Filip Zadina is asking fans to vote for his goal scored against Red Wings teammate Filip Hronek for the “Golden Helmet” award on Hokej.cz. The “Zlata helma Sencor” award names the best play in the Czech Extraliga for a given month, with the monthly winners advancing to the year’s top play awards.
https://t.co/5Z2FMLUt5x You can vote here 🙂 thanks guys ! pic.twitter.com/aaSK8ukpRp
— Filip Zadina (@zadina_filip) December 3, 2020
The last couple of months have been up-and-down health-wise, but I’ve ground through the challenges to try and produce regular content for you.
I’m facing a difficult December in terms of paying the bills, so I hate to do it, but I have to ask whether any of you might be willing to help support the blog as I attempt to plain old pay the bills and afford groceries this month.
If you’re able to lend a hand, you can do so via Paypal at https://paypal.me/TheMalikReport, via Giftly by using my email address, rtxg@yahoo.com, or by Venmo at https://venmo.com/George-Malik-2. No donation is too small!
As always, thank you for your time and your readership.
Update: As suggested by TMR reader JOE-verthinking on Twitter, you can totally “donate” a couple of bucks for a Diet Mountain Dew or something small on Venmo and designate that as fundraising, and that would be great…
From DetroitRedWings.com’s Josh Berenter:
Continue reading Press release: ‘Red Wings and Tigers introduce Virtual Trivia Nights series’Red Wings and Tigers introduce Virtual Trivia Nights series
Trivia series includes five separate events with opportunities for Red Wings and Tigers players to join teams
DETROIT – The Detroit Red Wings are constantly brainstorming creative ways to keep their loyal fans engaged throughout the offseason, providing fans with unique experiences and access to Wings players when they’re off the ice.
The Red Wings’ newest fan-engagement initiative is a Virtual Trivia Nights series, presented by DTE Energy, where the Detroit Red Wings Foundation and Detroit Tigers Foundation are teaming up to test fans on their knowledge of the Red Wings and Tigers, as well as Detroit trivia and general pop culture.
Starting Thursday, December 10, fans are invited to team up with friends, family, coworkers or all of the above and compete from home for a chance to win a $1,000 championship grand prize, as well as exclusive Red Wings and Tigers merchandise and major bragging rights!
Per the Detroit Red Wings:
Today’s episode of The Word on Woodward features Evgeny Svechnikov, Jeff Blashill, The Athletic’s Max Bultman and more!
If you’re interested, head on over to The Athletic for the results of Max Bultman’s Red Wings fan survey:
The results of our Red Wings fan survey 2.0, including what fans thought of the offseason moves, 2021 predictions, and more: https://t.co/pQd3JO05rW— Max Bultman (@m_bultman) December 3, 2020
Via Aftonbladet’s Mattias Karlsson, the Swedish Ice Hockey Association named its preliminary World Junior Championship team this morning, naming 34 players to what will eventually be a 25-man roster.
Red Wings prospects Lucas Raymond (Frolunda), Albert Johansson (Farjestad), William Wallinder (MODO), Albin Grewe (Djurgarden), Theodor Niederbach (Frolunda) and Elmer Soderblom (Frolunda) [edit: and Gustav Berglund (Vasteras) /end edit] were all named to the team.
The team will gather in Sundsvall on December 7th to begin their training camp, and they head to Edmonton to enter the Canadian “bubble” on December 14th. The World Junior Championship begins on December 25th.
Update: Soderblom, who’s been bothered by a foot injury, tells Rakapuckar.com’s Henrik Leman that he’s going to be good to go for the WJC camp.
Update #2: Via Kukla’s Korner, here’s NHL.com’s Mike G. Morreale on the Swedish team:
Continue reading Raymond, Johansson, Wallinder, Grewe, Berglund, Niederbach and Soderblom named to Swedish preliminary World Junior Championship rosterOf prospect-related note:
In the ICE Hockey League, Michael Rasmussen finished at -2 with 2 shots in the Graz99ers’ 4-3 shootout loss to the Vienna Capitals. Calvin Pickard didn’t suit up for Vienna’s netminding tandem;
In the Finnish Liiga, Victor Brattstrom stopped 15 of 16 shots as KooKoo won 6-1 over Assat Pori. Otto Kivenmaki finished at -2 with 2 shots in 16:42 played; Kasper Kotkansalo finished at -1 with 3 shots in 22:25 played;
In the Swedish Allsvenskan, Gustav Lindstrom had an assist and finished at +1 in 21:30 played as Almtuna IS won 2-1 over Vita Hasten. Filip Larsson served as the back-up goaltender;
William Wallinder played 18:56 in MODO Hockey’s 3-2 shootout win over Sodertalje SK;
Update: Gustav Berglund played 13:52 in Vasteras IK’s 5-1 win over Mora IK;
And tonight, in NCAA Division I Hockey, Antti Tuomisto and the University of Denver will battle Minnesota-Duluth at 8:35 PM EST.
Update: Tuomisto finished even with no shots in the University of Denver Pioneers’ 2-1 loss to Minnesota-Duluth.
The Athletic’s Marc-Antoine Godin revisits the Patrick Roy trade some 25 years after the Massacre in Montreal, and he reveals discusses the fact that a certain Red Wings goaltender helped spurn Roy to ask the Canadiens for a trade:
In 2015, during an interview I published in La Presse that year, former goalie Mike Vernon told me what happened one morning in Montreal when he stopped for breakfast at the Casse-Croûte du Coin – or Moe’s Diner as it was better known in some circles. A popular breakfast spot for hockey people a stone’s throw from the Forum, the restaurant shut its doors the same week the Roy trade celebrated its 20th anniversary.
A Calgary native, Vernon had led his hometown team to its first Stanley Cup in 1989 and had become a local hero of sorts. But eventually, the weight of that environment had become too heavy and he had asked the Flames to trade him, which they did in 1994 when they sent him to the Red Wings for defenceman Steve Chiasson.
So Vernon was still with the Red Wings a year later when he entered the semi-basement restaurant on De Maisonneuve Blvd. when suddenly, he noticed Roy.
“Patrick sat at the counter, he was getting ready to settle the bill,” Vernon told me. “There was a free seat next to him and he motioned for me to sit down. He wanted to talk.”
The two men had never really spoken. What an incredible coincidence that these two men would cross paths on this particular morning, brought together by bacon and eggs and a basket of toast cut into triangles, at the very moment Roy needed someone to confide in. He spoke to Vernon about the pressure of Montreal, how he had thoughts of retiring now that he had turned 30, the stifling expectations he lived with.
“It might be time for you to ask for a trade,” Vernon, perhaps the one person who understood Roy’s predicament the most, suggested to him.
Continued (paywall)
The Free Press’s Helene St. James discusses the current fluidity of a January 1 start to the 2020-2021 NHL season:
The Detroit Pistons have an exhibition game scheduled for next week at Little Caesars Arena, as the NBA is forging ahead amid surging COVID-19 numbers.
Which beckons the question: When are we going to see the Detroit Red Wings in action again?
When the NHL staged a delayed, virtual draft in early October, commissioner Gary Bettman announced Jan. 1 was the target date for the 2020-21 season. Now, that’s less than a month away and there are no games scheduled. Starting in early January means training camps would have to begin in mid-December. That’s looking less likely with each day that passes.
The NHL and NHL Players Association are fighting over money. The PA’s position is that a four-year extension to the collective bargaining agreement was ratified in July, and the terms are set forth in a Memorandum of Understanding. That seemed to signal there’d be labor peace at least through 2025-26.
But that was five months ago, and now the league is looking at a compressed schedule. The 2021 playoffs need to be finished before July 23, when the Summer Olympics are scheduled to commence. NBC holds the broadcasting rights to both events.
When the NHL season does start up, it’s expected to feature geographical realignments instead of the usual format. Travel restrictions between the U.S. and Canada would mean all seven Canadian teams would be in one division. Detroit is expected to be in a division that would include Chicago, Columbus, Florida, Nashville, Pittsburgh, St. Louis and Tampa Bay.
This morning the Athletic’s Max Bultman has posted an article discussing Red Wings prospect Moritz Seider’s progress made while playing for Rogle BK of the SHL. Thus far, Rogle’s coach, Cam Abbott, tells Bultman that Seider’s played quite well:
“He’s ahead of his age as a defenseman in terms of his decision-making,” Abbott said by phone this week. “I mean, he’s got, I want to say a roundness to his game. He’s got a lot of different attributes that make him good in our league, and that will continue to make him good at the next level.”
Seider, at just 19, is now in his third professional league in three seasons. He has transitioned from the larger European ice sheet to the narrower North American one, and now back. He is also playing and living in his third country in that span.
Through all of it, though, the comments from those watching and coaching him continue to echo.
“He’s got the right attitude and he’s got the head for the game,” Abbott said. “He’s got the skating, I think (that) is very important, so it’s not a limiting factor there. So, I don’t want to blow this kid up too much, but I would venture to say it’ll be exciting to watch him play in the NHL, and the sky is the limit if he keeps working and improving.”
Continued (paywall)
