Month: February 2018

The Los Angeles Times’ Mark Ziegler penned a superb article about Red Wings ambassador Chris Chelios, who is currently serving as an assistant coach for the U.S. Olympic men’s hockey team:

Chelios retired in 2010 after 26 seasons and 1,651 games in the NHL, the most by a defenseman. He worked in the Detroit Red Wings front office for a while, as a Fox TV analyst and as an assistant coach for Team USA at international youth tournaments.

But mostly he hung out at his beachfront home in Malibu, went snowboarding in Utah, traveled around to watch his daughters play lacrosse at Northwestern and his son play minor league hockey with the Charlotte Checkers.

He was in Malibu in August, sitting on the deck, gazing out at the Pacific, when his cell phone buzzed. It was Jim Johannson, the general manager of USA Hockey and a former teammate at Wisconsin. Did he want to go to a fifth Olympics?

“From out of nowhere,” Chelios said. “It wasn’t like Jimmy Johannson had mentioned it to me or asked me if I’d be interested. I just got a call. Right away, yes. Really honored and thankful that these guys picked me.”

The obvious next step for Chelios, 56, is to become an NHL head coach, but he has never been an obvious sort of guy.

Continued

In the ECHL, the Toledo Walleye rallied from a 2-0 deficit against the Quad City Mallards on goals from Austen Brassard and A.J. Jenks…But the Mallards rallied with a 2-goal 3rd period, building a 4-2 deficit that the Walleye couldn’t quite squeeze, ultimately losing 4-3.

Erik Bradford had a goal and 2 assists for Toledo, and Matej Machovsky stopped 25 of 29 shots. The Walleye’s website posted a recap:

Continue reading Prospect round-up: Walleye lose to Mallards; Smith scores a goal for Kitchener

The Detroit Red Wings attempted to defeat a difficult opponent in the Toronto Maple Leafs on Sunday.

Detroit plain old got out-worked, out-hustled and out-scored in a 3-2 defeat in which the Maple Leafs’ Auston Matthews scored the gamer with only 31 seconds remaining in regulation time. The Wings took a 1-0 lead and rallied from a 2-1 deficit in the 3rd period, but the Wings tried to nurse a 2-2 tie to overtime, and they were out-worked and out-detailed by a tremendously talented team.

This was a weird game in many respects, and when Dylan Larkin is -3 and his linemates, Andreas Athanasiou and Tomas Tatar are -2, that’s not the greatest sign.

Mrazek was good but not great, the Wings’ decision to play 7 defense (Ouellet skated in a rare game) instead of going with Witkowski seemed to backfire, and this was just another one of those nights against an opponent that the Wings seemed to be unwilling to out-work.

And Leaf fans went wild:

Continue reading Red Wings-Maple Leafs quick take: burned late, out-hustled, out-worked, out-Matthews

FYI from MLive’s Ansar Khan:

Mike Green is day to day with an upper body injury. Expected to play this week, possibly Tuesday, Ken Holland said. #RedWings

— Ansar Khan (@AnsarKhanMLive) February 18, 2018

Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill spoke to the media prior to Sunday night’s game, and he praised Petr Mrazek’s stick-to-it-ive-ness in parlaying hard work tweaking his game into on-ice results, as noted by DetroitRedWings.com’s Dana Wakiji:

Hockeybuzz’s Bob Duff discusses possible trades involving the now-usual Red Wings subjects of trade rumors–Mike Green, Luke Glendening, Jimmy Howard, Petr Mrazek, Gustav Nyquist and Xavier Ouellet:

Mike Green: Headed for unrestricted free agency, it will be a shock if the Wings don’t move Green. Washington, his previous home, has long been rumored as a destination – Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin has lobbied loudly for Green’s return to the U.S. capital – but there’s a new team on the horizon who look to be the front runners in the Green sweepstakes.

That would be the Tampa Bay Lightning. It’s interesting that Green was scratched from Saturday’s 3-1 win at Nashville with what was reported as an upper-body injury, because according to NHL sources, Wings general manager Ken Holland and Lightning GM Steve Yzerman are well along the trail in talks to work out the details to make this move happen. Detroit’s price is high. The Wings would love to land a first-round draft pick, and with the Lightning entering the playoffs as favorites to cop the Stanley Cup, that could be a price they are prepared to pay.

Although he’s stated a desire to remain in Detroit, Green would be willing to waive his no-trade clause for an opportunity to go to a Cup contender.

Duff continues…

The Under-18 Five Nations Tournament just wrapped up in Plymouth, MI this past week, and Detroit Red Wings assistant GM Ryan Martin took in the tournament. Today, Martin spoke with the Free Press’s George Sipple regarding top prospects who participated in the tournament:

Forward Oliver Wahlstrom: Wahlstrom, 17, scored two goals and six assists for eight points in four games for USA. Committed to Harvard, he’s ranked seventh among North American skaters by NHL Central Scouting’s mid-term rankings.

“I thought he got better as the tournament went on,” Martin said. “At times, he was trying to be too individualistic.”

Forward Jack Hughes: Hughes, 16, had three goals and four assists in four games for USA. He could be the top pick in the 2019 draft. His brother, Quinn, plays at Michigan.

 “At times, (Hughes) was the best player on the ice, regardless of the competition,” Martin said. “I thought he was excellent. You wouldn’t have known he was a year younger than much of the competition there. To me, hands down he was one of the top two or three players in the tournament, for sure.”

Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill and Toronto Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock spoke with the media ahead of tonight’s game between the Red Wings and Maple Leafs.

First up, Blashill:

#RedWings Blashill said Green definitely out tonight but declined to name starting goaltender or say whether Witkowski plays again.

— Dana Wakiji (@Dwakiji) February 18, 2018

Although #RedWings Blashill wouldn’t say for sure, I’d think Witkowski plays again and most likely Mrazek too.

— Dana Wakiji (@Dwakiji) February 18, 2018

Coach Blashill confirms Mike Green (upper-body) is out tonight. All other lineup decisions will be made after warmups. #RedWings#TORvsDET

— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) February 18, 2018

Then Babcock:

Continue reading Pre-game Blash, pre-game Babs and Game Day Preview videos

The Detroit Red Wings host the Toronto Maple Leafs this evening (7:00 PM EST on FSD/Sportsnet/97.1 FM).

Toronto has won 9 of its past 11 games, but the Leafs dropped a 5-3 decision to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday; the Red Wings defeated the Nashville Predators on Saturday night, but the Wings need to be aware of Auston Matthews (who Terry Koshan reports has a 40% shooting percentage against Detroit) and company as the Leafs will bring their speed game to Detroit.

Neither team held a morning skate (Toronto got into town around 1 AM and Detroit didn’t return home until 2 AM) so, to tide you over:

AWood40 posted a 10-minute, annotated clip of last night’s Wings-Preds game…

Continue reading Red Wings-Maple Leafs no-morning-skate news round-up

In the AHL, Dominic Turgeon scored his first hat trick as the Grand Rapids Griffins swept the Manitoba Moose, winning 5-0.

Turgeon scored a “natural” hat trick (consecutive goals), Eric Tangradi had a goal and an assist and Jared Coreau pitched a 38-save shutout.

The Griffins’ website posted a recap:

Continue reading Prospect round-up: Turgeon scores hat trick in Griffins’ win; Walleye double up K-Zoo; Sulak 1+1+shootout winner, Larsson stops 41