With a strong road presence inside Little Caesars Arena, a crop of Toronto Maple Leafs depth players and prospects ousted an NHL-centric Detroit Red Wings squad, 2-0. While preseason exhibitions are, by nature, nothing to take too strong of opinions on, the outing was one of a streak of the Red Wings’ established NHLers listlessly going through the motions.
“The last three games have all been the same,” Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde said after the game. “You get a young group that’s just not giving you any easy offense … and the guys get a little frustrated because they want it to be easy, which it’s never gonna happen.”
Don’t read too much into preseason compete levels, although Lalonde does note that it isn’t so easy for players to all of a sudden ramp up their intensity when regular season play begins. But there were other takeaways from Thursday’s outing, especially about some newcomers.
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Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-Imagn Images
Tarasenko Shows Off Elite Shot, but Overall Play Remains a Work in Progress
Opting to let David Perron walk in free agency, the Red Wings replaced him with Vladimir Tarasenko. The 32-year-old Russian winger’s knack for scoring goals built his reputation, but his game has also developed a stronger 200-foot presence as he aged, especially when he joined the Florida Panthers for their Stanley Cup run last postseason.
Detroit saw the former attribute multiple times this preseason, including two elite shots from close range in Thursday’s loss. Toronto goaltender and former Florida teammate Anthony Stolarz robbed both attempts, but the overall creation of such high-level threats is a strong example of the scoring touch that Tarasenko brings.
“Vlad found himself with some beautiful double Grade-A type looks in the slot,” Lalonde assessed. “You hope these are the type of reps that he gets where maybe they’re finishes early in the season.” Lalonde praised prospect Marco Kasper, who is battling for a spot in the lineup, for his assistance in getting to the net and clearing lanes for Tarasenko to take those shots.
The problem is that Tarasenko is supposed to bring more — cleaner puck touches, a stronger defensive footprint — and so far Detroit hasn’t seen his complete game.
Earlier Thursday, after morning skate, Lalonde reflected on Tarasenko’s performances thus far, saying “like the rest of our guys, we’d like to see him manage his game a little bit better.” He specifically pointed to puck play issues, including turnovers, that have aided opposing teams. These are all details that get worked out in the preseason, and Tarasenko was a little cleaner against Toronto, but he’s still a work in progress.
I f you’re the Red Wings, you hope that Tarasenko might find that more complete contribution. The expectation isn’t that he all of a sudden becomes a plus-defender, but more so that he allows less of the easy offense for his opponents. He’s getting closer to a more complete game, but Detroit should hope that he gets there sooner rather than later.
Talbot Puts Together Calmer Performance in First Complete Start
Cam Talbot got to Detroit early this summer, about a month before training camp started, so that he could get comfortable. He wanted to know what the Red Wings’ defensive tendencies looked like, what he could expect to play in front of him. All of this was an effort to put himself in the best position to succeed, seamlessly transitioning from his previous stint in Los Angeles to his new digs in the Motor City.
But early on this preseason, Talbot’s showings weren’t the kind of confident showings one would expect from a potential starting goaltender. He looked shaky, whether in practice or even in his three periods of play sprinkled over two separate games. Talbot finally got a chance to play one whole, complete game for the Red Wings on Thursday, and he looked a whole lot cleaner.
“Talbot was good. Can’t fault him on either goal,” Lalonde said. He’s largely right about that, considering the first came when Andrew Copp left a shooter wide open on the penalty kill, and the other came off a poorly defended 2-on-1. Both were scored by Nicholas Robertson. Lalonde continued to praise Talbot, saying he was “calm in there, quiet. I think a really good performance from him and a good camp.”
Talbot appreciates the importance of playing a whole game to get his bearings. It takes any goaltender time to acclimate to a new team, figuring out who is playing in front of them.
“This was a big step,” Talbot said after the game. “I played third period one game, first two (periods) last game, not a ton of shots in my first few games of action. So it was nice to get in there, get a full game, get a bunch of shots, a lot of reps on the penalty kill and stuff like that. I played the puck a lot. I like the way that we talk and move the puck on the goalie,D touches. So all that felt really good out there tonight, and I’ll build off it and be ready to go.”
Having a feel for little details like those are important for a goaltender to perform to their highest standards, so this outing was a big one for Talbot. Moreover, this kind of performance is what a team wants to see out of a potential starter in the preseason. If his previous outings raised some questions as to his place in the goalie room, this one showed a performance more in line with his expectations to be in the mix for the starting net most nights.
Edvinsson-Seider Preview Shows Promise Alongside Growing Pains
Lalonde is quick to point out that he doesn’t see Simon Edvinsson’s promotion to the top pairing as a chance to play alongside top blueliner Moritz Seider, but rather as a chance for him to show what he can do as a top two defender himself.
The difference might be semantic, but it’s important to view the pairing’s performance against the Maple Leafs as an expanded opportunity for Edvinsson more so than a sneak peek at a potential top pairing. Lalonde knows what he has in Seider, but Edvinsson has to prove he can handle such a great task as facing top pairing minutes against tough matchups.
As far as the early results, Edvinsson and Seider put together a decent performance Thursday, with a blueline-leading 60% Corsi and 53% expected goal share. However, the duo also gave up four high danger scoring chances as tracked by Natural Stat Trick. Edvinsson in particular made mistakes that led to those chances.
“He had some lapses in his game, he had a play on the rush, he turned some pucks back that got himself in trouble,” Lalonde said. “Again, we’re trying to build some consistency in his game.”
Even if the overall result was promising, there are still some details to polish. Lalonde pointed out that Edvinsson hasn’t played in many of these preseason games — in fact, before Thursday he had only appeared in the first exhibition in Chicago. A performance like Edvinsson’s is what you expected when you put a 21-year-old rookie on the top pair. It would have been more shocking if he had delivered an impeccable performance.
“That’s why every minute, every situation, is valuable,” Lalonde explained. “So some valuable minutes for him tonight.”
Again, this cameo wasn’t so much the creation of a highly talented Edvinsson-Seider pairing as it was a chance for Edvinsson to show his own merits. Lalonde has repeated that Edvinsson will factor into a “fluid” top four. Fluidity probably means playing some time next to Seider, which appears to be the long-term projection for the two shutdown defenders. For now, take it one preseason game at a time.
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