Month: January 2021

Former Red Wings goaltender Jimmy Howard spoke with Fox 2’s Jennifer Hammond on Friday, engaging in an 8-minute-long interview in which he discusses his decision to retire from hockey:

From the Grand Rapids Griffins comes this press release announcing that the Griffins will open training camp at Van Andel Arena on Sunday, January 31st:

GRIFFINS TO OPEN TRAINING CAMP SUNDAY

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – The Grand Rapids Griffins will commence their 25th training camp this Sunday, Jan. 31 with a 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. practice at Van Andel Arena.

Head coach Ben Simon’s squad will hold practices at the same time Monday through Thursday, as the Griffins prepare to open the 2020-21 season on the road next Friday, Feb. 5 against the Chicago Wolves at 8 p.m. EST. Grand Rapids will play its first four games in hostile territory before returning to Van Andel Arena on Saturday, Feb. 20 for Opening Night presented by Huntington, when the Cleveland Monsters will provide the opposition at 4 p.m.

The Griffins’ training camp roster will be announced on Sunday via the team’s social media channels.

While the Griffins remain hopeful for the potential to host fans at Van Andel Arena at some point, it is anticipated that the season will begin without fans in attendance. Fans are encouraged to watch the games via a subscription to AHLTV ($34.99 for all 30 Griffins games), tune in on Newsradio WOOD 106.9 FM/1300 AM, and follow the team’s social media channels. Important information for Griffins season ticket members is available at griffinshockey.com.

NHL.com asked 9 staff writers to weigh in as to the “most surprising player” in the NHL this season, and Boston-based Amalie Benjamin picked Red Wings forward Bobby Ryan:

Bobby Ryan, Detroit Red Wings

I expected Ryan to help the Red Wings — I called it my favorite signing of Oct. 9, the first day of free agency this offseason — but I didn’t expect him to make this much of an impact already. The forward has scored four goals in seven games; the Red Wings have 16 as a team. He scored eight points (five goals, three assists) in 24 games with the Ottawa Senators last season. Ryan recently said that a fresh start was welcome for him, after he took an extended leave of absence last season to enter the NHL/NHLPA player assistance program. He returned later in the season and won the Masterton Trophy as the player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey. It’s looked so far like the change has worked. — Amalie Benjamin, staff writer

Continued

Farjestads BK coach Johan Pennerborn spoke with HockeyNews.se’s Mattias Ek regarding Red Wings prospect Albert Johansson, who’s on loan to Pennerborn’s SHL team. The Swedish coach believes that Johansson would be best-served by spending another year in Sweden. What follows is roughly translated from Swedish:

The Farjestad coach about the NHL-aiming great prospect: “Stay another year”

Stockholm. Detroit-drafted Farjestad defenseman Albert Johansson, 20, has established himself at the SHL level.

But his head coach, Johan Pennerborn, prefers that he wait another season before going to the NHL.

“In my opinion: stay another year. Be a real leader. Grow into it fully. Put on four more kilos,” says Pennerborn.

Continue reading Roughly Translated: Albert Johansson discusses his present and future with HockeyNews.se’s Ek

Probably a paper transaction (or two):

Update: Center Michael Rasmussen has been assigned to the #RedWings taxi squad.

— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) January 29, 2021

Update: The #RedWings today reassigned right wing Riley Barber from the team’s taxi squad to the Grand Rapids Griffins » https://t.co/IwHefu6oez

Additionally, Forwards Taro Hirose and Givani Smith have been assigned to the #RedWings taxi squad. pic.twitter.com/xJP2XQWfzM— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) January 29, 2021

From the Red Wings this morning:

RED WINGS REASSIGN RILEY BARBER TO GRAND RAPIDS … Winger Has Appeared in 12 NHL Games with Washington and Montreal …

DETROIT – The Detroit Red Wings today reassigned right wing Riley Barber from the team’s taxi squad to the American Hockey League’s Grand Rapids Griffins

Barber, 26, is a veteran of 283 American Hockey League games, posting 217 points (106-111-217) and 204 penalty minutes over five seasons with the Hershey Bears, Laval Rocket and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. Barber saw time with three teams during the 2019-20 season, appearing in nine games with the Montreal Canadiens, logging 31 points (13-18-31) in 39 games with Laval and recording six points (3-3-6) in seven games with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton after he was traded from Montreal to Pittsburgh on Feb. 20. Barber previously had a three-game NHL stint with the Washington Capitals in the 2016-17 season and has totaled 12 NHL games over his professional career. The 6-foot, 190-pound winger also has 15 points (5-10-15) in 38 career AHL postseason games.

The Free Press’s Helene St. James posted her customary morning-published column regarding the Red Wings’ struggles over the course of last night’s 6-3 loss to the Dallas Stars. Wings captain Dylan Larkin in particular was very hard on himself and his teammates in the post-game Zoom call:

“I was probably the most lousy out there as a leader,” he said. “I wasn’t hanging onto pucks and I wasn’t leading the way for the forwards up front. We need to be harder on pucks, we need to support each other and get pucks on net and find ways to score.”

When the Wings started the season 2-2, Larkin spoke of how noticeable it was that, unlike last year, this season’s squad wanted the puck. That confidence has ebbed. The Wings were under siege Thursday, shriveling before a strong Stars forecheck. The Wings had seven power plays, had 11:41 with an extra skater, and had just one power play goal, from Tyler Bertuzzi, to show for it.

“Now we’re fighting against ourselves,” Larkin said. “Not actually fighting, but we have the puck on our stick and we’re nervous to make plays. We don’t want it on our stick. We have a man advantage and we’re second-guessing everything, we’re not moving it around, we’re not hard on it to get the entries we want and to get set up.

“I think every power play goal we’ve scored this year we’ve just kept it simple and thrown it to the net. We didn’t do that early enough, didn’t do it enough. That’s where we have to create momentum for our team.”

Continued, with quite a bit from coach Blashill about the Wings being undermanned on offense due to their COVID reserve list players…

This is a particularly interesting story from The Athletic’s Eric Duhatschek, consisting of observations from members of the “London Lions,” an English hockey team that served as one of the Red Wings’ minor league affiliates in the 70’s:

The Lions were the brainchild of Red Wings owner Bruce Norris who wanted to start a European professional league. So Norris divided the Red Wings’ minor league teams in two: one would play in Virginia Beach in the AHL, the other would be based in London, England.

Norris entrusted the project to two men: Doug Barkley, who was coaching in the Red Wings system, and Al Coates, who in addition to being the team’s trainer was also the de facto travel secretary, equipment manager and jack of all trades.

The Lions played their home games at what was then known as Empire Pool in Wembley (northwest of London), an arena that housed the swimming events for the 1948 Summer Olympics. The ice surface had been installed over a wooden floor, placed atop the original swimming pool.

Because a figure skating show annually took up residence in the arena for three months every year before and after Christmas, the Lions became a barnstorming team from Dec. 1, 1973 until March 1, 1974, playing 41 consecutive road games in nine countries.

“It was really a travelling circus,” says forward Brian McCutcheon. “We were laughing about it being the longest road trip in hockey history; a real education — and we even got to go behind the Iron Curtain, which was a big black hole for us in those days.”

Continued (paywall)

Here’s Rogle BK’s website reporting an update on Moritz Seider’s condition, roughly translated from Swedish. The long story short is that Seider is headed back to Angelholm for further examination, but it sounds like he’s dealing with a sprained shoulder and not a tear of the musculature:

Update on Seider: “Better than we feared”

Defenseman Moritz Seider was injured in the final stages of Thursday night’s game away against Brynäs and had to leave the ice. He was examined at the hospital during the night and the report afterwards says that the prospect defenseman did better than feared.

“Moritz took a real blow and of course is in pain. Further examinations were performed at the hospital, including an X-ray, which shows that it was better than we first feared. He has soft tissue injuries and will go home [to Angelholm] for further examinations. Moritz will not play for a while but exactly how long we do not know today,” says Rögle’s physiotherapist Sven Thomsson.

Moritz Seider has been one of Rögle’s best players this season and in the game against Brynäs (which Rögle won 5-4 after penalty shootouts) he scored two goals and an assist before he was forced to step down.

Rögle goes on for the game in Skellefteå on Saturday but it will be without Moritz.

SHL.se’s Sixen Funqvist posted a great profile of Joe Veleno earlier this week. Funqvist reports that Veleno is learning about both sides of the game (offense and defense) in southern Sweden…

The League

The SHL is a highly acclaimed league internationally and although Veleno admits he didn’t know much about the league before coming here, he’s adjusted to the style of play and out of his nine goals and five assists, five goals and one helper has come in his past eight games.

What sticks out to you in the SHL?

“I think playing here now, I realize how hard teams are in their structure and they take their defensive responsibilities. It’s tough to get the odd man rush, three-on-two or two-on-ones. It’s very rare you see that, and I’ve noticed a lot of teams are backchecking to the very end and that’s something I’ll take with me going back to North America, the relentlessness to backcheck and compete. I think that’s one thing we’ve harped on a lot. And that is obviously really important going back to those leagues where it’s hard to score goals. Now I can see why, in this league pretty much everyone is backchecking like a dog on a bone and that’s something I’ll take with me.”

And Funqvist asked Veleno about his status as playing close by Rogle BK in Angelholm, where Moritz Seider plies his trade:

Continue reading SHL.se’s Funqvist profiles Wings prospect Joe Veleno