Red Wings 4, Capitals 3: Compher's Promise and Kasper's Progress

On Thursday night at Capital One Arena in Washington, the Detroit Red Wings fell twice to the Capitals—first in regulation 4-3, then 2-1 in a mock shootout the teams agreed to pre-game regardless of the score at the end of 60 minutes.

After a scoreless first, Daniel Sprong—who spent a season and a half as a Capital—opened the scoring, showing a goalscorer's patience to out-wait Washington goaltender Charlie Lindgren for a wide-open net.  Simon Edvinsson provided the primary assist.

However, Detroit's lead proved short-lived with Nicklas Backstrom and Tom Wilson responding for the Caps.  On both plays, Detroit prospects found themselves on the wrong end of veteran guile.  Edvinsson did a respectable job at marking Backstrom in front of the net on the first, but Alex Ovechkin and Backstrom's chemistry over-powered what might otherwise have been sound defense.  On the second, Evgeny Kuznetsov won a draw cleanly from Marco Kasper to set the stage for a Wilson snipe.

In the third, goals from Rasmus Sandin and John Carlson provided Washington with a 4-1 cushion.  Though the Red Wings would mount a formidable bid at a desperation comeback via a pair of Robby Fabbri goals, the Capitals' lead held for a 4-3 final in regulation.

In what became a four-round practice shootout, T.J. Oshie and Connor McMichael lifted the Caps to another victory, with J.T. Compher scoring the lone goal for Detroit.

Detroit signed J.T. Compher to a five-year deal this summer on the promise of his versatility.  He might not be a point-a-game scorer, but he is an impeccable two-way center, who can excel on both special teams.

"He's come as advertised.  200-foot responsible, smart," said Derek Lalonde after the morning's skate.  "He wants to play on top of people.  He wants to get above.  He takes a lot of pride in not giving up odd-man situations for easy offense, and he can make plays.  So as advertised.  I think he's getting more and more comfortable."

On Thursday evening, Compher wasted no time in checking each of the boxes Lalonde set out, delivering an excellent performance in his first game as a Red Wing.  At five-on-five, Compher ensured that his line spent far more time playing offense than it did defending.  His responsibility provided line-mates Fabbri and Sprong with the freedom to do what they do best: attack.   He provided an excellent feed for a Fabbri chance early in the third period.  While line combinations remain in flux, Lalonde may have found something in Compher's steadiness through center and playmaking with Fabbri and Sprong's offensive instincts and finishing.

Meanwhile, Compher also made plays on both special teams.  Playing in the bumper spot on the power play, he provided a hyper-dependable outlet to relieve pressure.  Meanwhile, he showed a steady hand in killing plays and clearing the zone short-handed.  As if all that weren't enough, Compher sniped Detroit's only shootout goal.

Simply put, Compher did everything for the Red Wings Thursday night, and that bodes well as a first impression for the longest contract Steve Yzerman handed out over the offseason.

At morning skate, Derek Lalonde explained that he seen both signs of promise and the usual growing pains from Marco Kasper throughout training camp.

"Played a little bit to his identity, which we like," Lalonde said. "200 foot guy, good in every situation, every area. Again, I just think it's experience. [He was] a little bit slow on getting over the top in the Red-White game, caught in a bad situation. Trying to do a little too much with the puck at times, but it's all part of his development—having a better feel when you get in game situations."

He went on to explain that, unfair though it may be, a part of the process for highly touted prospects is learning to fight through the external pressure that comes from being selected in the top ten. As a result, he said that the Red Wings staff "want[s] to communicate clearly what we want from them and expectations and maybe take away some of that noise."

Kasper himself, spoke to a similar process of acclimation, yesterday morning.  He acknowledged that he was still in the process of adapting his game to the smaller North American ice sheet.  "There's more battles," Kasper said of the difference between Europe's wide rinks and North America's more confined ones. "I feel more stick battles. The timing's a little bit different because you got to cut some of your routes, and it's just trying to adjust to it and listening to all the players that are out there." 

On Thursday, you could see the continuation of that adaptation, with signs of promise accompanied by the mistakes of a player still catching up to the pace of NHL hockey.  There is a directness to Kasper's game and an eagerness to forecheck that should translate quite well to the NHL game, and he showed glimpses of it in the first period.  

He played in all situations, and there were moments when he asserted himself offensively, including creating a pretty rush chance for himself early in the second.  

However, there were also blemishes.  His stick-handling hasn't looked quite as sharp as you'd hope, and I'm inclined to believe that's a symptom of the adaptation he and his coach both spoke to.  Kasper proved in Sweden that he is a more than capable puck-handler, so my instinct is to attribute those mishandles to just another part of getting accustomed to NHL speed. 

In the defensive zone, Kasper was beaten on a face-off leading directly to Wilson's goal, and on Carlson's third period tally, he was unable to tie up the defenseman's stick in the slot—allowing Carlson to get to and deposit a rebound.

At this point, Kasper will, in all likelihood, begin his season in Grand Rapids.  Because of Detroit's off-season additions, this was probably always going to happen, and it will give him a chance to sharpen his knives with the Griffins for a while as he continues to understand the smaller rink.  

I remain confident Kasper is going to be a good NHL player.  He's going to be a pain to play against, he's going to win a ton of battles, he's going to be reliable defensively, and I suspect he's going to score at a nice clip too.  Now, the question begs how far beyond good Kasper can push.

One interesting piece of context Lalonde offered this morning concerns the impact of Detroit's poor lottery luck on its present and future identity.

"I love what we're doing, trying to do," he said, in reference to Kasper and Danielson but also the Red Wings' off-season additions. "You just miss out on those top two picks year after year. You miss out on those generational type players, where we slotted in the lottery, I think we've got an identity of when we get there we're really hard to play against."

There's an element of saying the quiet part out loud here when it comes to acknowledging there's a certain class of prospect the Yzer-plan wasn't able to yield (a product not of mismanagement but instead of a literal lottery).  However, it's also an insight into Detroit's process for compensating for a lack of lottery luck.

The confluence of D.C.'s gnarly traffic and the Red Wings' traveling on game day (a standard pre-season practice) nearly caused pre-game drama after Detroit was caught in traffic on the way to Capital One Arena from, as first reported by NHL.com's Tom Gulitti. Gulitti noted that it took a hasty tag-team effort from both teams' equipment staffs to unload the Red Wings' gear after the team arrived before the truck carrying their gear. Thanks to their collaborative effort, Detroit's gear was ready on time for warm ups.