I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the Detroit Red Wings training camp in Traverse City this past weekend. For as long as I can remember the Red Wings have been holding a Prospect Tournament at the Center Ice Arena that is just outside of downtown Traverse City. The week kicks off with some Prospect Tournament games between Detroit and Dallas. Then on Thursday, three teams are formed as the camp attendees are assigned to Team Lindsay, Team Delvecchio, and Team Howe. On Thursday, Friday, and Saturday each team hits the ice for two practice sessions and then follows that up with an off-ice workout. I attended the Saturday practice and was able to catch all the on-ice sessions. Looking at nhl.com you can find the list of who participated in in these workouts.
The biggest surprise of all was the absence of Moritz Seider. We had all been well aware of how late his contract was finalized, however, I expected he was going to attend camp as he was on the roster as a restricted free agent. I don’t feel that his missing training camp is going to hurt his performance this season. If he was new to the team it may have been a problem. It was just disappointing to not see Seider on the ice as this is my best opportunity to see the players this close.
These are some of the highlights that I noticed while watching the workouts on Saturday
Carter Mazur has a great shot and is a very precise skater. He looked impressive while running drills during the practices. Patrick Kane and Alex DeBrincat looked great on the power play, they must have been working together a lot in the offseason. Erik Gustafsson seemed to be working into the team well and had no problem running the drills and keeping up. Sebastian Cossa is looking great and is a big presence in the net. I haven’t seen him in person in a while and forgot how big he is.
Ville Husso was looking like he is back to his old form being solid in net. I’m hoping his injuries are behind him. Cam Talbot was looking good compared to the other goalies on the team and should be a solid addition to the goaltending lineup. Alex Lyon looks great like he did at times last season. Carrying a smaller load could definitely help Lyon's game, and he may become a reliable backup goalie this season. Jack Campbell was looking solid in his drills as well. It’s going to be a fight to be the main goalie in Detroit this season. A big battle is coming for the last four to five forward positions this season as there are some prospects that aren't going to be happy with anything less than a spot in Detroit.
The Detroit Red Wings topped off the weekend with the Red and White game.
It was the final event of the team’s time in Traverse City. The format of the game is not the usual three periods of 20-minute five-on-five hockey. Each period is formatted differently to give all the players a chance to show what they can do in different situations. From what I could tell the Red Team was made up from Team Howe and the White Team was made up from Team Delvecchio. Even though I feel like they try to split the squad up evenly based on talent, the Red Team seemed to have an edge since they had Alex DeBrincat, Dylan Larkin, Patrick Kane, and Lucas Raymond.
In the first period, the teams played five-on-five hockey for 25 minutes. The clock continued to run during stops in the play. There were no penalties called and the puck was always back in play quickly after a whistle so quite a bit of hockey was played in these 25 minutes. DeBrincat scored the game's first goal 24 seconds into the game with a sweet shot. Amadeus Lombardi was looking solid, playing with a lot of speed and tenacity earning him the first goal for the white team with the assist going to Jeff Petry.
For the second period, the focus was on the power play. The teams would take turns getting 1 minute on the power play. It was a great opportunity for guys to show how they can contribute on both the penalty kill and the power play. Sheldon Dries struck first for the white team with a nice goal assisted by Mazur and Joe Snively. Tyler Motte scored next for the white team with a shorty all-alone on Talbot. Cossa made some big saves when his team gave up some breakaways and then a huge save on Raymond. Simon Edvinson added another goal for the White Team with assists going to Vladimir Tarasenko and Jonatan Berggren.
Special teams were the focus of the third period in a different way than the second. The period started with the teams facing off four-on-four. Next, they played for a while at 3 on 3 before ending the game with a 10-man shootout. Christian Fischer scored another goal for the white team with an assist from Snively who had a great game. Larkin and Raymond were looking good together during the three-on-three as well as Kane and DeBrincat when they were out together. The shootout was a great way to wrap up the game. As expected, Kane had the best goal with his run and Larkin came in a close second with a nice move. The final score was the Team White winning 6-1.