The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan filed an afternoon notebook which parallels MLive’s Ansar Khan’s discussion of one Axel Sandin Pellikka’s pluses and minuses as a developing prospect who’s not overly big at 5’11” and 185 pounds:
Sandin-Pellikka, similar to Wings defenseman Albert Johansson, has heard the talk of him being a smallish defenseman throughout his career. Sandin-Pellikka has been able to overcome not having NBA power forward size by using his smarts, positioning, and knowing the game.
“Use your brain well,” Sandin-Pellikka said of how to overcome being on the smaller side. “Hockey IQ is a big part of the defensive game sometimes. I don’t want to call it just pure strength. If you use your brain, position yourself right, it’s going to be OK in most situations.”
There are few doubts about Sandin-Pellikka’s skating ability, his poise with the puck, and creating offense. It’s on defense, and adapting to the smaller ice surface in North America, and how quickly Sandin-Pellikka adjusts to those two facets, will likely determine how fast he gets to the NHL.
“It’s a different game, the ice is smaller and it’s going to be quicker,” Sandin-Pellikka said. “(I have to) be aware in the defensive zone, be smart, on the inside a lot more and have your head on a swivel. That’s the thing I’ve been hearing, and what I want to get better at, too. Getting adjusted to that, learning a little bit more about the game here, all over the ice.”
Kulfan also discusses coach McLellan’s take on the likely pace of the Red & White Game, which is scheduled to take place on Sunday at 3 PM EDT in Grand Rapids’ Van Andel Arena:
Saturday’s intra-squad scrimmage was more physical and competitive than the day before, which pleased McLellan, heading into Sunday’s Red & White scrimmage (3 p.m./DetroitRedWings.com; Red Wings Mobile App) in Grand Rapids.
“There was more physicality to the game (Saturday), ice was harder to come by, so it was tighter and there wasn’t a lot of free space,” McLellan said. “It was getting close to what real hockey should look like. I hope that continues (Sunday) in Grand Rapids and we pack up and get home, have a day off (Monday), and a lot of games will come at us in a short period of time.”
As McLellan said, the Wings are going to do a lot of experimenting in terms of line combinations and player personnel over the first 5 to 6 exhibition games, and then games 7 and 8 will be more like dress rehearsals for the season-opener on October 11th vs. Montreal.
Still, the Wings play 8 exhibition games over the course of 12 nights, so it’s going to be a real grind for the “A Team” and “B Team” to get up to speed and keep going at coach McLellan’s requested high pace night in and night out.
