Detroit City Wire

The Detroit Red Wings concluded their preseason with a 3-2 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena. Despite the defeat, head coach Derek Lalonde expressed satisfaction with his team's performance. "I liked a lot of the things that we did tonight," Lalonde stated. "The handful of NHL guys we brought here I thought competed extremely well."

Christian Fischer opened the scoring for Detroit by deflecting Andrew Copp's shot past Toronto's goalie Joseph Woll, who made 18 saves in total. Steven Lorentz equalized for Toronto, and later, Auston Matthews tied it again after Andrew Copp had regained the lead for Detroit with a power-play goal.

John Tavares secured Toronto's victory with a decisive power-play goal in the third period. Ville Husso, Detroit's netminder, saved 30 out of 33 shots during his second full preseason game in five days.

Reflecting on his experience, William Wallinder noted, "It’s really good just for improvement on my game." He added that playing against NHL competition was beneficial for his development.

With preseason games completed, Detroit must finalize its Opening Night roster by Monday evening. Coach Lalonde commented on the difficult decisions ahead: "I wanted to sit here after the eight games with some tough decisions, and all our young guys did that."

Detroit will host the Pittsburgh Penguins next Thursday to begin their regular season and kick off Hockeytown Opening Week celebrations.

Lalonde remarked on Training Camp: “I liked our camp. Probably would have liked a little more emotional engagement at times.” Meanwhile, Wallinder shared his focus moving forward: “Just keep improving my reliability as a defenseman... Not making many mistakes.”