The Detroit Red Wings’ prospects held an hour-long morning skate ahead of tonight’s game vs. the Dallas Stars’ prospects (6:30 PM EDT on the Wings’ YouTube channel, Facebook and official website, and stats are available on PointStreak).
An hour is a little long for a “morning skate,” but the players usually get in a quick “getting to know you” skate on Wednesday, and Thursday’s morning skate is always about instruction–and structure.
Grand Rapids Griffins coach Dan Watson is in charge of the prospects, with Griffins assistant coaches Stephane Julien, Brian Lashoff and goaltending coach Roope Koistinen also working with the prospects today.
The drills the players engaged in this morning mostly focused on establishing structure in terms of puck retrievals, break-outs, speed through center ice, and power play-and-penalty-kill formations. The emphasis on speed and puck possession were evident from the get-go, as this year’s Red Wings prospects team moves the puck well up ice.
As I said on Twitter, or X, the power play formations were kind of exciting:
Continue reading Impressions from the morning skate ahead of the Red Wings’ prospect tournament game vs. the Dallas Stars