Red Wings Prospect Tournament: 3 Things to watch for against St. Louis

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The Detroit Red Wings have its second game in three days for the Prospects Tournament against St. Louis tonight at 7pm. Little has to be recapped about what happened against Dallas as much of the attention was on Kirill Tyutyayev and his two goals.

As the attention moves to tonight, what are some potential storylines for the Wings prospects as they face off against the Blues.

How will Tyutyayev Follow up his Thursday Performance?

One, it was absolutely going to be one of the three things to watch for while at the same time, a way to keep practicing the spelling of his last name. Regardless of how he finishes the tournament, he’ll be watched closely for the remainder and throughout the season in Grand Rapids as well.

The buzz that has surrounded him leading up to the tournament and after scoring a pair of goals reminds me of a Wings fan I once ran into while attending a preseason Red Wings – Blackhawks game in 2001.

Now for understanding’s sake, prospect watching and following was nothing like it is now. It’s become a science and something that goes beyond just the eye test and brings in a number of elements to make final judgements. In 2001, you could find prospect information on hardcore hockey sites, and on message boards, but it wasn’t as widespread as it is now.

My brother and I were talking near the glass, marveling at the litany of stars now wearing the Winged Wheel skating on the ice.

A guy overheard us, noted our conversation, especially as we debated who the top scoring forward would be amongst Luc Robitaille, Sergei Fedorov, Brendan Shanahan or Brett Hull. The guy turned around, and to this day, I remember how emphatic he was.

“Boys, keep an eye on that Datsyuk kid. He’s going to be a good one.” He paused and thought about it, and then added: “I think even better than Fedorov.”

Now that in and of itself is a debate for another day (I personally believe Fedorov is better) but I remember wondering if that guy would be right. 20 years later, he was absolutely right about keeping an eye on him and that he’d be a good one.

So keep an eye on that Tyutyayev kid. In no way am I bold enough to compare him to either Fedorov or Datsyuk, but I do think he could be a good one, too.

Will Sebastian Cossa get a chance between the pipes?

It seems like with Jan Bednar as the healthy scratch in the first game, he could play backup to Cossa, who would be the fan’s pick to start the second game of the tournament. If there’s anything that could supplant the Tyutyayev lovefest going on, it would be Cossa having a dominant game that results in either a shutout or highlight reel saves that just ratchets up the excitement already around him.

Will the Raymond-Veleno-Berggren line get a second game together?

More of this please. I found myself rewinding the feed an awful lot to just rewatch the line, whether it resulted in a goal or not. As more of the prospects get time on North American ice, it’s a blast watching them play not only here, but together as a unit.  The Athletic’s Max Bultman also had this:

Here’s hoping we get to see them on the ice again tonight.

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