Of Red Wings-related note this evening:
- DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills wrote a mid-evening column which summarizes the Red Wings’ first day of training camp…
Detroit’s Training Camp roster this year features 68 players, including 37 forwards, 22 defensemen and nine goalies. With several key pieces returning, along with a mix of faces young and new, captain Dylan Larkin said everyone’s excited to get back to work.
“It’s like the first day of school,” Larkin said. “There are some jitters, but it was good to get on the ice up here. Some guys are feeling it out, but I was very impressed with the intensity and thought the older guys – Ben Chiarot, Jeff Petry, myself, Lucas [Raymond], Alex [DeBrincat] – trying to push the battle and intensity a little higher than what we’ve had in the past.”
Red Wings head coach Derek Lalonde said it was important the veterans set the tone with a competitive practice to kick offTraining Camp.
“Our core is growing together,” Lalonde said. “I felt I’ve grown with this core a little bit too. This was their opportunity to set the tone. We keep talking about putting some of these words into action. It’s the first opportunity for action and was a good step on Day 1, but that’s all it was. I’d like to keep pushing this going forward, but it’s going to have to come from that leadership group.”
That leadership group is headlined by Larkin, who said missing out on the Stanley Cup Playoffs last season was a tough pill to swallow.
“It was extremely hard to get over that,” Larkin said. “We found out what we had in our room with our guys. We battled hard, but we came up short by one point. You learn how valuable every point is. Sometimes when you’re not feeling your best on the road, a long trip or whatever it is, we showed through adversity what winning hockey looks like for us.”
2. And MLive’s Ansar Khan took note of captain Larkin’s remarks about himself, in which Larkin suggested that there’s room for improvement:
“Still pushing myself … I know I have a next level, and I would like to see what I can do,” Larkin said. “I’d like to be a dominant player like I have been when I’m healthy. And that’s a big thing for me, is staying healthy this year and trying to dominate and not do too much. Just play my game and be a good playmaker, someone that makes everyone around me better.”
The Red Wings started training camp Thursday in Traverse City with the customary complement of new faces and optimism that they can take the next step and end an eight-year playoff drought. Having fewer regulation wins than Washington cost them a season ago.
“It stung for a while, and it was extremely hard to get over that,” Larkin said. “But I think we found out what we had in our room with our guys. We battled hard. We came up short by one point. And you learn how valuable every point is. We showed ourselves last year through adversity what winning hockey looks like and mucking it up, winning a point when we maybe don’t deserve it. And I thought you saw growth in everyone and growth as a team, growth from young players. And then we made some adjustments, some new additions that I think will really complement our team.”
The new additions are led by veterans Vladimir Tarasenko, a scoring winger, and Erik Gustafsson, a defenseman who’ll man the point on the power play, as well as skilled winger Jonathan Berggren and big defenseman Simon Edvinsson, who unlike last season will be with the club from the start. Cam Talbot is the potential new No. 1 goaltender.
“We got a lot of new faces again, which is always a little bit of a challenge,” Larkin said. “But I think that’s why Traverse City is so important. And getting the guys together, making everyone feel comfortable and you look at the guys we added, they kind of bring maybe a little bit more youth and a little bit of the same roles of guys we lost. So, I’m expecting that we have a hard October, but we’re going to have a great camp and hopefully hit the ground running.”
Continued (paywall)
