Month: September 2022

The Detroit Red Wings’ coaching staff added some wrinkles to the mix after days one and two of the Red Wings’ 2022 training camp in Traverse City, MI.

As per usual, the Red Wings’ 67 training camp participants were divided into three teams, Team Lindsay, Team Howe and Team Delvecchio, and, as per usual, the teams’ rosters were changed somewhat significantly so that the young prospects from Team Lindsay would get a full two-hour practice with the “big teams,” and the coaching staff also seemed to very consciously break up some early roster pairings on Saturday, separating Ben Chiarot from Moritz Seider, for example.

Once again, Tyler Bertuzzi missed practice with a “flare-up,” though he made an appearance for the “morning team’s” video session (today, that was Team Howe), along with the injured Andrew Copp (abdominal surgery), Jake Walman (shoulder surgery), and Oskar Sundqvist (undisclosed);

Once again, Copp, Walman, prospects Jake Uberti and Tnias Mathurin also practiced so early that, when I got to the rink early at 7:50 AM, they’d been on the ice for almost half an hour, working with skills coach Dwayne Blais. At 8 AM, they were joined by Sebastian Cossa and Jan Bednar, who worked with Wings goalie coach Alex Westlund and Griffins goalie coach Brian Mahoney-Wilson. Their presence meant that meant that, for the second day, Cossa was going to be on the “prospect team.”

Continue reading Impressions from the third day of the Red Wings’ 2022 training camp

Well, now we know that “athletes are athletes”…

ballin’ pic.twitter.com/VnpLUxVBjz— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) September 24, 2022

And that DetroitRedWings.com’s Daniella Bruce is going to be sharing an interview with coach Lalonde soon:

*Reminding myself hockey season is just around the corner*

We’re ready, Newsy!! 🤩 #LGRW

📸: @AndyTroyerson pic.twitter.com/1rXl5gaQvs— Daniella Bruce (@daniellabruce_) September 24, 2022

Red Wings forward Filip Zadina needs to engage in something of a re-set at 22 years of age, and new coach Derek Lalonde is more than ready to give Zadina that opportunity, as MLive’s Ansar Khan notes:

“I meant it in the offseason when I want to give everyone a fresh start,” Lalonde said. “I watched a lot of tape over the summer, but I was very cautious with it. Even on the one side where I want to give a fresh start, I don’t get too excited on the other end of some positives I’ve seen. On both ends I want to be very cautious and have a true fresh start for everyone.”

Zadina, 22, had 10 goals and 14 assists in 74 games last season. Despite moving up and down the lineup depending on his performance –mostly on the second or third line — Zadina played regularly on the power play under former coach Jeff Blashill.

“I think I’ve done everything I could to use the opportunity I had and right now it’s a fresh start, a fresh opportunity,” Zadina said Saturday, following the third day of training camp in Traverse City. “I just want to take it and be a better hockey player.”

General manager Steve Yzerman, in his exit meeting with Zadina, told him he’s on the right path to becoming a good NHL player and provided encouragement.

“All young players, all scorers in particular, always measure (themselves) on goals and assists, in particular for higher draft picks,” Yzerman said. “Everybody wants to see the goals and assists. You fall into that yourself — ‘I got to produce. I got to produce.’ Ultimately, if you do all the other things well, the pucks will go in the net for you.

“So, my message to Filip was to continue to do all the little things well and the pucks will go in the net. He’s a hard worker. When I talked to our strength coaches and staff about his dedication off the ice, he really wants to be a good player and knows he’s got things to improve upon. I expect him to take another step forward. I think his attitude is excellent, his work ethic is excellent. He just needs to stick with it.”

Continued

As the Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan notes in his Saturday notebook, Red Wings forward and super sophomore Lucas Raymond believes that he can give more to his team’s cause:

“The most pressure I got is from myself to get better,” Raymond said. “(I) focus on that as much as possible and block the other things out. Just try to play good hockey and that will lead to a lot of good things.”

Playing with Dylan Larkin and Tyler Bertuzzi, the three were the most consistent and effective line the Wings had last season, and the trio is likely to be reunited this season by new coach Derek Lalonde.

Raymond, 20, displayed an overall advanced game, with a great knack of knowing where to be on the ice. But Raymond understood there were still areas to improve.

This summer, Raymond continued to improve his skating but targeted other parts of his skill set.

“I want to take the puck to the net more,” said Raymond, who wants to be harder on pucks. “That was one of the things I took away from last season. A lot of goals are scored on rebounds, tips, and tight around the net. That’s a big thing I’ve been trying to focus on. It’s tough to practice; it’s more of a mentality thing, if you want to get there.”

Continued; Raymond has been a junkyard dog in terms of hunting down rebounds thus far.

DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills posted an article in which he discusses the “compete level” evident at the Red Wings’ 2022 training camp, as viewed through the eyes of the coach, forwards Lucas Raymond and Filip Zadina, and goaltender Ville Husso:

If the purpose of the first two days of training camp were to get the Detroit Red Wings back into the groove of practice, day three was focused on dialing it up a notch. The Red Wings ran through special teams drills on Saturday at Centre ICE Arena, marking the final day of preparations before Detroit takes the ice for Sunday’s annual Red & White scrimmage in Traverse City.

As camp continues, first-year NHL head coach Derek Lalonde said he’s impressed with how his players are responding to upticks in intensity.

“We saw how physical things were,” Lalonde said. “That’s by design. We even ramped things up in the first half of practice again today. The guys responded very well.”

Camp performance is important to Lalonde because it helps him determine who deserves a place in Detroit.

“You want the level of guys earning it,” Lalonde said. “You certainly want it to play out that way.”

Continued

Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff penned a column discussing Jakub Vrana’s need to round out his game, despite being an elite goal-scoring forward:

While there’s been no shortage of speculation about many times Vrana can net over the course of a full season, one of those speculators isn’t him. He’s a goal getter. Not a goal setter.

“Not really,” Vrana answered as to whether he had a number in mind for his 2022-23 goals total. “I don’t want to put extra thoughts in my head for no reason. Obviously, I’m an offensive forward, so I like scoring goals. But it’s about just doing my best and doing what I can do best out there and how can I help my team the most and go from there. Just doing what I can do out there to help my team win games.”

The Red Wings don’t want Vrana to forget what’s made him famous.

“He’s impressive with the puck certainly,” Lalonde said. “Sometimes you know guys are skilled guys but you don’t have an appreciation for their skills until you’re actually with them and on the ice. You don’t get a true appreciation for how skilled they are. Man, he’s got a special shot. He’s got some offensive tools that are very special and I’ve probably got more of an appreciation being on the ice with him.”

They just want Vrana to appreciate that winning hockey is all about playing a 200-foot game.

“He’s a goal-scoring winger,” Yzerman said. “We expect him to do that, but like all of our guys, we’re gonna insist that they have some defensive awareness as well.”

Continued

Via Paul Kukla of Abel to Yzerman, here’s Andrew Copp speaking with John Keating regarding his abdominal issue:

Per John Keating:

Great, incisive chat with new Red Wings defenseman, Ben Chiarot here in Traverse City on a chilly, drizzly day. pic.twitter.com/wXMCPAj5Xx— John Keating (@JohnKeatingBSD) September 24, 2022

Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen filed an afternoon notebook regarding both Tyler Bertuzzi’s status as day-to-day with an undisclosed injury, as well as coach Derek Lalonde’s take on how much Simon Edvinsson will play over the course of the Red Wings’ 8 preseason games:

“We plan on playing him a lot, maybe even more than that projected four or five (games),” [Red Wings coach Derek] Lalonde said. “We’ll see how camp goes. Even the three rookie games were very important. We want to give him a ton of looks. The
biggest thing for him is (get) hard practice reps. I think he’s had a few of those. He has handled them well. He has been exposed a couple of times. (That’s) understandable.”

Lalonde made it clear that Edvinsson doesn’t have any guarantees of making the team. And Edvinsson knows that. He said Thursday it would be “understandable” if he is assigned Grand Rapids.

“The beauty is if he’s playing with us on opening night, we’d be very excited,” Lalonde said. “(But) I think we’d also be very content if he’s not playing with us and in Grand Rapids on opening night.”

Lalonde said the Red Wings will communicate that to Edvinsson.

“Like every young man, they want to make this team out of every camp,” Lalonde said. “But we’ll temper his expectations and we’ll manage that going forward.”

Continued

The Detroit News’s David Guralnick posted 66-image and 65-image photo galleries from days 1 and 2 of the Red Wings’ 2022 training camp, and today, he’s posted a relatively meager 39-image gallery.

IN PHOTOS: Training camp continues for the Red Wings in Traverse City https://t.co/MQjQrJhja0— Detroit News Sports (@detnews_sports) September 24, 2022