from Dana Wakiji of DetroitRedWings.com,
One of the things that captain Henrik Zetterberg was best at was just being patient on the ice, not worrying if anything major happened during his shift.
That often would help stem the tide and prevent the other team from increasing their momentum after scoring.
"It's a hugely important thing and that doesn't come natural to young people who want to win so bad that they try to make up the score in one shift and you can't do that," Wings coach Jeff Blashill said after Wednesday's practice at the BELFOR Training Center. "The good thing for us is I can refer back to the way Hank would treat those shifts and most of our guys that were around here understand that, they can recognize that and say, OK, I get it.
"It doesn't make it any easier always in the moment but again, to me, that's just a maturity thing and over time you mature and you gain perspective and understand that's all you have to do sometimes is just be OK with a shift where nothing happens. That's OK, especially when momentum's going the wrong way. How do you gain that experience? Through action and our guys are getting chances to gain it but we got to learn it fast."
Veteran defenseman Niklas Kronwall said the onus is on the veteran players to show the way when things start to go against them.
added 3:11pm, 5 post-practice videos added below...
Create an Account
In order to leave a comment, please create an account.