Rookie forward Michael Rasmussen will return to the Detroit Red Wings’ lineup Thursday as they are in Tampa Bay to face the Lightning still in search of their first victory of the season, and he wants everyone to know that all those things you’ve heard about the NHL - that the players are bigger, faster and stronger and there’s less time and space on the ice - well, those aren’t just talking points. They are facts.
“I didn’t really know what to expect,” admitted Rasmussen, who apparently wasn’t paying attention in class. “The lack of space, everyone is bigger and stronger and faster - kind of all the clichés are all true. I’m trying to get acclimatized and used to it.”
The Wings gave Rasmussen, their top pick in the 2017 NHL entry draft a seat in the press box as a healthy scratch for Monday’s 7-3 loss to the Montreal Canadiens to get a bird’s-eye view of what he needs to know.
“I tried to watch different guys I want to emulate,” Rasmussen said. I watched a lot of Larks (teammate Dylan Larkin) in how he protects the puck and moves his feet and Mo (teammate Anthony Mantha) and how he protects the puck. Even guys on the other team. I watched (Montreal’s Brendan) Gallagher, how his battle level is every shift. I tried to watch as much as I could and learn.”
He’s getting two messages from the coaching staff on what he must accomplish to take the next steps as an NHLer.
“You have more time than you think,” Rasmussen said. “Not as much as you’d like, but more time than you think. Just hold onto the puck and get my feet going a little more in the neutral zone.”
Moving his feet on the ice is the top area that the team feels must address in order to write a success story.
“He’s got to skate when he gets the puck, especially from tops of circles to tops of circles,” Detroit coach Jeff Blashill said. “That’s a normal thing that a lot of young guys don’t necessarily do. It’s something when I talked to Tim Hunter with the world junior Canadian team, he felt that hurt him at times at center at the world junior camp because he wasn’t skating when he got the puck. It’s just something that you think you can kind of stand still or drift and make a play and all of a sudden, people are all over you and you wonder what happened.
“Two, and just as importantly - maybe more importantly - he just has to keep learning the little tricks of the trade to hold onto the puck in the O-zone more. He probably needs to keep his stick a little bit closer to his body, certainly needs to learn how to reverse hit guys with his butt, reverse hit guys with his shoulder, find ways to reverse check guys that are coming to him, create a little bit of space, move his feet, use cutbacks. We did some one-on-one puck protection and those types of things. We really overemphasized that with him.
“Obviously we’re showing him lots of video. I think we pulled out Peter Forsberg today and showed some Peter Forsberg clips because he’s one of the best ever at it. It’s a process and it’s a learned process. Will he get it? We’ll see, but we’ll keep working on it with him.”
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