Month: September 2019

The Detroit Red Wings face the Dallas Stars for the Matthew Wuest Memorial Cup today at 5 PM EDT, and you can watch the game on Fox Sports GO or the Red Wings’ YouTube channel:

The Wings’ broadcast will begin at 4:30 PM EDT.

“We didn’t come here to lose.” #RedWings, Stars 5:00p for the ?. #DRWPT #LGRW pic.twitter.com/hMzLtnRez7— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) September 10, 2019

Update: Here are the teams’ lineups, per The Athletic’s Sean Shapiro:

Stars lineup for championship game vs Detroit pic.twitter.com/u0aLBw00Wq

— Sean Shapiro (@seanshapiro) September 10, 2019

And the Detroit lineup pic.twitter.com/8I2Wkyvu2H

— Sean Shapiro (@seanshapiro) September 10, 2019

Deadline Detroit’s Paul Harris is a long-time hockey writer, and Harris discusses some of the changes Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman has brought to the team, including the hiring of Mike Barwis as the team’s “director of sports science and human performance”:

Barwis, who held a similar job at the University of Michigan from 2007-10 – coming from West Virginia with football coach Rich Rodriguez – said the Red Wings made the change because Yzerman wants to do everything possible to allow each player to be the absolute best they can be.

That might imply that Detroit’s strength and conditioning was subpar under former GM Ken Holland, but Barwis says that’s not the case.

The intent is for the methods of sports science and analytics to add to the traditional way that the Wings and other NHL teams have approached conditioning, injury recovery and maintenance.

“It used to be only players in a weight room with a strength and conditioning coach and a trainer,” Barwis said. “But we’re adding some scientific evaluation tools and a few more people to help them.”

Longtime head athletic trainer Piet Van Zant remains in that position. Mike Kadar, who had been the team’s strength and conditioning coach since 2015, had already left the team before Barwis was hired. Rob Campbell replaces Kadar.

Continued

Updated at 1:22 PM: The Detroit Red Wings’ community tour stopped in Flint today, and WJRT ABC 12 has a report regarding the Wings’ activities:

Some Detroit Red Wings faced off against Flint firefighters Tuesday in a street hockey playoff.

Dylan Larkin, Andreas Athanasiou, Anthony Mantha, and Tyler Bertuzzi visited the fire department as part of the Hockeytown Cares Community Tour.

“What the Flint Fire Department has here is pretty special and made us feel at home,” Larkin said.

The Red Wings also toured the central fire station on East Fifth Street with Flint firefighter Rico Phillips, who received the NHL’s Willie O’Ree Community Hero Award this year.

“To come here and meet all these firefighters, they risk their lives every day for us and it’s nice to meet them,” Bertuzzi said.

The four Red Wing stars also brought a $5,000 donation with them for the Flint Inner City Youth Hockey Program, which Phillips manages.

Continued; on Twitter:

Continue reading Red Wings’ community tour visits Flint Fire Department, donates $5,000 to Flint Inner City Youth Hockey program

The Oakland Press’s Pat Caputo suggests that Red Wings fans and the media will be watching Ken Holland’s Edmonton Oilers over the next few seasons to see whether he can do a better job rebuilding a team than Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman:

The comparisons between the two organizations are many at this stage. Take, for example, the 2018 NHL Draft. The Red Wings passed on some potential high-end defensemen when Filip Zadina fell into their lap at sixth overall. One of those defensemen, Evan Bouchard, could make his Edmonton debut this season. He was very impressive in the AHL playoffs last spring.

This past draft, Yzerman opted for German defenseman Moritz Seider sixth overall. In the process, he passed on Swedish defenseman Philip Broberg, who was snapped up two picks later by Holland and the Oilers.

The Oilers and Red Wings are two of the NHL’s most-celebrated franchises.

It will be fascinating to see what direction each takes with such familiar faces at the top of the administrative chain under these particular

MLive’s Ansar Khan examines Red Wings trade acquisition Adam Erne this morning, issuing a season outlook for the rough-and-tumble forward:

2019-20 outlook: New general manager Steve Yzerman traded for a player he drafted 33rd overall in 2013 to provide depth on the bottom two lines. Erne will provide a physical presence and might occasionally drop the gloves (one of his four career NHL fighting majors was against new teammate Andreas Athanasiou).

Erne doesn’t figure to kill penalties but saw limited power-play time in Tampa Bay (30 seconds per game) and could be used in that capacity with the Red Wings on occasion.

Continued

The Detroit Red Wings’ prospects advanced to the championship game of their prospect tournament for the second year in a row, defeating the Toronto Maple Leafs’ prospects 7-4.

The 2-0-and-1 Red Wings can win the Matthew Wuest Memorial Cup by defeating the 2-and-1 Dallas Stars (Dallas defeated the Columbus Blue Jackets 5-3 on Monday night) in Tuesday’s championship game. Tuesday’s game starts at 5 PM EDT, and it will air on Fox Sports GO and the Red Wings’ YouTube channel.

If you wish to watch the Red Wings-Leafs game in its entirety, it’s available on the Wings’ YouTube channel…

While the Maple Leafs’ website posted a 4:13 highlight clip:

Continue reading Impressions from the Red Wings’ win over the Toronto Maple Leafs at the prospect tournament ’19

The Hockey News’s Ryan Kennedy has been taking in the Red Wings’ prospect tournament in Traverse City, MI, and Ellis has taken note of the free-spirited, free-wheeling Moritz Seider, who is most certainly a fan favorite and is also most certainly making a name for himself at the prospect tournament:

As the Traverse City tournament winds down, the next mission for Seider will be challenging for time at Detroit’s main camp. Seider spent the summer training with his German squad, Adler Mannheim, and he was very complimentary of the conditioning coaches over there, not to mention the organization itself. But he could stay in North America even if he doesn’t make the Red Wings, as he is eligible to play in the AHL with Grand Rapids. Because of his two-way game, he could help the Griffins right away, but the AHL would also be a good challenge because as [Wings director of player development Kris] Draper noted, Seider still needs to get stronger and can sometimes get in trouble defensively when going up against older players who can push back on his 6-foot-4, 207-pound frame. Of course, most of Draper’s thoughts on Seider are overwhelmingly positive.

“The one thing I’ve noticed is how hard he passes the puck,” Draper said. “For an 18-year-old kid, he snaps his passes. Our player development guys, Shawn Horcoff and Dan Cleary, that’s something they talk to the younger guys about; passing the puck harder. And Moritz gets it.”

Wherever Seider ends up this fall, he’s bound to make fans. And unless he becomes indispensable to the Red Wings, he’ll also get an incredible opportunity at the world juniors, where Germany is back in the top grouping after winning promotion from Division 1A last year (in large part to Seider’s efforts, unsurprisingly). In the meantime, the kid that most folks didn’t know anything about during the draft, is making his name known in Michigan. And while he may not know who he’ll be playing for yet, he knows nothing is given; it has to be earned.

“That’s what it’s all about, you have to wait until main camp is over,” Seider said. “Now it’s about working my ass off every single day, trying to be a better hockey player and making the team.”

Continued

If you so wish, you may watch the Detroit Red Wings’ 7-4 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs as the team has archived the game broadcast on YouTube:

The Detroit Red Wings’ prospects defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs’ prospects 7-4, and the Wings will advance to the prospect tournament championship game tomorrow, playing the Dallas Stars at 5 PM EDT (on Fox Sports GO and the Red Wings’ YouTube channel).

The Red Wings lost Alec Regula to what appeared to be a concussive hit halfway through the 1st period, and managed to rally from a deficit while playing 5 defensemen. Moritz Seider and Gustav Lindstrom played the vast majority of the night, or so it seemed!

After the game, Chase Pearson spoke with the media regarding his hat trick performance and the importance of secondary scoring in the Wings’ win…

Continue reading Red Wings beat Toronto 7-4, advance to championship game; post-game audio from Pearson, Hirose, Romeo and coach Simon

Red Wings prospect Moritz Seider told DetroitRedWings.com’s Arthur J. Regner that he would prefer to play in North America this upcoming season, and Hockeybuzz’s Bob Duff has more on Seider’s remarks:

“It’s probably not Germany anymore,” Seider told Detroitredwings.com. “I decided for myself probably staying in the States for a couple years now.”

His objective is to carve out a place for himself on the Red Wings blueline. Should that not come to fruition, Seider is of the opinion that the best landing spot for him in terms of future development is with Detroit’s top farm club, the AHL Grand Rapids Griffins.

“First of all, it should be about making the team 100 percent,” Seider said. “That’s why I’m here. If that’s not possible, I think Detroit has a great AHL team. Grand Rapids is just two hours away. Maybe that’s the best way, stepping on the small ice.”

The assumption immediately after the draft was that if Seider didn’t make the Wings, he’d likely return to play again with Adler Mannheim in Germany’s top pro league. That’s where he spent the 2018-19 season. But he doesn’t view that as a very likely outcome.

“It’s probably the third possibility,” Seider said. “Just a low percentage. There’s always an outlet in Germany, that’s for sure. But first of all, it should be Grand Rapids or Detroit.”

Continued, and for what it’s worth, the Adler Mannheim have been planning on a Seider-less defense for a couple of months now, too.