Of Red Wings-related note this morning:
- As the Free Press’s Helene St. James notes, this week is a particularly busy one for the Red Wings, in which the team will play six games over the course of six nights–including tonight’s pair of “split squad” games against Pittsburgh at home and at Buffalo, respectively:
Even before doubling up Monday, the Wings also had on their slate games Tuesday at Pittsburgh, Thursday at home against the Toronto Maple Leafs, Friday at home against the Ottawa Senators, and Saturday at Toronto.
Playing six times in six days will make it harder for coach Derek Lalonde to follow through on what he expressed at the start of camp, when he said he didn’t want to play veterans in back-to-back games. And Wednesday — the only non-game day this week — might see an adjusted practice schedule in order to keep players fresh.
At least there are plenty of youngsters — including Marco Kasper, Nate Danielson, Carter Mazur, Elmer Söderblom, Michael Brandsegg-Nygård and Cross Hanas — among the 57 players who emerged from the Traverse City part of camp. And there are veterans on tryouts, too — such as Alex Chiasson and Austin Watson — who could use as many looks as possible to make their cases for contracts.
The Wings don’t lack for goalies, either: In addition to the four who split the first two games — Alex Lyon, Ville Husso, Cam Talbot and Sebastian Cossa — there’s also Jack Campbell, Jan Bednar, Carter Gylander and Gage Alexander.
There are plenty of coaches, too: Lalonde and his staff, as well as Grand Rapids head coach Dan Watson and his staff, too, to handle Monday’s double duty.
The Wings will be playing a Sabres team that’s split into squads, too — trans-Atlantic squads, no less: One group of Sabres, which includes Rasmus Dahlin and Tage Thompson, are in Europe for the Global Series, while another squad stayed behind in Buffalo.
2. Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff suggests that the Red Wings will have to sort out their three-headed goaltending monster this upcoming week:
The Detroit Red Wings have six games this week — starting with two split squad games today against Pittsburgh and at Buffalo — to figure out which goalie starts the season as their No. 1.
Is that enough time to make a judgment? It will have to be.
What we need to remember is there is nothing more temporary as a permanent starting NHL goalie. While the Red Wings need to establish a hierarchy for the start of the season, we could end up seeing a repeat of last season when different goalies were the starter at different times.
Because the Red Wings have only played two games, coach Derek Lalonde probably hasn’t settled on anything yet. Ville Husso’s two periods of work tonight, presumably against Pittsburgh, will be an important start for him. In his first start against Chicago, he proved he was healthy, but also showed rust in the second period when he gave up two goals. At the moment, Alex Lyon and Cam Talbot seem like they are ahead of Husso.
No one on this team probably needs a strong performance as much as Husso does.
3. And MLive’s Ansar Khan reports that the Red Wings are taking inspiration from the Detroit Tigers‘ playoff run:
“I think the Tigers might be a year ahead of schedule,” [Red Wings coach Derek] Lalonde said. “Last year we may have been a year ahead of schedule, but unfortunately, we didn’t finish the job. The difference is they did that. So, I think our guys know where we are. We’ve taken natural progressions over the last two years, and we want to keep pushing that forward.”
The Red Wings are caught up in the excitement around town.
“All the boys were tuning in, watching, cheering for them,” Ben Chiarot said. “It’s great for the city. Detroit’s such a good sports city. I think you saw it last year with the Lions and our sort of run towards a playoff spot. Especially when a team’s having some success, it’s a fun place to be as an athlete.”
Copp, who once took in a playoff game against the Yankees at Comerica Park, said: “I think everyone — not just the local guys – is pulling pretty hard for them in the locker room, so it’s pretty cool what’s going on.”
