In Red Wings Land

Notes: Ehn makes the cut, will begin season in Detroit | DetroitRedWings.com

I’d say the biggest surprise about the Red Wings opening night roster is Christoffer Ehn making the cut. He’s expected to be the 4th line center this Thursday.

“That one probably surprised me a little bit,” Blashill said. “I said to (general manager) Ken Holland last week I want to make sure we have four lines that I can play and trust and we can put any line out there against anybody at any time and I want to make sure we have a momentum line and a line … I talked to Kris Draper lots about his old line and Scotty (Bowman) used them in a lot of different ways, sometimes it was against the other team’s best, sometimes it was to create momentum off the opening face-off, all that kind of stuff.”

I dig this. I haven’t watched enough of Ehn to be able to tell you whether he’s going to make an impact or not, but I applaud Jeff Blashill and Ken Holland for going with youth and not sticking with the status quo.

Plenty of other good stuff in the linked article above including Anthony Mantha giving advice to Filip Zadina about starting in the AHL.

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I’ve actually met Gritty (true story). Big fan. Gritty rules.