With Jakub Vrana out for the next four months due to shoulder surgery (at the very least), Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill duly noted that his team will have to rely upon depth of scoring and better team defense for the foreseeable future, as NHL.com’s Nicholas J. Cotsonika noted:
“Ultimately we’re going to have to rely on depth more than necessarily one or two high-end guys,” coach Jeff Blashill said Thursday. “But there’s a lot of guys that haven’t necessarily proven that they’re that type of player that are top-six quote-unquote players. That doesn’t mean they can’t be that at all. It just means they’ve got to prove it, and there’s unknowns involved in that, the unknowns probably uncertainty from our aspect.
“But the positive thing for us is, we do have seven more exhibition games. I mean, we do have a lot of games to be able to look at guys and see how they do.”
Blashill referenced the New York Islanders as an example of how a team can use its depth to overcome injuries and win. The Islanders advanced to the third round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs in consecutive seasons despite injuries to center Casey Cizikas (eye) in 2020 and captain Anders Lee (knee) in 2021.
“They do it right, meaning they’re committed to their game plan, they stay with their game plan, they don’t wander outside their systems, they play to their system structurally, and they’re just real committed to it,” Blashill said. “That’s ultimately what we’re going to need to do to have success here. We’re going to have to be super committed to it. Part of that is making sure you don’t give up easy chances and making sure you’re really good defensively, and they’ve done a good job of that.”
Did Vrana run into the Zamboni, Yikes? Tough start for all!