Of Twitter-related note this afternoon:
The @JDanielsFund Celebrity Roast of Brett Hull virtual silent auction is LIVE. ?
These are just a few of the items available to bid on. Check it out!
Bid now: https://t.co/sQ3WKLoi7Q pic.twitter.com/QhvRaVSugC— Bally Sports Detroit (@BallySportsDET) November 10, 2021
With all due respect to the Free Press’s Carlos Monarrez, who penned a fine subscriber-only article on Freep.com this morning, I think that this narrative needs to be slowed down a bit:
What if I told you the Detroit Red Wings look like a playoff team?
You might have laughed at me before the season started.
You probably wouldn’t have believed me after the season opener, when they blew three-goal leads twice and lost in overtime to the Tampa Bay Lightning.
But now?
After Tuesday night’s impressive 4-2 win at Little Caesars Arena over the Edmonton Oilers, one of the NHL’s best teams, no one’s laughing.
And as far as what everyone is seeing with their own eyes? Now that the Wings have played nearly 20% of their schedule, well what does that song tell us about south Detroit? “Don’t Stop Believin.'”
“We believe in each other and we have a good team,” said Vladislav Namestnikov, a fourth-line winger who scored twice. “When we roll four lines it’s hard to play against us. We want to be that team that teams come in here and say, ‘Wow, it’s hard to play against these guys.’ ”
Monarrez continues (paywall);
I’m all for optimism regarding the 7-5-and-2 Red Wings, including going into Thursday’s game vs. the Washington Capitals, but we’re 14 games into an 82-game schedule.
I think it’s time to let the team get through the rest of this 11-games-in-17-nights schedule before assessing where the Wings are at progress-wise. Let’s enjoy where the Wings are now before worrying too much about where they’re going to be at the end of the Olympic-break-included NHL schedule in May.
HockeyNews.se’s Alexander Nilsson posted a list of the 21 most impressive SHL players under the age of 21–i.e. those who are eligible for the Swedish World Junior Championship team, which is skating in Angelholm ahead of the Four Nations Cup–and three of Nilsson’s picks are Red Wings prospects.
Here’s a rough translation of his assessments, which are in Swedish:
Simon Edvinsson, born 2003, defenseman, Frolunda
16 games, 1 goal, 8 assists, +6, 19:42 time on ice per game
Comment: Perhaps the biggest exclamation point in the SHL during the autumn. The defenseman has taken real steps toward and established himself as a regular on Frolunda, and has been hailed by everyone everywhere. A given name on the World Junior Championship team this winter, and Detroit looks to have scored correctly with its choice in the first round last summer.
William Wallinder, defenseman, born 2002, Rogle BK
16 games, 3 goals, 5 assists, +5, 11:24 time on ice per game
Comment: Wallinder didn’t set things on fire when he played in the Allsvenskan [for MoDo] last season, and was sometimes outside the team in MoDo, but he’s made clear improvement over his first autumn in the SHL. He’s not been overwhelmed with playing time, but he’s been given protected minutes to slowly blend into the SHL team.
Theodor Niederbach, forward, born 2002, Frolunda
19 games, 2 goals, 2 assists, +2, 10:00 time on ice per game
Comment: Technically skilled and game-smart center, who had probably hoped to earn playing time on the power play, but hasn’t played a second on the man advantage thus far. Has gained more and more confidence during the season, but was now forced into concussion protocol after a blow from Skelleftea, and was thus forced to skip the tournament in Angelholm.
The Athletic’s Max Bultman offers 5 trends which he believes are contributing to the Red Wings’ success over their first 14 games’ worth of play:
More contributions from down the lineup: As you read the last section and the comparison to the Bertuzzi-Larkin-Mantha line, you may have recalled that those 2018-19 and 2019-20 seasons didn’t actually work out so hot for the Red Wings in the aggregate. So what’s the difference between the occasionally miserable team results of those seasons and the quick start now? One is the broader range of contributions Detroit is getting.
The big name here is Vladislav Namestnikov, whose two goals Tuesday gave the Red Wings a crucial early lead and a buffer against the dangerous Oilers. He’s already up to seven goals on the season, just one fewer than he had a year ago. That, certainly, is a difference.
There’s also the likes of Sam Gagner, a bottom-six veteran with six points in 14 games while playing as one of Detroit’s most-used penalty killers. There’s the second line of Robby Fabbri, Pius Suter and Filip Zadina, which has played some of its best hockey in these past few games and was Detroit’s best line in the team’s win over Vegas. That depth is something Detroit simply hasn’t had in recent years, and it’s not limited to the forwards.
Moritz Seider’s empty-net goal Tuesday gave him 11 points for the season. Marc Staal, a veteran third-pair defenseman, had a huge penalty-kill shift Tuesday against the vaunted Oilers power play (which went 0-for-2) and a strong game overall. Gustav Lindstrom — a young blueliner who is still trying to establish himself as a regular — has had some of the best shot-quality numbers on the team thus far.
Take it all together, and the Red Wings are getting boosts from more spots in the lineup than they have in the recent past. That adds up.
Continued (paywall)
Alex Wood, a.k.a. AWood40 on YouTube, posted 16 minutes’ worth of Red Wings-Oilers highlights from last night’s 4-2 Red Wings win:
Update: While we’re at it, here are Vladislav Namestnikov and coach Jeff Blashill’s full post-game pressers, via WXYZ’s Brad Galli:
Continue reading AWood40 posts 16 minutes’ worth of Wings-Oilers highlightsThe Associated Press has already posted a preview of Thursday’s Red Wings-Capitals affair. Washington sits at 6-2-and-4 heading into Thursday’s game, while Detroit’s 7-5-and-2:
BOTTOM LINE: The Washington Capitals visit Detroit after Vladislav Namestnikov scored two goals in the Red Wings’ 4-2 win against the Oilers.
The Red Wings are 3-4-2 against Eastern Conference opponents. Detroit is seventh in the Eastern Conference averaging 3.1 goals per game, led by Tyler Bertuzzi with nine.
The Capitals are 2-1-0 against opponents from the Metropolitan. Washington leads the Eastern Conference with two shorthanded goals, led by Alex Ovechkin with one.
Detroit knocked off Washington 3-2 in the last meeting between these teams on Oct. 27.
TOP PERFORMERS: Bertuzzi has 15 total points for the Red Wings, nine goals and six assists. Lucas Raymond has 11 points over the last 10 games for Detroit.
Ovechkin leads the Capitals with 21 points, scoring 11 goals and adding 10 assists. Evgeny Kuznetsov has eight assists over the last 10 games for Washington.
LAST 10 GAMES: Red Wings: 5-4-1, averaging three goals, 5.3 assists, 3.3 penalties and 6.6 penalty minutes while giving up 3.2 goals per game with a .906 save percentage.
Capitals: 5-2-3, averaging 3.6 goals, 5.5 assists, 3.1 penalties and seven penalty minutes while allowing 2.9 goals per game with an .895 save percentage.
ESPN’s Kristen Shilton posted a set of power rankings which include “the most underrated player” for each and every one of the NHL’s 32 teams, and her pick for the Red Wings is the team’s best third-line player:
Previous ranking: 23
Points percentage: 0.571
Upcoming schedule: vs. WSH (Nov. 11), vs. MTL (Nov. 13), @ CBJ (Nov. 15), @ DAL (Nov. 16)Vladislav Namestnikov. The Red Wings’ rookies — and red-hot Tyler Bertuzzi — have pulled headlines, but Namestnikov is having a sneaky-good start of his own. His seven goals and nine points are both top five for the Wings. For a team that’s been seriously lacking in secondary scoring, Namestnikov has been the one to consistently answer that call.
MLive’s Ansar Khan posted a recap of the Red Wings’ 4-2 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday night. This morning, Khan notes that the Red Wings seem a world away from the team that went 0-3-and-1 recently after winning 3 straight games:
“The mood is good,” [Vladislav] Namestnikov said. “Even when we were losing everyone was in good spirits. Everyone believes in each other; we have a good team. When we roll four lines it’s hard to play against us. We want to be that team that when teams come in here, they say, ‘Wow, it’s hard to play against these guys.’ Hopefully we can keep rolling and keep winning.”
The Red Wings host Washington (6-2-4) Thursday, looking to win four in a row for the first time since they reeled off six consecutive victories from March 23-April 2, 2019.
“It’s important for us to win games where you just have a one-goal lead for a long period of time, because that’s the learning process,” coach Jeff Blashill said. “We got to be able to win 2-1 and we got to be able to win 6-1. We’re going to continue to get better as a group defensively, we’re going continue to make sure our puck management’s good, and I thought it was a good step in the right direction.”
According to WXYZ’s Brett Kast, the Red Wings and Little Caesars Arena are offering a discounted PCR COVID-19 test (at $85 instead of $200) to Canadian fans, who need to present a negative PCR test at the border to get back into Canada:
Of Red Wings prospect-related note in North America on Tuesday night:
In the WHL, Sebastian Cossa proved that he is only human, surrendering 4 goals on 24 shots as the Edmonton Oil Kings lost 4-3 in overtime to Saskatoon. Cossa is 7-2-and-3 with a 2.03 goals-against average and a .927 save percentage;
And Alex Cotton finished even with 2 shots in his Vancouver Giants’ debut, with Vancouver losing 1-0 to Prince George.
