Month: March 2018

David Pope receives a plug from the Hockey News

Among The Hockey News’s Matt Larkin’s “Prospect Need to Know”-listed players:

David Pope, LW, University of Nebraska-Omaha Mavericks (NCHC) – Pope has used his time in college very well. The 6-foot-3, 194-pound senior is a lot stronger than he was coming into Omaha, while his skills and skating have also developed. The Detroit Red Wings pick was one of the NCHC’s top scorers with 40 points in 33 games (including a league-leading 20 goals) and now he and the Mavs have a conference tourney date with North Dakota. NHL arrival: 2019-20

The Red Wings are highly likely to sign Pope, who has developed from a 6’2,” 150-pound pure sniper into the player he is today.

Pope and the University of Nebraska-Omaha will take on Western Michigan University in the WCHA playoffs this upcoming weekend.

If his playoff season ends early, the Grand Rapids Griffins could sign Pope to an amateur try-out.

One more reminder about “Hockey, Hops and Hope”

In case you haven’t seen the press releases, the Grand Rapids Griffins are holding their annual “Hockey, Hops and Hope” event this evening:

 

Prospect round-up: JvP’s HC Davos wraps up regular season

One Red Wings prospect took part in a game on Monday:

In the Swiss NLA,  Joren van Pottelberghe served as the back-up in HC Davos’ regular-season finale, a 5-0 loss to HC Lugano.

HC Davos will be playing EHC Biel in the NLA playoffs, starting on Saturday.

Joren had a so-so regular season, posting a 3.01 goals-against average and .905 save percentage in 24 games played. He’s only 20, however, so he’ll most likely get more opportunity to play going forward.

 

Red Wings-Bruins set-up: Wings hope to snap losing streak vs. Bruins

The Detroit Red Wings will attempt to snap a 3-game losing streak while battling a team that’s had the Wings’ number since Detroit moved to the Eastern Conference.

Tonight, the Wings battle the Boston Bruins at the TD Garden (7:00 PM EST on NBCSN/Sportsnet/TVA Sports/NESN/97.1 FM), and the Bruins have won 7 straight games over the Wings in Boston; the 40-15-and-8 Bruins also sit some 26 points ahead of the Wings in the Eastern Conference standings.

While the Red Wings have lost their past 3 games and 6 of their past 8, the Bruins have won 3 straight and 5 of their past 7, with their most recent win coming in the form of a 2-1 OT victory over the Canadiens this past Saturday.

The Wings may be catching the Bruins at the right time, however: they’ll play without Charlie McAvoy (lower-body injury), Patrice Bergeron (broken foot) and Tuukka Rask (lower-body injury).

McAvoy was injured on Saturday, and there is great concern about the young defenseman’s injury, as the Boston Herald’s Rich Thompson noted:

Continue reading Red Wings-Bruins set-up: Wings hope to snap losing streak vs. Bruins

Articles (and Tweets) from an optional practice: Wings gear up for Bruins while looking for goals

Updated 2x at 3:56 PM: The Red Wings held an optional practice ahead of tomorrow’s match-up with the slightly banged-up Boston Bruins (see: no Charlie McAvoy, Patrice Bergeron or Tuukka Rask).

Articles from said practice were quite late-breaking, so I’m going to squeeze a couple of Krupa Tweets into this entry:

Continue reading Articles (and Tweets) from an optional practice: Wings gear up for Bruins while looking for goals

Meanwhile, in the ECHL…

Per the Toledo Blade’s Mark Monroe:

 

The Athletic’s Scott on the Tomas Tatar trade

The Athletic’s Topher Scott discusses the Tomas Tatar trade to Vegas, suggesting that the Red Wings “won” the deal (via significant video analysis):

The Red Wings lost a player with a lot of ability in their trade of Tatar. He played on their top two lines and he played on their power play. But … he didn’t play like that all the time.

In too many games, I wanted more. I could see the high-end ability he could bring to the team. I just didn’t see it as much as I would have liked. As any Red Wings fan would tell you having listened to Mike Babcock and Jeff Blashill over the past decade, CONSISTENCY is the attribute coaches crave the most.

Continued (paywall)…

Tweets from practice: It’s an ‘optional’ sort of day as Wings prepare for banged-up Bruins

The Red Wings flew from Minneapolis to Boston after last night’s 4-1 loss to the Minnesota Wild, and as the Boston Bruins juggle injuries to Charlie McAvoy (out Tuesday) and Tuukka Rask (probably out Tuesday)…

The Wings held an optional practice, per DetroitRedWings.com’s Dana Wakiji:

The Red Wings also said, “Hello”…

In more ways than one…

As did the Detroit News’s Gregg Krupa…

Continue reading Tweets from practice: It’s an ‘optional’ sort of day as Wings prepare for banged-up Bruins

Griffins profile veteran defenseman Brian Lashoff

From Griffinshockey.com’s Mark Newman:

His teammates joke that he’s been playing in Grand Rapids for 20 years. And while his tenure with the Griffins hasn’t quite reached even half that amount of time, he indeed has been playing in the Red Wings organization for the better part of a decade.

Brian Lashoff has appeared in more regular season games as a Griffin than any player except Travis Richards and in more postseason contests than anyone but Nathan Paetsch. It’s easy to forget that Lashoff, now in his ninth season in Grand Rapids, is still only 27 years old.

The native of Albany, N.Y., signed with Detroit as an undrafted free agent defenseman at the age of 18 and made his pro debut for the Griffins late in the 2008-09 campaign. He tallied five points in six regular season games then added five more points in eight playoff contests, before returning to Kingston of the Ontario Hockey League for his final junior season in 2009-10.

Admittedly, he was not the player that he would eventually become. Now considered one of the most dependable defenseman ever to don a Griffins jersey, the young Lashoff was willing to take risks for the sake of points.

“Coming out of junior hockey, I was a little more of an offensive player, but I had holes in my game,” Lashoff said. “This is a good league that will expose those holes, so I matured a lot by playing with and against good players.”

Continued

 

Via the Walleye comes a report about Matej Machovsky’s recall to the AHL

Via the Toledo Walleye’s Twitter account,  Toledo-based BCSN’s Zachery J. Harig posted a report regarding Matej Machovsky’s recall to Grand Rapids after his friend, Petr Mrazek, was traded to the Philadelphia Flyers: