Abel to Yzerman

Abel to Yzerman

A2Y- The Talk After Today's Practice

01/09/2023 at 2:18pm EST

Coach Lalonde is first, David Perron is below.

Perron

Paul

from Kevin Allen of Detroit Hockey Now,

Bertuzzi will be in tomorrow, Detroit Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde said. Obviously, the move of sending Elmer (Soderblom)
down freed that up. (Filip) Zadina and (Robert) Hagg are a little further away. Theyve had some ups and downs. I wouldnt say as far as setbacks, which is typical of a lower body....

Demoting the 6-foot-8, 246-pounds Soderblom to create a roster opening wasnt easy for Lalonde. He said last week he wanted to keep the younger players.

He has done some great things. Some ups and downs in his play, Lalonde said. Was probably on an up of late, hes created some offense for us, especially in that stretch where we had three of four wins, we scored 7, 4 and 5. Obviously, the last three games, 1, 2, 1, which is not a recipe for success.

Soderblom is only 21 and more time in the AHL could be beneficial.

Hes created some of that offense, Lalonde said. At the same time, we didnt have him on either specialty teams. The other night, we played a really good 30 minutes, were chasing in the third, turned into a lot of special teams. He only got 8½ minutes, so hell go down and grow his game and I think theres going to be a bright future for Elmer....

According to Lalonde, Bertuzzi just needs to find his rhythm. Hes had overflowing energy at practice.

Hes looked great in 3, 4, 5 practices, Lalonde said, and hopefully it translates into tomorrows game.

more

Paul

from Ansar Khan of Mlive,

Elmer Soderblom, sent down to make room for Bertuzzi, will get an opportunity to play a lot of minutes and grow his game in Grand Rapids.

He has done some great things, Lalonde said. Some ups and downs in his play. Was probably on an up of late. Hes created some offense for us. At the same time, we didnt have him on either specialty teams. The other night (in Toronto), we played a really good 30 minutes, were chasing in the third, turned into a lot of special teams. He only got 8½ minutes. So, hell go down and grow his game and I think theres going to be a bright future for Elmer.

The 6-8 rookie Soderblom had five goals and eight points in 20 games with the Red Wings.

Asked what areas he needs to work on, Lalonde said, Making a little faster twitch in his entire game. You can see sometimes he gets gobbled up with a forecheck on the half-wall or the odd turnover, some detail on his defensive game. But he grew in all those areas, which was impressive....

Jakub Vrana is struggling mightily in Grand Rapids, with no goals, one assist and a minus-6 rating in six games.

I just think hes trying to build his game, Lalonde said. I got the question the other night, Youre not scoring goals, wouldnt it be great to have Vrana? Of course it would on potential, and right now all it is is potential. I just think its going to take some time. This young man has been out of hockey for almost two full months. Hopefully, hell continue to build on some things and get his game in order and contribute to that potential for us.

more

Paul

from Ted Kulfan of the Detroit News,

The Wings (16-15-7) are slipping the standings, have lost three consecutive games and four of their last five. But Lalonde hasn't noticed any sense of demoralization.

"It's human nature to look at the standings," Lalonde said. "We don't really talk about it, we realize where we're at, but you win three of four games (several weeks ago) and you start flirting with now you have games in hand and you can visualize it. I'm sure these last three games again, it can be demoralizing but it has not looked demoralizing in their play.

"Guys are competing and trying, and now it's taking that text step of flipping these tight games."

more ($) on the Wings

Create an Account

In order to leave a comment, please create an account.

About Abel to Yzerman

Welcome to Abel to Yzerman, a Red Wing blog since 1977. No other site on the internet has better-researched, fact-laden and better prepared discussions than A2Y. Re-phrase: we do little research, find facts and stats highly overrated and claim little to no preparation. There are 19 readers of A2Y. No more, no less. All of them, except maybe one, are juvenile in nature. Reminding them of that in the comment section will only encourage them to prove that.

Most Recent Posts

Most Recent Comments

Comment by Paul in Abel to Yzerman from the entry Wings Are Conducting Exit Interviews Today And Tomorrow - 23 minutes ago
Comment by VPalmer in Abel to Yzerman from the entry Wings Are Conducting Exit Interviews Today And Tomorrow - 30 minutes ago
Comment by Paul in Abel to Yzerman from the entry Wings Are Conducting Exit Interviews Today And Tomorrow - 32 minutes ago
Comment by VPalmer in Abel to Yzerman from the entry Patrick Kane On His Future - 36 minutes ago
Comment by Shanny_Fan in Abel to Yzerman from the entry Wings Are Conducting Exit Interviews Today And Tomorrow - 38 minutes ago