Rasmussen looks forward to playing center, his natural position, this season after playing almost exclusively at wing in 62 games as a rookie with the Red Wings. He is competing for a roster spot because he can be assigned to the AHL Grand Rapids Griffins this season.
“Just way more skating (at center),” Rasmussen said. “I need to get my body up and down the ice a little bit different than wing. Just getting up and down and you got to play as the third D-man pretty much in the zone.”
Rasmussen’s net-front ability on the power play could give him an edge in competition for a spot on the third line.
“He knows how to screen the goalie, he knows how to present his stick, he’s got pretty soft hands in those areas,” coach Jeff Blashill said. “We’ll keep working on trying to find different ways to be super-dangerous when he gets the puck there.”
This one’s a little late, and a little frustrating: at Tuesday’s morning skate, Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill had this to say regarding the Red Wings players nursing nagging injuries, as noted by DetroitRedWings.com’s Dana Wakiji:
Blashill said there was nothing really new on them.
“Again, like I said the other day, I don’t want two days to turn into two weeks,” Blashill said. “It’s a lot of soft tissue stuff. So we’ll take our time with it. I don’t anticipate any of those guys necessarily being in tomorrow but we’re looking at Friday as potential so we’ll see, but nothing big.”
Defenseman Mike Green, who missed the Red and White Game along with Larkin and Helm, could be ready a little sooner.
“Mike could potentially play tomorrow,” Blashill said. “I’m looking at him potentially for tomorrow, maybe Friday.”
The Red Wings’ heavy exhibition schedule includes a game in Chicago tonight, and then the Wings host the Islanders on Friday, Pittsburgh on Sunday, and they head to Long Island for a Monday game.
Red Wings prospect/forward Evgeny Svechnikov looked like he was skating fine during training camp, but a big ice bag on his right knee on the second day told an honest story–the truth of the matter is that his ACL is still healing almost a year after he had reconstructive surgery
Svechnikov spoke with the media on Tuesday morning at Little Caesars Arena, and he admitted that his ACL is still sore, and both Svechnikov and coach Jeff Blashill weighed in on big #37’s rehabilitation process.
Four intense days of skating in training camp were tough but helped him prepare.
“It’s a little bit, I wouldn’t say not in shape, but I can feel that I was not on the ice for all season,” Svechnikov said. “It’s kind of double work for me. It’s conditioning-wise and just feeling the game again. I feel it’s going to take a little bit of time, but it’s coming. Every day it’s better and better and it feels like it’s going to be getting better. I’m looking forward to it feeling better.”
A good-sized winger (6-3, 212) with offensive ability, Svechnikov, 22, will be skating on a line with Michael Rasmussen at center and Taro Hirose.
“I think it’s a long time to be out and super hard,” coach Jeff Blashill said. “No real high expectations; let him go out and feel his way into this thing. You got to get used to how your leg feels. Anyone who’s had any kind of injury knows it’s never the same. It’s hard at the beginning of any year to have all your habits ingrained and be able to play without thinking, but it’s really hard for a guy who’s missed tons of time to play without thinking. That’s the way you have to play to be faster.”
Svechnikov was to [play in] his first game action in a year when the Wings opened the NHL preseason on Tuesday at Little Caesars Arena against the Chicago Blackhawks.
“It just brings a lot of stuff in my head and what I went through,” said Svechnikov told Mlive.com. He was slated to skate on a line with Taro Hirose and Michael Rasmussen. “This is it. This is the day. I was counting for this day all year. I’m super excited, super pumped, also tired but that’s really nothing that matters now. The camp was real tough but it’s all behind and now. It’s fun time to go.”
Throughout his ordeal, Svechnikov sought the counsel of teammates who’d been down the road before. That support group included Grand Rapids (AHL) teammate Matt Lorito and ex-Wings defenseman Niklas Kronwall.
“Lorito said it takes a while,” Svechnikov noted.. “He said he’s just feeling good after 16, 17 months. He’s just feeling normal. Kronner said he was playing after six months. So it’s everybody different but we’ll see how I feel.”
“For sure, it’s big,” Svechnikov said of the coming season. “Every year is big, like I said before, but this is the (biggest) one. When I do good and when I feel good on the ice, when I feel like my knee is good, I’m just good. We will talk about it, but I have to do it.”
Coach Jeff Blashill agreed this might be a key season for Svechnikov, but said he believes Svechnikov can face the pressure.
But what’ll be important for Svechnikov is to relax and not put undue, added pressure on himself — something Svechnikov has tended to do through his young career.
“It’s a big year for him, especially after missing a full year,” Blashill said. “The league always has room for great players, so just play great. He tends to put lots of pressure on himself. He can’t. Just relax and just go and play and understand it’s a marathon and not a sprint .He’s going to have good moments, going to have bad moments. He just has to keep working through it.”
MLive’s Khan also posted a clip of Svechnikov’s comments to the media:
Michael Rasmussen broke a tie with 4:37 remaining in the third period, and the Detroit Red Wings defeated the Chicago Blackhawks 5-3 at Little Caesars Arena.
It was the first preseason game for the Red Wings.
Rasmussen scored on the power play when his backhand deflected in off Blackhawks defenseman Carl Dahlstrom.
Very cool news from Fox Sports Detroit: the station will air the Jamie Daniels Foundation’s celebrity roast of Mickey Redmond on September 27th:
Oh, you wanted more of a peek? Well, how about some jabs? Be sure to watch on Sept. 27th before and after Red Wings Hockey for the entire night of the @JDanielsFund Celebrity Roast of Mickey Redmond. pic.twitter.com/od0hPFKVB3
Thanks to all who attended our Roast on September 7th! We’re humbled by the support and couldn’t have put this night together without our Presenting Sponsor @DeltaDentalMI and the support of the @ChildrensFndn. Thank you to @FOXSportsDet for continuing to champion our mission! pic.twitter.com/AMmunuM6iF— Jamie Daniels Foundation (@JDanielsFund) September 18, 2019
This is a neat little story from WDIV: “golf pro” Bob Krause is working with 2SP sports, his friend Mickey Redmond and Red Wings nutritionist Lisa McDowell in order to get in shape to try out for the PGA Senior Tour:
Krause said he’s going to take the next six months to get physically ready. He is not taking this journey alone though. He has powerful pack of friends helping him along the way including his longtime friend and Red Wings legend Mickey Redmond. As always, Redmond is a force.
“We are going to take this year to get Bob in condition both mentally and physically and put him in place,” says Redmond. “He’s got a great tool box on the golf course. We got to get it all together so he can get those tools out of the box and go shoot 65, 66 every day.”
This plan begins at 2SP, a training facility in Madison Heights, where many off-season professional athletes also workout. Red Wings goalie Jimmy Howard frequently works out there. He’s also getting help from Red Wings dietitian Lisa McDowell.
If we are to believe ESPN’s “NHL Future Power Rankings,” all three of ESPN’s Emily Kaplan, Greg Wyshynski and Chris Peters are not predicting improvement for the Red Wings over the next three seasons under GM Steve Yzerman. The trio give the Wings a very average “C” grade and a 27th overall ranking for the present and near future:
Why they’re here: When the Red Wings’ dynastic run fizzled out, all that was left was the memories and bloated contracts. OK, it wasn’t that dire. But the rebuild has been slow, as Detroit waits for unfavorable contracts to get off the books. Now that Steve Yzerman is in charge, there’s hope that the path back to winning can be expedited. — Kaplan
Points of concern: The Red Wings deserve credit in rebuilding their prospect pool, only in the sense that they’ve taken it from “none” to “Filip Zadina.” It remains an average group, despite three straight non-playoff seasons. The Wings have regrettable contracts from a bygone era of quasi-contention, like Justin Abdelkader‘s still-baffling deal that offers him full trade protection through 2023. One bit of intrigue: All the restricted free agents that the Red Wings have next summer, a group of young players assembled while GM Steve Yzerman was building the Lightning: What becomes of them? — Wyshynski
Cornerstone prospects: Even though Filip Zadina underwhelmed last season, I think he still has the ability to be a game-breaking player and a long-term top-six winger for the team. Joseph Veleno might be the Swiss army knife who does a little bit of everything, and now we’re going to have to see what recent first-rounder Moritz Seider brings to the table. That trio gives the Red Wings a decent core of young prospects who could eventually fill significant roles. — Peters
Continued (paywall); I’d like to believe that the cupboard isn’t as bare as predicted.
Several former first-round picks will be vying for roster spots — forwards Evgeny Svechnikov, who missed all of 2018-19 due to a knee injury, Michael Rasmussen, Filip Zadina and Joe Veleno and defensemen Dennis Cholowski and Moritz Seider.
Undrafted free agents in the mix include wingers Taro Hirose and Ryan Kuffner and defenseman Oliwer Kaski.
“It just gives us a real good chance to watch a whole bunch of guys in action,” Blashill said. “The challenge in the exhibition season is the varying rosters. Sometimes you are seeing guys that are real NHL players and sometimes you’re seeing guys that’ll probably play in the American League. You try to balance that.
“You’d think that when we go to (Pittsburgh) we’ll probably see a really good roster (on Sept. 25), so you try to put a similar roster together. When you go to the New York Islanders (Sept. 23) I’d like to get a hold of (coach) Barry Trotz and have a conversation, just so we know if we can try to match up rosters the best we can. We got a whole bunch of competition for jobs. I think that’s shown in how competitive each practice was. This gives us a chance to see those guys play.”
