Month: October 2025

Axel Sandin Pellikka’s battling butterflies today

The Hockey News’s Michael Whitaker spoke with Red Wings rookie Axel Sandin Pellikka about #44 making his NHL debut:

“A lot of excitement, for me and my family,” he said of his reaction when receiving the news that he’d made the final roster cut. “It’s a dream come true. As a kid you want to play in the NHL. Just getting a chance to do it tonight is going to be very cool and I’m looking forward to it.”

Just like fellow rookie teammates Brandsegg-Nygård and Finnie, Sandin-Pellikka will have multiple family members in attendance on Thursday. 

“My family is coming in with my dad and mom, my brother and sister, and my granddad and uncle,” he explained. “I’ve got six people and it will be fun sharing it with them.” 

The Red Wings have featured a wealth of Swedish-born talent throughout their history, most notably multi–Norris Trophy winner and former team captain Nicklas Lidstrom, who is widely considered the greatest defensemen in NHL history.

Sandin-Pellikka has leaned on the support from former Lidstrom teammate Niklas Kronwall, who is now a Development Coach with a focus on Swedish talent. 

“He’s been helping me a lot and offered skills and video, just talking about his career and how that was,” Sandin-Pellikka said of Kronwall. “It’s been very helpful.” 

Continued

Tweet of note: WXYZ’s Galli interviews Patrick Kane

WXYZ’s Brad Galli interviewed Patrick Kane over the course of a concise 2:54:

Video: Lucas Raymond and coach McLellan speak with the media ahead of the Red Wings’ home opener

After today’s morning skate, the Detroit Red Wings spoke with the media ahead of tonight’s home opener against the Montreal Canadiens (7 PM EST start on FanDuel Sports Network Detroit/TSN2/RDS/97.1 FM), discussing the Red Wings debutantes’ cheering sections and coach Todd McLellan’s desire to simplify the team’s game.

Lucas Raymond and coach McLellan accepted the duties of discussing tonight’s affair:

Red Wings-Canadiens post-morning skate Tweets: Family matters and playing a ‘simple game’

The Red Wings’ morning skate ahead of tonight’s home opener against Montreal (7 PM EDT start on FanDuel Sports Network/TSN2/RDS/97.1 FM) offered no surprises. John Gibson will start opposite Jakub Dobes in goal, and it appears that the Red Wings’ lineup which they’ve practiced with this week will serve as the team’s lineup tonight.

It should be noted that the Red Wings have asked fans to be in their seats by 6:35 PM tonight to enjoy the Wings’ pregame activities.

After the morning skate, Red Wings coach Todd McLellan and several players spoke with the Wings’ media corps:

FYI:

Update: Jakub Dobes starts tonight, but Joe Veleno remains scratched:

Red Wings-Canadiens morning skate Tweets: forward lines appear to be set, defense in flux, Gibson vs. Dobes tonight

Updated 2x at 10:49 AM: The Detroit Red Wings open their 100th campaign against the Montreal Canadiens this evening (7 PM EDT on FanDuel Sports Network Detroit/TSN2/RDS/97.1 FM). Montreal lost last night in the form of a 5-2 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs, and while the Canadiens won’t hold a morning skate, they’re scheduled to speak with the media at 11:45 AM today.

Jakub Dobes will start opposite John Gibson in the crease tonight, and it appears that all of Emmitt Finnie, Michael Brandsegg-Nygard and Axel Sandin Pellikka will make their NHL debuts this evening.

MLive’s Ansar Khan was the first to post a morning skate Tweet this morning:

The French-language media is in town, too…

Also:

Update: The morning skate continued…

Continue reading Red Wings-Canadiens morning skate Tweets: forward lines appear to be set, defense in flux, Gibson vs. Dobes tonight

A quick Red Wings-Canadiens preview

As noted last night, the Red Wings’ home-opener opponent, the Montreal Canadiens, lost a 5-2 decision to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday evening, but the game was tied at 2-2 until 9:03 of the 3rd period, when Morgan Rielly took advantage of a broken stick at the Habs’ blueline to streak in and score the gamer on Samuel Montembeault…

And the Canadiens gave up 2 empty-net goals as well, which means that the game was effectively a 3-2 Maple Leafs win.

Jakub Dobes will start tonight’s game (7 PM EDT start on FanDuel Sports Network Detroit/TSN2/RDS/97.1 FM) against John Gibson in goal, and the Canadiens won’t hold a morning skate today at Little Caesars Arena, so their lineup may or may not change from last night’s formation.

Field Level Media posted a short Habs-Leafs recap…

The Canadiens began their season on Wednesday with a 5-2 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs. The game was much closer than the final score would indicate.

The Maple Leafs broke a 2-2 tie midway through the third period and scored a pair of empty-net goals to secure the win.

Montreal had a 31-27 advantage in shots on goal.

“I felt we spent a lot of time in the offensive zone tonight,” Montreal coach Martin St. Louis said. “I think we could have had more of a shooting mentality a little more, but we have been so focused on the defensive side of things throughout camp. We have started diving in on the offensive side of things, but I think we have to have more of a shooting mentality. But overall I liked what I saw. We had good intentions.”

Canadiens defenseman Lane Hutson lost his stick during the sequence that led to Toronto’s go-ahead goal.

“We had enough chances,” Hutson said. “It would have been nice to execute on a couple of chances and maybe get more shots on (goal). The guys played good and I’ve definitely got to be better.”

The Canadiens posted “things to know” ahead of tonight’s game…

Continue reading A quick Red Wings-Canadiens preview

Two things: a 100th anniversary history lesson and Wings-Habs game notes

Of Twitter-related note this morning:

  1. It’s game day, and the Wings posted a hell of a 1-and-a-half minute video chronicling the Wings’ history…

2. And, if you’re interested, here are tonight’s game notes:

gn-2025-10-09-0010-MTL@DETDownload

Bultman makes ‘bold predictions’ ahead of the 2025-2026 season

The Athletic’s Max Bultman makes 10 “bold predictions” about the Red Wings’ season to come:

7. Detroit has a winning record in March

Boldness level: 6/10
Confidence level: 7/10

This one doesn’t feel like it should be bold. And yet, well, you know. Detroit went 4-10 last March and 3-9-2 the year before that. They were also 5-9-1 in 2022-23. Simply put, it’s been their undoing as they’ve tried to turn the corner.

But not this year. Not with a schedule that, at least today, looks much simpler to navigate.

Detroit will still see some tough teams, with Vegas, Florida, Tampa, Dallas and New Jersey all on the schedule (and the latter four all on the same early-March road trip). But the schedule as a whole is much more balanced, with playoff long shots such as Calgary, Buffalo, Boston, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh also on tap.

I think the Red Wings will be focused on righting their wrongs with a better March, so I’ll say they manage to stay just above .500 at 8-6.

8. Red Wings have a new highest-paid player by 2026 opening night

Boldness level: 6.5/10
Confidence level: 7/10

The NHL’s rising salary cap shouldn’t be news to anyone at this point. And even though the Red Wings don’t have anyone in the running for a Kirill Kaprizov-level extension, they’re still going to be dealing with the realities of the new market.

Jackson Lacombe and Luke Hughes each just signed long-term extensions with $9 million AAVs — before either one cracked 50 points.

So, with the cap set to go up yet again, what do we think that will mean for Simon Edvinsson next summer? The 6-foot-6 blue liner has a very real chance this season to get into the same 40-to-50-point range where Hughes and Lacombe have been thus far, while also being a trusted defender who doesn’t get much power-play time.

And with the cap going up the way it is, signing Edvinsson to a bridge deal would just be asking for trouble two or three years down the road. So, I’ll say Edvinsson extends right around that new going rate for top young defensemen and surpasses Larkin ($8.7 million AAV) as the team’s highest-paid player.

Continued (paywall)

Three DHN things: On the difficult schedule ahead, season-opening trivia and a Wings-Habs preview

Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen notes that the Red Wings have a brutal opening-couple-of-weeks’ schedule in a “The Daily” column this morning…

The Red Wings home-heavy schedule from tonight’s Opening Day until Oct. 23 seems like a major test. Playing five Atlantic Division games, plus another Eastern Conference game, sandwiched around Connor McDavid’s Edmonton Oilers, is more like a final exam than a test.

After tonight’s game against Montreal, the Red Wings play Toronto Saturday at home, and then two more home games next Wednesday and Friday against the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning.  On Sunday, Oct. 19, the Oilers come to town. The lone road game in this stretch comes Oct. 22 at Buffalo, and then back to Detroit the following night to meet the Islanders.

Based on that schedule, we will have an early indication about how the Detroit’s youth-infused lineup will stack up against division rivals and against top teams like the Panthers and Oilers who were in last season’s Stanley Cup Final.

“I’m okay with that,” Coach Todd McLellan said. “I think it should put us on our toes. We have to play these teams at some point…The gauntlet you have to go through. Well, it happens at some point. You know, we can’t get overly high or overly low on what might happen throughout the first five, six games. We have to be aware that there’ll be ups and downs, and if there’s downs, we can’t drag ourselves into the mud and never get out of it.”

And Bob Duff offers “Five interesting elements ahead of the Red Wings’ opener“:

Continue reading Three DHN things: On the difficult schedule ahead, season-opening trivia and a Wings-Habs preview

HSJ in the morning: regarding the state of the rebuild and the McLellan effect

Of Red Wings-related note this morning:

  1. The Free Press’s Helene St. James wonders aloud whether the Red Wings’ rebuild is complete, as some of the team’s players have suggested:

When does a rebuild end? When a team advances to the playoffs? The Detroit Red Wings haven’t made it that far in nine years, but as they embark on the 2025-26 season, they don’t want to hear any more about how they are a work in progress.

“You are only in the NHL for so long,” said veteran forward Andrew Copp, now in his fourth season with the Wings. “Guys in here could be in their last year, they could be in their first year. We’re no longer developing. That was a word here for a while – development, rebuilding and all that. We’re done with that.”

St. James points out that the Red Wings have coach Todd McLellan to thank, in part, anyway, for the steps which the team has taken in a forward direction, and that the team has a better goaltending tandem at present…

“He’s super-honest, he’s very detailed, demanding, isn’t afraid to speak up and that’s exactly what we need right now,” defenseman Moritz Seider said. “We need a little bit of guidance and structure and he definitely provides that, with the whole team behind him.”

Beyond structure, the key to success for any team usually comes down to special teams and goaltending – and then some.

“You can throw in health and streakiness ,trying to maintain the good and eliminate the bad,” McLellan said. “But it can really go on and on for a long period. A lot of things have to go right for us and it’s up to us to make them happen.”

But she also notes that the Wings’ players aren’t necessarily talking about a miraculous run to a playoff spot just yet:

Continue reading HSJ in the morning: regarding the state of the rebuild and the McLellan effect