HSJ: Blashill unconcerned with Alex Nedeljkovic’s bumpy preseason play

As the Free Press’s Helene St. James notes this evening, new Red Wings goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic hasn’t been lights-out great–or even very good–over the course of 2 preseason games, but Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill is not worried about Nedeljkovic’s ups and downs:

Nedeljkovic, brought in via trade in the offseason, has allowed six goals on 42 shots through 67:07 of ice time. On Sunday, Jeff Carter and Danton Heinen fired shots that went in off Nedeljkovic, and Kris Letang came out of the penalty box, up the middle, and ripped a shot for a goal.

“I like Ned, I think he’s going to be real good for us,” coach Jeff Blashill said. “He works his tail off, he pays attention to detail in practice. I think he had some squeak through him that he’d like to have back, but this is what preseason is for. I certainly don’t pass a whole lot of judgment on anybody in this short a period of time. He’s played two halves. I’m fully confident he’s going to give us really good goaltending through the season.”

Nedeljkovic was a finalist for the Calder Trophy (given to the league’s top rookie) last season; he posted a 1.90 goals-against average and .932 save percentage in 23 games with the Carolina Hurricanes last season. He signed a two-year, $6 million contract with the Wings immediately after the trade.

Continued

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George Malik

My name is George Malik, and I'm the Malik Report's editor/blogger/poster. I have been blogging about the Red Wings since 2006, when MLive hired me to work their SlapShots blog, and I joined Kukla's Korner in 2011 as The Malik Report. I'm starting The Malik Report as a stand-alone site, hoping that having my readers fund the website is indeed the way to go to build a better community and create better content.

One thought on “HSJ: Blashill unconcerned with Alex Nedeljkovic’s bumpy preseason play”

  1. HSJ is sure on the Balls, while digging she found out the New Goalie Ned is not playing well with 2 ..TWO half game stints so far with the his New Team.

    StevieY must not follow HSJ, sadly I am forced to, I think. She makes a Hockey Blog a fantasy Blog.

    At the same time Glass Svech, temporarily with the NHL Jets, smartly hovered behind a NHL official until he could powder puff the Canucks Captain Horvat while he was talking to the same Ref.

    Horvat sort of warned Svechy that he might want to stop. Oh No, Svech tried again with glancing blow aimed at Horvat (Hit or M)iss he got a 10 min misconduct (Apparently or the 1st time, so forgive him for going to the Sin Bin by mistake). With only 1 min 30 secs remaining in the 3rd, the Jets down 1 goal, the Crowd cheered loudly.

    So HSJ and Glass Svech earned my Ms Dork and (Not available) Svech my (not available) M? Dork.

    Rumor has it , Holland had HSJ in his front pocket. Penalty! Off to the Coilers!

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