HSJ, Khan on Sulak and the rest of the Wings’ rookie debuts

The Free Press’s Helene St. James, MLive’s Ansar Khan and the Red Wings posted comment videos ahead of tonight’s game vs. Columbus, and here are the articles which accompany them, from St. James, who focuses on Libor Sulak…

Libor Sulak thought of his family as he prepared to make his NHL debut.

The defenseman was to be part of Thursday’s season opener for the Detroit Red Wings at Little Caesars Arena, one of five rookies on the roster. The Wings see Sulak as someone who can make them better because of how fast he can skate, an asset he showed off repeatedly during preseason.

“I’m intrigued by Libor because his skating is elite,” Wings coach Jeff Blashill said after the morning skate. “His body and strength and reach are elite. I think he’s got to learn a number of things in positioning, to make sure that he is on the right side of the puck so he’s not giving up easy chances. It’s something we’ve talked about with him through this week. The good thing is he seems to want to learn it, he seems to have a capacity to learn it.

“That will be the biggest thing for him, is can he just play from the right side of the puck and if does that, boy, he is going to be a real good player in the league. So hopefully he can learn that real fast.”

Who continues, and Khan, who focuses on the Wings’ rookies:

Rasmussen, Cholowski and Ehn (from Sweden) all have family in for the game. Sulak and Hronek’s family will be watching on TV late at night from the Czech Republic.

Red Wings’ newly appointed alternated captain Dylan Larkin, just 22, offered the rookies some advice.

“I’ve told a lot of them just to enjoy the time; this week leading up to your first game is pretty cool where you get the news that they made the team and they have all this excitement and they get to call their parents, who probably are the biggest impact, supporters and the closest people that they want to share it with,” Larkin said. “I remember that feeling. I think for these young guys, just to have their families in town and for it to be a home game, your first time in the NHL, to put on this sweater is pretty cool.

“It is a long year for them. I don’t really think they totally understand how much of a grind it is. But they will and that’s part of the process. I just try to tell them to enjoy this first game and don’t hold back, just be yourself and play the way you did to get yourself here.”

Also, per DetroitRedWings.com’s Dana Wakiji…

#RedWings Filip Hronek says his parents won’t make it to the game because they’re home in the Czech Republic. He said his dad is excited, “maybe more than me.”

#RedWings Dennis Cholowski will have his parents, older brother, aunt and girlfriend at the game. Michael Rasmussen will have his parents, two sisters and girlfriend here. Christoffer Ehn’s parents and younger sister will be here as well. #NHLdebut

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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. View all posts by George Malik

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