Of Red Wings-related note this evening:
- The Free Press’s Helene St. James took note of Dylan Larkin’s continued absence from the team:
Dylan Larkin’s absence from the Detroit Red Wings lineup is stretching toward a week as they continue their road trip without their captain.
Coach Jeff Blashill said Thursday morning Larkin “is away for personal reasons, and I’ll leave it at that.” The Wings face their third game of the trip with an evening match against the Boston Bruins at TD Garden.
Pressed whether Larkin, who has not been seen on the ice with teammates since the Oct. 30 game at Toronto, has been skating, Blashill repeated his answer: “It’s the same exact comment that I had the other day. Right now he’s away for personal reasons and I’ll leave it at that.”
The Wings had a day off Sunday in Montreal. On Monday, Blashill said Larkin did not practice because it was a “maintenance day.” The Wings played the Canadiens Tuesday.
2. The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan took note of Pius Suter’s underwhelming start:
Forward Pius Suter was expected to inject offense while centering the second line, and Suter, too, was a player who stood out during the exhibition season.
But in the opening 10 games of the regular season, Suter had one goal and one assist, with a minus-2 rating. Playing, normally, with Robby Fabbri and Filip Zadina, the line has created chances, but hasn’t been able to consistently get goals.
“Sutes has played pretty well,” Blashill said. “The point total, when you’re a center man who distributes the puck, you’re dependent on how much the wingers put goals in. Not that he can’t score goals; he can. But that’ll dictate it a little bit.
“He has spent time on the power play, but not exclusively, and that’ll help dictate points. When Fabs, Sutes and Zadina have been a line, it’s a line that has created chances, they just haven’t quite scored enough. I’m not concerned with it. Sutes has played pretty good hockey and I’ve been happy with him as an addition to our team.”
3. MLive’s Ansar Khan took note of coach Jeff Blashill’s remarks about Tyler Bertuzzi, who’s been in and out of the lineup lately…
The Red Wings are 4-1-2 with Bertuzzi and 0-3 without him.
“I’ll start by saying we have 20 guys capable in those games to win the hockey game and we didn’t win the hockey game,” Blashill said. “So obviously, we didn’t execute well enough. You should be able to absorb the loss of a player and still be able to win hockey games. Certainly, Tyler’s a big part of our team and a really good player.
“The one thing that he is a lot of nights and what makes him special is he’s an engine for us. He gives us tons of energy, tons of puck battle wins, drives our ability to win those battles for the puck and play with the puck more. I like our lineup when he’s in it but that shouldn’t preclude us from winning when he’s not.”
Despite their lack of success in Boston (1-10-2 the past 13 games), the Red Wings had won five in a row against the Bruins (including four games in Detroit) before Boston prevailed in their most recent meeting on Feb. 15, 2020.
Bertuzzi has 11 points in 10 games against Boston.
“Tyler can produce offense against really good, hard defensive teams because he’s a hard player who gets to the net front,” Blashill said. “The fact that he’s able to have success against a real good team that’s really good defensively is because of the fact that he plays the right way, and he gets to those hard areas.”
4. And Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff called out Bertuzzi for being selfish:
Publicly, the other Red Wings talk about their fondness for Bertuzzi, how he’s a good teammate.
Really? Do good teammates choose to sit back and watch while the rest of the team is hung out to dry?
Bertuzzi could’ve made a couple of other choices this season. He didn’t choose to turn down the two-year, $4.75-million contract offer from the Wings.
He also could’ve chosen to sit out this season, to be all-out instead of just some of the way in.
His lack of a vaccination ensures that Bertuzzi has a much greater likelihood of testing positive for COVID-19 at some point this season.
He’s already testing positive for putting the I in team.
