The Athletic’s Max Bultman posted a slate of observations from training camp today, noting that the Red Wings believe that the best way to assuage their lost offense in free agency is to become a better defensive team:
It’s no secret the Red Wings lost a lot of offensive pieces this summer. Between David Perron, Robby Fabbri, Daniel Sprong, Shayne Gostisbhere and Jake Walman, that’s 75 goals from last season out the door.
Detroit will try to replace that lost offense through contributions from new signings Vladimir Tarasenko, Tyler Motte and Erik Gustafsson, and through internal promotions for Jonatan Berggren and Simon Edvinsson, but it’s going to be a tall task. One obvious way to counteract that, though, is by keeping more pucks out of the net — something the Red Wings realistically needed to focus on anyway after allowing the ninth-most goals in the league last season.
“That’s obviously been a focus today at Day 1 of camp is the defensive side,” Larkin said. “And some key adjustments — minor adjustments, but I think they’re going to be really key — so we can be better boxing out in front of our net and make quicker stops and exit quicker, so then we can play more offense.
“I think that’s what all the best defensive teams in the league (do): the hard nights, their big, strong defensemen in the corner, that cross-check, and make it hard on the forwards. We’re trying to adopt that, and trying to build that into our game throughout camp.”
Head coach Derek Lalonde’s message to open camp was “we want to build off where we were last year, but we need more,” he said, and the emphasis in the practice was on some of those areas, starting with breakouts and defensive zone habits, and moving into the neutral zone.
“I liked where we were at,” Lalonde said. “Pretty comfortable with how well the structure looked towards the second half of the practice, which is a little exciting for a coach. But just Day 1.”
Continued (paywall)
