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Detroit Free Press

Lions new uniforms have 'pop factor'

Great new uniforms for the Lions. I'll miss last year's throwback helmet, but they got much better pop factor out of the myriad subtle choices (font, shade, etc.).

Black uniforms are great to see, and the team has wanted them for years. Great in black pants, but the blue ones are phenomenal. ... Brand new Lions these days, and uniforms just keep the hope burning bright that we win the big one now.

Tim Spaulding

Detroit

Why add stripes?

Regarding the Detroit Lions new uniforms: Why was it necessary to add stripes to the solid blue "throwback" jerseys in the first place? They were pure macho. Going back to a solid blue would have been gutsy, but unique in the league. More is not always better.

Tony Amadori

Livonia

In-your-face Lion logo is king

The Lions uniforms are the best. The blue is like the ocean, unstoppable, and the silver is like lightning, max voltage. The colors represent Detroit in the best way, dynamic. The in-your-face Lion logo is king.

Valley Fields

Alpena

New Lions, new uniforms for a winning 2025 season

I'm not one to readily part from tradition, but I think they look very cool! I say, new Lions = new unis! Lions drive in '25!

Richard Bowes

Farmington Hills

We're the Lions, not the Raiders

The white and blue jerseys are OK. Don't like the blue helmets or the black jerseys. We're the Lions, not the Raiders or Steelers. We have a proud heritage and the uniforms are part of it. Been a fan since the 50s, and black jerseys with blue helmets aren't the Lions.

Leonard Hittle

Buchanan, Michigan

'Sporty and classy'

I like the clean look of the Lions new jersey. They have a clean, crisp look and, as jerseys go, are sporty and classy. I particularly like that the “silver” is really silver and not just gray. All good!

Joyce Novak

Ypsilanti

Black uniforms are boring

Get rid of the black uniforms. They are hideous. Reminds me of the horrific Matt Millen era. Don't be a follower. Enough of having black in every uniform. Boring! Honolulu Blue and silver forever!

Michael Masich

Girard, Ohio

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MINNEAPOLIS -- For a second, the Tigers looked like they might have another comeback at Target Field. As Parker Meadows’ ninth-inning drive hung in the chilly air of the Twin Cities and carried toward right field, the suspense built in the crowd: The Tigers couldn’t do it again, could they?

Just as fans started looking toward the pavilion over right field, Manuel Margot began to slow his retreat around the warning track. He wasn’t looking back, only up at the ball he had camped under, a step in front of the wall.

The last out makes it easy to say the Tigers came within a few feet of extra innings. But the small margin was spread throughout the 4-3 loss to the Twins, inches here, inches there. And a lot of them came with the Tigers in the field.

The Twins won on three sacrifice flies and a run-scoring error from Spencer Torkelson. Two of the three sac flies plated runners that had advanced to third on miscues, from a ground ball under Torkelson’s glove to a Reese Olson wild pitch. Detroit had RBI hits in three consecutive innings, which was three more than Minnesota had, but couldn’t fully erase a gap that was at least partly self-inflicted.

“Gosh, I was ready for it, wanted it,” Torkelson said of the ball for his error. “Tough bounce, just didn’t make the play. I mean, that’s unacceptable. I need to be better. I will be better. …

“When you have a team over there that’s definitely not hitting well, you can’t give them free bases. They’re going to capitalize on them.”

Half of Minnesota’s runs were unearned, continuing a trend that began Wednesday. Before Torkelson’s error Saturday, there was the mixup in right-center field on Friday to erase Detroit's lead. Before that, the Tigers had back-to-back three-error games against Texas, including three unearned runs Thursday.

The Tigers have suffered two or more unearned runs in four consecutive games for the first time since August 24-27, 1989, when Detroit had five such games in a row while playing out the string of a 103-loss season. That was an older, less athletic team that made errors in bunches, including a five-error performance against the Red Sox and a three-game error streak for infielder Doug Strange.

This current team is better than that, and not just for being younger. Detroit ranked among the best teams in baseball in Outs Above Average and Defensive Runs Saved 10 days ago. The Tigers have fallen to ninth in OAA, according to Statcast, and entered Saturday sixth in DRS according to Sports Info Solutions, but they still make standout plays.

Javier Báez, who made a throwing error to advance a runner Saturday and missed another ball on a ground-ball single under his glove through the middle, erased the latter runner with a diving stop near second base and glove-hand flip to second base to start a double play. Riley Greene made a diving grab on Minnesota’s first sacrifice fly to keep the Twins to one second-inning run. Wenceel Pérez kept the Tigers within a run with a sliding catch in right field to strand two runners in the eighth.

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Still, this group has made errors at inopportune times the past few days, and it has cost them with two one-run losses, a category in which Detroit has thrived this season.

“You always emphasize it,” manager A.J. Hinch said. “I mean, we’re not going to accept just mediocrity, but those are mistakes that happen during the game. You don’t have to play perfectly at this level, but it’s key. Obviously, it’s not focus, it’s not work, it’s not them not knowing, it’s not ranting by coaches. It’s just execution, and at this level, it gets exposed when you don’t execute.”

At times, it can also be players -- sensing the small margins the Tigers have had all season to date -- trying to make too much of a play. Torkelson sensed a chance at an inning-ending double play on his error with Alex Kirilloff running. Instead of taking a simple out at first and keeping runners at second and third, he got nothing.

“I think I fell into that trap a little bit, trying to do more, make that superhero play rather than just getting one out there, not rushing it and trying to get two,” Torkelson said. “Get back to the basics, get one out and then two is a bonus, I think that’s where we’re going to start.”

Allen Park — Even though the public doesn't have access to draft prospects in the same ways NFL teams do through their scouting process, there are times we can confidently declare a player a fit for the Detroit Lions culture under general manager Brad Holmes and Dan Campbell.

Offensive tackle Penei Sewell? We might not have known it at the time, given Campbell and Holmes were only a few months into their tenures, but Sewell is the blueprint of a fit. More recently, no-nonsense, hard-hitting linebacker Jack Campbell is a prime example. It's why the team didn't hesitate to buck conventional thinking about positional value to select him with the No. 18 pick in last year's draft.

The challenge for the Lions, and presumably many of the league's teams, is to not become blinded by the prospects they love. Holmes is particularly self-aware of this all-too-human flaw and often has talked about the importance of avoiding anchors. Becoming fixated on one or more prospects would only hinder the thoroughness of the team's pre-draft evaluation process.

Holmes' concept of anchored thoughts isn't limited to the players. Equally, if not more detrimental, is becoming fixated on filling a positional need, or sticking to perceptions of positional value, eschewing the selection of the best talent in favor of plugging a hole or matching a trend.

"We don’t really get anchored on positions," Holmes said. "We don’t really get anchored on windows. We don’t get anchored on — it’s just, there’s only one draft every year. There’s a lot of work that goes into it, so that’s our recipe. We just kind of look for guys that we’re convicted on that are right fits for us and we don’t get into the premium positions. Look, you can pick another position, and that doesn’t mean the guy’s the right fit. I know you guys were asking after the last draft, ‘Well how come you guys didn’t pick another position?’ Well, it’s like, no, it’s not another position. (It's) who? Which player? ... You don’t just pick a player because he plays that position. No, he has to be the right football player. That’s what we stuck to, and it’s worked so far for us."

It's obviously tough to argue the results. The roster was in rough shape when Holmes came on board in 2021 and he's built a deep and talented Super Bowl contender in three years, primarily through the draft.

But with his ability to fight against anchors, Holmes also has waged war on what he views as another scourge of success: Groupthink.

Collaboration is a key component to Detroit's roster-building process. The front office and coaching staff work together closely to identify those players that they want, and the general manager relies on those collective opinions to make his decisions. What he doesn't need is yes men. Few things are more valuable to Holmes than a willingness to run counter to an otherwise consensus view.

"People naturally just want to be a part of the tribe," Holmes said. "They want to get along. People naturally want to agree and be likeable. It takes work to go against the grain. It takes a lot of work. That’s why I have always had a lot of respect for the lone wolf. When we’re in there and everybody is saying, ‘Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes,’ and it’s some obvious prospect. It’s that one person in that room in that room that’s like, 'I don’t.' I’m like, ‘I want to listen to him or I want to listen to her.'

In those draft meetings, Holmes saves his evaluation for last. He wants to hear what others think without the possibility of being swayed by his thoughts. And he acknowledges that sometimes he's the lone wolf. Just last year, he noted he and Campbell liked a prospect at a position more than the rest of the group. The Lions ultimately ended up taking that player and it "worked out."

Maybe that was running back Jahmyr Gibbs over Bijan Robinson, who the Lions could have taken No. 6 overall before trading out of that spot and snagging the Alabama standout 12th overall. Or possibly record-setting tight end Sam LaPorta, who went one pick ahead of Michael Mayer in the second round. If nothing else, those choices both ran counter to most analyst opinions and certainly met the criteria of working out. Not surprisingly, Holmes wouldn't name the player.

Still, the message is clear: Dissent in welcomed and encouraged, because it challenges Holmes to dig deeper, to be even more thorough in the evaluation process.

"I have so much respect for the process," Holmes said. "It’s an art form. The best thing about scouting is you get 20 people, 10 people, however many, looking at the same film in a dark room and you have 10 different opinions. That’s what’s awesome about it.

"So when I am the lone wolf, and everybody is the opposite, I am like, ‘Man, I need to look back and see if I missed something,'" Holmes continued. "If hear the lone wolf that matched up with what I thought, I am like, ‘Well, at least that person saw it, but everybody else still was the same.’ It just depends. But if I saw something that the rest of the group said, and the lone wolf said something different, (I think), 'Oh, damn. I am going to go back and look and see because that person is in the room for a reason and I have got a lot of respect for that person’s evaluations."

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DETROIT -- Patrick Kane would have no issues returning to the Detroit Red Wings next season, but neither he nor general manager Steve Yzerman sounded optimistic that would happen, with each speaking of the 35-year-old forward's one season tenure here in the past tense this week.

“It was a great year,” Kane said Thursday. “It was fun to be a Red Wing and in this organization. I’m definitely going to have some memories to last me a lifetime.

Yzerman also sounded like someone reflecting back on Kane’s time in Detroit.

“Patrick was great, wasn’t he?” Yzerman said during his end-of-season press conference Friday. “He’s like a wizard with the puck -- his skill, his sense, his calmness in high-pressure situations and in the danger areas.

“He was great for our team, and I think he brought a lot of what I guess they call swag.”

Kane had 47 points (20 goals, 27 assists) in 50 games after signing a one-year, $2.75 million contract with the Red Wings on Nov. 29, 2023, following hip resurfacing surgery June 1. He played 19 games with the New York Rangers last season after being acquired from the Chicago Blackhawks in a three-team trade in Feb. 28, 2003.

In coming to the Red Wings, Kane was reunited with Alex DeBrincat, with whom he had good chemistry with as a linemate for five seasons in Chicago.

“I really enjoyed playing with Alex again, but as the season went on, I realized there are a lot of really good players here to play with,” he said. “I was put into a great situation to succeed.”

But With six pending unrestricted free agents, Detroit's roster will almost certainly look different next season.

“We have four unrestricted free agents up front (forwards Kane, David Perron, Daniel Sprong and Christian Fischer)," Yzerman said, "and we’ve got (defenseman Shayne) Gostisbehere on the back end, plus James Reimer in goal. I told them I have interest in bringing all of them back, but we have some restricted free agents to sign (most notably forward Lucas Raymond and defenseman Moritz Seider, each completing his entry-level contract) and they are going to have a significant impact on our salary cap.

“It’s really a puzzle.”

Kane said he's willing to wait and see what the free agent market brings during the offseason.

"Yeah, I mean, you know, obviously, I'm a free agent," he said. "So I'm not under contract, but I'm sure I'll just kind of explore the situation here. Talk to my agent, kind of go over everything and kind of see what makes sense to go to one one way or another.

"It's hard to say right now ... really fully understand the situation, but I guess we'll kind of see what happens. And I'm sure my agency will have those conversations and kind of go from there."

Kane played the first 16 seasons of his NHL career with the Blackhawks, who he helped lead to Stanley Cup championships in 2010, 2013 and 2015.

Kane was voted the Conn Smythe Trophy winner as most valuable player of the 2013 Stanley Cup Playoffs and won the 2015-16 Hart Trophy as NHL MVP, when he led the League with 106 points (46 goals, 60 assists) to also win the Art Ross Trophy. He was also voted winner of the Ted Lindsay Award for most outstanding player by members of the NHL Players' Association that season and won the Calder Trophy in 2007-08 as rookie of the year when he led first-year players with 72 points (21 goals, 51 assists).

Kane is second in Blackhawks history with 1,225 points (446 goals, 779 assists) behind Stan Mikita (1,467). His 1,237 NHL points (451 goals, 786 assists) are second among United States-born players behind Mike Modano (1,374). He was voted one the 100 Greatest NHL Players at the League's centennial celebration in 2017.

He lived up to his nickname of “Showtime” with Detroit, leading the Red Wings with seven game-winning goals. Fittingly, his shootout goal against goalie Cayden Primeau secured a 5-4 win at the Montreal Canadiens in the regular-season finale on Tuesday, moments after the Red Wings learned they were eliminated from playoff contention by virtue of the Washington Capitals' 2-1 win at the Philadelphia Flyers.

Detroit coach Derek Lalonde also spoke of Kane in the past tense Friday.

“He’ll be hard to replace, because he’s special,” Lalonde said. “Not only what he gave us on the ice, but what he brought in the room. He talks about star power and swag, and that’s all real.”

MINNEAPOLIS -- The Tigers might have lost their second infielder to injury in as many weeks with Gio Urshela’s exit from Friday’s 5-4 win against the Twins at Target Field. Urshela hobbled off the field after running out a groundout to second base to lead off the second inning. Detroit later announced Urshela had exited with right hamstring tightness.

Though Urshela ran out the play without slowing, he was clearly in discomfort after crossing the bag. He made no attempt to jog as he limped back to the dugout. Matt Vierling replaced Urshela at third base for the bottom of the inning.

“It didn't look good,” manager A.J. Hinch said. “I thought he was running a little bit funny down to first, and then when he got to first and then bent over, I had a little pit in my stomach. He's going to get evaluated. … I'm never really optimistic on those type of injuries with his hammy, but we hope for the best.”

The game marked Urshela’s first return to Minnesota since he played for the Twins in 2022. He didn’t play at Target Field with the Angels last year because his season ended in June with a fractured pelvis. He walked to the plate to the same music he used with the Twins, which is unusual for a visiting player.

The Tigers have had a rash of injuries deplete their infield depth. They lost Andy Ibáñez to a left hamstring strain on a similar play to Urshela's on April 7. In addition, Ryan Kreidler (fractured right index finger) and Eddys Leonard (left oblique strain) are on the injured list at Triple-A Toledo. The only healthy infielder available for a callup from the 40-man roster is Buddy Kennedy, a waiver claim from Spring Training who played in 40 games over the past two seasons for Arizona. He’s batting .288 for Toledo with two homers and nine RBIs in 15 games.

Tigers No. 4 prospect Jace Jung is also playing third base regularly in Toledo, but the former first-round Draft pick has cooled off after a hot start, batting .235 with three homers, 12 RBIs and a .770 OPS. He has struck out 25 times in 68 at-bats. He’d have to be added to the 40-man roster for a callup, but Detroit could move pitcher Sawyer Gipson-Long -- set to undergo season-ending elbow surgery -- to the 60-day injured list.

That said, Vierling’s ability to play third base as well as outfield gives the Tigers the option to call up an outfielder and have Vierling focus on infield if Urshela is shelved. Justyn-Henry Malloy is batting just .220 with the Mud Hens with two homers and eight RBIs, but the No. 7 prospect has supplemented that with more walks (16) than hits (13). Like Jung, Henry-Malloy would have to be added to the 40-man roster.