If a truncated exhibition season wasn’t difficult enough for NHL teams to navigate, the Free Press’s Helene St. James reports that the new CBA requires certain players to be given 1 of 4 training camp days off to be able to play in more than one exhibition game. As such, Sunday’s Red Wings roster was missing some important pieces…
Forwards Michael Brandsegg-Nygard, Carter Bear and Nate Danielson and defensemen William Wallinder and Sandin Pellikka had Sunday off to satisfy Collective Bargaining Agreement regarding days off during camp.
“That allows them to now play back-to-back, so they will play tomorrow in Columbus, and they are scheduled to play on Tuesday in Pittsburgh, and that gets them two games,” McLellan said. “That leaves two more games – we’ll make decisions on those later on. The players that we think are close will get more games, and as we get to game four, we’d like to have somewhat of a lineup together, with maybe one or two pieces that we’re deciding on playing that night.”
Larkin’s unavailability affects line combinations, but so far it’s been Andrew Copp with Alex DeBrincat and Lucas Raymond; Marco Kasper with Emmitt Finnie and Viktor Arvidsson; Danielson with Brandsegg-Nygard and Carter Mazur, and J.T. Compher with Keegan Kolesar and either of Michael Rasmussen and Mason Appleton.
Continued (paywall) with this regarding the Red Wings’ goaltending plans for tomorrow night and Tuesday evening:
The plan is for designated backup, newcomer Daniil Tarasov, to play the first two periods Monday, and No. 1 John Gibson the first two periods in Pittsburgh. Trey Augustine and Michal Postava will each play one period of those nights, and then Gibson (likely for the finale) and Tarasov will each play a full game at Little Caesars Arena.
Tarasov was signed in free agency for one year at $2 million in free agency. “It’s a huge opportunity, joining this team who is battling in the past years,” Tarasov said. ” I’m just happy to join this team and make it this huge step.”
