Month: December 2024

HSJ in the morning: regarding the Wings’ three goaltenders

The Free Press’s Helene St. James discusses the Red Wings’ goaltending situation this morning, as Alex Lyon returns from a lower-body injury tonight vs. Philadelphia (7 PM EST start on TNT/97.1 FM), Ville Husso’s earned his first win of the season, and Cam Talbot is slated to return from his lower-body injury on Friday:

“We’ve been able to turn to an experienced goalie that we believe in all year,” coach Derek Lalonde said. “Over two years, good on our management team, thinking outside the box with roster management and being able to carry three goalies. It salvaged our season and got us on the brink of the playoffs last year, and it’s kept us in the battle this year. We’ve had four goalies win games for us this year and we’re not even at Christmas.”

Husso is coming off his first NHL win in more than a year, helping the Wings defeat the Toronto Maple Leafs Dec. 14. The Wings called him up Nov. 27 on an emergency basis, so when Talbot is also healthy, they will have to decide whether to carry three or send Husso back to Grand Rapids Griffins.

He knows that can happen, but “I just go day by day,” Husso said. “I don’t think there is any other way. Do my job and I don’t think about that other stuff. It’s been nice to be home and hopefully I’ll get to spend Christmas with the family. That will be good.”

Lalonde deferred speculation, saying, “let’s get to three healthy goalies first,” and complemented Husso on his professionalism.

“Ville is just a genuinely really good person, very well liked in the room,” Lalonde said. “He’s a guy you root for. He’s worked hard. A lot of the adversity has come through injury, he’s had some lower body injuries he’s dealt with. He keeps working at it.”

St. James continues, and she posted a video of a her Tuesday conversation with Lyon, Husso and coach Lalonde after Tuesday’s practice as well:

Wings’ goaltending depth a plus ‘four’ sure

Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff recounts the ten times that the Red Wings have had 4 or more goaltenders earn NHL wins in the same season this morning, all while discussing the Red Wings’ called-upon goaltending depth this season:

Both Sebastian Cossa (Monday, 6-5 shootout win at Buffalo) and Ville Husso (4-2 win Saturday over Toronto) were posting their first victories of the NHL season last week. For Husso, it was his first triumph in more than a year. In Cossa’s case, the win came in his NHL debut in relief of Hossa.

Combined with earlier wins this season by both Talbot and Lyon, that makes four different goalies putting up a W for the team already this season.

“Someone gave me a stat, we’re one of the first teams to have four goalie wins (from four different goalies) in the first certain amount of games of the year, which is a good sign,” Lalonde said.

He’s likely referencing the 1993-94 season. That campaign saw Detroit gather up a club-record wins from five different netminders – Peter Ing, Vincent Riendeau, Chris Osgood, Tim Cheveldae and Bob Essensa.

Continued; I have a Cheveldae Winnipeg Jets jersey, if you want to know how annoyed I was about the Cheveldae + Dallas Drake for Bob Essensa trade.

Morning Khan: Kasper key to reviving Red Wings’ power play

MLive’s Ansar Khan discusses the Red Wings’ recent power play struggles ahead of tonight’s game vs. Philadelphia (7 PM EST start on TNT/97.1 FM):

The Red Wings’ power play has gone a season-high four games without converting (0 for 8) and is just 1 for 14 in the past six games. That’s far from dreadful but ineffective enough to warrant scrutiny.

“The positive is we had some really good looks (in Saturday’s 4-2 win over Toronto),” [Red Wings coach Derek] Lalonde said. “We went through a stretch for 3-4 games, when I made the comment of stale, we weren’t getting looks, we weren’t getting entries. The other night (Saturday), we lost the special teams battle 1-0 but we had the looks, we out-chanced them 5-, 6-1, it just didn’t go in for us. If we can continue to get those looks it’ll come around.”

The most notable change heading into tonight’s game against the Philadelphia Flyers at Little Caesars Arena (7 p.m., TNT) sees [Marco] Kasper joining the unit with Dylan Larkin, J.T. Compher, Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider.

“Marco does well in that spot,” Lalonde said. “It know it sounds simple but he does what we ask of him there. He retrieves pucks, he plays it quickly to get movement, he plays through the bumper well. He has scored in that spot. He gets into the scoring area when we go downhill with four guys. He gives us a little energy there.

“I still think we’re kind of in a solution searching mode with our power play. We have a good problem in that we think we have eight to 10 to 12 quality power play guys. We’re trying to figure out some personnel and he’s the one getting an opportunity in that spot.”

Continued (paywall)

The ‘Wily Veteran’ Trey Augustine

NHL.com’s Mike G. Morreale spoke with Red Wings prospect and USA World Junior Championship goaltender Trey Augustine about his status as a wily veteran on this year’s U.S. WJC team:

“I just feel old now,” Augustine said with a grin. “I kind of felt young at the start, like I was a little above my level, but now I just feel comfortable, feel like I’m one of the old guys on the team.”

And that’s good news for the U.S. National Junior Team because having a savvy veteran in net at the most prestigious hockey tournament for under-20 players is a huge bonus.

Augustine (6-foot-1, 193 pounds), chosen by the Detroit Red Wings in the second round (No. 41) of the 2023 NHL Draft, might be the best at his position among the 10 countries participating in the tournament in Ottawa from Dec. 26 through Jan. 5. He’s who national junior team general manager John Vanbiesbrouck calls a unique player.

“We’ve only had a couple guys get this much experience when it comes to World Under-18 Championship, World Juniors, and when you have that level of experience, it means a lot,” said Vanbiesbrouck, a retired goalie and 2007 U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame inductee. “He’s already a mature kid, but I see more maturity in him. I see he’s very comfortable, but as a player, he’s elite. He’s got the mentality for goaltending, for the position, to move on after negative things and that’s hard qualities to teach young guys. He’s ready to play, starts on time … the sky’s the limit.”

Jack Campbell (2010-12) and Alan Perry (1984-86) are the only other United States goalies to see action in three straight World Junior events. Augustine is 8-1-0 with a 2.20 goals-against average and .911 save percentage in 10 tournament games.

“I always say I’m a competitive, athletic goalie,” Augustine said. “I just kind of use my skating to kind of put myself in position to make saves. That pretty much describes my game.”

Continued; I cringed a bit writing “wily veteran” about a 19-year-old, but here we are.

Tweet of note: Red Wings go shopping in the ‘Hometown Holiday Assist’

Per the Detroit Red Wings:

Grand Rapids Griffins ice Texas Stars in first of 2-game series

The Grand Rapids Griffins rallied from a 1-1 deficit and pushed past a 2-2 tie with 2 3rd period goals en route to a 4-2 victory over the Texas Stars on Tuesday night.

Here’s the Griffins website’s recap of the game:

CEDAR PARK, Texas — In their first trip to the Lone Star State this year, the Grand Rapids Griffins knocked off the Texas Stars 4-2 on Tuesday at the H-E-B Center at Cedar Park. 

Grand Rapids is 14-0-0-0 when scoring three or more goals. Sheldon Dries secured the game-winner, good for his team-high 11th goal and his fourth in the last five games. Austin Watson (1-1—2) and Joe Snively (0-2—2) tallied a pair of points in the outing while William Wallinder found the back of the net for the first time this season. Goaltender Jack Campbell got the start and earned his first win as a Griffin (1-2-0), saving 20 shots. Campbell improved to a .917 save percentage and a 2.37 goals-against average. 

The Stars struck first at 11:07 in the first period when Arttu Hyry deflected a shot past Campbell. Grand Rapids quickly retaliated with 6:52 left in the frame, as Gabriel Seger scored his fourth goal of the campaign. Josiah Didier fired a shot towards the goalmouth and Seger tipped it home to tie the game. 

Just 4:41 into the second period, the Griffins took the lead thanks to Wallinder. Nate Danielson went behind the net and sent a pass to Wallinder at the top of the left circle who buried the one-timer. During a Texas power play, Tim Gettinger stole the puck and skated on a breakaway but was held back by a Stars defender, giving the Griffins a penalty shot at 15:21. However, Gettinger’s attempt sailed wide. The score remained 2-1 until Justin Hryckowian scored during a 4-on-4 with 20 seconds remaining in the second. 

The back-and-forth outing continued, as Dries gave Grand Rapids its lead back 1:51 into the final frame. A snipe from Shai Buium deflected off the netminder and Dries batted the rebound out of midair past Magnus Hellberg. The Stars pulled Hellberg with two minutes remaining but Watson scored on the empty net at 18:18. The Griffins maintained their lead and skated away with a 4-2 win. 

The Griffins also posted a photo gallery and the Texas Stars’ game highlights:

Allen on the Griffins’ positives

Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen posted a subscriber-only article which discusses the fortunes of the Grand Rapids Griffins of late:

Dan is Dandy: Dan Watson is doing an impressive job getting Detroit’s prospects to show improvement. [Nate] Danielson. Amadeus Lombardi. It seems like most Grand Rapids players are playing better than they did a year ago. Cross Hanas. Ondrej Becher. Alex Doucet. Even Jakub Rychlovsky. They all seem to be doing more.

Yzerman has to happy with how Watson has improved the team’s overall defensive play.

D Men Earning A Grades: The Griffins (16-8-1-0) have surrendered two or fewer goals in 14 of their 25 games. And Detroit prospects are playing big roles in that improvement. Shai Buium, in his first full season with the Griffins, has put up seven points in 21 games and has helped the Griffins hold an opponents to 2.52 goals per game. That ties Grand Rapids for first in the league. Buium is plus-4 on the season.

William Wallinder and Antti Tuomisto are two other Detroit prospects logging significant minutes on defense.

Continued (paywall)

On Augustine’s confidence level

The Hockey News’s Sam Stockton discusses Red Wings prospect, Michigan State University goaltender and U.S. World Junior Team starter Trey Augustine this evening:

Augustine—a sophomore at Michigan State and 2023 Detroit Red Wings draft pick—is quickly becoming one of the most decorated amateur goaltenders ever.  He has a World Junior gold medal, a gold medal from U-18 Worlds, a Big Ten regular season championship, and a Big Ten tournament championship (both program firsts for the Spartans) to his name already.

When asked yesterday about what’s changed for him at now his third World Junior camp (he also backstopped the Americans to bronze in the Maritimes at the 2023 WJC), Augustine quipped, “I just feel old now. I felt young at the start. I was a little above my level, but now I just feel comfortable, feel like I’m one of the old guys on the team.”

It was a light-hearted comment, but it also showed the confidence that Augustine has added to his trademark sense of calm in net, confidence earned from each added accolade.

“Each time you can see he’s out of his shell a little bit more,” said USA coach David Carle, who also coached the American WJC side a year ago.  “I heard, even last weekend, I heard he was kinda showing up the crowd a little bit against Minnesota.  People were surprised by that, but excited about that.  There’s nothing wrong with that.  We saw a little bit of that in Sweden actually.  When you watch the game back, you see some of the replays where he gets pretty fired up.  You’d never question his intensity or compete or desire to win, but he’s probably getting a little more external or forward facing.”

Continued

Knock on composite

The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan filed a notebook article which discusses the Red Wings’ relative health in goal, which Wings coach Derek Lalonde does not want to jinx:

“We’d like to get there first,” said coach Derek Lalonde, who has had the benefit of three NHL goaltenders on the roster for two seasons but rarely have all three been healthy. “Someone gave me the statistic of we were one of the first teams to have four goalie wins in the first (30) games in the year. We talk about starting with three goalies and needing three goalies and here we are again, four deep (Sebastian Cossa won one game). Let’s get to three healthy goalies, and then that’ll be a good decision to have.”

Lyon went through another full practice Tuesday — he’s been doing it for close to a week now — and has been cleared to play.

When it’s time to make a decision, it’ll most likely affect Husso, who won his first game in a calendar year Saturday over Toronto. After being plagued with injuries from the second half of last season, then being reassigned to Grand Rapids the first week of this regular season after being waived by the Wings, Husso appears as healthy and productive as he’s been in almost two seasons.

But with Talbot and Lyon likely targeted to share the load with the Wings, and Cossa and Jack Campbell in Grand Rapids, Husso’s immediate future looks unclear.

Lalonde, though, is appreciative of having a third goalie who is proven and capable at the NHL level.

“We’ve been able to turn to an experienced goalie that we believed in all year, over two years,” Lalonde said. “Good on our management team thinking outside the box with carrying three goalies. It’s kept us in the battle again this year. Ville is just a genuine good person, very well liked in the room. He’s a guy you root for. A lot of adversity he’s faced has come through injury. He keeps working at it and he got rewarded for it with a quality win against a quality opponent.”

Continued (paywall)

Prospect round-up: Buchelnikov plays nearly 20 minutes in Vityaz win

I’ve taken a while away from the prospect beat, but it’s time to start up again.

So, of Red Wings prospect-related note today in Russia:

In the KHL, Dmitri Buchelnikov had 2 shots, 3 hits and an intercepted pass in 19:28 played as Vityaz Moscow Region won 6-5 in a shootout over Nizhny Novgorod.

Red Wings Prospects on Twitter has something of a scouting report: