As DetroitRedWings.com’s Arthur J. Regner notes, the Red Wings have emphasized becoming harder to play against over the course of their training camp, and that means a more difficult experience for their own players:
“We wanted to make sure [camp] was ultra-competitive. We wanted to make sure, rather than …in the past we’ve focused on systems and things like that and instead of that, we broke it down more into components,” [Wings coach Jeff] Blashill said after camp broke on Tuesday afternoon. “Day 1 was a lot of puck battles and instead of talking about O-zone, we figured we’d break it down into puck battles because if you don’t win puck battles you don’t have O-zone.
“So, we tried to break it down more into the components of it and make sure it ultra-competitive and make sure a little bit every day it was about winning battles and being heavy on the puck.”
Blashill seemed pleased with the results of camp and is convinced the players know the competition for ice time is an ongoing battle.
“It’s clear as day jobs are available based on where we’ve been the last two years and also based on the push we have coming from some young guys,” Blashill said. “If you don’t have that push you can talk all you want, it’s not real. They know it’s real this year because they can see there’s guys that are pushing for jobs. I also say some guys that are coming back, they look like they want more ice time. Some guys looked very very good. I noticed marked improvement in certain areas with certain guys coming back. I think that’s great. We want to be as competitive as possible.”
