The Athletic’s Max Bultman filed a Thursday afternoon notebook in which he discusses several topics, including the fact that, thus far, anyway, none of the Red Wings’ younger players are forcing the hand of the coaching or management staff:
The odds of a young player forcing Detroit’s hand: You probably could have deduced this from the rest of the article, but even though camp still has a week left, the young players with potential to challenge for roster spots haven’t yet broken through.
Dennis Cholowski and Gustav Lindstrom still haven’t forced their way onto one of the top three pairs, and with Alex Biega in the fold and the AHL now confirmed to be returning, Grand Rapids seems the likeliest destination for both players starting out. Bromé, meanwhile, got the call into the top-13 forwards over Givani Smith. Evgeny Svechnikov is “unfit to practice” (a standardized designation for injured or ill players) after leaving the ice with an apparent upper-body injury during Tuesday’s scrimmage.
Michael Rasmussen, meanwhile, has had moments, but he hasn’t kicked the door down, either. Rasmussen worked on his skating in the offseason, and Blashill observed Thursday that, when he’s fresh, his skating is “much better,” even if he slips out of his crouch too early at times when tired. That’s improvement, but it alone does not appear likely to put him over the hump before next week’s opener.
“I just think with Ras it’s learning how to think a step ahead, to think quicker in those situations,” Blashill said. “We’ve played some little small-area games where you’ve gotta know what you’re doing with the puck before you get it, and that’s just going to be a continued learning process for him.”
Continued (paywall)
“He gets out of his crouch when he gets tired.” is not a good sign for a professional hockey player. For conditioning to be suspect of Rasmussen is a sign of a lack of commitment. Maybe he’ll wake up before it is too late. Yzerman’s comments months ago about being ready to play was directed firmly at prospects. This is likely to mean Ras is headed to GR. An old quote from someone who I don’t recall is: ” Fatigue makes cowards of us all.”