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The old home and home ain't what it used to be

February 17, 2019, 4:50 PM ET [7 Comments]
Bob Duff
Detroit Red Wings Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Home and home series used to be a staple of the NHL schedule. They were commonplace in the old six-teams when teams meet each other 14 times during the regular season. But as the league grew in size, to a point where today, no teams face each other more often than four times during the 82-game campaign, instances like this weekend, where the Detroit Red Wings are playing host to the Philadelphia Flyers on Sunday immediately following Saturday’s 6-5 Flyers win over Detroit in Philly are few and far between.

“I’m good with it,” Wings coach Jeff Blashill told Detroitredwings.com. “We play the schedule we’re given but I’m good with it. I think from a preparation standpoint it’s a little different. Usually I’d be on the fight home watching the game from Saturday and then preparing for a new opponent on Sunday. But you’re preparing for the same opponent, so it presents certain opportunities and challenges.”

In the old days, a home and home set such as this almost guaranteed the build up of bad blood between the teams, but with so few real rivalries in existence and the game being played at a much more frenetic pace, physical clashes that would fuel such antagonism are much less likely to occur.

“I would say that I think that it’s certainly different than it was a number of years ago in terms of some of the real physicality,” Blashill said. “The game is extremely fast for sure. Every game takes a life of its own is my belief. Sometimes you have a real rough game in one and the next is not the same and vice versa.”

One In, One Out
Center Frans Nielsen will return Sunday from a one-game absence due to illness, but now it’s right-winger Gustav Nyquist who is under the weather. He won’t be Sunday but it’s not believed he is suffering from the same ailment as Nielsen.

“My understanding is it’s a little bit different,” Blashill said.

Hronek In
Defenseman Filip Hronek, recalled Saturday from AHL Grand Rapids, will be in the lineup Sunday.

“He’s been sent down twice and I thought in both cases he got better,” Blashill said. “In this last game I watched him he was great.”

Blashill indicated that he’d discussed having fellow rookie defenseman Dennis Cholowski and Hronek exchange places for some time. Cholowski was assigned to Grand Rapids on Thursday.

“Dennis earned his way onto the team out of camp,” Blashill said. “But it’ll help him to be at a level where he can improve on some of those deficiencies from a defensive standpoint and produce a little more offense than he has here in the last little bit. So I think the flip can be good. It’s good for Fil who’s done a real good job down there.”

It will be Hronek’s first game action since Jan. 22 at Edmonton. He has 3-7-10 totals in 23 games.

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