Trending: Competitive camp leads to exciting Red and White Game

TRAVERSE CITY -- In previous years, the Red & White Game was a fun scrimmage but nothing outrageously competitive.
That was because there were very few spots available on the Detroit Red Wings.

Things have most certainly changed.
Not only have the training camp practices been hard, intense and competitive, Sunday's Red & White Game was also.
Players know there are some jobs up for grabs and they are determined to do whatever it takes to claim one.
The Red & White Game featured two 25-minute periods with five minutes at the end of each reserved for 3-on-3 play.
Because they haven't worked on special teams in practice yet, the Wings elected to have a player take a penalty shot instead of having two minutes of man-advantage play.
Team Red rallied from a 2-0 deficit to earn a 4-2 victory in front of a sold-out crowd at Centre Ice Arena in Traverse City.
Darren Helm scored both goals (one on a penalty shot) for Team White.
Evgeny Svechnikov, Christoffer Ehn, Andreas Athanasiou (3-on-3) and Filip Zadina scored for Team Red.
Team White outshot Team Red, 32-24.

1. Darren Helm: It doesn't seem like that long ago that Helm was one of the youngest players on the Wings. Now 31 and the father of three girls, Helm is a veteran on the team. Playing on a line with Frans Nielsen and Gustav Nyquist, both considered to be more offensive players, Helm was the one providing the offense for Team White. At 8:06 of the first period, Helm had a partial breakaway and scored on Team Red goaltender Jimmy Howard. Nick Jensen had the only assist. Helm also scored on a penalty shot after Team Red forward Evgeny Svechnikov was called for hooking at 11:16.

Quotable: "I thought today was a good scrimmage for a Red & White Game. Like I said earlier, the first two practices set the tone for what we were going to expect out here today. Guys know there's opportunity and it showed today that guys are playing and want it. It was fun. It's always fun scoring, I don't get a chance to do that a whole lot. I'll take it." -- Helm
Quotable II: "I thought first of all the scrimmage was competitive, as competitive as a Red/White game as I've seen. Not much space. It was closer to a real game than just a scrimmage. I thought our compete level was very good. I thought it was a really high pace. I thought guys had a real good effort. Not nastiness but as much as you're going to see and I think that's good because we talked about this camp being ultra-competitive. I'd also say you're judging players. You're judging them on good plays vs. bad plays. How many good plays do you make vs. how many negative plays do you make? That's what it comes down to. Are you on the positive side of that every time you're on the ice? We just went through every player and the guys we gave high grades to are the ones that had a bigger impact on the game in a positive fashion." -- Wings coach Jeff Blashill
2. Filip Zadina: Zadina had played the entire prospect tournament and the start of camp with young players like himself in Michael Rasmussen, Joe Veleno and Givani Smith. So when he found out Saturday that he would be on a line with Andreas Athanasiou and Thomas Vanek in the Red & White Game, he was thrilled to be playing with two veteran, offensively gifted forwards. At 9:43 of the second period, they had their golden chance and didn't miss. With a 3-on-1 opportunity, Vanek got the puck from Athanasiou and found Zadina ready. Blashill said after the game that he would like to see the three play together again during a preseason game.

Quotable: "I saw that we were on a 3-on-1, so it was a good situation on the ice where we could do something. I think we did such an awesome job. We showed the people that we are playmakers and that we can play well together. It was a good goal for sure. It was such an awesome game for me. I was a little bit nervous before the game, because I like each player. I tried my best and hopefully I did well for them. We had pretty good chances together on the ice and we score a beautiful goal. It was such a good game. I appreciate I could play with them today. It was one of the best days of my life." -- Zadina
Quotable II: "I thought they did a good job. I think Double-A's had an excellent camp so far. I think he's competed real hard every day in practice. He's taken tons of ownership. I've liked him with Vanek. Vanek creates scoring chances all over the place, it's just what he does. So when you play with him, you end up getting a lot of scoring chances. Zadina has consistently finished. I think there's more to his game than just scoring goals but I think he's somebody that's been built on excellent goal-scoring and he's done that so far. It was an unreal play by Vanek and Double-A but at the end of the day someone's got to put it in the net and he put it in the net." -- Blashill
3. Evgeny Svechnikov: While Rasmussen and Zadina have been getting the lion's share of attention, it would be unwise to forget about Svechnikov. The 6-foot-3, 212-pound forward has plenty of strength and skill and he is also determined to be in the mix for a spot in Detroit this season. At 12:08 of the first period, Svechnikov went to the net and put home a rebound for Team Red's first goal, cutting Team White's lead to 2-1. Joe Veleno had the lone assist.

Quotable: "Just no matter what kind of goal it is, it's in the net. Whatever if it's at the net or shot or rebound, I'll take it. We got some really skilled young, good kids, Rasmussen, Veleno and Zadina, so real fun to be around them to show how to get better and to do little things on the ice, off the ice and push each other. Even this, for this game, we had a little talk. Really fun to play with Ras and Veleno this game, they're young, they're passionate and they want to go there, they're aggressive and they want to go on the forecheck and shoot the puck, get to the net. It's really fun to be around them and push yourself. They're going to have a big future, so it's fun." -- Svechnikov
Quotable II: "It's certainly something he can do because he does have that strength. He's real strong on the puck and to score you got to go to those areas and he's very willing to go to those areas. It's a good start for sure. I just continue to judge him on positives versus negatives. One of the things he can do to play to his strengths is be strong on the puck in the O-zone and make plays in the O-zone and go to the net and score those dirty-type goals." -- Blashill