Month: February 2025

The Red Wings will play 2 games over the course of less than 24 hours tonight in Calgary (10 PM EST on FanDuel SportsNet Detroit/CBC/Sportsnet/City/97.1 FM) and tomorrow in Vancouver, and the team then proceeds on to battle the Seattle Kraken on Tuesday.

As such, DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills asked Ben Chiarot and coach Todd McLellan about the road ahead:

“It’s part of the grind of the season,” Ben Chiarot said. “I think we just embrace it, honestly, and look forward to it. It’s a good challenge for us. Get as many guys going as we can here.”

Head coach Todd McLellan said the Red Wings have plenty of off-ice resources to help them navigate this busy stretch of schedule.

“We, like 31 other teams in the League, employ real good people,” McLellan said. “They are trained to guide and direct us in managing the group as far as nutrition, rest and energy expenditure. We certainly listen to them. There are times when the coach will trump all that because something needs to get done. Likely, this won’t be the trip. It’s not easy playing three [games] in four [nights], but it’s not easy doing it out West here. The travel between games is a little bit tougher.”

In the first game of its four-game road trip, Detroit overcame a 2-0 deficit to defeat the Edmonton Oilers, 3-2, in a shootout on Thursday. Notably, netminder Alex Lyon was strong between the pipes, making a season-high 45 saves.

“In Edmonton, we had a slow start but were able to kind of find our game as it went on,” Chiarot said. “It’s important for us to get pucks to the net early and get the other team off balance.”

McLellan said aside from goalie Cam Talbot starting in Calgary, there won’t be any changes to the Red Wings’ lineup from Thursday’s shootout win.

“He’s real steady,” McLellan said about Talbot, who has won his last three starts. “He’s there early in games when we need him, especially on the road. I think not only the saves, but his game-management skills help us out a lot. He knows when to slow it down or speed it up for us, and that’s real important.”

Continued

The Detroit Red Wings and Calgary Flames held their respective morning skates ahead of tonight’s game between the two teams (10 PM EST start on FanDuel SportsNet Detroit/CBC/Sportsnet/City TV/97.1 FM).

After the morning skates, the Flames posted their team’s tentative lineup…

Forwards

Jonathan Huberdeau – Nazem Kadri – Joel Farabee

Blake Coleman – Mikael Backlund – Matt Coronato

Martin Pospisil – Morgan Frost – Yegor Sharangovich

Ryan Lomberg – Clark Bishop – Adam Klapka

Defence

Joel Hanley – Rasmus Andersson

Jake Bean – MacKenzie Weegar

Tyson Barrie – Brayden Pachal

Goaltender

Dustin Wolf

And the Flames posted their morning skate availabilities on Twitter…

Continue reading Videos: Chiarot and coach McLellan speak with the media, plus Flames availabilities

The Detroit Red Wings will attempt to stretch their winning streak to 5 games as they face the Calgary Flames this evening (10 PM EST start on FanDuel SportsNet Detroit/CBC/Sportsnet/City TV/97.1 FM).

The Red Wings are coming off a 4-2 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday; Calgary most recently snapped a 2-game losing streak with a 4-1 win over the Anaheim Ducks on Thursday.

Tonight’s game kicks off a stretch of back-to-back games for the Wings (they play in Vancouver on Sunday night) and 3 games to be played over the course of 4 nights (as the Wings play in Seattle on Tuesday evening).

The Flames’ press corps is really, really excited about the Flames’ recent acquisitions of Joel Farabee and Morgan Frost from the Philadelphia Flyers. Maybe a little bit too excited:

I’m intrigued to see the new-look Flames hit the ice tonight against the Red Wings.

The debuts of Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee, acquired Thursday from Philadelphia, will come 15 years to the day of the last time the club acquired two NHL forwards in the same mid-season trade.… pic.twitter.com/GApMhH1e9T

— Darren Haynes (@DarrenWHaynes) February 1, 2025

Anyway, the Flames hit the ice at the Saddledome just after 10 AM local time, and The Fan 960’s Pat Steinberg reports that the Flames’ starter will…well, start…this evening:

Continue reading Red Wings-Flames morning skate Tweets: Calgary welcomes Farabee and Frost; Wings coverage sparse

Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen surmises that, in a couple of years, the Red Wings may have an all-Yzerman-draft-pick defensive corps. It’s a bit of a stretch, but one never knows. As part of his article, Allen speaks with Grand Rapids Griffins coach Dan Watson regarding Antti Tuomisto and William Wallinder, who could join Albert Johansson, Simon Edvinsson, Moritz Seider and Axel Sandin Pellikka on the Wings’ blueline:

Six-foot-5 Finnish defenseman Antti Tuomisto is in his second season at Grand Rapids, and pro scouts tell Detroit Hockey Now they believe he has a chance to play in the Show.

“He’s been steady for us defensively, he’s been steady for us moving pucks, and that’s one of his biggest attributes, the way he sees the ice and can distribute the pucks,” Watson said. “He makes great passes. He sees it extremely well.”

Watson said what Tuomisto is working on now on his footwork and his mobility.

“He understands that and knows that,” Watson said. “So he puts himself in position to have success defensively. Again, with the length of a stick, you know, his angling, the way he is around our net right now, he’s got that intensity that maybe that he lacked a little bit last year, that’s growing and you have to build on that. That’s just not something that happens overnight. You have to do that consistently. So through practices, through games up to this point.”

…

Another Swede,William Wallinder, is showing in Grand Rapids he’s not far away from being ready.

“(When) I think for him, again, it’s growing, the intensity and, and moving his feet,” Watson said.  “When he moves his feet, he’s an elite skater. He’s one of the best in our team, if not the best defenseman at closing gaps, using his stick. He’s right there.”

Continued; not everybody makes the NHL, but the Wings’ defensive corps has very good depth in terms of NHL-ascendant prospects.

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