The Athletic’s Max Bultman weighs in with an article discussing the Red Wings prospects’ struggles against the Columbus Blue Jackets last night:
Detroit made the championship by going 2-1 in pool play, with many of their top young players contributing heavily. Dennis Cholowski looked strong logging a ton of minutes and playing both power play and penalty kill. Michael Rasmussen was his usual self, battling and producing at the net front. Joe Veleno notched a two-goal game Monday. And [Filip] Zadina continued to show flashes of what makes him such a coveted prospect, scoring in the team’s first game and collecting assists and scoring chances in the rest.
Those are Detroit’s first-round picks for the last three years (they had two this year), so that’s exactly who you want to see leading the way.
More interesting than all of that, though, was how hard Zadina took Tuesday’s loss, especially when it came to his personal performance. In the immediate aftermath of the game, after he’d been asked about his visit to the locker room, he had this to say:
“I probably should (have stayed) in the room because I didn’t help the team. It was a horrible game.”
And then later: “I probably could play better and help the team to win the championship. I haven’t scored three games in a row. It’s probably a little bit my fault.”
Continued (paywall)…
