Penalty kill a point of emphasis during Red Wings’ practice on Tuesday

DETROIT -- Following Monday’s scheduled day off, the Detroit Red Wings got back to the grind at Little Caesars Arena’s BELFOR Training Center for a tactical and technical practice on Tuesday morning.

"Today was a good day out there," Michael Rasmussen said. "We had a day off yesterday, so we were able to get some rest. Focused on penalty kill, some of our face-offs and our routes. Continued to work on some d-zone, tracking drills and stuff like that."

The penalty kill was a priority during Tuesday's practice, given the next power play the Red Wings will face is that of the Winnipeg Jets, who currently have the best man-advantage success rate (44.4 percent) in the NHL.

Head coach Derek Lalonde said he feels Detroit’s penalty kill, which ranks 30th in the NHL at 66.7 percent but has gone 5-for-6 over its last two games, “has looked better, there’s no doubt about it’ as of late.

“It’s trending well,” Lalonde said. “We got to work on it today. It’s tough to get real reps on the penalty kill. We have a unique part of our schedule, so we’re going to probably take advantage of some practice and get some of those reps. We did it on the penalty kill today. We need to be better. Obviously tomorrow that is a power play playing at a really high level.”

Rasmussen said when the Red Wings’ penalty kill is at its best, the unit is playing a predictable style.

“There’s obviously different plays that happen,” Rasmussen said. “We have triggers and different routes to go into, and it’s about reading off each other, playing with a lot of pace, winning our face-offs, just getting the puck down and getting our clears.”

Also noteworthy from Tuesday’s practice was the return of Tyler Motte, who has missed the last five games because of an upper-body injury that he sustained against the New York Rangers on Oct. 17.

“I don’t think he’ll be available for Wednesday,” Lalonde said about the 29-year-old forward’s status. “But we’re in a unique part of our schedule where we’re going to get two more quality practices [on Thursday and Friday] and get a better feel for his availability for Saturday.”

Lalonde knows the Red Wings will have to adjust their roster when Motte is ready to play, but the third-year NHL head coach said they’ll cross that bridge when the time comes.

“Obviously Marco [Kasper] has given us some really good hockey and a good spark,” Lalonde said. “We’re on a 3-1-1 stretch with this type of lineup here, so let’s get through Wednesday. If [Motte] is available for Saturday, which I don’t know if he will be, I’d hope we’re healthy. We’d have that problem and will have to make a roster decision.”