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WINGS POST-GAME: Blackhawks 2, Red Wings 4

Photo credit: © Raj Mehta-USA TODAY Sports

By Cameron Kuom

Sep 20, 2018, 22:23 EDT

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In the Red Wings second tilt of the preseason, the very anticipated debut of Filip Zadina highlighted the night. Detroit faced against the long time rival Chicago Blackhawks. Even in Zadina’s first exhibition game, many highly regarded prospects were featured, including the Wings’ Filip Hronek, Libor Sulak, and Evgeny Svechnikov. Chicago also got a first taste of recent first round picks in Adam Boqvist and Nicolas Beaudin. It proved to highly competitive game despite the Wings sitting Dylan Larkin and Anthony Mantha, as well as Chicago dressing the likes of Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews, and Brandon Saad. Detroit ended up taking this one 4-2 in regulation.

Worth Mentioning…

The Red Wings power-play looked good early on. Thomas Vanek redirected Gustav Nyquist point shot in the slot to slip by Anton Forsberg. Hronek picked up an assist as well.

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Habile, Thomas Vanek. Très habile. 👏👏👏

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12:42 AM · Sep 21, 2018

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Andreas Athanasiou also picked up a goal. In his first game adjusting to center he showed some very promising flashes of brilliance.

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Wait for it...

1:14 AM · Sep 21, 2018

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Jonathan Bernier and Patrik Rybar split the cage in this game. Both looked solid in their first appearnce on the year. Bernier allowed 2 goals on 13 shots while Rybar stopped all 10 shots he faced.
Zadina started the game on a line with Vanek and Athanasiou. At the start of the third Jeff Blashill opted to place him on a line with Frans Nielsen and Gustav Nyquist. It was a relatively quiet night for the Czech sniper.
In a tie game late into the third, Givani Smith found Svechnikov all alone in front of the net to give Detroit the go-ahead goal.
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BEAUTY. 🔥🔥🔥🔥 htt
1:55 AM · Sep 21, 2018
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Nyquist added an empty-netter later on to secure the victory.

Final Thoughts

The wings managed to get the job done with their second unit of players. The opening night roster is starting to become a little more clear as we see some of the younger players make impressive strides in their games. The Red Wings next preseason game will be on Saturday at Little Caesers Arena at 7:00 P.M. EST against the Boston Bruins.