DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills posted a game preview ahead of tonight’s tilt with Pittsburgh (7 PM in Pittsburgh on Bally Sports Detroit)…
“You’re going to have some of these back-to-backs, which is fine,” Red Wings head coach Derek Lalonde said after Tuesday’s morning skate at Little Caesars Arena’s BELFOR Training Center. “It’s just kind of spreading them out. We’ll try to avoid some three [games] in four [days] for some guys. We’re trying to balance what we’re trying to get accomplished in camp with obviously making sure guys have their best opportunity to perform in camp and avoid some potential injuries.”
As the Red Wings continue to prepare for Opening Night against the Penguins on Oct. 10, Justin Holl said the intensity of this year’s Training Camp will prove valuable for the players when the regular season begins.
“It’s been challenging physically,” Holl said. “I feel like Training Camp is always difficult, just in the sense that you try to prepare yourself as best you can in the summer. There’s really no way to replicate what you’re doing on the ice when Training Camp starts and the amount of workload you’re putting your body under. It has been difficult, but I would expect nothing less.”
Pace and skating have been two key areas of emphasis from the Red Wings coaching staff that have stood out to Holl throughout Training Camp.
“You’re doing difficult drills where you’re going up and down the ice maybe a couple times, then it’s a hard lap in between,” Holl said. “It’s kind of the accumulation of all these things, then at the end of the skate you’re doing conditioning. It’s meant to be hard. That’s the idea, and it’s meant to test us physically and mentally.”
In 2023-24, his first season with Detroit, Holl had five points (all assists) in 38 games. The 32-year-old defenseman said he’s entering this season with a narrow focus.
Continued; here’s the Wings’ lineup:
Tonight's lineup in Pittsburgh.
— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) October 1, 2024
Puck drops at 7pm on @BallySportsDET. pic.twitter.com/vp9wrfhbSm
And the Hockey News’s Connor Eargood posted a game preview that ties in well with Mills’ preview:
The Red Wings’ preseason schedule continues Tuesday with a road game in Pittsburgh, where Detroit will send a roster of AHL players and those who didn’t skate in either of Monday’s doubleheader games.
Six games in six days. Many practices in between. The Red Wings’ preseason schedule is dense right now, putting players through a strain that Detroit hopes prepares its group for the season ahead.
“Obviously we don’t ever want to go into games tired or hurt, but at the same time, I think we’re trying to maybe create a little more of a baseline for where our guys are physically,” Detroit coach Derek Lalonde explained Tuesday after practice. “But I think it turns into a little bit of a mental aspect to it, too. So I think part of this harder camp, if you will, has been asking the group for a little bit more. I think we want to push a little more physically, and hopefully it turns into a little more mentally, too.”
If Detroit can slog through playing six of its eight preseason games in a six-day span to end the preseason, the games in the regular season won’t feel so bad. Lalonde joked Monday that the practices this training camp are so intense that players are “begging” to get into games. All of this serves the purpose of conditioning players to the rigors of the NHL schedule early, in the hopes of turning this into a strong start to the season starting Oct. 10. Even if it doesn’t seem like sending a skeleton crew to Pittsburgh is the most competitive move, it comes in the context of these overall scheduling goals.
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Lalonde understands how taxing this workload can be for his players, so he wants to avoid these back-to-back appearances when possible. On that front, he’s sort of forced to pick the lesser of two evils. After a day without games Wednesday, the Red Wings wrap up the preseason with three games in three days, so Tuesday’s roster is as much constructed so as not to overburden players in that stretch as it is to avoid overworking players coming off their Monday night games.
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In net, Ville Husso will get the start with a play-it-by-ear approach. Lalonde said that Husso’s performance in the game will determine whether he plays the full game or if Jack Campbell takes over to finish it.
