Members of UAW-Ford and former members of the Detroit Red Wings will take the ice in hopes of raising money to benefit a great cause.
The charity hockey game takes place at 2 p.m. Sunday, April 29 at Fraser Hockey Land — 34400 Utica Road in Fraser. One-hundred percent of proceeds go towards the Ted Lindsay Foundation for Autism, an organization created in 2001 by former Red Wing Ted Lindsay, and John Czarnecki, who is the father of a son with autism. The foundation has raised more than $3 million since being founded, according to its website.
Former Red Wings expected to play include Kris Draper, Kirk Maltby, Joe Kocur, Darren McCarty and more.
A 30-minute autograph session will take place before the game begins. The “Spike” Monster Truck will also be on display and concessions will be open.
Continued (with an embedded video of John Ogrodnick and UAW representative Angelo Sacino discussing the event)…
Red Wings legend Darren McCarty and his favorite Michigan comedians will keep the crowd laughing on Friday, April 27 in The Mezz located at Louie’s Sports Tavern and Polar Palace.
Audience members must prepare themselves as McCarty takes off the gloves and shares a night of stories and laughs. The show also features a Q& A and wraps with a Meet and Greet with McCarty in Louie’s Sports Tavern.
Also appearing on stage is local comedian Dustin Cole.
Tickets are $20 in advance and $25 at the door. The show beings at 8 p.m.
Givani Smith finished at -2 with 3 shots for Kitchener, which trails the OHL’s Western Conference Final series 2 games to 0;
And in the WHL, empty-netters count toward scoring streaks. Michael Rasmussen scored the empty-net insurance goal, finishing even with 3 shots as his Tri-City Americans won 5-3 over the Everett Silvertips.
Tri-City tied the WHL’s Western Conference Final at 1 game apiece.
Updated 5x with both teams’ recaps at 9:57 PM: The Grand Rapids Griffins dropped the first game of their best-of-five series against the Manitoba Moose, losing 3-2 in Winnipeg on Saturday afternoon.
Here’s a quick summary of Saturday’s game’s events, with much more to come as the Griffins and Moose (and their respective press corps) file their recaps:
Frans Nielsen is headlining the Danish ice hockey team as the Danes host the World Championship next month, and the Danish media’s spotlighting their first export to the NHL.
Nedtællingstorsdag. Om to dage – lørdag kl 18.25 ruller vores første program om livet som NHL-dansker over skærmen. Vi har besøgt Frans Nielsen i Detroit i det første program #isdkpic.twitter.com/6lDrkSrzHK
“December 7, 2016 will forever be the most difficult day for all of us,” Lisa Daniels told Congress. “That is the day we found out our beautiful son Jamie had died. Rumors surrounding his death circulated throughout our community, but Jamie’s story is not what anyone expected.”
Ken Daniels has willingly shared his son’s tragic tale with the public in the hopes that it will perhaps save the life of someone else who is struggling with addiction. Ken opened up about the tragedy via an E:60 documentary on ESPN and he and Lisa have formed the Jamie Daniels Foundation. Ken makes speaking appearances to tell their story and also utilizes the book we wrote together, If These Walls Could Talk: Detroit Red Wings as a fundraiser and a way to increase awareness of the evils not only of opioid addiction, but also to reveal the cottage industry that has developed to prey on the vulnerability of those battling to beat addiction.
Lisa Daniels spoke of how many times they watched Jamie relapse in his addiction to opioids, and how there seemed to be little in place in the way of aftercare for addicts seeking to kick the habit.
“We finally found help from a psychologist in Michigan, who at Jamie’s lowest point recommended he move to an inpatient treatment center in Florida,” Lisa explained. “After spending 10 days in the hospital in Michigan going through detox, where they weaned him off all the medication he was taking, less than 24 hours later he was on a plane to Florida.”
Duff continues, and again, this is a hard subject to discuss, but it’s very important as so many regular people suffer from opioid addiction.
The #MBMoose are just hours away from dropping the puck against Grand Rapids. Here’s play-by-play announcer Mitch Peacock to set up game one of the first round matchup #GoMooseGo#LetLoosepic.twitter.com/wcMV3W4C5p
GRIFFINS VS. MOOSE: The Griffins won six of eight against Manitoba, including all four in Winnipeg, and outscored them 26-17. One of the losses, however, was 7-2 at Van Andel Arena in October. It was the most allowed by the Griffins at home since April 18, 2015. On the flipside, the Griffins’ 5-0 win on Feb. 17 was Manitoba’s largest margin of defeat.
Individually, four players have six players against them: Turner Elson (2-4-6), Axel Holmstrom (2-4-6), Colin Campbell (1-5-6) and Evgeny Svechnikov (1-5-6).
The Moose are just 17-17-2-2 at home. They averaged just under 5,300 at the 8,812-seat Bell MTS Place in downtown Winnipeg.
GOAL SPREADER: Coach Todd Nelson looked around at his offense and it reminded the Griffins’ third-year coach of his Oklahoma City team from 2012-13.
“They scored by committee and that worked out,” he said of the Barons, who had eight players with at least 13 goals and the team made the conference finals.
The Griffins, without Matt Lorito and Dominic Turgeon for the postseason, still have the league’s fourth-leading goal scorer in Eric Tangradi (31-33-64), their top points leader in Ben Street (21-44-65) and two others with 20-plus goals in Matt Puempel (23-34-57 in 59 games) and Matthew Ford (22-16-38).
The Griffins took the third-most shots in the league with 32 a game.
Wallner continues, and he’s betting that Tom McCollum will start in goal today…
Sault Ste. Marie leads the OHL’s Western Conference Final 1 game to 0, and you can watch highlights of the game here;
And in the WHL, Michael Rasmussen scored a goal but finished at -2 on 4 shots, winning 2 of 4 faceoffs as his Tri-City Americans lost 3-2 to the Everett Silvertips.
Everett leads the WHL’s Western Conference Final 1 game to 0.
The Grand Rapids Griffins open their first-round, best-of-five playoff series against the Manitoba Moose tomorrow and Sunday in Winnipeg (both 3 PM EDT starts, on The AHL Live and ESPN 96.1 FM), and ahead of the series, three Wings pundits penned articles about the Griffins.
The Grand Rapids Griffins had to fight to make the AHL’s Calder Cup playoffs and they know it will be an equally difficult battle to defend their title.
On Dec. 21, the Griffins were five games under .500 at 10-15-1-3 and in seventh place in the Central Division, 23 points behind the first-place Manitoba Moose.
“Definitely there was a Calder Cup hangover,” Griffins coach Todd Nelson said on The Red and White Authority podcast on DetroitRedWings.com. “I think at the start of the year, the first two months we were trying to win games easy, not paying the price. Just stuff like that, not playing the game the right way, trying to take the easy way out. You pretty much expect that after a championship run but I didn’t expect it to last so long. But a few things happened. We were a bit banged up, we had guys out with injury, and at the middle of December we started to get guys back, they were healthy. Because during that span Ben Street was hurt, (Eric) Tangradi was hurt, (Matt) Puempel was hurt, key players to our offense. With that being said, right after that 21st game in Chicago, we lost, I think we were up in the game 3-0 and we lost, it was a tough pill for us to swallow.”
Wakiji continues, and she sources much of her material from Nelson and Griffins captain Matthew Ford’s interviews with Arthur J. Regner…
Can Hronek keep shining? Defenseman Filip Hronek shined in his first full year of pro hockey, scoring 11 goals among 39 points in 67 games and finishing second in scoring among AHL rookie defensemen. He ran one of the Griffins’ power play units, a good sign especially considering he is 20 years old. Can he keep doing it in the playoffs? He played only twice during last year’s run, so he doesn’t have much experience in the AHL playoffs.
X factors: The Griffins have reached at least the second round of the playoffs five years running. … One key returnee from last year is goaltender Jared Coreau. He went 15-4 in the 2017 playoffs, with a .909 save percentage and 2.84 goals-against average. In 12 games against Manitoba since 2015-16, Coreau is 8-3 with a 1.50 goals-against average. He shut out the Moose both times the Griffins played in Manitoba in February.
For what was an already great hockey market, last season’s championship run only solidified the Griffins’ standing in west Michigan and made the postseason party time around Van Andel Arena.
The weather helped, too.
“It was 80 degrees; this year’s there’s snow (outside),” defenseman Joe Hicketts said earlier this week.
But excitement over the possibility of another long playoff run trumps any kind of weather.
“We felt that fan support,” said Hicketts, a Griffins defenseman who was promoted to the Red Wings late in the season. “Whether it was the banners on restaurant walls or being recognized around town, this is a city that really supports its hockey, just like Detroit.”
And ahead of the Grand Rapids Griffins’ first-round series against the Manitoba Moose, which begins tomorrow at 3 PM EDT (on the AHL Live and ESPN 96.1 FM), DetroitRedWings.com’s Arthur J. Regner spoke with Griffins coach Todd Nelson:
