In Red Wings Land
So I think we learned a few things last night in the 6-2 loss to the Maple Leafs in a game that you could call the Red Wings’ regular season dress rehearsal.
- The preseason was fun, but the regular season could be tough to watch at times. Both teams skated with mostly NHL players and you could tell that Toronto had a bit more talent than Detroit. This was most noticeable on the penalty kill. At one point in the 2nd period, the Leafs scored 4 goals in just 3:54.
- We’ve been clamoring for the defense to get younger, but that means it could get ugly every now and then. Due to some injuries, the Wings dressed Dennis Cholowski, Filip Hronek, Libor Sulak and Joe Hicketts. They showed some flashes of promise — especially Cholowski — but they were also running around a lot and turning the puck over. Of course, it’s not like the Wings veteran defenseman light the world on fire either, so it might be ugly at times regardless.
- We’ll likely have more than one young defenseman make the opening night roster because of Mike Green’s recovery from a virus, but if I had to choose just one, it would be Cholowski. His pass to set up Gus Nyquist’s power play goal was pretty (see below). Entering training camp and the preseason, I think we all had Hronek penciled in as the kid to make it, but Cholowski has done a nice job changing my mind.
- The Wings top line last night saw Dylan Larkin between Martin Frk and Anthony Mantha. I thought Frk was invisible. Quite frankly, I would’ve enjoyed seeing what Filip Zadina could’ve done with those guys against NHL-level talent. Zadina was pretty invisible too playing on the 4th line with Christoffer Ehn and Michael Rasmussen. I think the writing is on the wall for Zadina. He’s probably going to start the season in the AHL with the Griffins… and that’s okay. This team is going to bad this season, so let him spend the year in Grand Rapids and let his contract slide.
1st period scoring:
🚨: @GNyquist (3)
🍎: @dcholowski27 (3) Howard (1)#LGRW #DETvsTOR pic.twitter.com/n9APoxMp7P— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) September 29, 2018
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