from Kevin Allen of Detroit Hockey Now,

Detroit Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde said he liked the pace of today’s annual Red and White scrimmage in Traverse City. He thought the players were putting emphasis on executing their defensive responsibilities. That’s important, given that last season the Red Wings ranked last in giving up dangerous scoring chances.

Lalonde is aiming to fix that immediately.

The Red Team beat the White Team 3-2. Givani Smith, Jakub Vrana and Cross Hanas scored for the Red Team while Dylan Larkin and Matt Luff scored for the White Team. Lalonde liked the game’s energy.

Here are five quotes from the Lalonde press conference after the game:

On Filip Zadina
“Assertive with his game. It probably started Day 2 of camp, Day 1 was fine. I think Day 2 you could see being assertive with the puck and some confidence and then it translated into today’s game. He was flying, puck was on his stick, skill in tight, he was getting shots off, obviously he created a ton of offense today. He looked like he’s playing with some confidence. So hopefully we can keep building that going forward.”

On Elmer Soderblom

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