Author: George Malik

USA Hockey Arena will be hosting the Under-18 Five Nations Cup from February 13th to 17th , and the event tends to be loaded with players who are eligible for the year’s upcoming draft.

The U.S., Czech Republic, Sweden, Finland and Russia will be taking part in the tournament, and the U.S. team will be largely made up of USA Hockey’s anchor tenant, the National Team Development Program.

Here’s an FYI from USA Hockey Arena:

5 hockey nations converge at @USAHockeyArena in 2 weeks and #NTDP forward @WahlstromOliver is excited to represent Team USA!

Don’t miss out: https://t.co/cOH8QCa0oA #5NationsU18 #USAHockey pic.twitter.com/frqc7Jeu8T

— USA Hockey NTDP (@USAHockeyNTDP) January 30, 2018

As the NHL discusses the role of video replay in determining offside and goaltender interference calls, the Toledo Blade’s Mark Monroe asked the ECHL’s Toledo Walleye to weigh in on playing in a league where there is no video review:

In two games over a span of five days, the Walleye were involved in controversial situations that could have easily been rectified if video replay had been available. Both occurred when the goal judge turned the red light on when he believed a goal had been scored, but play continued anyway. In one case, Toledo was awarded the goal. In the other, they were not. Again both decisions were based on real-time situations.

Walleye coach Dan Watson did not mince words when he took to Twitter to express his disappointment.

“Video Replay is a must in 2018,” Watson wrote in a post a day after his team was affected by a questionable non-goal call that may have cost Toledo a point. “Plays are happening too fast with one ref on the ice. Help these guys make the right calls. Some will go against you, some will go for you. At the end of the day, the right call should be made.”

Continued

The Athletic’s Topher Scott–their resident coach—discusses the play of the Wings’ top young players this morning.

He suggests that Andreas Athanasiou, Anthony Mantha, Tyler Bertuzzi, Dominic Turgeon and Joe Hicketts all have room for growth:

Defensively, Athanasiou needs to clean up his game. He often runs around the defensive zone instead of sticking with the process. He also frequently takes the long way to get 50/50 pucks. In a 50/50 race, taking the short route to get possession of the puck first often means you are going to take some contact. Athanasiou often lets the other guy get there first, and then tries to get the puck. Eddie Olczyk called him out for this on national TV earlier this year, but it still shows up in his game (clips 4 and 5).

Continued (Paywall)…

The Grand Rapids Press’s Peter J. Wallner reports that the Grand Rapids Griffins’ All-Star representatives did quite well during the AHL’s All-Star game:

Matt Puempel and Matt Lorito combined to score four of the [Central] division’s seven goals in three 10-minute pool play games, each playing three aside.

Puempel scored single goals against the Central and Pacific teams, while Lorito scored twice on three shots against the North and also chipped in an assist against Pacific.

Continued

Okay, a few things need to be addressed, or will be, so:

1. Regarding comments: some of you have come over from Kukla’s Korner. Some of you will be new, and some of you will have met somewhere along the way. I don’t want to preface anything with, “Well, this comments section is going to be different” from x or y because one never really knows how an audience shapes itself…

Continue reading On comments, bugs and other stuff

The WHL’s website posted a profile of Joe Hicketts, as written by Robert Murray. Murray penned a really lengthy discussion with “Hicksy” regarding his NHL debut, the work that went into making the NHL, and where he goes from here:

“You’ve just got to put your head down and keep working,” Hicketts said, offering advice for similar players in his position. “I’ve been told countless times by even NHL general managers [that I’m] too small, too slow, not in good enough shape.

“To make it, I’ve played one game and obviously there’s that fire now that you want to play more but it all starts in the gym, working on your shot, your skating. With today’s game, there’s so many resources that are available to help you.”

One of those resources came from his parents, who were with him growing up through minor hockey and made it to his debut.

“From the amount of time, effort, and money they put into me growing up through minor hockey, to get there to that point to see them after the game and how excited they were for me, it’s something that I think makes the whole journey up to this point worth it.”

 

Continued, and this one is worth your time…

Hockeybuzz’s Bob Duff took note of a particularly ironic comment–well I think it’s ironic, anyway–made by Tampa Bay Lightning coach Jon Cooper at the All-Star Game:

Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper and Detroit’s Jeff Blashill are longtime friends and constantly take playful digs at each other through the media. Given the opportunity through the All-Star Game to coach Green, one of Blashill’s players, Cooper just couldn’t help himself.

“OK, so I’m going to let this one out of the bag,” Cooper said. “Jeff Blashill sent me a text right after the game saying you needed a few more Wings on the team and I sent one back to him that said, ‘(Green) finally got some good coaching.’

“It was great having him. He’s been doing that for a long time. Had we won the game, maybe (Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov) would have got MVP but Green would have been right behind him. He was great for us.”

Duff’s Monday notebook continues…

I will probably mention the fact that you can donate to The Malik Report at https://patreon.com/themalikreport or http://paypal.me/themalikreport once or twice a day. It may be annoying to see the same old post again, but it’s better than advertisements, and as I’ve said, I’d like to keep this ad-free for as long as possible (which is hopefully indefinitely).

How does this “crowdfunding” thing work? Well, you decide how much this content is worth to you, and you can set up a subscription with Patreon for as low as $1 a month, $2, 5, 10, at whatever level you feel you want to support the page, or you can make a one-time donation via Paypal.

Either way, your support is going to determine whether this page succeeds, because there are no paywalls here. I *will* however be setting up “freebies” and even an advisory panel for higher Patreon tiers. Right now I’m just setting things up and trying to figure out how things work…

Continue reading On crowdfunding

Red Wings GM Ken Holland spoke with the New York Times’ Andrew Knoll regarding Steve Yzerman’s passion for the game as the Tampa Bay Lightning’s general manager:

“Whatever you do in life, part of being successful is passion,” said Red Wings General Manager Ken Holland, who began training Yzerman during his playing career and presided over Yzerman’s three championships as a player before working with him when Detroit won another title in 2008. “It can’t be work. If it’s just a job, your energy level is going to be drained over time. That passion and desire to gather knowledge are what Steve had as a player and he’s also taken into the front office.”

Continued

From the Russian news agency “TASS“:

St. Petersburg SKA hockey team forward Pavel Datsyuk will be the captain of the team of “Olympic athletes from Russia” competing at the 2018 Olympic Games in South Korea, the head coach of the St. Petersburg SKA, Oleg Znarok, told reporters on Monday.

The team will head for South Korea on February 6 to prepare for the Olympics. “Datsyuk was designated as captain,” Znarok said.