Month: February 2021

The Free Press’s Helene St. James took note of a pain-in-the-ass part of the NHL’s COVID regulations–beat writers are limited to Zoom calls with players and coaches, who are picked at the whim of the teams’ public relations departments–in no small part because the Red Wings appeared to hold a team meeting after Wednesday’s 5-1 loss to Tampa Bay:

“It’s frustrating,” [Luke] Glendening said. “As a group we have to take a look in the mirror and ask ourselves who we are and what we are doing and how we are helping this team. I’ve got to do a better job, we all have to do a better job of doing our jobs and getting it done.”

There was about a 20-minute gap — longer than normal — between the end of the game and the first postgame video interview.

“We’ve talked a lot about it as a group over the past six or seven games, about what we need to do,” Glendening said. “Those are private conversations. Every guy in here is frustrated with the way we have been playing and sometimes the effort we have been giving.”

The Wings don’t have the superstars to match guys like Steven Stamkos and Victor Hedman, but not giving at least a decent effort is tough to excuse — and to explain.

“I don’t have the answer to that,” Blashill said. “If I did, we would have played better. We go out every day, we practice and we try to get better and come out the next day and try to get better. For whatever reason, we got on our heels early and they pushed and they scored every time we gave them a chance.”

Continued (paywall)

MLive’s Ansar Khan posted a subscriber-only notebook article this morning, and he suggested that the Red Wings might be better-served by playing younger players instead of continuing to ride their veterans:

The Red Wings haven’t gotten it done with veterans like Frans Nielsen, Valtteri Filppula and Darren Helm in the lineup. As hopes for better results quickly fade during this abbreviated 56-game season, the Red Wings should provide more opportunities for younger players. Some probably don’t have a future in the organization, but it’s worth a try.

This is why general manager Steve Yzerman’s decision to waive Evgeny Svechnikov, their top pick in 2015, and send him to the Grand Rapids Griffins without giving him a chance this season is puzzling. Perhaps Svechnikov isn’t an NHL player, but why not give him a good, long look?

If the season continues to spiral downward, Yzerman needs to do whatever roster shuffling is required to get as many young players as possible in the lineup, a list that also includes forward Michael Rasmussen and defensemen Dennis Cholowski and Gustav Lindstrom, who were assigned to the Griffins this week.

Continued (paywall)

MLive’s Steve Kaminski filed an article discussing five things that are integral to the Grand Rapids Griffins’ 2020-2021 season, and flexibility may be the most important issue:

The nature of the AHL is a fluid one, but even more so this season since a positive coronavirus test results can change everything. Griffins coach Ben Simon said the players have to be even more ready

“It’s always an ever-evolving puzzle I think in trying to find the right guys in chemistry like that,” Simon said during a Monday Zoom call. “But I think the reality of it is in the American League the roster can change with one phone call. We try not to get set in our ways too much or our hopes too high to lock anything down. Today we did power plays and penalty kills, and we used everyone on the PKs and everyone on the PPs because if there is a phone call that comes and guys are called up, guys have to know what they are doing and what their responsibilities are and just the identity we want to play with.

“We got some ideas what we want, but again, we have to be a little more realistic with the crazy world that we live in right now.”

Continued (paywall)

The Kearney Hub reports that Red Wings prospect Kyle Aucoin will spend the second half of his USHL season a little closer to the team that drafted him:

The Tri-City Storm has completed a transaction with the Muskegon Lumberjacks by trading Kyle Aucoin for a first-round pick in the 2022 USHL Phase II Draft, a fourth-round pick in the 2021 USHL Phase I Draft and future considerations.

The Storm also gave up an eighth-round pick in the 2021 Phase I USHL Draft.

Aucoin, 18, of Hinsdale, Illinois, was selected 156th overall in the sixth round of the 2020 NHL Draft by the Detroit Red Wings. He made his debut for the Storm in the 2019-20 season and was named the 2019-20 USHL Scholar Athlete of the Year. Aucoin was named to the USHL’s All-Academic Team at the conclusion of last season.

This is a couple days late, but, for the record, via Hockeysverige.se, Justin Abdelkader signed a contract for the rest of the season with EV Zug of the Swiss league:

Der #EVZ verpflichtet bis Saisonende Justin Abdelkader. Nach 803 NHL-Spielen mit den Detroit Red Wings wurde sein Vertrag letzten Oktober vorzeitig aufgelöst und ausbezahlt.

«Er freut sich extrem, endlich wieder spielen zu können», sagt Reto Kläy.

? https://t.co/LB08I9DMOi pic.twitter.com/DBwZQpe8Lj

— EVZ (@official_EVZ) February 3, 2021

Zug’s GM, Reto Kläy, claims that Abdelkader’s made his contract budget-friendly because he’s “not playing for the money,” and, as the Swiss league is about 30 games into a 50-game regular season, that’s not hard to believe.

As a fan, as well as a would-be pundit, I didn’t want it to be this way.

2-7-and-2, coming off a seventh loss in a row, against the team the Wings can never defeat in the Tampa Bay Lightning, with another game in Tampa to come before back-to-backs against the unbeaten Panthers.

The Red Wings are a team in distress, on the ice, on the bench and behind it, playing “losing hockey” in a big way. A month removed from a training camp so full of promise of at least a season where the team would be “competitive,” as the losses piled up, so full of promise that, this time, the self-inflicted mistakes that cost the team would be the kinds of mistakes made by a learning, growing, younger, faster, stronger and better team, if only incrementally so…

It feels like we’re in for another Lost Season, another season like 2019-2020, which was a season in which the Red Wings’ fans learned that tanking and tanking hard offers no tangible benefit due to a punitive draft lottery that actively seeks to punish the teams most in need of a draft-aided boost.

Continue reading Another season ‘lost season’ of doom and gloom?

Well-deserved:

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – The Grand Rapids Griffins on Thursday named defenseman Brian Lashoff as the 17th captain in franchise history.

Lashoff, 30, begins his 12th season in a Griffins uniform, having made his debut as 18-year-old on March 29, 2009 at Philadelphia. One of three players to be a part of Grand Rapids’ 2017 and 2013 Calder Cup championship teams, he played his 500th regular season game with the Griffins on March 11, 2020 against Iowa, joining Travis Richards (655) as the only players to hit that milestone out of the 526 who suited up for Grand Rapids over its first 24 seasons.

Lashoff’s 500 games rank first among active AHL players who have spent their entire AHL career with the same club and rank ninth in league history among one-team players. Of the eight players ahead of him on that list, the most recent – and, coincidentally, the record-holder – last played during the 1970-71 season (Bill Needham of the Cleveland Barons, 981 games played).

Over those 500 games, Lashoff has contributed 106 points (25-81—106) and 263 penalty minutes, to go with 20 points (5-15—20) and 34 PIM in 75 Calder Cup Playoff games, the second-most in Griffins history behind former captain Nathan Paetsch’s 78.

Lashoff’s resume also includes 136 games and 15 points scored (2-13—15) over parts of seven seasons (2012-15; 2016-20) with the Detroit Red Wings, along with a gold medal at the 2010 World Junior Championship earned by helping the United States defeat host Canada for just its second tournament championship ever.

The Albany, N.Y., native had previously served the Griffins as an alternate captain for six seasons (2012-13; 2015-20), and now he’ll wear the “C” for the first time since his final junior season with Kingston in the Ontario Hockey League in 2009-10. Click here to view the list of Griffins captains through the years.

“Brian has played 500 games for the Griffins and 136 games for the Red Wings, and he has had the great fortune to be a part of several successful and championship teams,” said Griffins head coach Ben Simon. “To play for the same organization for 12 years speaks to his overall qualities as both a hockey player and a person. His character, work ethic and perseverance epitomize what we look for in a player. He is a consummate professional who does things the right way both on and off the ice.

“Brian has been an integral part of the success and culture that has been established in Grand Rapids, and we are excited and look forward to his continued positive impact on our organization and community as captain of the Griffins,” Simon added.

“Throughout his professional career Brian Lashoff has been an integral part of building our championship culture in Grand Rapids,” said Ryan Martin, general manager of the Griffins and assistant general manager of the Red Wings. “He is a great player and an outstanding leader who sets the standards on and off the ice every day through his work ethic, dedication, dependability and consistency. Brian is a really good person who is extremely proud to be part of the Griffins and Red Wings organizations and represents both with the utmost professionalism.”

Alternate captains for the Griffins’ 2020-21 squad will be forwards Kyle Criscuolo, Turner Elson and Dominic Turgeon, along with defenseman Dylan McIlrath.

The Griffins will conclude their training camp today and travel to Chicago tomorrow to open their 2020-21 season against the 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.

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.

Update: The Griffins posted a pair of videos regarding Lashoff’s captaincy:

My apologies for the lack of posts recently…I am dealing with some really bad physical fatigue and have spent the last two days asleep. I’ll try to be back for this afternoon’s game if at all possible.

Sometimes we all get tired out.

Sportsnet is now ranking the “Greatest Hits of the 21st Century,” and today’s entry features Chicago Blackhawks defenseman Duncan Keith hitting Nashville’s Viktor Arvidsson vs. a very similar hit from Niklas Kronwall on Dany Heatley:

You can vote for your favorite hit here…

Kvallsposten’s Linus Vedmar offers a behind-the-paywall interview with Red Wings prospect Moritz Seider this morning, and no where does it mention the shoulder issue that’s currently sidelining Seider from SHL play with Rogle BK.

In fact, the tone of the article suggests that “The next Niklas Kronwall” will be around to help Rogle win the SHL’s regular season title, which is a bit puzzling given Fox Sports Detroit’s Trevor Thompson’s report that Seider will be missing “significant time” due to a soft tissue injury to his shoulder.

I will try to crack the paywall later this morning if I am able, because the interview is quite good.