Month: October 2021

Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff cautions Red Wings fans to be patient regarding the team’s strong performances in their first two games:

Fast starts under coach Jeff Blashill are commonplace for the Red Wings. Fantastic finishes are not. In fact, in the majority of seasons under Blashill, the team has broken from the gate effectively.

Last season, the Red Wings were 2-2 after four games. Then came an eight-game losing streak. In 2019-20, the Wings opened 3-1. That was also followed by an eight-game losing streak.

In 2018-19, the Wings got the skid out of the way off the bat. They opened 0-7. A 4-1 launch to the 2017-18 season was immediately followed by a six-game slide.

Blashill’s Red Wings were 5-2 after seven games in 2016-17. Then they lost six in a row. A 3-0 beginning in Blashill’s first season behind the Red Wings bench was followed by four successive losses.

The message here is to keep in mind what Blashill himself likes to talk about. It’s a small sample size. Let’s see where the Red Wings stand after 10 games before making any early assessments about this team.

Continued; the Red Wings play 4 games in 6 nights later this week, hosting Columbus and Calgary before heading to Montreal and Chicago for back-to-backs. Those games should help tell the tale as to what the Wings’ potential really consists of.

This Tweet comes from the Free Press’s Helene St. James: Sergei Fedorov has been named an assistant coach on the 2022 Russian Olympic team:

The coaching staff of the senior national team for the 2022 Olympic Games has been revealed!

Head coach: Alexei Zhamnov
Coaches: Sergei Gonchar, Alexei Kudashov, Sergei Fyodorov
Goalkeeping coach: Evgeny Nabokov#Beijing2022 #RussiaHockey pic.twitter.com/lQVah8C72W

— Russia Hockey (@russiahockey_en) October 18, 2021

The Athletic’s Corey Pronman posted a ranking of Calder Trophy candidates this morning, and three of his top 20 players eligible for this year’s award are Red Wings:

3. Moritz Seider, RHD, Detroit: It’s rare for defensemen who aren’t projected to put up huge point totals to make a dent in the Calder race, but Seider has a very good chance to do that. I think with great skating, size and physicality he’ll play real minutes, make a lot of stops, and has enough transition and puck-moving ability to put up solid offensive numbers as a rookie.

8. Alex Nedeljkovic, G, Detroit: One of the Calder finalists last season seems like a player you have to find a way to get into this type of projection. Nedeljkovic is a very quick and intelligent goalie who had a great season in Carolina before being traded to Detroit. Because of his size there are still some skeptics among NHL scouts about whether he can repeat that or tread water as more of an average starter, but even if he’s that type of player, that would still be very valuable.

10. Lucas Raymond, RW, Detroit: I’m a big Raymond fan but even I was slightly surprised at how good his NHL camp was and the type of opportunity he’s getting initially in Detroit. You see that his tremendous skill and sense have translated immediately in the way he can navigate and see the ice in the offensive zone just like he did at other levels. He’s not the biggest or quickest winger, so I anticipate some bumpy stretches, but I think he’ll help Detroit, especially on its power play.

Continued (paywall); I actually agree with Pronman’s critiques here.

Seider is working on his offensive game, but playing with Nick Leddy should help Seider become more demonstrative with the puck as the season progresses;

Nedeljkovic just isn’t very big by today’s gargantuan-sized goalie standards at only 6′ tall, but as he adjusts to playing in Detroit, he should at least rebound and become a valuable part of the Wings’ goaltending tandem;

And no, Raymond doesn’t have a lot of speed, but he’s such a gifted puck-mover that his lack of top-end speed doesn’t matter–he lets the puck do the work and gets to the right spot on the ice so as to maximize his scoring potential.

Of prospect-related note in North America on Sunday:

In the QMJHL, Jan Bednar stopped 39 of 42 shots, earning second star honors as his Acadie-Bathurst Titan won 4-3 over the Charlottetown Islanders. Oscar Plandowski finished even with 2 shots for Charlottetown;

In the WHL, Sebastian Cossa stopped 16 of 18 shots as the Edmonton Oil Kings lost 2-1 to the Red Deer Rebels.

The Vancouver Province’s Ben Kuzma spoke with Vancouver Canucks forward Conor Garland and coach Travis Green about Garland’s reverse hit on Filip Zadina on Saturday night–the one that resulted in Zadina calling the 5’10” Garland a “Midget“–and Garland offered this take on the situation:

“They thought it was a bad hit, or whatever, and you want to stick up for your teammates,” reasoned Garland. “It is what it is. I’ve been hit like that and my team has gone after somebody. If somebody on our team got hit like that, we would expect the same thing.”

Continued; and there was much rejoicing.

There are hundreds and hundreds of readers of this little blog, and hundreds and hundreds of you probably disagree with something that I say on a daily basis.

We’ve had our disagreements throughout the course of this blog, and I have yet to receive a note from a reader–or, specifically speaking, readers who help financially support the blog–that has asked me to only write things they agree with, or to steer clear of topics where they know that we might have dissent.

Instead, I receive the occasional, “And sometimes I disagree with your opinion, but I respect our differences” or even an, “Sometimes you drive me crazy, but I support the blog.”

That’s normal and healthy. I didn’t start this blog–or restart it multiple times–to simply write what I knew my readers were going to agree with.

And as we start a new NHL season with some new controversies, be they Dylan Larkin’s injury, Tyler Bertuzzi’s vaccination status, or Filip Zadina’s “midget” remark, I’m not going to tailor my observations toward what I estimate to be the most popular response.

That’s not how blogs work, and, specifically speaking, that’s not how this blog works. There aren’t any commercials on this blog, and you’re free to enjoy it (and maybe sometimes be infuriated by it) without any paywalls or ads. I want to continue on that path for as long as I possibly can, because that’s exactly the kind of place on the internet I believe is lacking in the hockey world.

But a place without any disagreement is no fun. A place without disagreement isn’t realistic. And when it comes to a subjectively-viewed game and the analysis thereof, in terms of both on-ice and off-ice issues, we’re simply not going to agree all the time, especially when the off-ice issues surround differences of opinion that we’re both passionate about.

I’m not asking you to agree with me. And, hell, I’m not asking you to give me the respect that providing a product mostly for free should merit. I’m asking you to understand that I’m going to continue to have my opinions, and that I’m going to “go there” when the easier route is to just shut up and report the news without any analysis.

That’s not the Malik Report (and we don’t capitalize the “The” here). If you don’t enjoy occasionally reading things that you’re going to disagree with, dear Gord, man, there are hundreds of Wings blogs out there. Disagree politely, or go find another blog that bends like a pretzel to avoid discussing any sort of controversial topic in a caring manner.

In the interim, I value your readership, your time, your opinions and your health, and I hope you have a wonderful Sunday, and that you survive and thrive in the work week ahead.

Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff discusses the Red Wings’ status as being far below the salary cap’s upper limit this season, noting that a rebuilding team is less likely to bump up to what is currently a flat cap in the NHL:

“I certainly would say that cap space has a definite value in the game today,” [coach Jeff] Blashill said. “Obviously, you’ve seen it used for trades and things like that. But it also has value where you don’t want to be in the position where you have to make roster decisions based on our cap.”

According to Puckpedia.com, the Red Wings have $12,464,443 in available cap space. Only two teams – the Columbus Blue Jackets and Buffalo Sabres – show more.

“And that means we don’t necessarily need to keep somebody up based on our cap like some teams do at times,” Blashill explained. “We certainly never need to play short like some teams have been forced to do and maybe sign players that we wouldn’t sign otherwise.

“I think there’s definitely an advantage to having cap flexibility. I think it’s been an interesting observation over the last five years or so, how important cap space has become to some teams, how valuable it has been at times.”

NHL salary numbers show 15 teams, including the Maple Leafs, with no cap space whatsoever. Another four teams show less than $1 million in available space. The Avalanche are among this latter group. There are also eight NHL clubs operating with less than a full 23-player contingent due to cap constraints.

Continued

The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan filed his off-day notebook this afternoon, noting that the Red Wings’ players and coach feel that the team is responding well to the threats posed by the nasty hits that have plagued the first two games of the regular season:

“You’ve seen it pretty early that we’re pretty tight in the room,” defenseman Marc Staal said. “You do something to one of us, it affects all of us and we’re all going to jump in and stick up for each other.”

In the third period of Saturday’s 3-1 victory over the Vancouver Canucks, Zadina was hit hard by Conor Garland, leaving Zadina face down on the ice. The Wings quickly rushed in, and for the remainder of the game, made life miserable on several shifts for Garland. Scrums against other Canucks developed.

“It was good to see (Saturday),” Staal said “We’ll continue to play that way.”

The tight team feeling is one of the best things coach Jeff Blashill has seen through preseason and early season play. Blashill believes the camaraderie will benefit the Wings in the long term.

“When you really care about each other and see something happen to one of your teammates, you get over emotional,” Blashill said. “I’d rather have that than have guys that don’t like each other. We got a whole bunch of guys that care about each other.”

Continued (paywall)

Of prospect-related note in Europe on Sunday:

In the Swedish Allsvenskan, Gustav Berglund finished at -2 with 2 shots, and Albin Grewe finished at -3 with 1 shot in Mora IK’s 5-4 loss to Tingsryds IF.

Well, via Abel to Yzerman, we’re yet again digging into Tyler Bertuzzi’s controversial decision to be one of four NHL players to not be vaccinated against COVID-19. According to the Vancouver Province’s Patrick Johnston, it’s an uncomfortable process for Bertuzzi, and a costly process for the Red Wings and the NHLPA:

The NHL’s COVID-19 protocol this season, agreed to by the players’ association, places a heavy burden on unvaccinated players.

But the vaccinated part of the team also has to deal with those burdens. Things like potential masking in dressing rooms if they aren’t able to maintain six-feet distancing from the unvaccinated player.

Social distancing measures being put in place on planes and busses. It’s surely annoying for the vaccinated players to have to deal with these extra bits.

The unvaccinated player themselves can’t leave the team hotel on the road. They have to take a PCR test every day. Costs borne by the team to deal with the unvaccinated player are counted 50 per cent against the players’ share of revenues.

The rules were designed to make things uncomfortable for unvaccinated players … but somehow four guys are still shrugging their shoulders and the teams are somehow going along with it.

If Tyler Bertuzzi and Mackenzie Blackwood weren’t so important to their teams, it seems likely they’d have been handled like Zac Rinaldo. Or even like Travis Hamonic.

Continued; I’m a little tired of controversy after a couple weeks’ worth of covering Bertuzzi, the Larkin suspension, and now Zadina’s “short” choice of words.

But until your sneeze stops at your nose, and your cough stops at your mouth, vaccination is a “personal decision” that affects others, and hockey players are spitting, bleeding, sweating, hydrating, working out etc. in close proximity.

Obviously, Bertuzzi’s immense popularity in the locker room, combined with his utter importance to the team, mean that he’s being well-tolerated, and the truth of the matter is of course that there are people from all belief systems who play hockey, so we all have to deal with each other…

But I come from a family of people who have immune issues, so I can’t help but feel that selfish is as selfish does. And if Bertuzzi–who is a member of the Red Wings’ family, on and off the ice, to the fan base as well as his teammates–is made uncomfortable by being swabbed every day and made to deal with extra protocols, so be it.