Month: October 2021

The Detroit Red Wings will tangle with the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday night (7 PM EDT on Bally Sports Detroit/CBC/97.1 FM) after taking a bit of a punch to the gut in a 3-2 overtime loss to the Florida Panthers on Friday night.

The Red Wings rallied valiantly from a 2-0 deficit to force overtime, but were victimized by standing still on their blueline in OT–affording a home-run pass from Jonathan Huberdeau to Aleksander Barkov, who made no mistake:

That being said, the Red Wings’ ability to battle through this sequence of Panthers shots was remarkable:

For the Panthers, the night’s result was both earned and appropriate, given that interim coach Andrew Brunette had to step in to relieve Joel Quenneville, as Florida Hockey Now’s George Richards noted:

Continue reading Red Wings-Panthers wrap-up: Wings show progress in OT loss

The Free Press’s Helene St. James reminds us that one of the Red Wings’ best players won’t play in the next two games, as Detroit heads to Toronto on Saturday and Montreal on Tuesday:

Tyler Bertuzzi’s decision not to get the COVID-19 vaccine means he cannot cross the border under current regulations. The Wings are at Toronto Saturday, and at Montreal Tuesday. During the four days they are in Canada, In addition to two games, Bertuzzi will miss a practice, and is responsible for arranging and paying for his own way to Boston, where the Wings play Nov. 4.

“It’s up to him if he wants to skate,” coach Jeff Blashill said Friday. “We have a plan in place that he will follow according to what he wants. He will be by himself.”

The Wings will not pay Bertuzzi, the NHL’s sole unvaccinated player, while he misses team activities in Canada. Bertuzzi is making $4.25 million this season. Divided over the 200-day pay schedule the NHL uses, that works out to $85,000 gross over four days. (That does not include escrow, taxes, and agent’s fee.)

Actions have consequences, and if Tyler is comfortable with losing $450,000 in gross pay to not take a shot, that’s his call.

This sequence of shot blocks by the Red Wings in their 3-2 OT loss to the Florida Panthers is so good that it’s worth its own entry:

Here’s a better version, from AWood40:

The Detroit Red Wings attempted to snap the 7-0-and-0 Florida Panthers’ winning streak as the Wings embarked upon a stretch of 2 games in 2 nights on Friday.

Detroit put together a valiant effort, rallying from a 2-0 deficit to tie the Panthers 2-2 and force overtime on goals by Sam Gagner and Moritz Seider–and 29 stops by an excellent Alex Nedeljkovic–but Alex Barkov snuck behind Bertuzzi, Fabbri and Leddy standing stationary at the Wings’ blueline, and he scored a backhand, top shelf game-winner.

The result was incredibly disappointing, but the process was damn fine.

Continue reading Red Wings-Panthers quick take: Wings robbed of a point by OT gods, but ‘the process’ was great

Via IceHockeyGifs on Twitter…

https://t.co/U9SbdcQN4I— IcehockeyGifs (@IcehockeyG) October 29, 2021

SHL.se’s Sixen Funqvist has posted an English-language profile of Red Wings prospect Elmer Soderblom:

Frölunda HC has been a powerhouse in the SHL for all of Elmer Söderblom´s life. Since he was born, on July 5th 2001, Frölunda has reached the playoff finals five times, winning four titles in the process. After, by their standards, a mediocre season last year, things are looking up for the Gothenburg team. At the time of this interview, Frölunda have won eight out of their past ten games in the SHL, adding two CHL wins as well. Last Saturday they looked to be on their way to yet another win, but they lost their focus and ended up throwing away a 2-0 to what would be a 4-3 overtime loss to the Malmö Redhawks.

“Overall, we perform pretty well as a team. But we have to eliminate some mistakes and try not to give up the puck in bad areas. If we can simplify our game, things will be good.” Elmer Söderblom says, continuing: “We’re off to a great start here. I’d say our team is more in sync compared to last season.”

In charge of the Frölunda SHL team is coach Roger Rönnberg, currently the longest tenured coach in the SHL. Rönnberg has been the head coach of Frölunda since the start of the 2013-14 season. To outsiders, Rönnberg can come off as a hard styled coach, but Söderblom likes what his coach brings.

“Yeah, he can be like that to us as well. I like him. He’s got different sides, obviously. But he’s always pushing us to become better players and better as a team.”

Söderblom grew up in Gothenburg and growing up in Gothenburg in the 2000’s, Frölunda hockey was never far away. He went to his first games with his grandfather and his brother Arvid (currently the goalie of the Rockford IceHogs in the AHL). From being a supporter, he’s now a part of the team he grew up cheering for.

Continued, with a Q and A and short video profile…

Of prospect-related note in Europe this Friday:

In the Finnish Liiga, Otto Kivenmaki had finished even with 2 shots in 15:01 played as the Lahti Pelicans lost 3-0 to HPK;

In the Swedish Allsvenskan, Jesper Eliasson stopped 27 of 31 shots in Almtuna IS’s 4-0 loss to Vasteras IK;

Filip Larsson stopped 23 of 27 shots as HV71 Jonkoping won 5-4 over Kristianstads;

Albin Grewe finished even and Gustav Berglund did not play in Mora IK’s 5-2 win over BIK Karlskoga;

In the Swedish J20 league, Liam Dower Nilsson didn’t play in Frolunda HC’s 4-3 shootout loss to IK Oskarhsamn.

Yahoo Sports’ Stephen Psihogios offers praise for three Red Wings players, two of them eligible for the Calder Trophy, during this week’s edition of Psihogios’ “Fantasy Hockey Takeaways”:

Moritz Seider (35 percent rostered on Yahoo) has arrived: Anybody who’s flipped on a Red Wings game for even a brief moment can tell you that Moritz Seider is the real deal.

It didn’t take the 20-year-old long to supplant Nick Leddy on the top power-play unit, a role he’s earned in addition to his spot on the first defensive pairing. While logging 21:51 per game, Seider has tallied six assists in seven games, eight blocks, five hits, and three power-play points.

This offensive production shouldn’t dry up, either. While he won’t average a point-per-game for the rest of the 2021-22 campaign, he will likely finish in the 35-40 point range. In both the SHL and AHL, while playing against men, he has demonstrated an ability to be a solid contributor.

Still available in over 60 percent of Yahoo leagues, Seider is one of the best players available for fantasy managers to snatch up on the waiver wire.

Continued with praise for Thomas Greiss and Lucas Raymond…

Red Wings prospect Simon Edvinsson had quite the Thursday in the SHL, and today, the Hockey News’s Ryan Kennedy discusses the progress made by the young defenseman:

The Detroit Red Wings have a young defenseman on their hands who is blowing away expectations this season and I’m not talking about Moritz Seider – though he certainly qualifies for honorifics himself.

No, I’m talking about Simon Edvinsson, the sixth overall pick in the 2021 draft and one of the best stories of the young SHL season over in Sweden. Playing for a first-place Frolunda squad, Edvinsson has nine points through 15 games, tying him for third in all SHL scoring among blueliners. It’s an impressive feat compounded by the fact the 18-year-old is playing in his first full SHL season after splitting last year between the top league, the second-tier Allsvenskan and Sweden’s junior circuit.

While Edvinsson had already been on the draft radar, his loan from Frolunda to Vasteras in the Allsvenskan last year enabled the youngster to get more minutes and a bigger shot at offensive contributions. As Frolunda GM Fredrik Sjostrom told me in the lead-up to the draft, it was a developmental move the team was pleased with.

“We were talking to him on a regular basis and watching all of his games,” Sjostrom said. “You give him feedback here and there but not too much – you want him to have fun and be playing bigger minutes. We kept close tabs and we were really happy with how he was doing.”

Continued

Ken Kal and Daniella Bruce previewed tonight’s match-up with the Florida Panthers (7 PM EDT on ESPN+/hulu/97.1 FM):

The Free Press’s Helene St. James posted an article noting Red Wings forward Sam Gagner’s comments made to the media today regarding the sexual assault against Kyle Beach:

Forward Sam Gagner commended Beach for his “tremendous courage.

“You feel for Kyle Beach and stand with him and everything he’s gone through. It obviously took a lot for him to get to the point. It’s something you never want to see somebody go through. You want to see accountability for the things that have happened. It’s certainly an awful thing. We’re just hoping that Kyle, that this process has kind of helped him. With the culture of accountability, we’re hoping it helps our game grow as well. You hate to see it happen. Hopefully it’s a reckoning and helps us move forward.”

In addition to the revelations in independent investigation by Jenner & Block LLP, Beach has said he told the NHL Players Association what happened. The fact that nothing happened for a decade is something the Wings organization has emphasized must not happen.

Update: Here’s a bit more from Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff:

Blashill indicated that the Red Wings have in place support that players can access in times of need.

“There’s a number of things our players go through. We want to make sure there’s support for them here and we certainly have discussed that and will continue to discuss that,” Blashill said.

“The first part and the most important part is doing everything possible to not be in situations where people are exposed to predators. But that’s sometimes impossible to understand and know. When that type of action happens, no matter what happens after it, it doesn’t take away from the fact that action happened. It’s something that none of us would ever want to subject anybody to.

“From our perspective we have to make sure our players understand there’s support here for them in a lot of different areas. We have to make sure we’re making the best decisions we can with our players and our staff and anybody around us. That we’re putting their personal lives first and foremost.”