Kronwall, Red Wings Make Emotional Visit To State Police Following Shooting
DETROIT (CBS Detroit) Detroit Red Wing Niklas Kronwall exchanged his uniform for that of a Michigan State Trooper... briefly ... Tuesday. Kronwall and a couple of fellow Wings got a taste of what it's like to go through trooper training in Lansing on Tuesday -- though Kronwall admitted he was better at shooting a hockey puck than a pistol.
"I think that I actually hit the target, but they weren't so much in the middle, in the center, were I should have placed them," he said.
Team members were there as part of a community outreach where they stopped by Selfridge Air National Guard Base in Harrison Township near Mount Clemens, Bronson's Children Hospital in Kalamazoo, schools in Frankenmuth and Mount Pleasant, and the Coast Guard station in Grand Haven.
Eleven players divided into three groups will make the stops across Michigan's Lower Peninsula en route to the team's annual training camp in Traverse City.
In the wake the fatal shooting of Michigan State trooper Paul Butterfield Monday night, there was a somber feeling hovering over the team's visit to the Michigan State Police Training Academy.
"Being a cop, I think what they go through and what they do to keep the rest of us safe," Kronwall said. "I don't think I could do their job, to be honest with you."
"When stuff like that happens, unfortunately, those are the times that you really get to think of them when we really should be thinking of them each and every day, because that they're the ones that are keeping us safe," he added.
