Month: December 2020

I apologize for the inconvenience in coverage over the past two days, but my anxiety attack hasn’t really lifted, and I’ve been unable to do just about anything of late. I’ve been confined to bed minus a quick trip out to pick up a prescription for Aunt Annie, and I hope that this evening brings better results work-wise, but I may not be able to get back behind the computer for another 24-48 hours.

I’m sorry about this and I wish the timing wasn’t so shitty. Living with anxiety sometimes means that the illness controls you, and I’m fighting hard to wrest back control of my perceptions and feelings from my disease. The fact that it’s stirred up my depression doesn’t help, but that’s part of the cycle as it pertains to my illnesses.

In any case, I’ll be back as soon as I possibly can return. This is a real pain in the ass for me, too.

My apologies for the lack of coverage on Monday afternoon/evening. I had a really severe, sustained anxiety attack that hit me quite hard and sent me into bed for the afternoon and evening. I took my extra anxiety medication to help knock things down, but my medication provided little to no relief, and I was unable to recover this evening.

Living with a pair of mental illnesses in anxiety and depression is not exactly fun, and most days, I can manage them, but there are times that they manage me instead, and they kicked my butt on Monday. I’m going to do my best to catch up and get back to normal on Tuesday, depending on when this damn thing subsides.

I’m sorry for any inconvenience caused by this issue.

The Red Wings have posted a link to what will be a live stream of Wings coach Jeff Blashill’s pre-training camp comments to the media, starting today at 1 PM EST:

Red Wings prospect and Frolunda Indians forward Elmer Soderblom scored one hell of a goal at the World Junior Championship this past Saturday, and Aftonbladet’s Anton Johansson was able to catch up with both Elmer himself and his mother, Susanne, regarding Soderblom’s goal and his upbringing.

We know it's only 2 days in, but this goal from Elmer Soderblom is a solid contender for goal of the #WorldJuniors. @Trekronorse @DetroitRedWings pic.twitter.com/7xSduLaVtz

— IIHF (@IIHFHockey) December 26, 2020

What follows is roughly translated from Swedish.

First, here’s what Soderblom had to say about his goal…

MLive’s Ansar Khan posted an article which discusses Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman’s recent comments regarding his players’ readiness for training camp some nine-and-three-quarters’ months after they last played a competitive hockey game:

Detroit Red Wings general manager Steve Yzerman, while discussing the long offseason and training challenges presented by the pandemic, said in the summer “We’ll see who wants to be a hockey player.”

They are about to find out as training camp begins Thursday at Little Caesars Arena. It will be the first time since March 11 players and coaches will be together formally as a team on the ice.

“It was somewhat directed at all players but mainly at the younger guys,” Yzerman said. “In the summertime, throughout the fall, you could find a lot of reasons why you couldn’t skate, why you couldn’t go to the gym. These guys could make an excuse. My point was to find a way and we’ll help you find a way.”

When the Red Wings open their 56-game season Jan. 14 against Carolina at LCA they will have gone more than 10 months between games. Most of the team has been skating informally at LCA for many weeks. Several young players are in game shape after playing in Europe the past few months.

Yzerman changed one-third of the roster following a season in which the Red Wings finished 23 points behind the next-worst team. They still figure to be at or near the bottom of their temporarily realigned division that includes Carolina, Chicago, Columbus, Dallas, Florida, Nashville and Tampa Bay, but that doesn’t change what Yzerman wants to see.

Continued

Sportsnet’s Nick Alberga filed a list of his top 250 fantasy hockey players available for poolies to draft this season, and three Red Wings players made his list:

69. Anthony Mantha, LW/RW, Detroit Red Wings
Injury-riddled 2019-20 season, but still scored 16 goals and 38 points in 43 games; had a long off-season to rest and train.

…

105. Dylan Larkin, C, Detroit Red Wings
Someone needs to score in Detroit.

…

110. Tyler Bertuzzi, LW/RW, Detroit Red Wings
Multi-category coverage; sleeper candidate.

Continued; I’m a little surprised that Filip Hronek didn’t crack the top 250.

Red Wings defenseman Jon Merrill appears on this week’s episode of Fox Sports Detroit’s The Third Half with Brooke Fletcher, starting at the 8:20 mark of the 13:26 clip:

This is good news to hear:

Justin Abdelkader, whom Detroit bought out in Oct, has also drawn interest from a number of teams. As of this morning, it didn't sound like a deal was imminent. I'd suspect talks could pick up this week as camps open.

— David Pagnotta (@TheFourthPeriod) December 27, 2020

Of prospect-related note:

In Belarus, Kirill Tyutyayev finished even with 2 shots in Yunost Minsk’s 3-1 loss to Dynamo-Molodenko;

In the Finnish Liiga, Victor Brattstrom stopped 28 of 32 shots as KooKoo lost 4-3 in overtime to Ilves;

In the Swedish Allsvenskan, the Gustav Berglund-less Vasteras IK lost 3-2 to Vita Hasten;

Malte Setkov finished even with 1 blocked shot in 21:17 played as AIK Stockholm lost 4-3 to Mora IK;

In NCAA Hockey, Keith Petruzzelli stopped 24 of 26 shots as the Quinnipiac Bobcats won 3-2 over American International University. Quinnipiac won all three games they played this past weekend, and Petruzzelli was their goaltender of note in all three games.

At the World Junior Championship: Eemil Viro finished at +1 with 3 shots and a penalty taken in 16:41 played as Finland won 4-1 over Switzerland:

And Jan Bednar did not dress for the Czechs, who won 2-0 over Russia.

On Monday, the Red Wings’ Swedish contingent will battle Austria at 6 PM EST.