Red Wings hockey returns with Prospect’s Tournament
The heart of the Yzerplan is based on drafting and developing talent. When the prospect’s took the ice to face the Dallas Stars, the players did not disappoint. The Red Wings focus on offense was evident as the team won 6-2 over the Dallas Stars.
The Stars’ commentary continually alluded to speed and skill as the hallmarks of the young Detroit players. Goaltender Rudy Guimond was perfect through two periods, helping Detroit to build a 4-0 lead heading into the third period. Two power play goals in the final frame were more than enough to shut down the Dallas prospects.
Speed and skill were able to overcome strong defense
Emmitt Finnie opened the scoring less than 30 seconds into the first period. The 2023 seventh round pick drove hard to the net with a power move and slid the puck five hole to open the scoring. Finnie would continue to impress with his play throughout the evening.
Late substitution Amadeus Lombardi opened the scoring in the second period. Lombardi intercept a puck in the offensive zone and score a beautiful unassisted tally. Goals by Alexandre Doucet and Shai Buium capped off the second period with a commanding 4-0 lead.
The final scoring came from two of Detroit’s most highly touted prospects. Axel Sandin-Pellikka and Michael Brandsegg-Nygard both had power play goals in the third period. Strong play from Nate Danielson was evident in all three zones throughout the night. Danielson’s stick work in particular was hard to ignore as he was able to retrieve and hold onto the puck.
The future looks bright for the Red Wings
All of the players that needed to make an impression seemed to step up in the first contest. Danielson, Lombardi and MBN are all candidates to break through this season. Sandin-Pellikka was ranked the 23rd best prospect by NHL.com this past week. Finnie and Doucet were a pleasant surprise for the team.
The Red Wings need prospects to push the veterans and compete for spots on the main roster. Young players breaking through have been the bright spot for the rebuild under Steve Yzerman. If the first game was any indication, that trend could be repeated in the upcoming season.
Thanks for the recap Jeremy!
I live about 30 minutes from Comerica Center and plan to attend tonight’s game, so excited to see the prospects and hockey in general. Living in Texas I was only able to see 2 televised Wings games last year since I won’t pay more than 1 subscription to watch any TV. Hopefully the NHL figures out a way to let fans watch the games without 3 subscriptions going forward, that would help grow the game.
Enjoy it tonight! There’s a lot to what you said about broadcasting. Tampa Bay left Bally’s and their new affiliate offers free broadcast, over the air. More markets are starting to understand that access is as important (or more important) than getting a subscription. Sports keeps getting more expensive to watch, so people stop watching. Or they pick one over the other. Sponsors will show up if more people can watch you and provide revenue. But fans need to be able to see the team play.
TEX!!! Holy Cow, how the heck are you?? It’s been forever since I’ve seen you. I do hope you’re well!! Welcome back.
To your point, I’m seeing an awakening of broadcasters as the consuming public is realizing that we’re paying too much across all spectrums of at-home entertainment. Streaming prices are creeping up and the various levels of access increase in price but deliver less. Streaming, in its infancy, was all about binging without all of the adverts, now it’s all about packages scaling with no definitive decrease in adverts unless you shell out your monthly pay check. The good news is that we’re on National broadcasts 17 times this year, if that’s any consolation. I mean, my kids and I took a look at streaming & DirecTV costs combined; it’s a dang car payment! Add on Center Ice, and I need to take a 2d job just to pay for entertainment!!
Now, to the game. @JEREMY: EXCELLENT recap. I had a billion other things going on and only caught bits n pieces. I naturally watched ASP & MBN, but listen….Buium is a revelation! That kid; good size, incredible vision, and a blistering shot. He was engaged across all 3 portions of the ice and really took Dallas off their game. He really looked strong. I my eyes, this kid’s going to replicate Eddy – be called up, and stay. ASP just needs a bit more ice time in GR, but should be a call-up soon and is going to be a revolution for our back-end. And really, there are some VERY strong candidates from what I saw yesterday. Finnie just blew my doors off – kid’s showing some serious abilities, especially how quickly he shifts direction. Buium solidified he position as a top-tier candidate for call-up, he’s a beast. But I was most-interested in MBN & Danielson. MBN needed to assert himself more, I think. He’s going to need another year, it feels like – just based off of last night, BUT he’s got a boat-load of talent. Danielson was there, but I wasn’t as impressed. Of course these are only quick observations of course. I’m interested to see how tonight plays out.
There’s no doubt the next couple of years SHOULD be transformative. There’s just too much talent for this to miss, ya know?