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Big shot Sproul finally getting his shot |
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Ryan Sproul has been a goal scorer at every level of hockey and the Detroit Red Wings are certain that the 23-year-old defenseman will be a goal scorer at the NHL level.
He’s finally going to get a chance to prove it. The young man with the powerfully potent shot from the point will make his season debut for the Wings Friday as they play host to the Nashville Predators at Joe Louis Arena.
“I’ve been looking to put in Ryan for a while here,” Detroit coach Jeff Blashill said. “He’s not had hardly any opportunity to play at the NHL level.”
Sproul, whose previous NHL experience was one game during the 2013-14 season, was a 20-goal scorer in back-to-back seasons for the OHL’s Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, winning the OHL and CHL top defenseman awards in 2012-13. He scored 11 goals as an AHL rookie for the Grand Rapids Griffins in 2013-14 and netted a dozen goals with the Griffins last season.
Blashill sees no reason why that sort of productivity should not continue from Sproul at hockey’s highest level.
“He’ll score if he’s on the ice,” Blashill said. “To be on the ice, he’s got to make sure he plays good defensively, breaks the puck out.
“If he does those two things he’ll get on the ice. And if he’s on the ice he’ll score.”
X Out
Xavier Ouellet comes out to make room for Sproul on the Detroit defense.
“I thought Xavier had three very good games and not obviously the other night (against the New York Rangers),” Blashill said. “He wasn’t alone, there were other guys as well.”
Forward Andreas Athanasiou is also out, with Steve Ott taking his spot on the fourth line alongside Luke Glendening and Drew Miller.
“I think they can give us some good time in the offensive zone,” Blashill said of the Ott-Miller-Glendening group. “We need more time in the offensive zone.
“We need more grind time and their line they like to do that. I’m hoping they produce a lot of offensive zone time. I think if they do that they’ll have a chance to produce offense.”
Blashill also juggled his top two lines at Friday’s morning skate. He had Henrik Zetterberg back at center between Tomas Tatar and Riley Sheahan and put Dylan Larkin on the right wing with Frans Nielsen at center and Justin Abdelkader on the left side.
The Detroit coach didn’t fully commit to those changes, however.
“We looked at it this morning and we’ll make those decisions tonight,” Blashill said, adding he had no problem with Larkin’s performance at center.
“I think he’s done a good job in faceoffs,” Blashill said. “I think he’s done a pretty good job defensively. But he’s somebody that the offensive opportunities aren’t going for him as much right now.
“It frees you up a little bit when you play wing to create a little more offense and gives you that speed on the wing. So we’ll look at it.”
Only the Darren Helm-Tomas Vanek-Gustav Nyquist line remained intact from Wednesday’s 2-1 win over the Rangers.
Petr Mrazek gets the nod in goal.
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