Month: October 2023

Your morning ramble:

I was taking a peek at the Toronto Maple Leafs’ exhibition schedule on their website this morning, and Toronto has only played in 3 exhibition games thus far, going 2-and-1.

Now the Red Wings have turned over a good 40% of their roster, so it could be argued that their players and coaching staff need “more reps” on the ice to acclimate themselves to the team’s systems of play and their teammates’ tendencies…

But Detroit is finishing an unprecedented 3-games-in-3-nights schedule, the kind of thing that AHL and ECHL teams face, and they’re doing so as they play their 7th of 8 exhibition games by facing Toronto tonight (7 PM EDT at Scotiabank Arena; on TSN4, ESPN+, DetroitRedWings.com and 97.1 FM) and then hosting the Leafs on Saturday (on TSN4, Bally Sports Detroit and 97.1 FM).

In my opinion, playing in 8 exhibition games over the course of only 12 preseason nights is a bit nuts.

Continue reading Morning ramble: Five versus eight

The Detroit Red Wings will battle the Toronto Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena tonight, and the game is on TSN4 in Canada and ESPN+ in the U.S. It also appears that the Red Wings’ website will stream the game, per an early-morning Tweet:

MORE #REDWINGS HOCKEY!

📺: https://t.co/jLX5LxapNh
📻: @971theticketxyt pic.twitter.com/IaTLxyzECt

— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) October 5, 2023

The Free Press’s Helene St. James’ morning article discusses Red Wings defenseman Jeff Petry’s ability to help the team produce offense from their blueline:

“We need offense throughout our lineup,” coach Derek Lalonde said Wednesday. “I think the added depth in the offseason had a lot to do with just adding some goals throughout, and he can contribute there.”

Petry projects to help the Wings at even strength, and fortifies the second power play unit, where, during exhibition season, he has either played the point or been a shooter. The nice thing for the Wings is that either Petry or fellow defenseman Jake Walman is an option to put there.

“Both can run it and both can play in that shooter’s spot, and they’re both good on breakouts, good poise,” Lalonde said.

Petry has 353 points, 100 of them on the power play, in 864 career NHL games. His ability to maneuver the puck was a key part of the attraction that drove general manager Steve Yzerman to acquire Petry in mid-August, when he was available on a great deal: The Wings sent the Montreal Canadiens little-used defenseman Gustav Lindstrom and a conditional fourth-round draft pick in 2025 for Petry, whose $6.25 million salary cap hit (through 2024-25) will be covered partly by the Canadiens and Pittsburgh Penguins, to the point it only costs the Wings $2,343,750 annually. That’s a reasonable price for a player who makes the Wings better in multiple ways.

“He’s a veteran, solid player,” Walman said. “He takes command a lot out there and it’s nice having him. It feels steady. Off the ice he’s got a lot of wisdom, as well, and he’s been in those places that we all want to be, and those games late in the season, so we can lean on him a little bit.”

Continued; as discussed last night, Petry’s 35, so it’s hard to expect him to post 45 points this upcoming season, but I think that 25-30 points are a realistic total, and the Red Wings need as much help as they can get in terms of scoring from the blueline.

Getting tired of the condescending tone with which NHL pundits are issuing platitudes about the Red Wings being destined to stink this upcoming season? I am.

It’s aggravating to be patted on the head and told, “There there, hockey partisan, your team will be fine in a couple of years, presuming that Steve Yzerman isn’t the total managerial moron that I suggested during my summertime columns.”

Well, that tone almost continues today as The Athletic’s ever-prolific Sean McIndoe offers “Hope for the NHL’s 10 most hopeless teams in 2023-24,” though I’ll readily admit that McIndoe offers a sympathetic ear toward the fact that the fans of teams that aren’t projected to do well are pretty tired of hockey predictions by now:

Detroit Red Wings

The projections say: 85 points, and a 14 percent chance of making the playoffs.

Why they’re probably right: The Red Wings should be better than last year, with Alex DeBrincat on the top line and other reinforcements added. But the Atlantic is stacked, with four established teams meaning there may only be one playoff spot available. The model likes the Senators and Sabres better, and it’s hard to argue. The Red Wings just don’t seem to have the ceiling that Ottawa or Buffalo do, leaving a disappointing seventh-place finish as the most likely outcome.

But hear me out: You don’t have to squint all that hard to see the Wings being the best of the three young Atlantic teams. Both Ottawa and Buffalo have questions in goal, and while there’s a gap in upside talent, it’s not necessarily huge. If DeBrincat finds his 40-goal scoring pace again, and Moritz Seider moves back into the Norris discussion without Ben Chiarot dragging him down, then the Wings are right there. Mix in some luck when it comes to injuries and goaltending, and Detroit could be the team leading the way for that one spot.

But wait — are we sure there’s only one spot in the Atlantic? The Panthers weren’t very good last year until the playoffs, and their blue line is hurting. The Bruins lost Patrice Bergeron and should take a big step back. The Maple Leafs are the Maple Leafs. And the Lightning losing Andrei Vasilevskiy for two months could shake up the entire division. Maybe this is the year of a big shift in the division, and if so the Wings are well-positioned to slide in and take advantage.

Convincing? Hopefully, because it only gets tougher from here.

Continued (paywall); I know that McIndoe means well. I appreciate the fact that he means well. I’m just a little weary of the, “Well, if all goes well, your team’s destined to be a ‘mushy middle’ team that’s first-round fodder” spiel. That’s not Sean’s fault.

According to Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff, Red Wings prospect Dmitri Buchelnikov won’t be playing for SKA Neva St. Petersburg any more, because he’s moving almost as far east as you can go in Russia.

Duff reports that Buchelnikov is leaving the Baltic coast for the naval port city of Vladivostok, which is northeast of North Korea and sits at the northern end of the Sea of Japan:

Following the outcome of a blockbuster and extremely complicated trade, Buchelnikov is moving to Admiral, a KHL club playing in the Far East Russian city of [Vladivostok]. His shift is just one element in a complicated procedure that is landing Admiral goalie Nikita Serebryakov with struggling SKA.

In exhange for Serebryakov, Admiral is receiving Buchelnikov and goaltender Sergei Ivanov on season loan from SKA. Forward Nikita Anokhovsky and the rights to Vegas Golden Knights defenseman Daniil Miromanov were dealt to Admiral to complete the transaction.

Buried with SKA Neva of the Russian second division with SKA, Buchelnikov figures to be getting an outstanding opportunity, slotting into a key role with Admiral.

“Dmitri will fit perfectly into the top six (forwards),” noted Mikhail Skryl of SportExpress.ru. “Admiral clearly lacked creative forwards.”

Continued; the Admiral Vladivostok play in “Fetisov Arena,” a rink that former Red Wing Vyacheslav Fetisov helped build when he represented the Primorsky Krai in the Russian Duma. Fetisov is still in politics to this day.

New Red Wings defenseman Jeff Petry is 35, and I think that Wings fans’ expectations of Petry have been pretty realistic.

Petry doesn’t skate as fast as he used to, and he’s probably not going to post 45+ points any more, but a realistic 25-30 points in a second or third-pair, power play specialist’s role would be fantastic for a Wings team that has struggled to score from the blueline.

As Detroit Hockey Now’s Tim Robinson notes, Petry also seems to be a pretty chill dude (a far cry from the rumors of a twitchy, itchy, high-maintenance guy with “many allergies” that the Montreal Canadiens’ French-speaking fan base spread late this summer):

Petry has been busy preparing for his first season as a Red Wing after coming to the team from Montreal over the summer.

“Feeling better and better every day,” he said. “Obviously, coming in, stepping into a new system, that takes a little bit of time and I felt better as that first preseason game went on and the next one kind of built off of that.”

Petry has made a good impression on his new team.

“He’s a veteran solid player,” fellow defenseman Jake Walman said. “He takes command out there. It’s nice having him. It feels steady. Off the ice he’s got a lot of wisdom as well. He’s been places that we all want to be, those games late in the season, so we can lean on him a little bit. ”

The Red Wings and coach Derek Lalonde expect to lean on Petry for his skills, too.

“He’s an experienced guy (and) he’s a pro,” Lalonde said. “He comes every day to work, but he also knows what he needs to get out of the exhibition (season).”

Continued; Petry may or may not be allergic as all heck given the unseasonably warm weather that Metro Detroit is experiencing, but he’s definitely appeared calm and collected on the blueline so far, and he’s likely going to get better as he finds his hockey “comfort zone.”

Per NHL.com’s Dan Rosen, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman reported to the league’s Board of Governors that, should all circumstances remain the same, the salary cap may rise significantly next summer:

Bettman said that by the end of the season the players will have paid back the owners in full to make up the approximate $1.5 billion escrow debt they incurred in the 2019-20 season. He said the remaining debt is down to about $50 million.

“Very preliminary projection, but we believe the escrow will be paid off in full and the cap will be somewhere between $87 (million)-$88 million for the following year,” Bettman said.

That would represent an increase of up to $4.5 million. The cap is $83.5 million this season. The projected revenue for this season is expected to be about $6.2 billion, but Bettman said a more comprehensive projection will be given to the Board of Governors when they meet in Seattle on Dec. 4-5.

“Things are good,” Bettman said. “Vital signs are good. Revenues are growing. Everybody thinks the game is in great shape as we head into another season.”

Continued; the higher the cap, the better the Red Wings can compete for talent, even in a “hard cap with linkage” world.

The Detroit Red Wings and several other NHL teams are particularly concerned about losing one of their goaltenders on waivers because the salary cap-strapped Tampa Bay Lightning need an interim replacement for Andrei Vasilevskiy. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman has a thought about the situation that Detroit finds itself in:

When it comes to waivers, everyone’s waiting on the goalies. Teams to watch: Buffalo (Mike Comrie or Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen); Detroit (Alex Lyon and James Reimer); Montreal (Cayden Primeau); Philadelphia (Felix Sandstrom); Toronto (Martin Jones). Some teams say they might carry three goalies, but no one ever believes them until it actually happens.

Columbus claimed Spencer Martin. Colorado and Tampa Bay have short-term injury needs. (One executive mentioned St. Louis’s Malcolm Subban for the Lightning, because he was outstanding against their AHL team, Syracuse, in the playoffs.) Will Buffalo keep the veteran Comrie or the higher-ceiling of Luukkonen? (Comrie had a very good pre-season start against Pittsburgh.) Lyon saved Florida’s season late last year. The Red Wings got him with a guaranteed second year, would they risk it on waivers?

Continued; I would not be shocked if the Wings keep three goaltenders on their regular-season roster until the Lighting alleviate their goaltending concerns. It would really stink to see Alex Lyon on the Bolts.

The Detroit Red Wings won a 2-1 decision over the Pittsburgh Penguins in preseason hockey on Wednesday night. Daniel Sprong and Simon Edvinsson scored goals, and James Reimer was excellent in stopping 21 shots for the Wings, who played a gritty, grimy, greasy game against an undermanned Penguins team.

The Wings will conclude an unprecedented slate of 3 games to be played over the course of 3 preseason nights on Thursday, when they head to Toronto to play the Maple Leafs (7 PM EDT on ESPN+/TSN4).

In the interim, we’ll examine the media’s takes on Wednesday night’s win for the 4-and-2 Wings, whose preseason concludes with this weekend’s home-and-home games against the Leafs.

NHL.com posted a succinct recap of the Wings-Pens game:

Continue reading Red Wings-Penguins preseason wrap-up: It wasn’t pretty, but it was an ’emotional game’ and a gritty, muck-and-grind-y win

Of Red Wings prospect-related note in North America:

In the OHL, Andrew Gibson scored a goal, finishing at +2 with 2 shots in the Soo Greyhounds’ 3-2 shootout win over the London Knights;

And in the WHL, Nate Danielson’s Brandon Wheat Kings lost 6-2 to the Swift Current Broncos.