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The Detroit Red Wings’ prospects bounced back from Friday’s 4-2 loss to the Minnesota Wild in a big way, defeating the Dallas Stars’ prospects 3-1 on Saturday night at Centre ICE Arena.

The Wings played swifter, sharper and simpler hockey on Saturday night, displaying much more cohesion and excellent attention to detail in all three zones, to the point that they played the kind of game that coach Jeff Blashill would admire for its “process” hockey.

Michael Rasmussen scored two goals, one an empty-netter; Dennis Cholowski also scored and had an assist, Joe Veleno, Filip Zadina and Reilly Webb had assists, and Kaden Fulcher stopped 16 of 17 shots in goal, as MLive’s Ansar Khan noted in his recap:

Continue reading Impressions from the Red Wings prospects’ 3-1 win over the Dallas Stars at the prospect tournament ’18

The Traverse City Record-Eagle’s Jake Atnip posted a profile of Filip Zadina as the Red Wings’ top prospect attempts to turn heads at the prospect tournament:

“There is a ton of buzz around him,” Red Wings assistant general manager Ryan Martin said. “There are a lot of factors. He is the highest draft pick we have had in a long time and people who follow the draft did not expect him to be available when we were picking so that adds to the hype.

“With the rebuild, to add a player like that who will hopefully be competing for a job in Detroit over the next four weeks of camp adds to the overall excitement and buzz.”

The 18-year-old was selected sixth overall in the 2018 NHL Entry Draft by Detroit and already has made his mark on the 20th annual NHL Prospect Tournament at Centre Ice Arena this weekend.

Zadina, a native of the Czech Republic, scored Detroit’s first goal of the Tournament Friday and knows this is his opportunity to showcase his talents if he wants to make the opening night NHL roster.

The right-winger is confident he is NHL ready and will do anything he can in camp to get on the Red Wings roster this season.

“I think I don’t have to wait for anything,” Zadina said of possibly spending time with the Grand Rapids Griffins before hitting the NHL. “I know how to play hockey and I’ll get used to the NHL intensity. Hopefully I will be ready and OK in these exhibition games so I can show people what I can do in the NHL.”

Continued

The Detroit Red Wings “owners’ suite” was particularly jam-packed on Saturday night. Ken Holland, Ryan Martin, Jimmy Devellano, Kris Draper, Kirk Maltby, Jiri Fischer and the vast majority of the Wings’ pro and amateur scouts were in attendance for the Wings’ 3-1 win over the Dallas Stars’ prospects, and the Wings’ Twitter account posted a particularly notable profile in attendance as well:

Management takes in the action in Traverse City. | #LGRW pic.twitter.com/FUZgen3LX4

— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) September 9, 2018

When the owner comes up to check in on things, that’s a good sign.

The Detroit Red Wings’ prospects settled down and played their individual and team games to a tee on Saturday night, and the result was a satisfying 3-1 win over the Dallas Stars.

The now 1-and-1 Wings’ prospects received goals from Michael Rasmussen (2G, 1A) and Dennis Cholowski (1G, 1A), and Kaden Fulcher didn’t have to stop a ton of shots, but the 16 shots he stopped were often of the superb-to-tremendous variety as the Wings held off Miro Heiskanen and a Stars team that had scored 7 goals in its previous game.

After the game, as per usual, interviews were scarce, but the Wings’ leadership group was slow to the showers, so:

Continue reading Audio from the Red Wings’ 3-1 win over Dallas at the prospect tournament ’18: Rasmussen, Saarijarvi and coach Simon

Of Red Wings-related note from the Wings’ website and Twitter account:

1. Red Wings GM Ken Holland appeared on, “The NHL Tonight” yesterday to talk about the Wings’ prospects, and here’s the Twitter video thereof:

.@RedWings GM Ken Holland joined @TonyLuftman and @EJHradek_NHL to talk about the young talent developing in Detroit. #NHLTonight pic.twitter.com/iRjLnuQMoZ

— NHL Network (@NHLNetwork) September 8, 2018

2. The Wings also posted a video highlighting morning skate remarks from the prospect camp up here in Traverse City…

3. And DetroitRedWings.com’s Arthur J. Regner and Dana Wakiji penned a profile of goaltender Kaden Fulcher:

Continue reading Three things from the Wings: KH on the NHL Tonight, plus a prospect tournament video and a profile of Kaden Fulcher

The Detroit Red Wings’ prospects engaged in a short but spirited morning skate ahead of tonight’s game against the Dallas Stars’ prospects (7:00 PM on FSD GO and DetroitRedWings.com).

Kaden Fulcher will start this evening, and Vili Saarijarvi is good to go despite missing the third period of last night’s game with cramps.

Coach Ben Simon suggested that the Texas Stars play a speedy, high-scoring game, so ahead of tonight’s tilt, Simon made sure that his players spent the majority of their 25-minute morning skate working on attacking the net, moving the puck with pace in all situations and skating hard and fast.

While the almost-full complement of players participated in their morning skate, a couple of players looked be distracted, if not plain old tired as they embraced the grind of playing until 10 PM, not getting back to the hotel till 11 and having to get up early to head to the rink. As such, here are my player impressions:

Continue reading Impressions from Saturday’s morning skate at the Red Wings’ prospect tournament ’18

Of brief audio-related note from the Red Wings’ pre-game skate ahead of tonight’s game vs. Dallas at the Wings’ prospect tournament:

1. 1. Kaden Fulcher spoke with myself and DetroitRedWings.com’s Arthur J. Regner, speaking fairly in-depth regarding his approach to starting tonight’s must-win game for the 0-and-1 Wings, addressing the lessons he learned from last year’s OHL title and Memorial Cup appearance with the Hamilton Bulldogs, and he was kind enough to continue chatting as the Wings’ equipment staff placed a brand new set of Vaughn pads at his feet:

Continue reading Audio from Saturday’s morning skate at the Wings prospect tournament ’18

The Detroit Red Wings (0-and-1) face a near-must-win situation when they play the Dallas Stars’ prospects this evening at Centre ICE Arena (7:00 PM on FSD GO and DetroitRedWings.com).

The Wings prospects’ engaged in a spirited morning skate today, and Vili Saarijarvi (cramps) will play tonight, as will Kaden Fulcher, who has a brand-new set of Vaughn pads to consider using as the mail came early today…

The internet’s not good at the rink right now, so I’ll post audio from the morning skate when I get back to my hotel.

The Red Wings have posted a video of Ken Kal’s 13-minute interview with Red Wings GM Ken Holland, which occurred during last night’s Wings-Wild prospect tournament game:

 

Of Red Wings-related note early on a Saturday morning:

1. The Traverse City Record-Eagle’s Jake Atnip spoke with Red Wings prospect Dennis Cholowski and Grand Rapids Griffins coach Ben Simon regarding the expectations for Cholowski at the prospect tournament:

“This tournament gives you confidence,” the Canadian defenseman said. “Being around all of these guys and playing a few games gets you ready for training camp.

“This hockey is really good hockey. It definitely gets you ready. The NHL preseason games are not going to be much different from this hockey. If you are able to come out here and play well it gives you a lot of confidence rolling into the preseason.”

Cholowski participated in the NHL Prospect Tournament last year and sees it as an opportunity to head into training camp trending in the right direction. His new coach agrees.

“It is important for them to get to know me a little bit and get off on the right foot,” first-year Griffins head coach Ben Simon said. “Good habits, practice habits and leaving a good impression. They want to leave a good impression with the NHL team first and foremost. Then throughout that process if they leave an impression with Detroit it will obviously reflect well with me as well.”

2. Hockeybuzz’s Bob Duff spoke with Wings assistant GM Ryan Martin regarding the tournament and the Wings’ top prospects taking part in said event:

Continue reading Three things: Two prospect tournament articles and a Wings ‘community tour’ press release