The Athletic’s Max Bultman filed his training camp notebook for Sunday evening, and, among his observations are the following:
Another storyline from the week that repeated itself in the scrimmage was the tone-setting physicality of Chiarot. Detroit went out and signed the 31-year-old in free agency this summer as it looks to become a tougher team to play against, and it’s already crystal clear how Chiarot will help that aim.
On one shift in the first period, he tossed 6-foot-6 Michael Rasmussen toward the bench, then delivered a bit hit on Zadina — arguably from behind, but at open ice. Lalonde called that sequence a “tone-setter” signaling, “we’re going to get to work today, this is how we’re going to play.”
Of the overall edge to the game, he went on to say: “We encouraged it. We talked about it. We ended both meetings asking for it. And I think you saw that. You can’t turn it on and off. And we want to be able to turn it on and make it just a habit of who we are.”
The play led to a transition opportunity for Raymond, so it wasn’t just physicality for the sake of physicality. It helped drive play favorably for Detroit.
Notably, Chiarot also was one of five players wearing an “A” on his sweater for scrimmage, along with Rasmussen, Määttä, Hronek and David Perron.
