Notes: Wings prepare to face Flyers, who replaced their coach Monday

PHILADELPHIA -- As the Red Wings arrived in Philadelphia, the Flyers were officially firing their head coach, Dave Hakstol.
The Flyers announced that Scott Gordon, who was coaching the Flyers' AHL affiliate, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, would coach the NHL team the rest of the season.

"First, Dave Hakstol's an excellent coach," Wings coach Jeff Blashill said after Detroit's practice at Wells Fargo Center. "I've known him a long time, coached against him a long time and he's an excellent coach. It's an unfortunate part of the business for certain.
"From our focus, we got to focus on our game. Certainly understanding there's a heightened sense of urgency when things like this happen. So we better make sure our sense of urgency is extremely high. But really more than anything else, we got to play great hockey. We just got to focus on playing great hockey."
Hakstol is the fifth NHL coach to lose his job since the start of the season.

The Los Angeles Kings fired coach John Stevens on Nov. 4, replacing him with Willie Desjardins, the former Vancouver Canucks coach.
The Chicago Blackhawks fired coach Joel Quenneville on Nov. 6, replacing him with Jeremy Colliton, who was coaching the AHL's Rockford IceHogs.
The St. Louis Blues fired coach Mike Yeo on Nov. 19, replacing him with Blues assistant coach Craig Berube.
The Edmonton Oilers fired coach Todd McLellan on Nov. 20, replacing him with formerly retired coach Ken Hitchcock.
There were mixed results for each team following the firings.
The Kings won their next game on Nov. 6, 4-1, over the Anaheim Ducks at home.
The Blackhawks lost their next game on Nov. 8, 4-3, to the Carolina Hurricanes at home.
The Blues lost their next game on Nov. 21, 4-1, at the Nashville Predators.
The Oilers won their next game on Nov. 20, 4-3 in overtime, at the San Jose Sharks.
As for the Flyers, that remains to be seen as they host the Wings Tuesday night.
"I think anytime that happens, you never know, that can be kind of the kick in the butt they need so I think tomorrow we're all expecting them to come out really hard and play at a high pace," Andreas Athanasiou said. "I think just matching that and kind of just going on from there, right off the bat, matching their intensity and take over and play our game, we should be OK."

Wings goaltender Jimmy Howard agreed that the Flyers would come out, well, flying, after having their coach fired.
"They had a coaching change, so they'll be coming out with a level of urgency that we're going to have to definitely match," Howard said.
To make matters even more interesting, it appears the Flyers will be starting Carter Hart in goal. It would be Hart's NHL debut.
Hart was called up from the Phantoms Monday, Alex Lyon was sent back to the AHL and Anthony Stolarz was placed on injured reserve with a lower-body injury.

Hart, 20, was the Flyers' second-round pick, 48th overall, in the 2016 NHL Entry Draft.
"If that's the case, it really doesn't affect anything except for our pre-scouts and how we do that," Blashill said. "At the end of the day, we want to be hard on every goalie we play. The goalies in the NHL are all real good if you're not hard on them. How can you be hard on them? You take away his eyes as much as possible, you're hard around the net, you're winning those rebound pucks. If you get great net presence and great rebound presence, then you're going to be successful against any goalie. If not, it's going to be hard.
"I've seen him play, he's an excellent goalie. He's got an excellent skill set, great future ahead of him so if that is the case, we got to make sure we make it real hard on him."
Two young Wings are familiar with Hart, having faced him last season when he was with the WHL's Everett Silvertips.
The Silvertips eliminated both Michael Rasmussen's Tri-City Americans and Dennis Cholowski's Portland Winterhawks in last year's playoffs.
Everett needed six games to defeat the Americans in the WHL's Western Conference finals.
"He's a good goalie. He was really good in the Western League when I played him," Rasmussen said. "I played him a lot because of the U.S. Division thing. He's a really good goalie. He's really calm and swallows a lot of pucks. He's good, real good."
The Silvertips beat the Winterhawks in the second round in five games, 4-1.
"He was key to their team," Cholowski recalled. "It was frustrating for us because whenever we would have the puck on the O-zone, we were pressuring him, lots of shots, he'd be their brick wall. Honestly, I think the biggest reason why they beat us was because he was their brick wall. I thought he was their best player and he got them quite a ways. Obviously they had a good team but he got them a little further than I guess people expected."
In Hart's last five games with the Phantoms, he is 4-1-0 with a 1.81 goals-against average and .939 save percentage, plus one shutout.
"I'm sure he'll be fine," Rasmussen said. "He's a pretty low-key guy, pretty calm and confident guy. I think he should be good but obviously, he'll be a little nervous. I think we all were. It's kind of normal."
Howard said the Wings need to be aggressive against Hart.
"You just gotta get pucks to him early," Howard said. "Just make his life not fun back there early, so he can't settle in."
Howard recalled his first NHL start and how he felt before the game.
"It was against L.A. We won," Howard said. "I was fine. Slept really good. I didn't get nervous until probably after warmups and that's when the butterflies hit. More like a nervous excitement."
Howard made 22 saves on 24 shots on Nov. 28, 2005 at Los Angeles in the 5-2 victory.
Chris Chelios, Mathieu Schneider (power play), Steve Yzerman (power play), Henrik Zetterberg and Nick Lidstrom (empty net) scored for the Wings while Joe Corvo (penalty shot) and Sean Avery scored for the Kings.