The Detroit Red Wings open a 4-game exhibition season tomorrow night, when the team travels to Columbus to play the Blue Jackets (7 PM EDT start on DetroitRedWings.com; Columbus has already posted its game roster for tomorrow night’s affair).
The Wings will also play in Pittsburgh on Tuesday (7 PM EDT start, also streamed) before hosting Buffalo on Thursday (7 PM EDT on Detroit SportsNet) and wrapping up the exhibition slate by hosting the Blue Jackets next Saturday (7 PM EDT on DSN).
Red Wings coach Todd McLellan may not have been thrilled with today’s showing at training camp, but he duly noted to the Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan that now’s the time to work the bugs out of the team’s game ahead of the home opener against the Rangers on Friday, October 2nd.
McLellan also pointed out that the truncated training camp and exhibition season (down from 2 weeks’ worth of practices and 8 games played for Detroit to 1 week of practice and 4 games played) means that the coaching staff has to “squish” their teaching process into a tighter timeline:
“There are some other things that we’re going to change but we talked about this in the summer — there’s not enough time to revamp your whole game or do everything completely different,” coach Todd McLellan said. “We have to pick, and will pick, certain areas that we’re going to focus on and spend a little more time on, but time is of the essence. That early urgency, the ability to pick things up to find your rhythm as a player, is really important. A lot of tactics got jammed in quicker than if the camp would have been drawn out.”
Veterans who’ve played 100 games are limited to two preseason games, so the mix of getting those players game action while balancing watching prospects fighting for roster spots is a delicate dance with only four exhibition games.
Forwards Michael Brandsegg-Nygard and Nate Danielson and defensemen Axel Sandin-Pellikka and William Wallinder were among those not practicing Sunday, Sept. 20, meaning they’ll play the back-to-back games in Columbus and Pittsburgh this coming week.
“We’ve only skated for four days, we need some games,” McLellan said. “Get up and running and make a decision on that.”
Marco Kasper told Kulfan that the Red Wings need to get crashing and banging to get up to game speed…
“We talk about getting mentally and physically stronger and it’s important to go out there and get the body ready for games,” forward Marco Kasper said. “With a short training camp, we talk about getting stronger, that involves hitting, battling.”
Also of note from Kulfan’s article:
McLellan has been impressed with undrafted free agent Theo Rochette.
“Very good skater, great pace, gets up to full speed fast,” McLellan said. “He transports the puck at a high pace and doesn’t slow down when he gets it. He’s got a chance, if not initially, hopefully he gets off to a good start in Grand Rapids and forces us to use him.”
Rochette’s 24 now, and he posted 22 goals and 21 assists for 43 points in 46 games played for Lausanne HC of the Swiss NLA. He impressed during the 3-game prospect tournament as well.
