Month: January 2021

Red Wings-Stars Game 2 wrap-up: Wings have a mess, frustration to sort out after two straight losses to Stars

The Detroit Red Wings dropped a puzzling, perhaps infuriating 7-3 loss to the Dallas Stars in the second game of the teams’ road-and-still-on-the-road series Thursday night.

After making some progress over the course of their 3-1 loss to Dallas on Tuesday, the Wings seemed to reverse course for far too much of a tentative, low-event first period.

Things got interesting as the Wings’ seven power plays piled up over the course of the second and third periods, but whenever the Red Wings made things close, Dallas pulled away with ease, if not surgical precision, and when the bad breaks and bad bounces came, they came Detroit’s way (with the exception of Tyler Bertuzzi’s lone power play goal).

By the end of the game, Dallas had pulled away with 3 straight goals (two of them shaky ones) on Thomas Greiss, who came in to relieve an injured Jonathan Bernier, and the depleted Red Wings roster looked like it wasn’t just “not on the same page”–the players were reading different books (if they were reading anything).

Continue reading Red Wings-Stars Game 2 wrap-up: Wings have a mess, frustration to sort out after two straight losses to Stars

Red Wings-Stars Game 2 quick take: Stars sweep Wings, but third period comeback leaves questions (good and bad!)

The Detroit Red Wings attempted to earn a split against the Dallas Stars on Thursday evening.

Detroit had made a significant amount of progress over the course of a disappointing 2-1 OT loss on Tuesday, and getting back at ‘er against the slightly undermanned Stars (who are without Jamie Benn, Roope Hintz, Tyler Seguin and others) offered a measure of redemption, if not revenge, as Dylan Larkin battled his way through some sort of minor injury, Darren Helm made his return to the lineup, and the Stars started a first-timer in Jake Oettinger opposite Jonathan Bernier.

You guys and gals know I’m a person who believes that “learning” is going to matter more than wins or losses this season, and I’m baffled by the 7-3 result tonight. The Red Wings fell down 2-0, 3-1 and 4-2, but they rallied to make it 5-3, and surrendered two very late, very soft goals. They lost Jonathan Bernier in the middle of it all to an upper body injury as well…

But the Wings’ competence was exciting–if only for a few minutes. The Wings’ struggles, going 1-for-7 on the power play, for example, were maddening. The Red Wings’ rally was something to behold, until they imploded, at least…

And they go home 0-and-2 against Dallas and 2-5-and-1 on the season, with Detroit facing Florida on Saturday and Sunday.

What to make of this? Maybe we’ll have to wait until Saturday and Sunday to find out.

Continue reading Red Wings-Stars Game 2 quick take: Stars sweep Wings, but third period comeback leaves questions (good and bad!)

Fox Sports Detroit posts Jimmy Howard’s interview with Keating and Osgood

Former Red Wings goaltender Jimmy Howard spoke with Fox Sports Detroit’s John Keating and Chris Osgood for six minutes tonight, discussing how he was “sick of getting hit by pucks” and chose to retire despite an overture from Ken Holland of the Edmonton Oilers:

No changes are no changes to the NHL’s COVID list

The news outlets are starting to get wind of the concept that fans want to know who is on the NHL’s COVID reserve list. As a result, TSN posted Thursday’s press release, and all the Wings who’ve previously been on the list are still there:

Detroit – Adam Erne; Robby Fabbri; Sam Gagner; Jon Merrill; Filip Zadina

Updating a bad day for Moritz Seider

As IceHockeyGifs reported, Moritz Seider took a tumble in today’s game vs. Brynas (wherein Seider posted 2 goals and an assist), and things did not look good:

Both Aftonbladet’s Hans Abrahamsson and Kvallsposten’s Johan Dock Wall reported that Seider had to go to the hospital–on his own two feet–to get his shoulder examined, and Rogle’s Twitter feed Tweeted that Seider will be reexamined on Friday:

Prospect Round-up: Seider 2+1, Berggren 2A in Sweden

Of prospect-related note:

In the SHL, Moritz Seider put on a show, posting 2 goals and 1 assist for 3 points, finishing at +2 with 4 shots in 21:51 as Rogle BK beat Brynas 5-4 in a shootout:

Update: But not all was well:

Jonatan Berggren put on a show of his own, registering 2 assists in 12:40 played as Skelleftea AIK won 6-0 over Linkoping:

Continue reading Prospect Round-up: Seider 2+1, Berggren 2A in Sweden

HSJ’s game-day notebook: bumpy ride ahead for the Wings’ COVID reserve list

As the Free Press’s Helene St. James notes in her game-day notebook, the Red Wings’ five players on COVID reserve–Robby Fabbri, Sam Gagner, Adam Erne, Jon Merrill and Fillip Zadina–have a hard road ahead of them:

Coach Jeff Blashill planned to spend part of Thursday afternoon sitting down with athletic trainer Piet VanZant to map out when players potentially will be available, and sketched something of a timeline.

“It’s a minimum of 14 days,” Blashill said. “They can’t exercise or exert themselves until those 14 days are up. That’s at a minimum. How many days after that is really hard to tell. But being off for 14 days, that’s a long time.

“Part of the process is getting them back into shape so they don’t injure themselves. That would be the No. 1 priority, so they don’t have soft-tissue issues. It will be very difficult to get them into as many game situations as you’d like because of the fact it’s just really, really hard to practice.”

After Sunday, the Wings have two days before their next game. At best, Fabbri and Erne may be able to practice by then. But the 14-day period of rest won’t be over for Zadina, Gagner and Merrill before the Wings depart for Tampa, and players have to quarantine 48 hours if they travel commercially.

Continued

Keating: Jimmy Howard will appear on ‘Red Wings Live’ tonight at 8

Per Fox Sports Detroit’s John Keating:

Jimmy Howard will join Chris Osgood and me during Red Wings Live tonight at 8 on FSD… https://t.co/Eu6XSLyl6N— John Keating (@JohnKeatingFSD) January 28, 2021

Tonight’s game airs on Fox Sports Detroit Plus.