Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff penned a subscriber-only article discussing 5 ways in which the Red Wings can make up for the goals that Jakub Vrana would have scored for them prior to his shoulder injury, which requires surgical repair. Among Duff’s suggestions are the following:
The answer that would’ve proven to be music to everyone’s ears would be Zadina saying that he expects to put away many more goals than the six he registered in 49 games last season.
The way that can happen is twofold. Firstly, Zadina needs to be using his teammates more effectively as an offensive weapon. Secondly, he must be more of a presence in the goal-scoring locales.
“Ultimately with Z, the two areas that we worked with him to be effective is to become more of a give-and-go player and then . . . the net front and slot,” Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said of Zadina. “When he’s been effective, if you look at it statistically over the years, that’s where he’s scored from. That’s where everybody scores from and that’s where he’s got the majority of his shots from.
When he’s not as effective, he’s on the outside too much. And you can’t get to that area a lot of times just by beating people yourself. You have to give and go. We’ve put an emphasis on that. Hopefully he can excel at that.”
Over 86 NHL games, Zadina is showing 15 goals. Even were he to get 15 this season, that would prove satisfying.
Continued (paywall)
