Day One: Detroit Red Wings Training Camp

The Detroit Red Wings kicked off their annual Training Camp today, September nineteenth, at 9:30 am. at Centre I.C.E. in Traverse City to a packed crowd.

Training Camp Notes

Mike Babcock was on the Detroit Red Wings early in Training Camp making sure the players were doing the drills correctly, which will help the players moving forward and keep them from picking up bad habits.

Darren Helm, Pavel Datsyuk, and Tomas Tatar are on the first line for Team Delevcchio and through day one, I am liking what I am seeing from this line. Darren Helm’s speed and Datsyuk’s skills make this a formidable line. Darren Helm is still getting used to the winger positioning, but should have it ironed out quickly.

Henrik Zetterberg joked, “I will look slow, I know that.” after practice about the possibility of playing on a line with Darren Helm.

Joe Hicketts is an eighteen year-old camp invitee and has stuck with the Detroit Red Wings since making a good first impression during Development Camp.

The defenseman’s height is working against him because he is only five feet and eight inches, but he is a good skater, he is strong on the puck, and able to win battles along the boards against bigger skaters. Babcock had to stop two drills to talk to Hicketts during the first day of camp, but Hicketts took everything Babcock told him in and did not mess up either drill again.

The Detroit Red Wings will have until the beginning of the NHL season to sign Hicketts or he will be placed back into the draft next year.

Howe-Lindsay Scrimmage

Luke Glendening scored the first goal on a nice turn around backhand shot. Glendening was given plenty of time to shoot because Team Lindsay was breaking out, but the defenseman lost the puck and Mitch Callahan was able to chip it to Glendening in front of the net by himself.

The second goal of the game came off the stick of Mitchell Wheaton – Kelowna (WHL) – on the point and was unassisted; he did receive some help from Andrej Nestrasil on the goal, who was in front of the net screening Jonas Gustavsson and might have slightly interfered with him.

Team Lindsay got back on top when Darby Llewellyn – Kitchener (OHL) – found the puck in close and was able to stuff it past Petr Mrazek. It was not a pretty goal, but it counted just the same.

Team Howe tied the game back up in the second half of the scrimmage and it was the only goal of the period, which led to a shootout.

Stephen Weiss was not able to outmaneuver Tomas McCullom and was stopped.

Johan Franzen deked out Jake Paterson, which caused him to slide too far into his net and left an opening for Franzen to slide the puck into the net.

Gustav Nyquist was the next player up and once again McCullom was up for the challenge and denied the Swede.

Henrik Zetterberg faked a shot and Paterson struggled to regain his balance, which opened his five-hole long enough for Zetterberg to slide the puck between his legs and win the game for Team Howe.

Injury Updates

Alexey Marchenko has been skating during the Detroit Red Wings informal skates down at Joe Louis Arena, but this was our first look at him since he was on the ice during the last day of Development Camp skating before practice and warming up the goaltenders. He looked like he is getting closer and closer to one hundred percent, but is not quite there, yet. He is getting wide instead of low  when skating fast, which means his legs are not below his body and he is doing as few crossovers as possible. It seems as though it will be a bit longer until he is fully healed, but he is on the right road.

Tyler Bertuzzi did not seem to have any limitations going through practice and unlike during the Developmental Camp, he was skating as hard as he did during the Memorial Camp. This is a good sign for the younger forward because his leg injury he suffered during the Memorial Cup seemed to linger with him longer than expected.

Stephen Weiss did not seem to be having any issues with his groin/sports hernia during practice or the scrimmage and was playing his hard and physical game on the ice. Weiss said, “I feel healthy, I’ve got no pain, and I feel like I am gonna just keep getting better and better.”

Jonathan Ericsson‘s injured finger did not seem to bother him during day one of camp and it did not impact his ability on the ice. Ericsson was paired up with Kronwall for most of the drills, but during the scrimmage the lines rotated due to having seven defensemen on the bench.