Author: George Malik

The Hockey News’s Connor Eargood attempts to explain why the Red Wings chose to recall Austin Watson over younger players like Marco Kasper, Nate Danielson or Carter Mazur:

“I think it’s probably a fit, what we need,” Lalonde said Sunday, before Watson was called up, of the profile of who the Red Wings would most likely call up. “… Being a short term call up, it might be a more veteran guy than some of those young guys that probably need a more significant role in Grand Rapids.”

The Red Wings’ call-up considerations are this: They want to fill their needs at the NHL level with adequate players, but they also don’t want to disrupt their prospects in Grand Rapids for a minor role. They realize that Kasper, Mazur and probably Danielson too are — right now — better all-around hockey players than the likes of Watson, as well as depth forwards Sheldon Dries and Joe Snively for that matter. But the situation has to make sense to give the kids appropriate ice time. Playing 4:54 in the NHL doesn’t give them so much of a learning opportunity as playing 20-plus in the AHL.

Some of this comes down to development. Players can learn a lot in the AHL, as discussed late last week. General manager Steve Yzerman has shown patience with his prospects, forcing them to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that they are NHL ready and then still waiting a while longer to call them up (see: Simon Edvinsson). 

But by and large, the decision is about roles, too. Even if the trio of prospects in Grand Rapids have the 200-foot identity that Lalonde desires, one that would perform well in the bottom six, it isn’t their envisioned role to plug into depth minutes. If the trio of prospects are going to try out for an NHL job, the Red Wings would rather interview them in a role they see the players filling in the future.

Lalonde spoke to this Saturday, saying “I personally like where we’re at with some more young guys, and that we’re forwarding them the opportunity to play in Grand Rapids. I mean, you guys saw Marco (Kasper) and (Carter) Mazur. I mean, there’s three or four of those kids that can play with us tonight, but what does that look like?”

Continued; good analogies and explanations here. The Red Wings want to see their younger players blossom in Grand Rapids via playing in significant roles over the course of significant minutes of ice time. Playing in the NHL may be the goal for each and every one of the Red Wings’ most promising youngsters, but playing limited minutes on the fourth line is not a path toward NHL success for them.

At some point, after “the kids” have gotten into a rhythm in Grand Rapids, and are playing well in all situations, they’ll get called up to play more meaningful minutes. We just aren’t at that juncture all of 3 games into the NHL schedule and 2 games into the AHL schedule.

It is what it is, so let’s give ‘er a go:

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The Hockey News’s Sam Stockton posted his morning-after-the-game notebook after the Red Wings’ 4-1 loss to the New York Rangers on Monday night, and this is going to get overlooked, so let’s explore it:

–Berggren’s Game Growing:

One positive, albeit a relatively marginal one, from Tuesday’s action for Detroit was Jonatan Berggren.  With Christian Fischer unavailable, Berggren earned a promotion from the fourth line to the third and played a season-high 12:54.  In and of itself, that’s not the most inspiring lift, but Berggren’s coach had positive things to say about his performance, perhaps previewing a path to a bigger role moving forward.

“He’s making plays, which is good.  He made some plays on the rush, great offensive instincts.  I appreciate that he’s starting to really work on his 200-foot game.  A couple of wall battles that he won, trying to get to the inside a little more.  A lot of positives with Berggy.”

As my colleague Connor Earegood has pointed out a few times, there is something of a square peg/round hole to using Berggren in a fourth line role.  To this point, he’s yet to record a point this season, but his incisive passing has impressed on the power play, and if he can continue to build the non-scoring elements of his five-on-five game, there will be more ice time waiting for him on the other side.

Continued; Berggren’s still getting physically over-powered at times, but he’s earning some power play time, he’s slowly but surely gaining the coaches’ confidence as he plays better defensive hockey, and he’s clearly going to be bringing some scoring to either the Red Wings’ “identity line” of Rasmussen and Copp, or he, Joe Veleno and the hard-working Tyler Motte may end up bringing more offense to the mix as a checking line than anybody would have expected.

Long story long, there have been some lapses, but Berggren’s been a bottom-six bright spot.

NHL.com/de’s Robin Patzwaldt posted a very lengthy article about Moritz Seider yesterday afternoon, so my apologies for not getting to this one sooner. It’s going to be very much so a rough translation of the original German, so here we go:

“Seider: This league is very mentally and physically challenging”

Three years after his debut, the German answered the questions of NHL.com/de

Exactly three years ago, on October 14th, 2021, the NHL career of German defenseman Moritz Seider began with the Detroit Red Wings. The traditional Michigan franchise selected the talented defenseman 6th overall in the 2019 NHL Draft. Since his debut at the beginning of the 2021-2022 season, the Zell-born defenseman has played in 248 games, has collected 21 goals and 115 assists, which adds up to 136 points. And at the end of his debut season, he won the Calder Trophy, which is awarded to the league’s best rookie.

After Monday’s morning skate, NHL.com/de had the opportunity to talk to Seider about his career in the NHL, and, in line with the work anniversary for Seider, also brought up current statements regarding his defenseman colleague Ben Chiarot, and Detroit coach Derek Lalonde.

“I’m currently very happy here. We started the season quite well as a team, especially on defense,” Seider said, and shied away from the attention regarding his current anniversary. Instead, he preferred to briefly explain the recipe for successes of the early season from his perspective. “It’s important to play very physically from the first game of the season. This gives you fresh self-confidence,” explained the German.

“My own point total isn’t particularly important to me. In the end, you want to be able to look in the mirror and say that you gave your best. That’s what I’m talking about to begin with. Statistics aren’t decisive for this. That’s why personal statistics don’t mean a lot to me, to be honest,” said the Red Wings defenseman.

The Athletic’s Max Bultman, Matthew Fairburn and Julian McKenzie, the correspondents for Detroit, Buffalo and Ottawa, respectively, posted a collective column which discusses why the teams on their respective beats might or might not make the playoffs–and what might happen if they don’t make the cut this spring. Here’s Bultman on the Red Wings:

Detroit Red Wings

Why will the Red Wings make the playoffs?

The biggest source of optimism is how close they came last year, missing by just a tie-breaker. They didn’t make any clear improvements to the roster this offseason, but if they can get the right steps forward from young players like Lucas Raymond, Moritz Seider and Simon Edvinsson, then they could be right back in that mix again — and be better prepared for it, too. Health will be key, as losing Dylan Larkin for a long stretch last March ultimately led to a total collapse. But, in theory, the right internal improvements have the chance to push the Red Wings over the hump.

What could potentially hold them back from making the playoffs?

The same big issue as last year: team defense. Detroit did very little to address that weakness this offseason. The Red Wings will have a full season of Edvinsson, which should make a difference in time but will come with some early lumps as he adjusts to the NHL. And they brought in a defensive forward in Tyler Motte who should help too, considering how offensively tilted most of Detroit’s forward corps is. But even still, it’s just not a group that has proven it can defend well consistently. That was the biggest problem last year, and it’s been an early concern once again. Combine that with a whole lot of uncertainty in goal, and there’s a fairly clear path to a step back this season.

The Athletic’s Corey Pronman re-drafts the class of 2023 this morning, and he rather shockingly lists Nate Danielson (9th overall by Detroit) as the #6 overall pick, before apologizing for it…

People are going to push back on me for where I have Nate Danielson rated, especially after his start in Brandon this season. I may be wrong about him and the offense may not be there at higher levels, but I think he has legit NHL skill with a ton of athleticism and a good compete level. I see a very good potential NHL center.

Continued; Axel Sandin Pellikka gets moved up from 17th to 11th, and Trey Augustine gets bumped down to 52nd from 41st. Traded-for Nashville Predators draft pick Jesse Kiiskinen gets bumped down from 68th to 86th, and those are the only Detroit players listed by Pronman.

If you’re going to go so far as to spend time re-ranking 120 players based upon your observations of them, don’t apologize for it.

The Free Press’s Helene St. James discusses the Red Wings’ struggling power play this morning, as evidenced by the 0-for-4 performance in the Wings’ 4-1 loss to the New York Rangers on Monday night:

“We haven’t gotten any quality looks at the net,” captain Dylan Larkin said after Monday’s 4-1 loss at Madison Square Garden. “I think we’ve done a good job setting up possession and we’ve moved the puck around well. I also think that for whatever reason right now, we do really on the first power play and then we kind of go to sleep for the rest of our opportunities. That can’t happen. Every time you go over the boards, you need to try and make it count.”

The power play was a key reason behind the Wings’ success last season, finishing ninth in the NHL at 23.1%. So far this season, it’s at 9.1%. Again, it’s three games, but it should also concern the team.

“The power play hasn’t produced, we only have one on the year,” coach Derek Lalonde said. “We’ve been having some looks, but we have to start putting it in the back of the net.”

Gostisbehere led last season’s Wings with 29 power play points. David Perron had 17 on man advantages. Robby Fabbri and Daniel Sprong each had 12. All are gone, through walking in free agency or trades. Gostisbehere played the point on the first unit, and had a knack for setting up teammates.

Gustafsson got a chance in that spot in the first game, which the Wings finished 1-for-5 on power plays; the one they scored was during 5-on-3 play. Having put Seider on the point on the first unit the last two games, and experimented with Ben Chiarot on the point on the second unit, Gustafsson may get a reprieve from watching games in street clothes.

“We’ll probably get Gus back there on a look,” Lalonde said. “And again, we have a lot of options, it’s just, the hands don’t perfectly line up at times. But we have to play fast through it.”

Continued; I know that it’s easy to hit the panic button right now, but I’m advocating hitting the “concern button” instead right now.

1-for-11 on the power play isn’t acceptable by any means, but I feel that it was inevitable that the Wings were going to having some difficulties integrating Vladimir Tarasenko and Erik Gustafsson (or the lack thereof) into the power play. It was going to be tough to replace David Perron and Shayne Gostisbehere, and it’s been tough.

Three games in = not sufficient time to freak out and start pulling my remaining hair out (I was bald by the age of 20, stupid genes). I’m a bit jittery for sure, because the power play has to be a difference-maker for the Wings to succeed long-term, but I expected it to struggle initially, and that’s what it’s doing.

The Detroit Red Wings lost a 4-1 decision to the New York Rangers on Monday night, dropping the first game of a home-and-home series against New York.

The Wings will get almost 3 days to think about their loss as they don’t reprise their roles until Thursday at Little Caesars Arena (7 PM EDT on ESPN+/Hulu), and the Red Wings are going to need to start putting points on the board early here as they stand at 1-and-2 after 3 games.

It’s not going to get any easier playing against Igor Shesterkin (31 saves on Monday) and the Rangers’ tremendous defensive play (and offensively opportunistic cast of superstars), but the Red Wings need to at least give a strong showing on Thursday to steady the ship.

Dylan Larkin’s goal scored with 1.3 seconds remaining in the 1st period was arguably the only highlight of the game for Detroit:

Instead of building upon having evened the score in the final seconds of the 1st period, the Red Wings were unable to break through the Rangers’ goaltender in the 2nd, despite out-shooting the Rangers 14-10–with the fact that the Red Wings blew 2 of their 4 power plays on the night in the first 10 minutes of the 2nd not helping the cause…

And after Chris Kreider gave the Rangers a go-ahead goal with just over 2 minutes remaining in the 2nd period, the Rangers basically rode Shesterkin and some opportunistic offense to their second victory in three tries (2-0-and-1).

Mika Zibanejad told the New York Post’s Mollie Walker that the team is sorting its issues out:

The Detroit Red Wings faced off against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Monday night, kicking off a two-game series against the “Blueshirts.”

On Monday night, the Red Wings were frustrated by Igor Shesterkin, who stopped 31 of 32 shots against, some in Hasekian fashion, they lost more faceoffs than they should have won, and the Rangers were opportunistic, sneaky and plain better in terms of blocking shots and passes in their end, and scoring in Detroit’s end.

Dylan Larkin’s gorgeous goal with only 1.3 seconds left in the first was the lone highlight as Detroit lost 4-1 to the Rangers, whose Miika Zibanejad had a goal and two assists, and Artemi Panarin, who had 3 assists.

Detroit will try to split the home-and-home series on Thursday at Little Caesars Arena (7 PM EDT start on ESPN+/Hulu)

Of Red Wings-related note this afternoon:

1. The Free Press’s Helene St. James took note of Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde’s comments regarding the team’s decision to waive and demote Ville Husso…

“Tough conversation, always,” coach Derek Lalonde told the Free Press after the Wings’ morning skate at Madison Square Garden. “It is a business, you’re managing your roster. It was very similar to what I did with Justin [Holl] – we haven’t given up on you. We asked Justin to be ready; literally 24 hours later, he was in our lineup. We haven’t given up on Ville. He might see the net again here soon.”

Waiving Husso freed up a roster spot needed to flesh out the lineup after it sustained two injuries in the first two games. First, it was defenseman Jeff Petry who was unable to finish the 6-3 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins because of an upper-body injury; then it was forward Christian Fischer, also because of an upper-body injury, who didn’t finish the 3-0 victory over the Nashville Predators.

Neither player is ailing to the point of needing to be put on injured reserve, which means they still count against the 23-man roster. The Wings reached the limit Saturday when they called up Holl just days after he had cleared waivers and been sent to the minors. With the possibility that Fischer is available as soon as Thursday, the Wings opted not to call up 2022 first-round pick Marco Kasper, who had an outstanding camp.

“The mentality is, if Kasper is coming, it’s probably more of a long-term scenario,” Lalonde said. “This is potentially a short-term scenario.”

2. And the Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan’s afternoon notebook includes a conversation with Justin Holl regarding Holl’s status as having been waived last week: