Month: September 2023

Stockton: Perron is leaner and meaner

The Hockey News’s Sam Stockton wrote about David Perron’s minor transformation this past offseason:

Now 35 years old and entering his 17th NHL season, David Perron knows he can’t get ready for a new year the way he might have at 23.

“I talked with Alex Tanguay at my end-of-year meeting, and he mentioned himself that in the later years of his career, he wished that he maybe dropped five, six, seven pounds and made sure he showed up to camp in incredible shape, and that’s exactly what I did over the summer,” Perron explains to the press after a Friday morning practice. 

“I went from probably 200, 202 [pounds], and I’m at probably 194, 195 right now…I feel really good right now. Just working through those first couple days of soreness and then I’m gonna really start pushing…It’s one thing to play 3-on-3 in the summer, and there’s no physical plays, but I think you saw in the first two days, guys are trying to get physical to really increase the pace, and that’s what I’m out there to do.”

When asked what his motivation was, the Sherbrooke, Quebec-native quips cutting a few pounds “just to be able to follow Larks [Dylan Larkin] around.”  In a moment of greater sincerity, he offers, “I don’t want to just take on a leadership role and just do that in the room. I want to be a guy that does it on the ice too.”

Continued

Tweets of note: Buccigross on Augustine and the Wings on ‘social’ pressures

Of Red Wings-related Twitter note this morning:

This is cute, too:

HSJ in the morning: DeBrincat’s looking to bounce back this season

The Free Press’s Helene St. James posted her customary morning article, and she discusses the Red Wings’ addition of Alex DeBrincat to the Wings’ roster this morning. As St. James notes, DeBrincat sounds like he had a much rougher season in Ottawa last year than he let on:

The Wings acquired the 25-year-old forward in a trade with the Ottawa Senators in July, and then signed him to a four-year, $31.5 million contract. DeBrincat comes to the Wings off a 27-goal season with the Senators, after twice reaching 41 goals during five seasons with the Chicago Blackhawks.

DeBrincat is confident he can recapture that 40-goal form in a new uniform.

“A lot of it is different looks in different situations,” DeBrincat said Friday. “I’ve got to focus a little more on bearing down when I get my chances. I think last year I gave up a lot of chances, maybe got lazy on it or whatever it may be, hit a post, stuff like that. I think a lot of it was like that. I’m pretty comfortable getting back to that form and obviously, we have a lot of great players here to play with, so I’ll just try to find the space out there and they’ll get me the puck.”

DeBrincat made a point of noting that he wants to bring a better 200-foot game to Detroit: “Last year I didn’t have the best two-way game, but in past years I’ve been a pretty good two-way forward, and that’s what I have to get back to. That creates so many more chances for me and my linemates.”

Continued; I find it interesting that both DeBrincat and David Perron have mentioned that playing a strong defensive structure leads to more offensive plays.

Duff on a heavier, stronger Lucas Raymond

Red Wings forward Lucas Raymond’s mother happens to be a nutritionist, so perhaps it’s not as surprising as we think that Raymond “bulked up” this past summer. As Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff notes, the 5’11,” 188-pound Raymond gained 12 pounds of muscle during the Wings’ lengthy offseason, and Raymond believes that he’ll be able to withstand more battles in the corners as a result:

“For sure you want to play with an edge and be physical,” Raymond said. “That was for sure one of the reasons (for bulking up). You want to be able to protect yourself, look after yourself in that way. I think this will help for sure. I think it was also me feeling like I could get more power out of it. I’ve felt a huge difference in that, which I feel real comfortable with. That was probably the main reasons.”

Raymond, 21, slipped from 23 goals as a rookie to 17 last season. While adding muscle to his frame, he was cognizant of doing so in a manner that wasn’t going to hinder his quickness or elusiveness on the ice.

“It isn’t bulking up in just the sense of getting bigger,” Raymond said. “It was bulking up in the sense where I want to get stronger and grow muscles. I think if you can combine that and keep the same lean but gain a bigger muscle mass, that’s helping you in every aspect. Happy I was able to do that.”

Raymond isn’t the only person with the Red Wings noticing the difference it’s making.

“The first three steps, it’s really wowed from what he was at the end of last season to how quick he looks now,” Detroit captain Dylan Larkin said. “He’s put on some weight. He’s got the explosive power to go with it. It’s good to see.”

Continued; Raymond is still growing into his body, as is Moritz Seider. We tend to forget that their developmental curves are still ascending.

Tweets of note: Jeff Petry speaks with Bally Sports Detroit’s John Keating; J.T. Compher interview soon to follow?

Red Wings defenseman Jeff Petry spoke with Bally Sports Detroit’s John Keating today…

We’ll hear from J.T. Compher soon…

And I do not know for the life of me why the Red Wings’ captain thinks that if he uses a blue stick instead of a red one, we will notice it less.

Three more Wings Tweets of note: A Ghost, an alumni, and a contest

Concluding the day’s worth of Tweets re-posted here…

Impressions from the second day of the Red Wings’ 2023 Training Camp

The second day of the Red Wings’ training camp differed from the first, and not only because the teams upon which the players skated changed pretty significantly in terms of their personnel.

The biggest differences from the first day of training camp were that, instead of working on possession, the emphasis today was on puck-tracking and player battles, so things got particularly physical at times…And coach Derek Lalonde deferred to his assistant coaches, Jay Varady, Alex Tanguay and Bob Boughner for most of the drills, affording some “different voices” for the players to hear on the ice.

Practices were hard-charging, regardless of whether it was coach Dan Watson with the first “non-NHL” group, skating for an hour, or coach Lalonde and company with the second and third groups, who skated for almost two hours apiece. The Red Wings worked very hard to replicate some game conditions today, and that resulted in game-level competitiveness and game-level battling out there from what is very clearly a more competitive group this season.

That was both encouraging and a little worrisome, because you don’t want the team to go into the regular season banged-up as all hell get out from practice, never mind the gauntlet that is an 8-exhibition-games-in-12-nights schedule. But coach Lalonde insisted that it’s important that the players go all-out all the time, and that’s exactly what his charges did today.

Continue reading Impressions from the second day of the Red Wings’ 2023 Training Camp

Wings Tweets of note: Goalie noises and hockey noises

It’s a noisy evening as the pleasant sounds of goaltenders making saves and shooters hitting the back of the net were recorded earlier today at Centre ICE Arena:

Bultman on asking more of Jake Walman

The Athletic’s Max Bultman discusses Jake Walman’s potential this evening:

While his big season in 2022-23 may have been Detroit’s single biggest success story, the pressure is now on for him to do it again — or even to reach a new level.

“It’s a little different coming onto the scene, and then staying there,” Lalonde said Friday. “Being a one and two, night in and night out, on a team that’s trying to push to get to another level. Obviously his skill set and what he showed at times last year was very exciting for all of us, really happy for him as an individual, also what he’s done to help our group.”

What, exactly, Walman might be capable of now is a “wait and see” type question, Lalonde said. But their internal expectations certainly have gone up for him. And through just two days of camp, he’s certainly gotten off to the start they wanted.

“Great. Obviously, you saw him,” Lalonde said. “That’s probably why you’re asking. He’s looked extremely good in camp.”

Continued (paywall)