Author: George Malik

The evening after the Detroit Red Wings lost 3-2 to the Florida Panthers thanks to a heavily-disputed goal, I don’t want to poke the wound, per se, but:

The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan penned a “the day after” notebook, and these player comments stood out to me:

“It’s frustrating because we battled our tails off to get at least a point in this game and to get that ripped away from us, at this stage of the season, it’s probably the most frustrated I’ve been,” Abdelkader said.

Especially when the rule is so hazy.

“Losing a game like this, with the points so important, on a call that yesterday could have been goalie interference and tonight it’s not,” Zetterberg said, “that’s what’s frustrating.”

The Wings are still only 7 points behind the Flyers with a game in hand, but they’d have to climb over the Islanders, Hurricanes, Rangers and now the Panthers to swipe the Flyers’ Wild Card spot.

Worse, the Wings have only 17 regulation-or-overtime wins, which is 3rd-worst in the Eastern Conference, so Detroit would have to earn more points than their opponents to break any ties in the standings.

The Grand Rapids Griffins did an excellent job of “tackling” a 3-game road stint in Cleveland, taking 2 of 3 games from the Cleveland Monsters.

Grand Rapids lost 3-2 in a shootout on Thursday, the Griffins won 4-2 on Friday, and on Sunday,  Eric Tangradi scored 2 goals, Matt Puempel had a goal and 2 assists, Filip Hronek had 2 assists (finishing at a stunning +5) and Jared Coreau stopped 25 of 28 shots as the Griffins won a 6-3 decision.

The Griffins’ website posted a recap:

Continue reading Prospect round-up: Griffins take 2 of 3 from Milwaukee; Gallant scores for Petes

The Grand Rapids Griffins posted a late-breaking Game-Day Preview video in which Bob Kaser profiles the Griffins ahead of their 1 PM EST game against the Cleveland Monsters:

The Red Wings have posted a video called “The Forecheck,” in which Carly Johnston and Chris Chelios discuss the Red Wings’ games this week–Detroit hosts Boston on Tuesday, February 6th and will play in Brooklyn against the Islanders on Friday the 9th:

After Friday night’s game, the Wings will play 9 games over the course of 15 nights leading up to the trade deadline on February 26th.

According to Crain’s Detroit Business’s Kirk Pinho, a “conceptual” map from Olympia Development, obtained by Crain’s, shows as-yet-unannounced plans for the District Detroit:

Two high-rise buildings are planned to flank Comerica Park.

The towers, overlooking the home of the Detroit Tigers, are just a few of the developments in the Ilitch family’s District Detroit project revealed in an aerial map that shows the latest vision for what surrounds the 41,299-seat baseball stadium.

In addition, a new hotel where Hockeytown Cafe now stands and retail flanking both sides of Woodward Avenue’s passage over I-75 are planned, according to the map, which Crain’s obtained last week.

All told, it includes nearly 200,000 square feet of new retail space, plus the previously undisclosed hotel, a “tech store” and a market, in addition to the two high-rise buildings referred to as Montcalm Tower and Adams Tower.

Continued

MLive’s Hugh Berenreuter spoke with Wings director of player recruitment Jiri Fischer after his annual “Shocks vs. Saves” game in Saginaw, and Fischer stated that his sons are playing hockey with an eye on their secondary education:

So it turns out that most people start with the logo, then get the website sorted out, and worry about the content last.

I blame being left-handed for thinking backwards, then, because I went with the content, assuming that it would drive a logo and a website.

Did I mention that I’m doing crowdfunding? That the goal at least is to keep ads away from this website (or at least inconspicuous), so that you can go ahead and support the website without having to turn off your ad-blockers or script-blockers that you should probably be using on your browser like a condom for the World Wide Web?

This week, we are having a contest to design a new logo for the website. I will pay real money to the winner.

This week, I will be talking to the couple of website designers that have reached out. I know the website can be buggy with new updates. I plan on hammering that out very soon.

After the logo and website are sorted out, I’ll try to work on merchandise, because the concept here is that a significant percentage of the funds raised go back into the community–and more than just in the form of, “No more fundraisers for Traverse City, ‘selling’ Patreon subscriptions.'”

Yes, I want a nice logo, a pretty, functional website and am aiming for 200 subscribers as part of the larger community, but I sort of figured that you’d be willing to put up with the hiccups if there was content first and foremost.

That’s the message, I suppose, to the stakeholders, a.k.a. you. I’m one human being here, but I’ll work my ass off to churn out content whenever possible. That means working harder than I ever have and smarter than I ever have, but ultimately, it’s about sharing the story for me, and there are always stories to tell.

It’s been six days. There are bugs to iron out. They keep me up at night. I’m working on it. I’m working on a lot, actually, one skate stride at a time.

In the ECHL, Shane Berschbach had 2 assists, Patrick McCarron, Christian Hilbrich, Mike Embach and Kyle Bonis scored goals and Pat Nagle stopped 44 of 46 shots as the Toledo Walleye won 4-2 over the Indy Fuel.

The Walleye’s website posted a recap:

Continue reading Prospect round-up: Walleye beat Indy thanks to Nagle’s 44 stops; Cholowski posts another assist

The Detroit Red Wings lost a frustrating 3-2 decision to the Florida Panthers on Saturday night, and they lost the game because of a controversial goal scored with 7.9 seconds remaining in regulation:

What Henrik Zetterberg had to say: “The inconsistency in this league right now, if it’s the refs or it’s the guys in Toronto or if it’s the suspensions or if it’s the fines, it’s hard for us as players to know what rules we are playing under.”

— Helene St. James (@HeleneStJames) February 4, 2018

Justin Abdelkader on controversial Jonathan Huberdeau goal: “That’s insane they call that a goal. … It shocks me that they called that a goal.”

— Helene St. James (@HeleneStJames) February 4, 2018

But the Red Wings made sure to point out that they lost the game to a team that now is tied with Detroit in the Eastern Conference and Wild Card standings. Detroit sits at 21-22-and-8, Florida at 22-22-and-6, with Detroit losing the tiebreaker because they’ve played in 51 games to Florida’s 50.

My take?

Get it right.

I don’t care how long it takes to review, I don’t care how embarrassed the league or the GM’s or the owners are because “It takes too long.”

Get it right. Consistently right.

— George Malik (@georgemalik) February 4, 2018

Our friends from Florida felt that the NHL’s situation room “got it right,” as they told FloridaPanthers.com’s Jameson Olive:

Continue reading Red Wings-Panthers wrap-up: controversial goal yields a lost opportunity

The Red Wings attempted to extend their fledgling win streak to three games while battling a pesky opponent in the Florida Panthers on Saturday night.

Detroit played rope-a-dope hockey en route to a 3-2 loss to the Panthers, who are now tied with the Red Wings in points…

And the Wings lost on a controversial call, with Jonathan Huberdeau first shoving Mrazek, perhaps involuntarily, and then putting the puck past Mrazek with 7.9 seconds remaining in the 3rd period.

.@FlaPanthers Jonathan Huberdeau puts away the final goal of the game! Cats win 3-2! #FlaPanthers pic.twitter.com/9U1WEhQmhb

— FOX Sports Florida (@FOXSportsFL) February 4, 2018

Mrazek was furious when the NHL-instituted review for goaltender interference played out, Blashill got kicked out of the game and the Red Wings left the ice reluctantly and left the ice irate.

Update: Here’s the Panthers’ call from NHL.com, 3:24 of it:

Update #2: YouTube version:

Continue reading Red Wings-Panthers quick take: Were the Wings jobbed? Maybe, maybe not.