The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan filed his off-day notebook this afternoon, noting that the Red Wings’ players and coach feel that the team is responding well to the threats posed by the nasty hits that have plagued the first two games of the regular season:
“You’ve seen it pretty early that we’re pretty tight in the room,” defenseman Marc Staal said. “You do something to one of us, it affects all of us and we’re all going to jump in and stick up for each other.”
In the third period of Saturday’s 3-1 victory over the Vancouver Canucks, Zadina was hit hard by Conor Garland, leaving Zadina face down on the ice. The Wings quickly rushed in, and for the remainder of the game, made life miserable on several shifts for Garland. Scrums against other Canucks developed.
“It was good to see (Saturday),” Staal said “We’ll continue to play that way.”
The tight team feeling is one of the best things coach Jeff Blashill has seen through preseason and early season play. Blashill believes the camaraderie will benefit the Wings in the long term.
“When you really care about each other and see something happen to one of your teammates, you get over emotional,” Blashill said. “I’d rather have that than have guys that don’t like each other. We got a whole bunch of guys that care about each other.”
Continued (paywall)
