Red Wings see plenty to play for in final stretch
By @StefanKubus –
DETROIT – Having been eliminated from the Stanley Cup Playoffs Thursday night, it may seem like Detroit has nothing to play for at this point.
While the final eight games might not matter in the standings, you certainly won’t find the Red Wings saying they’re meaningless.
“We’re playing hard, we’re not giving up on each other,” forward Tyler Bertuzzi said. “We’re gonna play the last few games as hard as we can, trying to get wins.
“We’re playing decent minutes now, playing big-role moments, you’ve just got to take it all in, keep working hard and keep progressing.”
Bertuzzi, 23, has been regularly skating alongside captain Henrik Zetterberg and Gustav Nyquist. He knows these games are just important as the other 40 he’s played in, virtually as an audition for next season.
Meanwhile, the veterans see pride at stake each time they don the Winged Wheel, though at the end of the day, Zetterberg knows the team in a transition.
“Every chance we have to put on the Red Wings logo, we want to go out and do it as best as we can,” Zetterberg said. “I think we’ve been doing that, but again, it’s hard, too, when we’re really trying hard and we keep losing games.
“A lot of things (need to change), I think, but we all know we’re in a transition here with some younger players coming in and all the teams go through it eventually. It’s hard to go after or trade or sign a really good players nowadays; you have to get them through your own system so we’ve got to get lucky in drafts. We have a lot of picks. And then we’ve just got to try to keep the traditions that are high here and keep working hard and doing the right things and eventually it’ll turn around.”
Netminder Jimmy Howard reiterated what his captain said, adding how important it is that the veterans continue to bring the younger players along.
“We can’t roll over, that’s for sure,” Howard said. “I think it’s important for us as a team and as an organization for our young guys to continue to play, play well and get minutes and for us older guys to push them.”
Behind the bench, Blashill said he’s not planning to change much in the final few games.
“You have to make sure you compete and work, and if you don’t compete and work, you don’t get ice time, so that’s one,” Blashill said. “Two, I’m asking our guys to go out and work as hard and compete as hard as incredibly possible. If you want to take one of those guys’ jobs, you’ve got to play better than them. That’s just the reality of it. If I start playing guys because of their age, you lose 100-percent credibility and you don’t teach lessons of ‘earned ice.”
Blashill specifically mentioned Evgeny Svechnikov, the Wings’ 19th overall pick in 2015, who skated just under eight minutes in Thursday’s loss to the Capitals. Svechnikov has one goal through eight games in a limited role. When asked if he would give the younger players more ice time in these final games, Blashill said he wants to make sure said players earn their ice time above all else.
“Svech would be one, he played eight minutes tonight. He would be one. What Svech has to do is on a shift-by-shift basis, he’s gotta be better than one of these guys: Nyquist, Bert, Mantha, Helm, Abdelkader, Athanasiou; those are the guys playing wing right now, so he’s gotta be beat one of those guys out and other than that, the rest of the young guys need to play a pretty significant role on the team.”