Notes: Red Wings getting ready to finalize fluid 23-man roster
A few snippets:
"It's fluid. A roster set means that's the decision you're making on that day, but it's fluid as we go through the course of the year," Blashill said.
"Once we know where we're at health-wise, we'll make our decisions and we'll make them with two things in mind, what's going to give our guys the best chance to win hockey games in Detroit and also what's best for each young player's individual development."
"We'll just keep evaluating and watching. We got a game tonight and tomorrow and then make some decisions for Monday but as I said last night, it's a relentless league, so whether you're on the team or not on the team on Monday doesn't mean you're on the team on Friday, Saturday or the next week. That's just the reality of it."
"Dennis Cholowski is a puck-mover, he's a power-play guy who we want to see be our fifth penalty killer. We want to see a guy who defends, who recognizes danger, doesn't give up chances. I think he's done a way better job of that so far. He's trying to fill that type of role.
"A guy like
Madison Bowey is trying to fill that … if Dennis is in that spot, who is his partner? A guy like Madison Bowey wants to make a statement that he can be that good defender, one of the top-four penalty killers, hard to play against, that kind of role.
You got to have enough guys that are good penalty killers, otherwise you have no chance of having a good penalty kill, so that's one thing we have to look at, and potentially we could use three defensemen on the power play, especially if it was a Cholowski, (Mike) Green and (Filip) Hronek. "
Injury update:
" all the wounded should be able to play once the season begins on Oct. 5 in Nashville........
"AA (Andreas Athanasiou) is dealing with a little bit of a tweak. I don't know if he'll play tomorrow, I'm hoping he will. He'll go out a little bit for practice today and then he'll come off, he's not going to spend the whole time out there," Blashill said.
"(Jacob) de La Rose (lower-body) is going to go out and test it, see where he's at. I don't think he'll be ready for tomorrow. I don't think it's anything long-term.
"(Jonathan) Ericsson (soft tissue) is the only one come Monday I'd be worried about whether he's ready to go,
(Frans) Nielsen (soft tissue),
I'm hoping he can play tomorrow, we'll see after practice. Abby (Justin Abdelkader) should be fine We pushed to get Abby in three (games) but it just couldn't work with the injury."
Blashill did say he
expects Abdelkader to be Saturday's lineup in Toronto.
Blash also praises Veleno, makes it sound like there's a chance he will make the opening night roster (rolls eyes).