Todd McLellan is sitting Michael Rasmussen tonight against the Panthers, and the Red Wings coach's explanation is raising eyebrows.
Rasmussen, the longest-tenured player on Detroit's roster, will be a healthy scratch in Florida. Carter Mazur takes his spot, according to Helene St. James.
McLellan spoke after the morning skate in Fort Lauderdale and started with praise. "Michael's played really strong," he said. Then came the turn: "Last few haven't been as good. He's ended up in the wrong spot at the wrong time at the scene of crime and we just want to give Maze a chance to go."
So the player has been strong, but he's out. And he's an unlucky bystander at the scene of the crime, but he's still the one sitting. That's a lot of explaining to arrive at a scratch.
The timing doesn't help. The Red Wings are 7-9-3 and have lost four straight, most recently 3-2 at St. Louis on Tuesday. When a team is sliding like that, a coach pulling a veteran he just complimented invites the obvious question about who is actually being held accountable.
Rasmussen's season has been quiet, with one goal and three assists in 19 games and a -9 rating. The former ninth overall pick in 2017 has 473 NHL games behind him, all of that history tied to this franchise's rebuild.
What Carter Mazur gets out of this
Mazur gets the opening. The 24-year-old winger has played 12 games this season, with one goal and three assists, and a -3 rating that shows he hasn't exactly been immune to the team's problems either.
He's a third-round pick from 2021 who grew up in Detroit, and this is a chance to show he belongs in the nightly lineup rather than the press box. McLellan's wording, "give Maze a chance to go," suggests the door is open for him.
Still, Mazur isn't the story here. Rasmussen is, and the way McLellan framed the decision.
A one-game reset would be easy to shrug off. If Rasmussen stays out against a Florida team that won 4-1 in Columbus on Tuesday and sits 5th in the Atlantic, the questions about that "scene of crime" line will get louder.
The next lineup will tell us which one this is.
This article was written with the help of artificial intelligence, based on public reports and official sources.
What should the Red Wings do with Michael Rasmussen after tonight?
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