The Red Wings engaged in some team-building activities over the course of yesterday’s “off day,” and coach Todd McLellan spoke with the Free Press’s Helene St. James about Detroit’s players’ paintball excursion:
“We took the team away from the rink with four practice days,” McLellan said. “We went away. It’s not anything that we’ve done since I’ve been here. Actually, we did do it way, way back. My first go-around, but we took the group out and did a real good workout. They had a little bit of fun and there was some team elements in it that they had to work through some problems and some issues. They had to take care of each other. So it was, in my opinion, a productive day.”
Holding training camp in Traverse City usually served as several days worth of bonding, but the Wings switched to holding camp at Little Caesars Arena this year.
“Traverse City, there’s a lot of that going on, but it’s more small groups,” McLellan said. “You go golfing, you’re in a force. I mean, you see the other guys on the other hole. This was one big group. Everybody was together. The coaches were there. I’ll just leave it at that. It was a real good day.”
Asked if any players in particular stood out, McLellan smiled.
“We stayed in the safe zone, put it that way,” he said of the coaching staff, “so we couldn’t really see what was happening. It’s not just out blasting guys. There were some games, there were some tactics, there was, you know, taking care of a teammate. Yeah, there was a lot of laughs and a few welts, so that’s OK.”
Continued; MLive’s Ansar Khan also posted a story about the team-bonding activity:
“We’re trying to keep everybody unified, everybody believing in the purpose and the goal,” coach Todd McLellan said. “And we’re also being realistic. There’s going to be some bumps in the road. We’re going to have to get through it. We’re not putting our heads in the sand and pretending some of these issues don’t exist. We’re dealing with them. And once we deal with them, especially internally, — externally, we can’t really worry about it — that will give us a chance and that can be our rallying point.”
McLellan described it as a real good workout and a little bit of fun.
“There was some team elements in it that they had to work through, some problems and some issues,” he said. “They had to take care of each other. So it was, in my opinion, a productive day.”
When training camp was in Traverse City, players would get together in small groups to golf, fish or do other activities. McLellan liked that this was an activity for the entire team.
“Everybody was together,” he said. “It’s something that the coaching staff wanted to do. The players bought into it immediately, and the organization set it up, so everybody played a role in it.”
I’ve been worried about team-building exercises given that training camp wasn’t held in Traverse City, where the players were pretty much forced to golf, fish, hang out, have dinners together and spend time together in the hotel. It sounds like the team has been taking care of the team-building and team bonding stuff fairly well.