The Detroit News’s John Niyo wrote a subscriber-only column about Moritz Seider on Tuesday evening, discussing Seider’s impact over the first 10 games of the young season:
“Well, he’s got tons of physical ability,” [Red Wings coach Jeff] Blashill said. “Now our job is to help him continue to (develop) from a really good talent to a great player ultimately. That’s what we’d love him to be here. I think without improving, Moritz could be a good player in this league. But that’s not what anybody wants, him or us. So we just want to make sure that we’re continuing to push him, even as he has early success.”
That means calling him out when Seider makes an unforced error like he did Saturday night in the loss at Toronto, sending a blind backhand pass across the ice on a power play that led to a breakaway for the Maple Leafs. Seider also was on the ice for both of Montreal’s 5-on-5 goals Tuesday in a lackluster effort by the Wings that Blashill described as “inexcusable.”
“We were just bad,” Seider said. “It was a tough one for us. But I think we’re done. We turned the page.”
Indeed, Seider talked Wednesday about how “hungry” he and his teammates are to finish this four-game road trip with wins in Boston and Buffalo. But he also knows the Wings will get their fill with 10 games over the next 17 days — a stretch that ends with four games in six nights, hopscotching from Columbus to Dallas to Las Vegas and Phoenix.
And if we’re talking about Seider then the way we are now, things will be pretty OK, all right.
“I had a lot of belief that he could be a really good player in this league — I just didn’t know how fast and how good,” Blashill said. “And I think that story is still to be told.”
Continued (paywall)
