Tweets from Sunday’s practice + catch-up post: Mrazek, Smith join the fray; Larkin doesn’t practice

As the Detroit Red Wings prepare to battle the Ottawa Senators tomorrow night (7 PM EDT start on FanDuel SportsNet Detroit/Fox 2/Prime Canada/TVA Sports/97.1 FM), the Wings are on a five-game losing streak, having most recently dropped a 5-2 decision to the Washington Capitals on Friday night.

The Wings took Saturday off to rest after playing 3 games in 4 nights, so let’s catch you up on the Wings’ situation, if you haven’t been following of late:

Thanks to Detroit’s 5-game losing streak, the Wings are finally sinking down the Eastern Conference standings, and as they sit 3 points behind the Senators right now, Monday night’s game is of paramount importance–as are each and every one of the last 19 games of the regular season.

The Wings will play 5 games over the next 9 nights, and then they head back to Washington, and then out West, for a 4-game road trip.

Detroit made a very modest set of trade deadline moves, adding goaltender Petr Mrazek and forward Craig Smith from the Chicago Blackhawks in exchange for Joe Veleno, losing Christian Fischer on waivers to Columbus, and accommodating 25% of Yanni Gourde’s salary in order to snag a 4th round draft pick from the Tampa Bay Lightning (with the unlikely-to-sign prospect Kyle Aucoin going to Tampa as part of the deal).

Mrazek and Smith are supposed to meet the team for practice today. The Wings Tweeted out that Mrazek will wear #43, swapping out his usual #34 as Alex Lyon wears that jersey number, while Craig Smith will wear #15.

Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman was blunt with the media during his post-trade deadline press conference, explaining that he felt asking prices were too high for the team to justify adding both rental and long-term trade pieces, and Red Wings coach Todd McLellan has described his team as playing through an “evaluation period.”

The Wings are also going to simulcast 6 games on Fox 2 Detroit, starting with tomorrow night’s game against Ottawa, helping out the “cord cutters.” Fox 2’s Jennifer Hammond indicated that she’ll be reporting from Ottawa this evening.

Anyway, the Red Wings hit the ice at Little Caesars Arena’s BELFOR Training Center just before 12 PM on Sunday, and their new goaltender was there:

Larkin got a little banged-up on Friday vs. the Capitals, so it’s not surprising that he’s taking a “maintenance day.” And it’s a good sign that Edvinsson is back after missing half of the 3rd period.

Published by

George Malik

My name is George Malik, and I'm the Malik Report's editor/blogger/poster. I have been blogging about the Red Wings since 2006, and have worked with MLive and Kukla's Korner. Thank you for reading!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *