The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan checked in with Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill for a wide-ranging, subscriber-only Q and A session today:
Question: It seems like there is some momentum to get the regular season up and going here pretty soon. Maybe around Jan. 1. Jeff, I would think, after all these months, you’re pretty excited about that.
Answer: I am excited, just to get back at it. When you’re a team like us, that hasn’t done a thing since March in terms of practice or play, we weren’t a part of the summer return to play, there are seven teams that weren’t part of that, we are absolutely itching to get back at it.
But we’re also cognizant of the fact there’s a lot going on in the world and none of this is going to be easy, so we understand that part of it for sure. But we certainly want to get back. The NHL did an excellent job in their Return To Play and were in patient in making decisions when they had to the right information and I’m sure they will again this time.
Q. We still might be weeks away, but what will you and the staff be emphasizing in training camp? You have a bunch of new players, obviously, and it’s been a long time since you guys have played.
A. It’ll be a similar training camp. You start with making sure your work and competitive levels are where they need to be, so that’s the bottom line foundation in order to be successful.
Like any training camp, you have to make sure you’re on the same page as quick as possible. Get your systems in place as quick as possible. We’ll have a lot of new faces this year, so you want to make sure everyone is comfortable and play without thinking and guys aren’t thinking about where they are supposed to be standing, and just instinctly (know) because those habits have been built. That’s what training camp is about, setting the tone and foundation of how you’re going to play hockey.
We don’t know the length of it (camp), we don’t know the number of days or exhibitions (games), which is fine. We’ll adapt on what opportunities we’re given and certainly plan for a different scenarios.
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