Month: August 2024

Tweet of note/THN: NHL will air 15 national broadcasts of Red Wings games

From the Red Wings on Twitter:

Per the Hockey News’s Connor Eargood:

ABC will broadcast the Red Wings four times on the network’s local channels in 2024-25, while two more games will be aired on the ESPN channels including March 1’s outdoor game against Columbus at Ohio Stadium. The ESPN networks are also streaming two games only on ESPN+: Oct. 17 vs. the New York Rangers and Dec. 3 at Boston.

TNT is picking up seven games. Two of those — March 12 vs. Buffalo and the season finale April 16 at New Jersey — will be blacked out to local viewers. That means that if Detroit’s potential playoff push comes down to the final game like it did in 2023-24, fans wouldn’t be able to watch the game if they don’t have TNT in their channel package.

A chronological schedule of nationally broadcasted games, channels and times can be found below:

Oct. 17 vs. New York Rangers — ESPN+, 7:30 p.m.
Nov. 6 at Chicago â€” TNT, 8 p.m.
Nov. 13 at Pittsburgh â€” TNT, 7:30 p.m.
Dec. 3 at Boston â€” ESPN+, 7 p.m.
Dec. 18 vs. Philadelphia â€” TNT, 7 p.m.
Jan. 16 at Florida â€” ESPN, 7 p.m.
Feb. 8 vs. Tampa Bay â€” ABC and ESPN+, 1 p.m.
Feb. 22 vs. Minnesota â€” ABC and ESPN+, 12:30 p.m.
March 1 at Columbus (Outdoor Game) â€” ESPN, 6 p.m.
March 12 vs. Buffalo â€” TNT (not available locally), 7:30 p.m.
March 16 vs. Vegas â€” TNT, 1 p.m.
March 22 at Vegas â€” ABC and ESPN+, 8 p.m
March 29 vs. Boston â€” ABC and ESPN+, 8 p.m.
April 6 vs. Florida â€” TNT, 5:30 p.m.
April 16 at New Jersey (last game of regular season) â€” TNT (not available locally), 7:30 p.m.

Tweets of note: Kasper tips in a goal as Austria loses first Olympic Qualifying game vs. Slovakia

Update: The IIHF changed the scoresheet. Kasper did score the Austrians’ 2-1 goal.

In the second Olympic Qualifying game of the day, Marco Kasper didn’t fare as well as Michael “2 goals” Brandsegg-Nygard did in Norway’s 4-2 win over Japan.

Kasper’s Austrians battled a bigger, heavier Slovak team, and Slovakia prevailed 2-1. It looked like Marco Kasper tipped in the Austrians’ 2-1 goal, but the scoresheet credits Dominique Henrich with the goal instead.

Per Red Wings Prospects on Twitter:

From what I saw of the game, Kasper was an absolute buzzsaw for the Austrians, charging to the front of the net while playing as the first-line center, mucking it up a little bit and using his bursts of speed to get up and down the ice in a hurry. He looked great against heavy competition.

The Austrians play Kazakhstan on Saturday and Hungary on Monday, and they’re going to have to win both games in order to keep up with the Slovaks, who are favored to win the group and Olympic qualification.

Khan on the Wings’ Michigan connections

MLive’s Ansar Khan discusses the strong Michigan connections on the Red Wings’ roster, which may or may not be coincidental, especially after Ann Arbor’s Auston Watson has been invited to training camp on a Pro Try-Out:

“Honestly, it’s not part of the plan,” general manager Steve Yzerman said after free agency on July 4. “But we get into free agency … players indicate they’d be interested in coming back. I’ve been here five years and over the course of those years I’ve heard from agents that a player would really love to come back, but on these terms.

“Sometimes those terms work for us and sometimes they don’t. I think it’s only natural you see the kids, whether they’re Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa or Detroit (natives), they grew up in the city or their favorite team is the team in the city they grew up in and they’d love to play at home.”

The Red Wings have five Michigan natives: Dylan Larkin (Waterford), Alex DeBrincat (Farmington Hills), Andrew Copp (Ann Arbor), Jeff Petry (Ann Arbor) and Tyler Motte (St. Clair). That’s in addition to J.T. Compher, an Illinois native who played at Michigan.

Continued (paywall, sorry)

Fundraising update: server almost paid for, TC trip…a work in progress

It’s August 29th, and the fundraising news is mixed from the last missive to today.

The good news is that we’re about $150 from covering the server bill at Bluehost and the Jetpack subscription. With a little more $, we’ll be good to go for the 31st, when both bills are due.

The bad news is that, while the GoFundMe is starting to rumble to life, we are exactly two weeks from training camp, and we’ve raised $350 of somewhere between $4,500 and $5,000 needed to get both myself and Aunt Annie up to Traverse City for the truncated prospect tournament and main training camp.

Aunt Annie and I will be counting our pennies and living like we’re camping in our hotel room, but the expense of a handicapped room for my double-hip-replacement patient (even with a gigantic “small business discount”) and the rental car = it’s going to be expensive to get myself and my 82-year-old charge up to TC.

It’s just the way it is now. I wish that we had a working car right now, and that Aunt Annie could take care of herself, but we’re crossing the first bridge now, and I simply have two jobs now–blogger and caregiver. So she goes where I go.

So if you’re looking for me “singing for my supper,” I can do that. I can wash your car if you bring it to me, I can try to do your taxes or substitute in your bowling league at PINZ! if you want. We’re just at crunch time in terms of fundraising, and it’s gotten really scary because there are two weeks with which to raise a crap-ton of money.

If you’re willing to lend a hand, have an official GoFundMe fundraiser page at https://gofund.me/c08de120; we have a PayPal option at https://paypal.me/TheMalikReport; there’s Venmo at https://venmo.com/george-malik-2; if you’re into the, “I don’t want to use any of those pages” option, here’s always the Giftly option by using my email, rtxg@yahoo.com, at https://www.giftly.com…

And in the banking options, you can contact me via email if you want to send me a paper check, or “Zelle” me via my email, rtxg@yahoo.com. I’m also on Cash App under “georgeums.”

As always, thank you for your readership and your time.

Press release: U.S. NTDP to host Michigan State on November 21st

From the United States National Team Development Program:

Michigan State Added to Team USA Home Schedule

Spartans to visit USA Hockey Arena on November 21

PLYMOUTH, Mich. – USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program announced today the addition of Michigan State University to the Under-18 Team’s home schedule. The Spartans will visit USA Hockey Arena on Thursday, November 21 at 7 p.m. ET and tickets are on sale now. 

Michigan State’s roster features five former NTDP players, including Spartans captain Red Savage (2019-21), goaltender Trey Augustine (2021-23) forwards Isaac Howard (2020-22), Charlie Stramel (2020-22) and defenseman Shane Vansaghi (2022-24). In addition, MSU head coach Adam Nightingale was an NTDP bench boss from 2020-22.

The match-up will be the 20th all-time contest between Michigan State and the NTDP. The series is tight as Team USA has posted an 8-11-0 all-time record against the Spartans, coming into this year’s game as winners of two of the last three. 

To purchase tickets to the game, please call the USA Hockey Arena box office at 734-453-8400 or click here to purchase online. 

Continue reading Press release: U.S. NTDP to host Michigan State on November 21st

Shapiro speaks with MSU captain Red Savage

EP Rinkside’s Sean Shapiro spoke with Red Wings prospect and new Michigan State University men’s hockey team captain Red Savage for Shapiro’s “Shap Shots” Substack:

Michigan State determines the captaincy by a vote of the team members, and I caught up with Savage this week about his new role and how his career has progressed over the past couple of seasons.

“It’s definitely humbling,” Savage said. “It’s a lot of respect from your coaching staff to be able to put this honor upon you, and I don’t take it lightly at all. I’ve been in leadership groups on teams in the past, and I think it’s something that comes pretty naturally to me … but it’s still humbling to be recognized by your teammates and coaching staff like that.”

Savage being named captain in his second year with the program, as a transfer, is a strong embodiment of how much the Spartans have turned a corner under Nightingale.

While Michigan State has recruited well, flipping Trey Augustine from Michigan for example completely flipped the balance of power in the Big Ten, the Spartans have also become an ideal destination for players in the transfer portal.

Continued (paywall)

Tweets of note: Brandsegg-Nygard scores 2 in Norway’s 4-2 win over Japan at Olympic Qualifying Tournament

Red Wings prospect Michael Brandsegg-Nygard scored 2 goals en route to Norway’s 4-2 win over Japan at the Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Milan.

As you might expect, IceHockeyGifs and Red Wings Prospects were all over the highlights (check their Twitter/X accounts for more):

Norway will continue their three-day blitz by playing against Great Britain tomorrow, and the IIHF’s YouTube channel will broadcast the game.

‘Playoffs or bust?’

Bleacher Report’s Adam Gretz posted a set of power rankings for NHL teams over the past 5 seasons, and if bashing “the Yzerplan” was a sport, Gretz would be going top shelf, repeatedly:

30. Detroit Red Wings: This has to be a playoff-or-bust season for general manager Steve Yzerman and the Red Wings.

The playoff drought is now at eight consecutive years overall, including all five years of the Yzerman era.

What makes the results from the past couple of years so disappointing is that they really made some big efforts and spent some big money to bring in veteran players to complement their young core of talent. But have they spent it in the right places and on the right players? That remains to be seen.

When it comes to the 2024-25 season, the playoffs shouldn’t only be a realistic goal—they should be an expectation, especially after narrowly missing out this past season on a tiebreaker. If they fall short again, it is a failure by the front office and a damning indictment of Yzerman’s overall plan and the job he has done. Because right now, the best you can say about his roster is that it finished in ninth place in the Eastern Conference one time.

Continued; there is no “playoffs or shoot Yzerman into the sun” plan. Especially with Chris Ilitch letting the Wings and Tigers’ GM’s work with long leashes…

Anyway, Yzerman has been honest about his team being in the middle of a rebuild toward sustained playoff appearances, and while I sure as hell hope the Wings make the playoffs this season, he’s not going to be fired if they miss ’em. Period.

Tweet of note: Justin Holl’s team wins ‘Da Beauty League’ title

Via Red Wings Prospects on Twitter: Justin Holl’s team won “Da Beauty League” title, taking the championship in Minnesota’s premier professional hockey player-participating summer league:

Meet Tyler Copp, Andrew’s golfing brother

This one snuck through the cracks, but it’s a neat “human interest story”: the Winnipeg Free Press’s Mike McIntyre spoke with Tyler Copp, Andrew Copp’s younger brother, as Tyler visited Manitoba to take part in a golf tournament:

The 26-year-old Copp is among the 156 golfers who will tee it up beginning Thursday morning in the CentrePort Canada Rail Park Manitoba Open at Southwood Golf & Country Club.

His passport may say American, but this one feels like a bit of a home game. Andrew was drafted by the Jets in 2013, made his NHL debut in 2015 and played 501 career regular-season and playoff games with Winnipeg before he was traded to the New York Rangers in 2022, then signed as a free agent with the Detroit Red Wings a few months later where he remains.

“My brother lived here for seven years. Winnipeg will always be something we are familiar with and remember well,” said Copp. “He’s still got a lot of buddies on the team, and honestly, the fans here are great. It’s good to come back. Hopefully, it treats me well.”

After graduating from Mercer University in Georgia, Copp turned pro and gained his PGA Tour Americas card for the 2024 season. His rookie campaign is off to a rough start — six tournaments played, six cuts missed, zero cheques cashed.

“I would give myself a D-plus. Obviously the competition is tough, but I don’t feel like I can’t be right there with them. There’s a constant learning curve. You’ve got to keep staying aggressive,” Copp told the Free Press.

Continued