But everything seems better or more dire in the opening days of the season. And Saturday's 5-2 victory over the Predators, raising the Wings' record to 2-3-0 — both victories over winless Nashville (0-5-0), incidentally — puts everyone in the organization in a little better mood.

The Red Wings likely will decide soon whether to keep Kasper or reassign him to the Grand Rapids Griffins, if they haven’t already. He was recalled Friday under emergency conditions due to Tyler Motte’s upper-body injury which left the team with only 11 healthy forwards.