The Free Press’s Helene St. James discusses what Filip Zadina needs to focus on to crack the Red Wings’ lineup:
The Wings’ nine-game exhibition slate begins Tuesday. Zadina is one of several prospects vying for a job. Asked how confident he feels, Zadina smiled.
“I can’t tell you,” he said. “I’ll show you on the ice.”
Confidence matters for every player, but it’s also precarious for a high draft pick like Zadina. He wants to be a sniper like Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov. He wants to live up to what he said on draft night, when he spoke of filling the nets of the teams that passed on him.
The Wings want him to get there.
“The secret is learning how to earn your own confidence through the work you put in, and being mentally tough enough when your place slips a little bit that you know it’s going to come back,” Wings coach Jeff Blashill said. “But that comes back to putting the work in and having that true self confidence where you know you have the skill set to succeed and you know you’ve put the work in to succeed.”
