Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde blasts the NHL

The red hot Detroit Red Wings are set to take on the visiting Seattle Kraken tonight at Little Caesars Arena, though fans will have to put up with a bit of a later than normal start time.

Thanks to the NHL's scheduling 30 of the 32 teams in action tonight as part of their "Frozen Frenzy" day, the Red Wings won't see the puck drop until 8:15 PM EST. And that's not sitting right with head coach Derek Lalonde, who believes that the later start time isn't fair to the players as well as their families and the fans in attendance.

“Absolutely awful,” Lalonde said. “And I get it on the big picture. But I don’t know why our fans, who are as loyal as can be, passionate as can be, have to come to the rink for an 8:23 start. My family is not coming. They’ll stay home tonight because of it.

“We play a lot of back-to-backs, some uncomfortable back-to-backs. I don’t mind it. It’s part of the responsibility of being the Detroit Red Wings. We’re a draw, people want to see us. We help the league out with TV and so forth, and this is an example of it.”

For the NHL's 1st Star of the Week in forward Alex DeBrincat, it won't bring too much of a change to his gameday routine.

“Maybe just a little longer nap in the middle of the day,” DeBrincat said. “Pretty much everything else is the same. It’s just an hour later. It’s not too bad.”

The way that today's game slate is set up by the NHL is for the scheduled contests to start approximately every 15 minutes starting at 6:00 PM to 11:00 PM.

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