I’m trying to squeeze all of the Red Wings beat writers’ practice notebooks into one blog entry today, but this quip from coach Jeff Blashill made me think, “You know what, maybe people will want to talk about this individually.” Here’s what Blashill had to say about the Wings’ lack of secondary scoring thus far, per the Free Press’s Dana Garuder:
While the first line has been highly productive, the Wings would like a more balanced offense. The second line of Pius Suter, Robby Fabbri and Filip Zadina has produced only two goals. Suter, who had 27 points in 55 games as a rookie with Chicago last season, is still seeking his first point as a Red Wing.
“They just have to stay with it and work to continue to build up their own production,” Blashill said. “They can be a really good line.”
Vladislav Namestnikov has three of the four goals on the third line, playing with Adam Erne and Michael Rasmussen. They’re often matched up against the opponent’s top scoring line.
“They’re playing in their own end a decent amount,” Blashill said. “It’s important not to judge solely on production. They bring other things to the table.”
St. James continues; I knew that Pius Suter would struggle adjusting from playing from the high-flying Hawks to the Red Wings, so I’m willing to give him some slack, and I think that Zadina has actually been fairly good, but snakebitten; Fabbri seems to be finding his form very slowly after missing good chunks of last season due to injuries and COVID, but I’m a little surprised that Erne and Rasmussen have struggled to put up points as much as they have.
What do you think about the Wings’ lack of balanced scoring thus far?
