Some quick thoughts on the Detroit Red Wings red-white game

And with that camp moves to Detroit this week.

The Detroit Red Wings closed out the Traverse City portion of their training camp on Sunday afternoon with the annual red-white game.

Team White won 6-1, but at an event like this the rules are made up and the points don’t matter.

I watched the scrimmage via the Red Wings stream — I had to be down in the Detroit area this weekend to help coach my daughter’s hockey practice on Saturday — but here are my observations.

• The Red Wings are trying to re-connect some of the chemistry that Erik Gustafsson had with Patrick Kane and Alex DeBrincat during their time in Chicago. Kane in particular has raved bout Gustafsson’s ability to walk the blue line. The trio also played together during the 4-on-4 session of the scrimmage.

• Sheldon Dries really impressed. Now Dries is always going to stand out to me because I covered him as an AHL-contracted player during the 2017-18 season with the Texas Stars. Dries has pieced together a nice NHL career after his one-year AHL deal and scored twice in the scrimmage. He’ll start the year with Grand Rapids in the AHL, but could be in the call-up conversation and has a past history with Derek Lalonde.

• Patrick Kane has some good pop in training camp, his first camp since his final season with Chicago. He looks like he should be more than a point-per-game player, which is something I wouldn’t have predicted 12 months ago when he was going through a surgery that could have been career-ending.

• Tyler Motte and Christian Fischer were quite good at what they are supposed to be, frustratingly-effective penalty killers that annoy others. Both also scored in the game, which won’t be a common occurrence this season.

• I personally thought Joe Veleno was really good in all three zones. He’s someone who took a bit of a leap last season and should score a bit more this season in my opinion.

• All of the goalies acquitted themselves well enough. These scrimmages are tough to judge goalies on, but none of the trio of Ville Husso, Cam Talbot, or Alex Lyon did anything to change how you would view the goaltending plan for this season.

• On that same note, Sebastian Cossa was quite good. He’s taken some nice strides, I was admittedly harsh on him earlier in his career, partially reading too much into when he was drafted, but when you look at his overall body of work and growth in the AHL, there is something to like in the long term.

With that Red Wings training camp moves to Detroit this week. I’ll be covering that move in person, so join us here and we’ll have some fun.