Notes: Wings working hard to break out of offensive funk

DETROIT -- The Red Wings aren't last in the league in goals but they are near the bottom.
In the first 10 games of the season, the Wings (1-7-2) have scored 21 goals, tied with the Vegas Golden Knights (4-5-0).

The Los Angeles Kings (2-7-1) and Arizona Coyotes (4-5-0) have recorded just 18 goals, the Kings in 10 games and the Coyotes in nine.
Dylan Larkin and Andreas Athanasiou are tied for the team lead with four goals each.
Boston's David Pastrnak and Toronto's Auston Matthews lead the league with 10 goals each.
"I don't think we have any 40-goal scorers in here but we got guys that score," Frans Nielsen said after Saturday's practice at the BELFOR Training Center. "(Thomas Vanek) can score, we know that. Some players we know can. But we're a team that lack superstars. It has to come from everyone.
"When you don't score, shoot more and just get there. Hopefully you start getting those bounces in front of the net, rebounds. It's only one way out of it."

One of those players who has proven he can provide offense is Anthony Mantha, who led the team in goals last season with 24.
But Mantha has just one goal and two assists so far this season.
"I can't lie about it. It's hard," Mantha said. "Obviously, when you don't have success, you have to dig deeper and try and keep things more simple. I think we're trying the fancy plays these days and it's not going our way. We need to bring it back to simple. We went with that mentality, I think in the first period yesterday. We had, what, 16 shots (14) on net. That's the way we need to play. That's the way we can play. And obviously, we need to keep pushing forward."

During Saturday's practice, Mantha was back on a line with Larkin. Darren Helm was on the other wing.
"Obviously, there was punishment this year when I was playing on the fourth line. I wasn't playing good," Mantha said. "We had a meeting. After that, I started being more intense. Tomorrow night I should be playing with Larkin again. Hopefully, I can take that opportunity and just go for it from there and stay there for the rest of the year."
Wings coach Jeff Blashill said there's no easy way out of the offensive funk in which the entire team is currently mired.
"There's no secrets in life, you keep working," Blashill said. "We have had chances, we got to score on our chances. We've preached here for a while making sure we're on the goalie's eyes and pushing the goalie into the crease a little bit and having better net presence. I think we're getting way better there. I think we did some real good stuff in the O-zone in terms of cycling the puck and spending time in their end. We had some real chances so we just got to keep working."
Justin Abdelkader, who has scored 23 goals in a season, is still seeking his first goal of this season and has one assist in 10 games.
"I think that's playing into a lot of it too for a lot of guys. Just confidence," Abdelkader said. "We're not scoring, we're not seeing pucks go in. We just got to continue to stay with it, continue to shoot the puck, get pucks on the net. I think sometimes when you're not scoring, you feel like you don't want to shoot, you want to pass the puck, but we got to continue to get pucks on the net and eventually they'll go in."

RASMUSSEN RETURNS: Rookie Michael Rasmussen will return to the lineup Sunday against the Dallas Stars.
During Saturday's practice, Rasmussen was on a line with Abdelkader and Jacob de la Rose, and also net front on the power play.
"I want him to take another step and just keep taking steps," Blashill said. "They got a big D corps. The things that we've been talking about with him is moving his feet from tops of circles to tops of circles, so playing at a faster pace, and being a big, strong body down low, getting his butt out and knocking people off the puck and holding onto it and making plays off the cycle and being a great net presence guy. The net presence, he has no issue with, he does that pretty naturally.
"I think he's learning how to hold people off and make plays off the cycle. In junior when I watched him, he held people off but he didn't make tons of plays off the cycle, he just held onto it. You got to be able to hold onto it, cut back and make some plays off it. Skate top of the circles to top of the circles and be heavy on the puck in the down-low play."
Although playing against the Stars will be Rasmussen's ninth game, the Wings have given no indication they are considering returning the big forward to his junior team, the Tri-City Americans.
Instead, they want to keep working with him on and off the ice in Detroit to continue his development.
"I think in the development of most players, it's baby steps so sometimes there's steps so subtle you don't see it," Blashill said. "Some of it depends on how big a role he has and I can't tell you for sure how much he's going to play. We'll see. I like Michael a lot. I think he's a really good player, I think he's going to be a good player. I think he's 20 years old (turns 20 in April) and I think he's figuring it out and it's going to take some time.
"For sure I think he's smart enough to apply lessons and I think he's smart enough to figure some things out on his own and he'll keep taking steps in the right direction."