Of Red Wings-related note this afternoon:
- As the Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan notes, Red Wings coach Todd McLellan is more than ready to start evaluating his team’s best-on-best play:
“We plan all summer, you go through training camp to get your team together and organized and really have nothing to base your judgements on,” said coach Todd McLellan, who admitted he’ll be as nervous as anyone heading into Game No. 1.
“I call it evidence. That’s why we play the games now. The players give you evidence and guidelines as to where you take the group. Do we keep pounding the basics into them? Or do we grow as a team? The first one (game) is a little bit unpredictable. Those nerves can get you and you can overplay or underplay.”
Many players talked about the urgency of making the playoffs this season, after a nine-year postseason drought. McLellan believes this roster has laid a good foundation for success.
“This is the first training camp I’ve had with this group and their attention and the work they’ve put in throughout camp allows them to have a little bit of a foundation heading into the season,” McLellan said. “That foundation doesn’t guarantee anything. It doesn’t guarantee a playoff spot. But it allows us to grow off something. We’ve improved in some areas, we’ve injected energy in the lineup with some pace speed. We’ve had more of an opportunity to work on our structure.
“Do those things add up to the end goal (playoffs) that you’re talking about? We’ll find out in 190 days or whatever, but that’s what we’re hoping for.”
2. Coach McLellan also told MLive’s Ansar Khan that the Red Wings will play fast hockey…
“We need to play with some pace,” McLellan said. “We need to have a hunting mentality. Our special teams have to polish up again. The power play has to maintain or try to maintain the level it was at last year (fourth in the league) and have the same impact on games. Penalty kill has to improve (last in the league). We believe that we’ll get some good goaltending that will allow us to play through spells, maybe when we’re not playing really well. And then on the other side of it, maybe we can score more to help the goaltenders and alleviate some of the pressure off of them.
“A lot of things have to go right for us, and it’s up to us to make them happen.”
The Red Wings have some festivities planned to celebrate their Centennial season and will be wearing special uniforms in select games, including tonight, when defenseman Axel Sandin-Pellikka and forwards Emmitt Finnie and Michael Brandsegg-Nygard make their NHL debut.
“Hopefully, we can impress our fans by our playing style we really implemented over training camp and get a good start,” Moritz Seider said. “Todd emphasized on dialing in your first shift, being ready right from the get-go. I think if we can nail that, then we’ll be in a good spot. If everyone can win their first shift and we kind of build momentum.”
3. And Lucas Raymond agreed with his coach, as DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills noted:
“This is the first Training Camp that I had with this group, and I think their attention and work that they’ve put in throughout allows them to have a bit of a foundation heading into the season,” McLellan said. “I don’t know what it’s been like in the past. I just know how it feels right now. The simple fact that we’ve done that gives us a chance.”
Embracing a grounded approach regardless of what highs and lows come their way over the next several months will be key, Raymond believes.
“We want to get off to a good start, but it’s a long season,” Raymond said. “There are a lot of games and it’s going to be a tight schedule this year, so for us it’s just going day-by-day and game-by-game. We’re looking to take steps during the season and put ourselves in a good spot down the stretch. It starts tonight. I think everyone is excited to get out there. We’ve been working hard, and I like where we are as a team.”
The Canadiens started their season on Wednesday, dropping a 5-2 decision to the Toronto Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena. Oliver Kapanen and Zack Bolduc scored, while netminder Sam Montembeault made 22 saves for Montreal.
“[Head coach Martin St. Louis] has been there a number of years now and has done a tremendous job,” McLellan said. “Their roster hasn’t changed a whole lot. Every coach makes adjustments. Yes, we’ll give them a pre-scout, and we’ll have to try to create a picture of what it’s going to feel like to play against the Canadiens or the Leafs and any other team. But really, we can overcook that a little bit too. It’s a lot more about us and what we want to do, and can we get to that quickly or can we maintain it more than what they’re doing.”
4. Finally, the Free Press’s Helene St. James posted an article about Andrew Copp’s desire to step up his play:
As his fourth season with the Detroit Red Wings gets underway, Andrew Copp is focused on playing his best style of hockey.
Among the most vocal in the locker room regarding what a difference Todd McLellan has made, Copp was playing that last season when he entered a scrum and exited with a pectoral injury that ended up requiring season-ending surgery. Now he’s trying to recapture that form.
“I think I was playing well when I got hurt and am just trying to continue that on,” Copp said. “Just trying to be as involved in the game as possible. Let my brain and anticipation lead me.
“Even Todd has said, Your brain is your best attribute and your skating is good. Use that. Don’t think too much. Use it to anticipate instead of use it to read and react.“
…
McLellan had Copp, a natural center who can also play wing, on a line with Rasmussen and newcomer Mason Appleton when this year’s training camp began, but on Thursday, Oct. 9, when the Wings host the Montreal Canadiens in their season opener, Copp will be with veteran J.T. Compher and rookie Michael Brandsegg-Nygård.
“JT and Copp are both centermen,” McLellan said. “Both are really important players and we pushed both, not only last year, but we reminded them this year. We put them together with the kid and, you know – experience, some size, some poise, some directness, some heaviness. We expect all that from those three.
“But then Copp and Compher in particular, they can be big penalty kill pieces and we’ve used them a lot in exhibition season in that role, and we’ll start with them there. If they embrace it, lead it, that would be a real good thing.”
