More morning news: On a ‘revenge game,’ a weird bounce and Tweets of note

Of Red Wings-related note late on this Monday morning:

  1. The Courier-Post’s Dave Isaac is already playing up the “revenge factor” in discussing Petr Mrazek’s likely start vs. the Red Wings on Tuesday:

Petr Mrazek’s eyes lit up and he showed a wide smile each time he was asked about his old team. He wants the revenge game against the Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday. What he did Sunday night, getting a win that dramatically changed the Flyers’ playoff outlook, probably earned him the opportunity.

“It’s gonna be nice to be back but when the game starts, it doesn’t matter who is on the other side,” Mrazek said. “We are going there to get some good result and we have to go from there. It’s gonna be nice to be back in the town where I spent my first five or six NHL years.”

On Feb. 19 the Flyers traded for Mrazek. Detroit retained half of his salary and in return the Flyers gave a draft pick in 2018 and an additional pick in 2019 if Mrazek re-signs in Philly.

The initial pick was a fourth-rounder that becomes a third-rounder if Mrazek wins five regular-season games and the Flyers make the playoffs. The first condition was met with Sunday’s 6-3 win over Washington. It could become as high as a second if the Flyers make the Eastern Conference finals and Mrazek has six playoff wins.

Detroit, in rebuild mode, is hungry for draft picks and the conditions of the trade was their a showing of hope in Mrazek, who disappointed over the last couple years for the Red Wings. Upon his leaving town, it was clear that rumors of poor work ethic and attitude rubbed the organization the wrong way.

“Sometimes there’s things that I think about certain situations I can’t tell you people,” GM Ken Holland told reporters in Detroit. “I don’t think it’s fair to all the people involved.”

Isaac continues, and let’s just state what Holland intimated at his Mrazek presser: it is highly likely that Mrazek felt entitled to the #1 goaltender’s job, and Ken Holland has very specifically and very repeatedly said that he “doesn’t believe in entitlement.”

After the Wings anointed Mrazek their #1 goaltender, and told Howard that he’d be the back-up, Mrazek got a big contract, had a rough 2016-17 campaign, and pissed off management along the way, thus being exposed during the expansion draft.

It certainly appears that Holland accommodated Mrazek’s desire to exit the situation, and Mrazek himself suggested as much after he was traded…

So neither party was happy, and it’s probably better that Petr’s where Petr is now.

[edit/update: Here’s more about the Flyers from Philly.com’s Sam Carchidi:

As in Detroit, Mrazek has been inconsistent in his brief time with the Flyers, going 5-5-1 with a 3.14 goals-against average and an .888 save percentage. Rookie Alex Lyon, who is coming off Saturday’s 4-2 win in Carolina, is the other option for Tuesday’s game, but coach Dave Hakstol is expected to go with the more experienced Mrazek.

When he was traded, Mrazek said he realized right away that the Flyers had one more game in Detroit.

“It’s gonna be nice to get back, but when the game starts, it doesn’t matter who is on the other side,” Mrazek said. “We are going there to get some good results, and we have to build from there.”

After losing seven of eight games, the Flyers regrouped nicely over the weekend, winning in Carolina and whipping Washington. They sit in third place in the Metropolitan Division with nine games left.

Next they face a reeling Detroit team that is out of the playoff picture and has lost 10 straight, during which it has been outscored, 41-19. The Red Wings have allowed four goals or more in eight of their last nine games.

“It’s gonna be nice to be back in the town where I spent my first five or six years in the NHL, but now it’s the opposite [side],” Mrazek said. “It’s gonna be fun.”

/end edit]

2. The Athletic’s Topher Scott examined video to discuss “what ails the Red Wings.” While it’s difficult to translate non-embeddable videos to a blog format, here’s one of the issues that Scott feels is contributing to the Wings’ 0-9-and-1 streak:

A crazy bounce

A team suffering through a losing streak sometimes feels like it just can’t get any bounces to go its way. The Red Wings experienced that in the third period against Los Angeles, when we saw one of the strangest goals of the year take a terrible, unlucky bounce against Detroit.

I thought the Red Wings deserved to win. They outplayed the Kings in almost every facet of the game. But again, they couldn’t solve Jonathan Quick, who made countless big saves to keep the game close.

And then the goal in the following clip happened midway through the third period to give the Kings the lead:

Scott continues…

3. Of Twitter-related note, in the contest department…

In Plymouth…

In Grand Rapids…

Back at the NHL level, in the historical perspective department…

Speaking of which…

And this has nothing to do with hockey, but…free pizza is free pizza:

 

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George Malik

My name is George Malik, and I'm the Malik Report's editor/blogger/poster. I have been blogging about the Red Wings since 2006, when MLive hired me to work their SlapShots blog, and I joined Kukla's Korner in 2011 as The Malik Report. I'm starting The Malik Report as a stand-alone site, hoping that having my readers fund the website is indeed the way to go to build a better community and create better content.

3 thoughts on “More morning news: On a ‘revenge game,’ a weird bounce and Tweets of note”

  1. Putting aside the merits of one player or another and what they may or may not have earned or deserved, Holland might think he doesn’t believe in entitlement and might have said so on various occasions, but that’s got to be one of the risible statements to observers of the team over the past several years.

    I’m not even going to bother with counter-examples to prove his hypocrisy, because we all know them so well and have discussed them at great length.

    Mrazek is proving to still be a pretty wildly inconsistent player.
    Jimmy Howard hasn’t necessarily played terribly, but his numbers of record since the trade speak for themselves. I guess he’s exempted because he’s seen as a good soldier.

    It’ll be quite interesting to see where Mrazek’s career goes from here and what comes of the likely 3rd round pick.

    If Holland is moving on, I hope ownership is at least seriously open to bringing in the best available, experienced front office talent and not just promoting Holland’s helpers.

  3. I’ve been half rooting for the Wings to lose simply to improve the draft odds. However, I hope they blow the Flyers out of the building.

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