"Seems like they've been pretty solid, too," former Islander Frans Nielsen said. "They're right around that playoff spot, just like we are, so it's going to be a big game for both teams."
There's a familiar face on the Islanders in Valtteri Filppula, whom the Wings drafted in the third round, 95th overall, in the 2002 NHL Entry Draft.
Filppula, 34, played for Detroit from 2005-13 before landing in Tampa Bay from 2013-17. He played a season and a half in Philadelphia and then signed with the Islanders this past offseason.
"They've been playing well," Filppula said. "They have a lot of speed, lot of skill, so it's going to be tough. They play aggressive. We're going to have to try to match that."
Filppula has seven goals, nine assists and is plus-6 in 27 games for the Islanders.
Filppula was asked if it was a little odd playing against the Wings without captain Henrik Zetterberg, who is a friend of his.
"There's not too many guys left anymore (that I played with), to be honest," Filppula said. "There's some guys but Hank was a huge part of the team for a long, long time. At the same time, I had a lot of good battles against him, too, and kind of happy I don't have to do that anymore."
BERNIER GOES AGAIN: For the first time this season, goaltender Jonathan Bernier will make back-to-back starts for the Wings.

Bernier made 27 saves in the Wings' 5-4 overtime victory in Toronto.
"First off, I think he's played good for us," Blashill said. "We need two goalies that are going to have huge impacts on our year and we've gotten excellent goaltending so far and we need to continue to get that to be successful. We went into the year saying we were going to be in that 50-30 type breakdown of games and to do that, you have to give starts and this gives him an opportunity to get another start here. I think both guys are going to continue to be big impacts on our team. Hopefully we get a real good game from Jonathan tonight."
Bernier played in back-to-back games Oct. 13 in Boston and Oct. 15 in Montreal, but came on in relief in Montreal.
In 11 career games against the Islanders, Bernier is 4-4-3 with a 3.33 goals-against average and .897 save percentage.
DALEY UPDATE: Things are progressing for veteran defenseman Trevor Daley, who has missed the last four games with a lower-body injury.
Daley played just 3:18 against the St. Louis Blues Nov. 28 before leaving the game.
"I think it was coming for a couple games," Daley said. "It was just an old injury that flared up again."
Daley took part in the team's morning skate Saturday at Little Caesars Arena.
"I feel pretty good for the most part," Daley said. "Obviously you're not going to really get a good (feel) 'till you get going and get playing. I don't know how much better I'm going to get but I feel pretty good now."
The Wings lost defenseman Danny DeKeyser during Tuesday's game against the Lightning for four to six weeks with a hand injury so they will welcome Daley's return as soon as he is ready.
"He skated so that's good," Blashill said. "He skated last couple days on his own with Mike Kadar. By last couple days, I mean yesterday and then this morning before our pre-game skate but he wanted to get out there and be with our players a little bit so it gives him a good chance to do that. So it's a good step in the right direction. I would say he's probably got to get his legs and his lungs going a little bit here so I don't know when that means but it's a good step in the right direction."
LASHOFF GLAD TO BE BACK: It was just a routine workout for Brian Lashoff until he heard a pop.
"I tore my Achilles, I was sprinting, doing a running workout and it just popped," Lashoff recalled when asked about his offseason surgery. "It was a real freak thing, it just kind of happened out of nowhere. I didn't feel any kind of problems before that or anything. It just kind of happened.
"I had surgery in the end of June. (My recovery) went way quicker than I thought, it was six or seven weeks non-weight bearing, so after that you never know how you're going to respond, it's a lot of muscle (to lose), especially in your calf."
During training camp, Lashoff was able to skate on his own but did not practice.
Eventually, his heel healed, and Lashoff was able to rejoin Detroit's AHL affiliate, the Grand Rapids Griffins.
In 17 games with the Griffins, the 6-foot-3, 209-pound defenseman has three assists, is plus-2 and has been assessed 19 penalty minutes.
Based on his play in Grand Rapids and his penchant for being a penalty killer, Lashoff was called up by the Red Wings in the wake of injuries to DeKeyser and Daley.
"It's awesome, anytime I get a chance to come back and help these guys out, it's definitely a great feeling," Lashoff said. "It's good to see the guys, they got a good room in here, anything I can do to help I'll do."
Signed as a free agent by the Wings on Oct. 1, 2008, Lashoff, 28, has appeared in 123 games for the Wings, he has two goals among his 13 points, is minus-11, has accumulated 57 penalty minutes with an ice time average of 15:01 per game.