Month: February 2025

Of “Good Reading” note this morning:

1. The Grand Rapids Griffins’ website posted its latest issue of “Griffiti,” which includes articles about top prospect Nate Danielson’s development, veteran forward Austin Watson’s scrappiness, forward Sheldon Dries’ hockey story and Griffins assistant equipment manager Kyle Hornkohl;
2. Also of Griffins-related note: 100 Degree Hockey’s Stephen Meserve posted an article about Texas Stars equipment manager Charlie Kaser, who’s the son of Grand Rapids Griffins announcer Bob Kaser;
3. The Hockey Writers’ Devin Little posted a mid-season update for 25 Red Wings prospects;
4. We head back to the Griffins for a clip chronicling the “Tip-a-Griffin” charitable event:

6. And finally, the “Frozen Fish Fiasco” is happening this weekend at Detroit’s Clark Park, and Darren McCarty appeared on Fox 2 Detroit to discuss the event.

Updated 2x at 11:36 AM: The 25-21-and-5 Detroit Red Wings head into a difficult stretch of 3 games to be played over the next 4 nights as they take on the 25-18-and-7 Calgary Flames (10 PM EST start on FanDuel SportsNet Detroit/CBC/Sportsnet/City TV/97.1 FM), and Calgary is something of a mixed bag team-wise.

The Flames made a very big trade recently, adding Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee from Philadelphia, and Calgary sits one point ahead of tomorrow night’s opponent, the Vancouver Canucks, in the Western Conference’s Wild Card race.

The Flames have actually won 4 of their past 6 games and 6 of their past 10, but their 4-1 win over Anaheim on Thursday snapped a 2-game losing streak.

Goaltender Dustin Wolf has been excellent in the Flames’ crease, but the Flames don’t score a ton of goals:

Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen explained why the Flames needed to bring in Frost and Farabee while previewing tonight’s game–they need help in the goal-scoring department…

Detroit’s four-game road trip continues Saturday (10 p.m. ET, FanDuel Sports Network) with a game against the Calgary Flames. Detroit is 1-0 after downing the Edmonton Oilers Thursday 3-2 in a shootout. The Red Wings are 12-4-1 in their 17 games under McLellan. The Flames are 4-4 in their last eight. Calgary ranks 28th in scoring (2.68 goals per game) and 19th in goals-against per game (2.92).

The Calgary Sun’s Daniel Austin notes that “the buzz” going into tonight’s game will involve the Flames’ new acquisitions…

Continue reading Red Wings-Flames preview: Wings begin 3-games-in-4-nights stretch vs. reloading Flames

Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff considers several factors which may improve the Red Wings’ chances of making the playoff cut–presuming that their 4-game road trip through Western Canada and the Pacific Northwest goes well–this morning:

Red Wings Need To Start On Time

It’s great that Detroit has been able to rally from 2-0 deficits to win each of the last two games. This shouldn’t be viewed as a pattern the Red Wings will want to be continuing.

Chasing the game wears a team down. Catch-up hockey is losing hockey in the long run. The Wings are 10-18-1 this season when the opposition opens the scoring.

Winning The Race To Three

When he was first arriving in Detroit, McLellan was talking about NHL games being a race to three. His theory was that the first team to score three goals won the vast majority of games.

So far, he’s been proven a prophet. Under McLellan, the Wings are 11-0 when getting to three goals first in a game. They are 0-4 when the opponents is the first to net three times.

Continued