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Green shoots, Green scores

October 17, 2016, 11:39 PM ET [40 Comments]
Bob Duff
Detroit Red Wings Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Shoot the puck.

That’s the message that the Detroit Red Wings have been beating into the brain of defenseman Mike Green.

Consider the message delivered.

Monday, Green pounded three shots on goal and all three of them went in as the Wings hammered the Ottawa Senators 5-1 in their farewell home opener at Joe Louis Arena.

It was Green’s first hat-trick – not just in the NHL – anywhere.

“Never,” Green said, adding that as a defenseman, he didn’t even entertain the notion that a three-goal game would ever come his way.

“Just a little bit of luck,” he suggested.

From the start of training camp, the Wings suggested to Green that he shoot the puck more, citing his productive seasons as a Washington Capital.

When he scored 31 goals for the Capitals in 2008-09, Green put 243 shots on goal. The previous season, he’d fired 234 pucks on goal and 18 of them went into the net. In 2009-10, Green had 205 shots on goal and scored 19 goals.

Last season, his first as a Red Wing, Green put just 124 shots on goal and scored seven times.

“The talks we’ve had with Mike, the one measurable that we think is going to drive his performance better than anything else is his shots per game,” Detroit coach Jeff Blashill said. “I thought he did a real good job last year jumping in the play. We’ve really stressed to him that his drive and his play is his shots, so let’s make sure he’s attacking, he’s shooting the puck.

“We’ve really, really pushed him to be a shooter first and have a big-time shooting mentality. That’s when he scored the most points in the league in his career, so that’s going to be a measurable for him.

“We’ll judge him on shots per 60 (minutes), that’ll be a measurable. We’ll look at it a lot to see how he’s playing.”

Red Carpet Treatment
As part of the opening-night ceremonies for the final home opener at the Joe – the Wings will move into Little Caesars Arena next season – the players walked a red carpet and through a gauntlet of fans into the rink.

“It was a great day today,” said Detroit forward Darren Helm, who scored twice. “Coming out on the red carpet there with all the fans there, it was pretty incredible. I didn’t really expect anything like that.

“I thought there’d be a small little lineup of people but they came out in full force, cheering loud.”

Howe Tribute
The Wings handed out placards with Gordie Howe’s No. 9 on the front and a bio of his legendary career on the back and during a first period stoppage asked everyone to rise up and hold their card aloft in tribute to Mr. Hockey, who died during the summer.

“The one thing we respect in this room - and this has happened for a long time – is the history in this organization and how lucky we are to be playing and working for the Red Wings organization, and that’s because the people that have come before – and Gordie’s probably the biggest of those gentleman that have come before,” Blashill said.

“It was a cool thing. A cool tribute.”

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