Simon Edvinsson made mistakes in the Detroit Red Wings’ 6-3 Thursday night loss to Pittsburgh. In fact, he made many.
The towering 6-foot-6 defenseman lost 50/50 battles at the net front, leading to the Penguins’ second goal. He took a bad penalty early in the third period, sticking up for a teammate against Cody Glass. The Penguins scored a goal on the ensuing advantage to go up three and put the game on ice. And in a general sense, Edvinsson got hit up and down the ice.
The game, and an injury to Edvinsson’s defense partner Jeff Petry, left Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde contemplating some changes to the defense corps. By all means, Edvinsson played poorly enough to be yanked from the lineup for Saturday’s game against Nashville. Instead, it’s Erik Gustafsson taking a seat as Albert Johansson and Justin Holl take the ice.
Yes, there’s a little bit of preference at play for Edvinsson to get another chance. Yes, the decision probably accounts for Edvinsson being a first round pick with high expectations as a top four defenseman. But this second chance reveals just as much about how the Red Wings and Lalonde handle the acclimation of young prospects. With so many players expected to mature to the NHL lineup soon, this process is also one that will be often utilized.
Coaching, in its purest essence, seeks to extract the best possible performances from players. With that in mind, coaches have to consider the impact of allowing a player to work through a mistake versus making them prove they have fixed it before playing again. Mistakes are a lived example of what not to do on the ice, and players can learn a lot from these instances. But before players can actually learn from mistakes, they have to make them in the first place.
Mandatory Credit: James Guillory-Imagn Images
“There’s a development aspect to it,” Lalonde said. “It’s still so raw. We’re getting first round draft picks at 18, 19 years old. It’s amazing the mistakes you can show them on video and how they grow. And you guys are talking about growing pains with our young guys, just getting even that feedback at a young age, I think there’s something to that.”
Lalonde draws a line between these two concepts when mistakes really hurt the team. It’s a constant balance between allowing a player of any age to learn…