The Detroit Red Wings concluded their preseason with a 3-3-and-2 record thanks to a 3-2 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs’ “A Team” on Saturday night. The undermanned “B Team” gave the Leafs a good effort, especially thanks to two goals from the Copp line (one from Fischer and one from Copp himself), and Ville Husso was excellent in stopping 30 of 33 shots…
But the Wings could not withstand the Maple Leafs’ All-Star power play, which went 2-for-4, or All-Star lineup, which plain old out-lasted a Red Wings team that looked physically and mentally tired as it wrapped up a bafflingly tight schedule of 8 games played in 11 nights–including 6 games this week alone (split-squad games against Pittsburgh and Buffalo on Tuesday included).
I never understand why the Red Wings choose to play 8 exhibition games–I think that 6 games in 2 weeks is a real maximum for the team to realistically contribute–and it’s a small miracle that Shai Buium and Tim Gettinger end the exhibition season on the IR, with Ondrej Becher already injured before the Prospect Games began.
The game’s narrative will be told in sparing fashion as the vast majority of the Red Wings’ press corps did not fly to Toronto to take in the game, which wasn’t aired on Metro Detroit TV stations, either.
The Free Press’s Helene St. James relates the game’s details quite well…
It was [Ville] Husso’s second full game over the past week, and another encouraging sign that he is fully back in form after missing two-thirds of last season dealing with a lower-body injury. He’s almost certain to be in net when the Wings start the season next week.
Playing without their top two lines, the Wings were lead by Andrew Copp’s group, featuring Christian Fischer and Michael Rasmussen. Fischer scored his first preseason goal when he tipped Copp’s shot 3:33 into the first period. Steven Lorentz put the Leafs on the board near the period’s midpoint, but Copp restored Detroit’s lead when he scored off a setup by William Wallinder at 17:58. It was also Copp’s first goal of the preseason.
Auston Matthews scored early in the second period, and he and Mitch Marner set up John Tavares’ go-ahead goal five minutes into the third period. Husso was pulled in the final couple minutes for an extra attacker, and the Wings spent the last 20 seconds with two extra skaters after Conor Timmins fired the puck over the glass and was called for delay of game.
The Wings used the game to get one last look in the preseason at 2024 first-round pick Michael Brandsegg-Nygård and 2023 first-round pick Nate Danielson. Albert Johansson, a defenseman pushing for a spot in the lineup, also played.
Detroit Hockey Now’s Tim Robinson did what most of the Wings’ media corps did–look forward to the imminent roster decisions that the Wings have to make by Monday at 5 PM…
The game ended a grueling preseason stretch that saw the Red Wings play three games in three days and five for the week.
The Red Wings’ braintrust will be busy this weekend determining the future for nearly two dozen players who won’t start the season in Detroit. They will also determine the roles of those who will.
Saturday’s result will be forgotten history by this time tomorrow. Certainly by the time the Red Wings begin their season against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday.
And MLive’s Ansar Khan looked to coach Lalonde’s words from the morning skate as an indication as to where the team might be leaning…
“A lot of moving parts, and some tough decisions,” coach Derek Lalonde said Saturday morning. “I mentioned going into camp I hope we sit here after eight (preseason) games with some very hard decisions and our young guys have done that to us. So, something we’ll work through the next couple days.”
The Red Wings seemed to have their roster in place prior to training camp with 12 non-waiver exempt forwards, eight defensemen and three goaltenders.
If there are any surprises it’ll likely be at forward, where young Marco Kasper and Carter Mazur, and veteran Austin Watson (pro tryout), in particular, were pushing for jobs. Kasper, the eighth overall pick in 2022, had an outstanding camp and preseason, but the Red Wings would need to waive or move a player to make room for the center.
“We’ve been very open minded throughout camp with a lot of moving parts, and this is a good problem,” Lalonde said. “We’ve had some young players step up in camp. This is going to be an interesting 48 hours.”
Just because a player starts the season with the Grand Rapids Griffins doesn’t mean he’ll stay there.
“Everyone makes such a big deal of making the team on Day 1 and I’ve never understood it because Grand Rapids is two hours away,” Lalonde said. “We’ll have played 33 players by Christmas. I think in reality, we’re probably going to have 15 forwards, 10 D that are going to play for us and make our team (over the course of the season).”
One of the biggest storylines going into tomorrow will be Michael Brandsegg-Nygard’s future, as the Hockey News’s Connor Eargood noted, because the Red Wings can send Brandsegg-Nygard back to Skelleftea AIK of the SHL, where he would play with Axel Sandin Pellikka, or they can assign him to the Grand Rapids Griffins, where he’d begin his North American career a day after his 19th birthday:
Opinions will vary, but both options present their own benefits. In Skelleftea, Brandsegg-Nygard can work on polishing his skills while playing much more comfortable competition. In Grand Rapids, he can develop these skills with teammates and opponents much closer to NHL readiness, potentially bringing him closer to NHL readiness at this time next year.
Saturday’s game offered some interesting data points after a mostly quiet preseason for Brandsegg-Nygard. He was leaned on heavily for his shot, including one power play when he took five shot attempts (two missed the net, one hit a post and two were saved by Toronto netminder Joseph Woll. This increase in data showed some areas that Brandsegg-Nygard needs to work on, namely in the way he leans on his shot.
The most clear example of this was his very first sequence of that power play sequence. Brought out on a 5-on-3 advantage, Brandsegg-Nygard received the puck at the point a few seconds into his shift, with the Maple Leafs largely in their structure ahead of him. Immediately, he had three obvious options: He could pass back to Albert Johansson on the other side of the point, resetting play for another look; He could pass to Jonatan Berggren, unmarked at the goal line, in the same spot where he nearly scored once in the game already; Or, Brandsegg-Nygard could just shoot the puck himself, banking on a tip, rebound or other chaos to create a scoring chance. He chose door three, coasting deeper into the zone, laying an 82 mile-per-hour shot right into goaltender Joseph Woll.
The play isn’t necessarily a bad one, but it revealed a problem in Brandsegg-Nygard’s game: when in doubt, he tends to rely on that shot instead of getting really creative, and that makes him a little one-dimensional against an NHL defense that is prepared for his level of shot.
He’s been 19 years old for a day. I’m not too worried about his shot being over-relied upon as the young man learns how to play a more well-rounded game at the professional level. The only question I have is whether he’s going to do his learning at the AHL level or the SHL one–both are professional leagues, after all:
This mental side of the game is where playing in the AHL could help Brandsegg-Nygard, where coaches can develop his decision-making process through film and reps against better defenders. While the SHL is a good league, putting him in a place where he is comfortable allows him to lean on habits, like shooting the puck when in doubt, that won’t translate so well to the NHL.
Brandsegg-Nygard himself said that he wanted to play with Skelleftea when asked repeatedly by the Swedish and Norwegian press corps, but after the preseason, I honestly think that he may be better-suited to remaining in North America.
Brandsegg-Nygard would be returning to 100-foot-wide ice, where the game is much more like soccer, where players regroup, regroup and regroup before finding the perfect scoring opportunity, and when you’re looking at a power forward like Brandsegg-Nygard, you want him to be as direct as possible, and as assertive physically as possible. He’s not going to be hurt by heading back to Sweden, but the learning curve may be superior (if a little steeper) in the AHL.
There is also a player who got lost in the shuffle over the course of training camp and the exhibition season in one William Wallinder, a still-promising defenseman who will begin the season in Grand Rapids. Wallinder
played 19:34 on Saturday night, finishing even with 2 shot attempts, and he looked to be only a step or two behind Albert Johansson, who’s NHL-ready at 23. Wallinder, who’s 22, spoke with DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills after a game which reminded us all that he’s one of the Wings’ brightest prospects:
Wallinder said going up against NHL competition on Saturday, and throughout Training Camp, was great for his development.
“It’s really good just for improvement on my game,” Wallinder said. “You get to see what it takes to be here, take a spot. A good experience for sure.”
John Tavares gave Toronto a 3-2 lead at 4:58 of the third period when he deked and scored a power-play goal.
Ville Husso stopped 30 of 33 shots on Saturday, which was the Red Wings netminder’s second full preseason game in the past five days.
“I feel like we played pretty good,” Wallinder said. “The defensive game was there. Not really many big mistakes today, and as team we played good. Maybe we could have had a little more offensive play.”
With the preseason now in the rear-view mirror, Detroit has until Monday at 5 p.m. ET to submit its 23-man Opening Night roster.
“I wanted to sit here after the eight games with some tough decisions, and all our young guys did that,” Lalonde said. “I’ll sit with Steve [Yzerman] over the next 24 hours here, and we’ll make some hard, but good, decisions.”
If you’re interested in other recaps, the Canadian Press quotes the Leafs extensively, and both the Toronto Sun’s Terry Koshan and Sportsnet’s Luke Fox discussed the Leafs’ roster situations. I just didn’t feel that they were relevant to a preseason affair.
Anyway, the Red Wings will take Sunday off to recharge and recover after playing 6 games in 6 nights, “split squad” games on Tuesday included, but they’ll be back on the ice at Little Caesars Arena on Monday to practice ahead of Thursday’s home opener against Pittsburgh.
As I said in the morning skate article, things get real in a hurry for the Wings, who will play 3 games in 5 nights to start the season, and 10 games over the course of October, with 13 more to come in November (including a West Coast swing), so the team is highly likely to be dipping into its reserves in Grand Rapids by the time Americans are cutting into Turkey on the 28th of November…
So all of this has mattered.
The games don’t count toward the standings, and the observations of preseason worry regarding the Red Wings’ record (3-3-and-2 is sub-.500, obviously) have to be tempered by remembering that it really is the preseason, where games won and lost are a terrible indicator as to whether teams are really “ready to go” for the regular season…
But the new players have learned the Red Wings’ systems and tendencies, from Cam Talbot out to Vladimir Tarasenko, the young players have learned some hard lessons as to how much competing at 100% in the NHL really takes out of you, mentally as well as physically…
And the coaching staffs have identified areas of strengths and weaknesses to work on as the Red Wings spend three days preparing for the Penguins, Predators and Rangers, respectively.
As have the management, frankly. They’re going to be looking toward November and December as the Wings begin the regular season with a healthy roster, and hopefully stay healthy, but the team is likely to withstand injuries, inconsistent performances at the NHL level, and performances of merit at the AHL and other developmental levels, requiring tweaking of the master plans as far as the shape of the Red Wings to come is concerned.
For now, it’s about cutting the roster down to 23 men to start. But the emphasis is to start, and that start begins on Thursday against Pittsburgh…Or, more accurately, the preparations begin on Monday.
See you then?
Multimedia:
Highlights: The Maple Leafs’ website posted a 4:57 highlight clip;
TSN posted a 1:59 highlight clip;
And the NHL posted a 9:40 YouTube clip:
Post-game: The Maple Leafs’ website posted clips of Steven Lorentz, John Tavares, Auston Matthews, Joseph Woll and coach Craig Berube‘s post-game comments;
Photos: The Detroit News posted an 11-image gallery;
Statistics: Here are the Game Summary and Event Summary:
