The Detroit Red Wings have been sellers the past few seasons and the uncertainty and distractions in the days leading up to the trade deadline have affected their performance, coach Jeff Blashill said.
The Red Wings visit the Carolina Hurricanes tonight (7 p.m., Bally Sports Detroit Plus) in the final game before Monday’s 3 p.m. trade deadline, and Blashill’s message to the team was focus on the game and don’t worry about what is out of your control.
“What I want them focused on is trying to win a hockey game tonight and they’re going to (focus),” Blashill said. “But to think that other things don’t weigh on their minds would be false. They’re human. Those other things can be lots of things. They can be personal things going on in their own lives or in this case it can center around uncertainty of what our team will look like come Monday after the deadline.”
Red Wings general manager Steve Yzerman made his first move Friday night, sending defenseman Patrik Nemeth to the Colorado Avalanche, his former club, for a 2022 fourth-round pick.
Yzerman will try to move some of the team’s other impending unrestricted free agents for draft selections, but there is no guarantee he will succeed, given teams’ reluctance to assume salary in a pandemic-plagued season that has that affected revenues due to limited or lack of attendance.
“We lost a good teammate in Patrik Nemeth,” Blashill said. “We all understand why, but he’s still a good friend and good teammate and guy that went to battle with us numerous times and was a great competitor for us. But we got to focus on what we can control and that’s trying to win a hockey game and playing our best personally.”
Blashill said Robby Fabbri and Sam Gagner are out tonight due to injuries, in addition to Bobby Ryan, who was declared out for the season on Friday due to an upper-body injury.
The Red Wings, trying to bounce back from Thursday’s 7-1 loss to Nashville, might scratch a player or two they hope to trade to avoid the risk of injury, like they did last year with Andreas Athanasiou and Mike Green before moving them to Edmonton.
“When we play tonight, you’ll see who’s playing,” Blashill said.
Defensemen Marc Staal and Jon Merrill, forwards Luke Glendening, Darren Helm and Gagner, and goaltender Jonathan Bernier are among the UFAs the Red Wings might move.
“I think uncertainty is a hard thing for humans to deal with,” Blashill said. “I don’t know that we’ve played particularly well over the last couple of years when we’ve gotten close to the trade deadline and I think part of that is the stress involved in it and the distraction involved in it. The thing I have to get through to our team is we have to focus. Let’s cherish every single game. Let’s not let this game slip by because there’s potential stress or distractions.”
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The Link LonkApril 10, 2021 at 11:55PM
https://www.mlive.com/redwings/2021/04/red-wings-trying-to-avoid-distractions-in-final-game-before-trade-deadline.html
Red Wings trying to avoid distractions in final game before trade deadline - MLive.com
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