The Detroit Red Wings' five-day training camp is over. Here's a rewind of everything you need to know from Traverse City
After five days in Traverse City, the Detroit Red Wings have concluded training camp. Now, it's on to an eight-game preseason slate, beginning this evening at Little Caesars Arena against the Pittsburgh Penguins and running through an October 7th home date with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
From there, Detroit will have five days until its October 12th regular season opener in Newark against the New Jersey Devils.
THN Detroit has had you covered every step of the way, so before pressing forward, let's take a moment to review everything you need to know from five days of training camp.
Day One
On the first day of camp, Detroit's emphasis lay on systems, with the team putting in work on retrievals and breakouts, transitions, and defensive zone coverage.
Head coach Derek Lalonde expressed his pleasure at the pace of practice from the jump, saying, "I think guys did their work this summer. I really liked the pace of practice today." He went on to specifically laud Moritz Seider for his leadership in setting a physical tone to camp.
Perhaps the most exciting part of the day was the debut of the offseason's marquee addition, Alex DeBrincat, who played alongside Dylan Larkin and Lucas Raymond on the Red Wings' top line.
Detroit also played some small area games to spark some competitive fire in camp's early going.
After practice, captain Dylan Larkin addressed striking the right balance between focusing on day-to-day work and on the playoff race to come.
"Newsy [Lalonde] brought that up—the process is what's important," said Larkin. "For the players, it's a long season, and you can kind of get caught in two, three-week stretches where you're just on the road traveling and you get near-sighted. A guy like David Perron, who's always talking [chuckle], he does talk about the playoffs, and he keeps the conversation going. 'Hey boys, we win this one, we're right there,' and I think that's very important. It's nice when the guys are bouncing that off each other—what's the main goal here?"
Further Reading: A full day one notebook covering DeBrincat's Red Wing debut, the comfort associated with year two of the Lalonde era, Seider's physicality, and friendly internal competition
Day Two
On the second day of camp, Detroit turned up the pace even further with a skating intensive day.
Alex DeBrincat chatted with the media for the first time at camp, discussing his transition to the Red Wings.
"Last year was maybe a little bit harder of a transition," said the winger. "I was in Chicago for a while and played the same way pretty much all those years. Then last year was different systems, different all that. I think last year is definitely gonna help me this year. Obviously, when you go into a new group, I'm pretty shy in general, so sometimes it's tough to get in there and feel comfortable right away. I feel like the guys have done a great job for me, and it's been a fun camp so far."
Lalonde also offered the following with respect to the path for young players looking to prove that they are ready to contribute at the NHL level:
"It probably is different for different players. You want them pushing, [but] in an ideal world, you don't want to rush those guys in. A lot of Detroit's previous success when they were winning Stanley Cups was their ability to have everyone develop at a little more methodical pace. We foresee the same for those type of players. We want them pushing for a spot on our NHL team, you need that push from the bottom and from the young guys. But at the same time, you don't want to rush them into it. There's a balance there, and I do think it's different hurdles for each individual."
Further Reading: A full day two notebook covering DeBrincat's comments to the press, Daniel Sprong's strong form, and Detroit's young players road to NHL readiness
Day Three
On the third day of camp, Detroit began working on its special teams for the first time.
"You'll see many different [power play] looks" before the regular season, said Lalonde. "It's a lot more options. We had four power play units today all with some guys in some comfortable spots. The added depth five-on-five has also added depth to our power play."
On the penalty killing front, forwards Andrew Copp and J.T. Compher staked their claim to being the Red Wings' top short-handed options up front. After their strong performances together, Lalonde said of the pair "I think that's something we may try to experiment with—those guys going out on the first pair [on the PK], Copp and Compher. Obviously a righty and a lefty to be able to handle both face-off dots. I know that's a role they are excited about and want to contribute to the team."
Further Reading: A full day three notebook covering PP1 taking shape, chemistry between Copp and Compher, and Simon Edvinsson's strong showing
Alex DeBrincat divides opinion in THN's pre-season poll
Day Four
Day four in Traverse City saw the Red Wings play the annual Red & White game, which Red claimed by a 6-4 scoreline. The Red Wings power plays went 0-for in the special teams only second period, before a situational third period, in which Jonatan Berggren provided this gem at three-a-side:
Despite going scoreless, Lalonde had positive things to say about the Red Wing power play, commending its chance creation while also lauding the work of the PKers and goaltenders to hold the power plays scoreless.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzT03ZUvMZA[/embed]
Detroit also made its first 11 cuts from the NHL roster, sending Tnias Mathurin and Andrew Gibson back to junior and releasing nine others from their try-out deals.
Further reading: A special teams deep dive from the Red & White game, highlighting the importance of "moving the box"
Day Five
On the final day of camp, the Red Wings announced three more cuts. Emmitt Finnie, Detroit's 2023 seventh rounder, was sent back to the WHL's Kamloops Blazers, while Dean Loukas and Nic Sima were released from their try-out deals.
"We have some good teaching from everything we covered yesterday, and it'll be a good step into our game tomorrow," said Lalonde to open his final press availability of camp.
"Even in the Red & White game yesterday, you could see a little more organization with our structure," Lalonde added of his team's progress through the five days. "It's a small thing, but even our sets and our face-offs, guys were on the same page. It looked organized; it looked detailed."
Lalonde noted that experimentation with line combinations and competition for roster spots will continue throughout the eight pre-season games and that the organization would "probably like to have our group by that last exhibition game on that Saturday."
The second-year head coach also spoke about his not-so-pleasant experience reading some preseason prognostications.
"I've stopped reading media because it's so negative on us," Lalonde said, setting an us against the world tone to Detroit's 2023-24 season. "I think the highest article I read is a 14% chance to make the playoffs. Everyone's writing us off, and...it's not a knock on our guys, it's just the reality of the division and the conference that we're in. We'll knock the noise away. It'll be about our process, just doing things correctly."
For now, it's onto the pre-season slate.
