Wings practice firefighter training, make $3,500 donation as part of community tour

According to MLive’s Ryan Zuke, the Red Wings took part in a charitable outreach event with the Ann Arbor Fire Department this morning:

Detroit Red Wings Dylan Larkin, Anthony Mantha and Tyler Bertuzzi are professional hockey players, but they might have found a backup career on Tuesday.

On their way to training camp in Traverse City, the Red Wings forwards made a stop at the Ann Arbor Fire Department, visiting with firefighters and first responders.

After the fire department’s Sept. 11 memorial service, the Red Wings trio faced off against local firefighters in a friendly competition. Wearing full gear, they went through three basic components of a firefighter fitness test before ending with a hockey competition, attempting to shoot pucks into all four corners of the net.

Although the Red Wings’ time of 1 minute, 18 seconds was 2 seconds slower than the firefighters’, the Ann Arbor Fire Department took a 5-second penalty for not hitting any targets during the shooting competition.

“The Red Wings beat us, so I think if the hockey thing doesn’t work out, a couple of these guys could have a career in the fire service,” Ann Arbor Fire Chief Mike Kennedy said. “We could easily get them riding the truck this afternoon if they wanted to. It was really fun. We really appreciate it. I know on most evenings, our firefighters are watching the Red Wings, so it is really cool for them to be able to see some of the people that they watch.”

Zuke continues, noting that the Wings made a $3,500 donation to the Great Lakes Burn Camp, and he posted a video of the Wings engaging in firefighter training:

The Wings posted some Tweets from the event, too:

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George Malik

My name is George Malik, and I'm the Malik Report's editor/blogger/poster. I have been blogging about the Red Wings since 2006, when MLive hired me to work their SlapShots blog, and I joined Kukla's Korner in 2011 as The Malik Report. I'm starting The Malik Report as a stand-alone site, hoping that having my readers fund the website is indeed the way to go to build a better community and create better content.