Red Wings Game Day Notebook 10.1.23

The Detroit Red Wings improved to 2-1 on the preseason yesterday evening, knocking off the Washington Capitals by a score of 5-2 on home ice.  They'll be back in action tonight at Little Caesars Arena, this time playing host to the Chicago Blackhawks.

Washington brought an AHL-heavy line-up to Detroit, and the Red Wings dispensed with the Capitals in a manner that reflected that reality.

Austin Czarnik opened the scoring in the first period with an assist from Cross Hanas.  Though he is a long shot to make the Red Wings out of camp, Czarnik has impressed throughout the preseason with his ability to finish in tight spaces.  Later in the period, Moritz Seider notched a power play goal from the point, capping a mesmeric passing sequence to make the score 2-0 in Detroit's favor.

After the game, Derek Lalonde lauded the growth he's seen from Seider running the point on the man advantage, beyond just his finishing.  "The shot keeps coming, but just him managing it," Lalonde said of Seider's growth on the power play. "We don't need him to be dynamic up there.  We need him to be simple and make proper plays.  We've put a lot of time into his development there, because we think he can be very good there, and it's like the rest of his game, he keeps improving."

Dylan Larkin made it 3-0 for the Red Wings with a power play goal moments after a 5-on-3 Detroit advantage expired.  The goal came off a pretty interchange between Lucas Raymond and Alex DeBrincat, who threaded a cross-seam pass to Larkin at the back post, just as he had on Tuesday night against the Penguins.  After going 0-for in the Red & White game, the Detroit power play now appears to be humming.

Larkin would score another before game's end, and Cross Hanas built on his strong Prospects Tournament form to notch his first of the preseason as well.  Washington's goals came from Dylan Strome (on the power play) and Matthew Phillips.

In net, Ville Husso made his preseason debut, stopping 15 of the 16 shots that came his way.  Strome's goal (an unscreened wrist shot from some distance) is one he would probably want back, but it was a solid performance altogether for the Fin's first game action of the new season.

Michael Hutchinson—looking to find a home via PTO—relieved Husso and stopped 12 of the 13 shots he faced over the course of the game's second half.

The Red Wings will rotate their game group from last night's for the second leg of the back-to-back against the Blackhawks.  This evening's group will continue the trend of line-ups with a roughly even split between presumptive NHLers and AHLers.  At the head of the line-up, veterans like David Perron, J.T. Compher, and Jeff Petry will lead the way for Detroit.

Chicago was also in action last night, falling 3-2 in St. Paul to the Minnesota Wild, but it too will bring a different group to Detroit from the one that played an evening ago.  Most notably, that means the Blackhawks team that comes to LCA this evening will feature 2023 number one overall pick Connor Bedard.

Having played just one preseason game, Bedard is already a sensation.  He notched two assists in a 3-2 overtime win over St. Louis and showed the kind of dynamic puck skills that have contributed to the 18-year-old Vancouverite becoming the most anticipated NHL prospect since Connor McDavid.

The one bit of bad news to come from Detroit's victory over the Capitals last night was an injury to Robby Fabbri.

Fabbri is in the midst of an excellent bounce-back training camp after another injury riddled season in 2022-23, so to see him unable to complete the game was of course alarming given his injury history.

Just one day prior after Friday's practice, Fabbri revealed that the surgery that ended his '22-23 campaign was "just a clean up on [his] menisicus" (the sort of phrase only a professional athlete could use to describe surgery) after wear and tear and two prior major surgeries on the same knee.  He added that he played 20 of the 28 games he did manage to play in a year ago with "a cracked foot" after blocking a shot in Philadelphia in his eighth game back.

Fortunately, it does not appear Fabbri's most recent setback is worthy of serious concern.  After last night's game, Lalonde said that the winger would be back in practice within a week at the latest and that, under different circumstances (i.e. not in a preseason game), he might even have been able to finish the game.

On Friday afternoon, Christian Fischer spoke to the press about settling into Detroit after seven seasons in the Arizona Coyotes organization.  Arizona selected Fischer in the second round of the 2015 NHL Draft but opted not to tender him this summer, meaning he became an unrestricted free agent instead of a restricted one.  

Fischer arrives in Detroit with a clear sense of what he can bring to an NHL line-up.  "I'm not trying to shock anybody here," he said.  "I've kinda established who I am as a player.  I think that's very evident—a lot of D zone, a lot of match-ups, and obviously PK is my bread and butter."

The 26-year-old Chicagoan takes pride in making life easier for the star players at the top of the line-up.  "Your top six guys, you want them in the thick of those O-zone draws, and obviously having as many power plays," he explained.  "You don't want them out there spending energy and matching up and playing hard minutes in the D zone."

When it came to learning Detroit's system on the penalty kill, Fischer had a baked in advantage.  The PK he played on in Arizona last year was run by John Madden, who had once run Red Wings assistant Bob Boughner's kill when Boughner was head coach of the San Jose Sharks.  Now that Boughner is running the PK for Derek Lalonde, Fischer doesn't have much of a learning curve to deal with as he acclimates to his new home.

When asked what appealed to him about the Red Wings project, Fischer noted that he appreciated the team's direction of travel and active offseason, saying "It's pretty evident that they're getting good NHL players and trying to win some games."  Being a modest drive or flight from his hometown was an added bonus.

In addition, after seven seasons of arena related turmoil with the Coyotes, Fischer is looking forward to playing in a hockey-mad Original Six market.  "Obviously the city cares about the Red Wings, and obviously it's awesome to have that recognition from the city, but it makes you want to perform for that as well," he said.  "You talk to athletes and what we want to do is—obviously we want to win, but we want to do that in a city that cares and is behind you and embraces you."

"Haven't been in the playoffs here in a couple years, and if that doesn't motivate you as a player to want to work harder and take that next step," Fischer continued.  "And then also on top of that, you have the city on top of you that obviously is so passionate and cares.  Especially for my game, you know that blue collar, hard working, blocking shots stuff, that excites me to know that we have thousands of fans behind us, cheering us on."