Category archive: Detroit Red Wings
DETROIT -- It's a theory Mike Babcock has had going back to his days as a junior coach. When it comes to the development of young players, a playoff game counts as two regular-season games.
One NHL scout, who has noticed the improvement in some of the young Red Wings in this postseason, thinks the ratio is higher than that.
"It's at least two games of the regular season," he said. "Because it's the playoffs, the opponents are so good. You're playing every other night, and everything is heightened."
And the Red Wings' playoffs really started in the final weeks of the regular season, with Detroit needing each win and point just to extend its season into the spring. So there has been some serious development going on with the Red Wings, and in the process, they've closed the gap between a skilled, deep, veteran Blackhawks team and the growing, developing group in Detroit.
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ABOUT THIS BLOG
Craig Custance
Craig Custance joined ESPN in September 2011 as an NHL reporter for ESPN the Magazine, ESPN Insider and ESPN.com. A graduate of Michigan State University, he lived for nearly a decade in Georgia working for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution where he spent time covering the late Atlanta Thrashers. He was the only Thrashers beat writer to get the team to the playoffs.
From 2008-11 he was the national hockey writer for the Sporting News, writing regularly in print and online. A member of the PHWA, he's a proud voter for the major NHL awards and can occasionally defend his selections.
Like hockey, he left Atlanta to return north where he currently lives in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, with his wife Cassie and their three kids.
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