On Wings/Panthers, Growing Pains, and Abdelkader

So the Red Wings had a good period and a couple periods where they pretty much clung to life.  They got solid goaltending.  They didn’t dominate, nor were they dominated.

That’s last night’s game, but how many games from this season could it describe?  The games this season are pretty indistinguishable from each other.

And, honestly, that’s about what I expected coming into this season.  This was never going to be a fun season to watch.  That doesn’t mean good things aren’t happening.

Ryan Sproul made an ill-advised dump-in in overtime last night that turned into an Aleksander Barkov breakaway and game-winning goal.  It’s a rookie mistake.  But it also means a rookie was in position to make that mistake.  Sproul is finally getting a chance to show what he can do and, yeah, he’s made some mistakes, but he’s also found a home on the power play.

They’re injured now, but Andreas Athanasiou and Tyler Bertuzzi have shown that they can play at the NHL level.  This is what I’ve been waiting for, the kids to get a chance.  No, they’re not tearing up the league, but we’re finally seeing what they can do so we can evaluate from there.

I wrote this season off from the beginning.  It’s boring and it’s a lot of losing.  But good is coming of it.

And it’s looking like another prospect is going to get a chance, with Justin Abdelkader out 2-4 weeks with a sprained MCL.  I originally said I wanted Evgeny Svechnikov to get the call but I’m kind of curious about Matt Lorito, who’s not a traditional prospect but leads the Griffins in scoring.

What I don’t want to see is the Red Wings call up no one and just slide Drew Miller back into the lineup.  There’s a top-six (or top-nine, depending on how the lines are jumbled) spot open, don’t push a fourth-liner up into it.