from Arthur J. Regner of DetroitRedWings.com,

If any Detroit players didn't receive the message the Wings roster was wide open, they certainly did after the first five days of training camp at Centre Ice Arena.

In what can only be described as agony on ice, the Red Wings were put through a rigorous on ice and off ice regime, which left player's exhausted, but aware this is a transitional year in Detroit.

Head coach Jeff Blashill has repeatedly said the Red Wings need to be tougher to play against, they need to make the opponents feel miserable for a full sixty minutes.

Based on the physical nature of each practice, with a lot of one-on-one battles for the puck the message is clear. If you plan on sauntering through the season, Detroit is not the hockey team for you.

"We wanted to make sure it was ultra-competitive. We wanted to make sure, rather than …in the past we've focused on systems and things like that and instead of that, we broke it down more into components," Blashill said after camp broke on Tuesday afternoon. "Day 1 was a lot of puck battles and instead of talking about O-zone, we figured we'd break it down into puck battles because if you don't win puck battles you don't have O-zone.

"So, we tried to break it down more into the components of it and make sure it ultra-competitive and make sure a little bit every day it was about winning battles and being heavy on the puck."

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