After an eventful game that saw Wayne Simmonds of the Flyers being thrown a banana during the shootout on Thursday night, the Wings were back at it against those same Flyers in a revenge matchup. Led by veteran Jaromir Jagr with one goal and an assist and 23 saves from goalie Sergei Bobrovsky, the Flyers defeated Detroit 3-1. Fabian Brunnstrom scored for Detroit while Jimmy Howard made 19 saves.
In the Wing’s dressing room today, the main topic of discussion was last night’s event in London, ON. Many players were disguted by the event. Wing’s coach Mike Babcock declared: “It was absolutely disgraceful”. He appreciated the fact Simmonds still continued with the puck like nothing happened and buried it passed Pearce in the net. As for Wings forward Valtteri Filppula, he declared that racism in sports by fans towards players do exist in Europe, particularly in soccer. “That shouldn’t happen, and it’s unnecessary,” Filppula said. He added that racism in sports shouldn’t happen but it does exist unfortunately.
In other Red Wing news, the team announced yesterday 18-year-old forward Tomas Jurco was reassigned to his Canadian Hockey League (CHL) club, the Saint John Sea Dogs (QMJHL). Last year Jurco cumulated 56 points (31G-25A) in 60 games played for Saint John. Jurco was the 1st pick for the Red Wings in the 2nd round of the 2011 NHL Entry Draft in Minnesota.The Red Wings with this latest cut still have 55 players in camp.
In camp, Mike Babcock has been trying different line combinations to get ready for the upcoming regular season games. Fans who purchase Red Wings tickets will be able to watch as the Red Wings exploit the maximum depth from its current roster. On Thursday, Babcock used centreman Valtteri Filppula as a winger with Henrik Zetterberg and forward Johan Franzen. Filppula admits changing position is a lot different than changing lines, but he is ready for the challenge, if it can help his teammates and his team as a whole. The feeling of playing with Zetterberg who scored 29 goals last year is appealing as he sees potentially for himself, more ice time and production.
