Detroit Red Wings: Spreading some Holiday Cheer
By Bob Heyrman
Dennis Cholowski was a big surprise this summer for the Detroit Red Wings. He had an excellent training camp, and he was able to add to that success with a strong preseason. Cholo was expected to be an NHL caliber defender but quite possibly not this quickly.
He was forced into duty early, although he made the big club out of camp he was forced to play as a top defender with a sting of injuries to Green, Kronwall, DeKeyser, Ericsson and so on. Cholowski showed he had the ability at 20 years old to move the puck confidently out of his own zone.
He can skate the puck out of trouble through traffic with confidence. He won’t be fazed by a heavy offensive forecheck. He usually comes out with the second power-play unit, as Green usually anchors the top PP unit.
While Green has been sidelined early on in the season and once again, Cholo works on the top unit. Eight of his fourteen points have been recorded on the power-play. He’s made some rookie mistakes but they are mistakes that at times indeed cost the team, we need to remember he is only 20-years-old.
At times he tries to do too much with the puck, make a play that isn’t there. A couple of times he has decided to force a pass parallel with the blueline at the offensive zone and it has been intercepted leading to an odd-man rush against the Wings.
Sometimes he needs to make the safe play similar to what Kronwall will do, and that is chip it deep and go retrieve it. I think a lot of the kids now are taught to control the puck, it’s all about possession, and young players tend to make riskier moves to keep the puck rather than chip and chase.
Overall Cholowski has been a benefit for the Detroit Red Wings. He’s recently seen his minutes shortened by head coach Jeff Blashill. Over the last three contests, he failed to reach 16 minutes in any game. In two of the three, he’s played less than 15.
Hopefully, the break has allowed him to clear his head and hit the reset button. On the season he’s played 36 games adding 6 goals and 14 points. He is a minus -11 on the year. Although Dennis’ play has been up and down starting to his career, he’s shown enough to make us smile. He looks like he will evolve into a steady, reliable top-4 defender.