As MLive’s Ansar Khan notes, Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde knows all too well that his team has to prove its critics wrong:
“You try to push the noise away and that’s the media,” Lalonde said. “I stopped reading media because it’s so negative on us. … Some people have us no chance at making the playoffs. I think the highest article I read is a 14 percent chance of making the playoffs. Everyone is writing us off. I get it, it’s not a knock on our guys, it’s just the reality of the division, the conference.”
The Red Wings broke training camp Monday in Traverse City and open their eight-game preseason Tuesday against Pittsburgh at Little Caesars Arena (7 p.m., Bally Sports Detroit; WWJ-AM 950).
These exhibitions, as always, won’t reveal much about the team. Lineups will be loaded with young players looking to grow and gain experience, many of them prior to heading to AHL Grand Rapids. Questions about the Red Wings following a flurry of offseason changes will start to be answered when the regular season opens Oct. 12 at New Jersey.
“We’ll knock the noise away. It’ll be about our process and just doing things correctly,” Lalonde said. “Very similar to where we were last year. No one gave us a fighting chance and in the end they were right. But late in the season, game 57, we were in that playoff (spot). We exceeded expectations. Hopefully, it’ll look the same this year.”
Continued; I think that the exhibitions are very important unto themselves. No, the record that the Wings post during the exhibition season won’t tell the tale as to how they do this upcoming season, but the battle for jobs on the roster is real, as is establishing the pecking order for prospect and depth player call-ups. There’s much to watch during exhibition hockey.
