The Free Press’s Helene St. James weighs in on the Red Wings’ final scrimmage of training camp this evening, duly noting that, despite the dominance of the Bertuzzi-Larkin-Mantha line, the most positive development over the course of the last seven-to-ten days has been the emergence of a real, honest-to-goodness second scoring line:
Robby Fabbri, Filip Zadina and Vladislav Namestnikov starred, for what it is worth, in Sunday’s scrimmage, showing chemistry and scoring prowess. Namestnikov scored the first goal and Zadina the last goal as Team White topped Team Red, 6-2.
“I think the fact they were dangerous in the scrimmage is important,” coach Jeff Blashill said. “We need more lines. So the fact they could be impactful in a scrimmage is good. Come Thursday, it will be a different animal a bit, but all they can control is the setting and then play great within the setting, and they did a great job of that.”
It was the third and final scrimmage before the Wings open the 2021 season Thursday at Little Caesars Arena against the Carolina Hurricanes.
“I thought both teams were competing,” Blashill said. “It wasn’t like it was a summer hockey game. It looked like a real enough game.”
Update: MLive’s Ansar Khan also weighed in on the scrimmage, discussing Filip Zadina’s play on the second line:
The Red Wings need Zadina to develop into a sniper, but they do not want him to simply skate around and wait for teammates to set him up. They want him to work at getting pucks, and that is what he did in this scrimmage.
“Going back to watching him play in the Czech League (from September to early December), I thought his puck battles were real good and it’s carried forward and I think he’s put a real emphasis on leveraging his body and winning those stick battles,” coach Jeff Blashill said. “He must have had four or five takeaways (Sunday) where he stripped guys of the puck, and because of that he can play offense.
“I think he’s learned how important it is to be a guy who goes and gets the puck himself and not wait for other guys to do that. If you win pucks, you get the puck more, you get to play way more offense.”
Zadina has played on Robby Fabbri’s line during camp. Bobby Ryan was the right wing on the unit at the start but has been unfit to play the past few days. Vladislav Namestnikov took his place in this scrimmage.
“I thought that line right off the bat was really good,” Blashill said. “Fabs was skating real good, had good jump, did a good job in the D-zone, same with Z and Vladdy. That line was real noticeable in the first period and maintained it most of the game.
“We need more lines. The fact they could be impactful in a scrimmage is good.”
Continued with several notes…
