Month: December 2021

MLive’s Ansar Khan filed a morning column regarding the Red Wings’ 2-1 victory over the Boston Bruins on Tuesday night, discussing the substance of the Wings’ 3,00th franchise win:

“It wasn’t pretty, but it was the kind of win we needed,” Dylan Larkin said. “It feels great to grind one out and get a greasy win here.”

The Red Wings (11-9-3) equaled a season-high three-game winning streak. The Bruins fell to 11-8-0.

Alex Nedeljkovic made 41 saves, allowing only David Pastrnak’s goal at 6:20 of the third period during a five-on-three power play. But Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill lauded the strong defensive effort in front of him.

“We gave up shots, but we didn’t give up a whole bunch of chances,” Blashill said. “When we did, he did a good job.

“I thought we protected the back post pretty well. I thought we took away the real Grade A chances. For me this would be more of a team defense success than just one player. Certainly, Alex did a good job. The game against St. Louis (4-2 win last Wednesday), he stole us a game. That wasn’t the case tonight. I thought we played very good defensively, much better than we have.”

Continued; AWood40 posted an extended highlight clip as well:

ESPN’s Kristen Shilton posted a set of power rankings this morning, focusing on the player(s) on each NHL team’s roster who need to step forward, and she’s correct in noting that there’s a Wing who has yet to step up on a consistent basis who plays on defense:

24. Detroit Red Wings

Previous ranking: 24
Points percentage: 0.543
Upcoming schedule: vs. SEA (Dec. 1), vs. NYI (Dec. 4), vs. NSH (Dec. 7)

Nick Leddy. The Red Wings have leaned on their young guns, but veterans like Leddy can pitch in more. The 12th-year blueliner hasn’t always asserted himself this season, and it has shown in his seven assists and minus-seven rating through 22 games. And his overall possession numbers (currently on the wrong side of 50%) could be improved, as well. With a few adjustments, Leddy can be a stabilizing force on Detroit’s back end.

Continued; I’ve been okay with Leddy’s overall play, as he’s skating alongside a risk-taker in Filip Hronek, but Leddy started very strongly and got worse, to the point that he’s really struggling right now. It’s just time for #2 to start turning things around.

The Detroit Red Wings now stand at 11-9-and-3 after their 2-1 win over the Boston Bruins on Tuesday, and the Wings turn right around and battle the 8-13-and-1 Seattle Kraken (7:30 PM Wednesday on Bally Sports Detroit/ROOT Sports Northwest/97.1 FM)…

And the Kraken’s record belies the fact that they’ve won 2 straight and 4 of their past 5 games. Seattle just wrapped up a stretch of 3 games in 4 nights, including their 7-4 win over the Buffalo Sabres on Monday, so the team didn’t practice on Tuesday.

As such, our brief game preview will look back at Seattle’s win over Buffalo as our, “Getting to know the Kraken” narrative.

We begin with NHL.com’s Heather Engel’s recap of Monday’s Kraken win…

Continue reading Red Wings-Kraken mini preview: Seattle’s won 2 straight, 4 of 5 going into first match-up with Detroit