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With training camp beginning in Traverse City this morning for the Detroit Red Wings, the unfortunate news of
Anthony Mantha's fractured right tibia continues to linger over the hockey club.
"He got his skate caught in a rut and he got hit and he couldn't really protect himself. He went to bed, woke up the next day and his knee was swollen, so we did some tests."
He's going to be in crutches for a while, take the weight off. We think somewhere around six weeks he should be back up and running and skating and from there playing. In the meantime we got lots of other people looking for opportunity." ---Ken Holland
Rather ironic that Mantha confirmed this was his first major injury as a hockey player and it happened to take place while wearing a Wings jersey given last year's debacle when it came to players getting injured. Nevertheless, with Mantha not expected to play a game for the Griffins in Grand Rapids now likely until American Thanksgiving at the earliest, the absolute
earliest Wing fans could expect to see Mantha skating in Detroit as a Red Wing is likely after the NHL's All-Star Break.
In reality, although it is disappointing we did not get to see Mantha potentially seize the opportunity provided to him of playing alongside Datsyuk and Zetterberg during the exhibition season, the chances of Mantha making the team's top 2-3 lines out of camp were likely slim due to the club's depth at forward and the club's tendency to delay their young players ascension to the NHL.
Then again...perhaps his chances were better than we think. Consider the following:
"I used to walk in every year in training camp, and tell them the tie goes to the veteran."
"Not anymore. Ties goes to the best player, if you're ready to play, we got a young group, you're playing. We'll find a way to do that." ---Mike Babcock
Talk is cheap and actions speak louder than words. Whether that mindset is actually utilized remains to be seen. However, it is distincly possible that last season's play from their youngsters in Detroit provided an awakening of sorts for management and Babcock that positions are to be earned and not given based on a tiebreaker involving loyalty and years of service.
Regardless, with Mantha out of the picture the focus shifts to other likely training camp and exhibition season storylines. The battle on the blueline with youngsters like
Xavier Ouellet,
Ryan Sproul,
Alexei Marchenko and
Mattias Backman ready to impress. Is
Stephen Weiss fully healthy and ready to play to the level of last summer's free agency contract? Who wins the battle for spots up front in the bottom six?
Here is a look at the three teams that will practice together and play together in the intra-squad scrimmages over the course of the next few days in Traverse City:
Team Delvecchio
Forwards: Joakim Andersson, Louis-Marc Aubry, Tyler Bertuzzi, Colin Campbell, Pavel Datsyuk, Darren Helm, Jeff Hoggan, Tomas Jurco, Anthony Mantha, Zach Nastasiuk, Kevin Porter, Teemu Pulkkinen, Jerome Verrier
Defensemen: Danny DeKeyser, Jakub Kindl, Brian Lashoff, Alexey Marchenko, Marc McNulty, Richard Nedomlel
Goaltenders: Jared Coreau, Jimmy Howard
Team Howe
Forwards: Andreas Athanasiou, Mitch Callahan, Daniel Cleary, Johan Franzen, Martin Frk, Luke Glendening, Alden Hirschfeld, Darby Llewellyn, Drew Miller, Tomas Nosek, Brandon Robinson, Marek Tvrdon, Henrik Zetterberg
Defensemen: Mattias Backman, Brennan Evans, Joe Hicketts, Xavier Ouellet, Kyle Quincey, Aaron Rome, Brendan Smith
Goaltenders: Jonas Gustavsson, Tom McCollum
Team Lindsay
Forwards: Justin Abdelkader, Tyler Barnes, Blake Clarke, Landon Ferraro, Hayden Hodgson, Andrej Nestrasil, Gustav Nyquist, Riley Sheahan, Tomas Tatar, Dominic Turgeon, Stephen Weiss, Mark Zengerle
Defensemen: Jonathan Ericsson, Nick Jensen, Niklas Kronwall, Nathan Paetsch, Ryan Sproul, Ty Stanton, Mitchell Wheaton
Goaltenders: Petr Mrazek, Jake Paterson, Lucas Peressini
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Previous Posts
DeKeyser in, Alfredsson out....for now
Frk amongst several prospects turning heads in Traverse City
Red Wings look to repeat at prospects tourney
Writing on the wall for #11
A healthy Helm would help in 2014-15
2013 Draft Class, Holland Extended
2012 Draft Class
2011 Draft Update
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