The Grand Rapids Griffins will battle the Iowa Wild this evening (at 7:00 PM EDT on WOOD Radio), and Griffins announcer Bob Kaser sets up tonight’s rematch between the teams, who played together on Friday:
Author: 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.
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Here’s the Red Wings’ Game Day Preview video ahead of tonight’s game vs. Toronto
Here’s the Red Wings’ Game Day Preview video, which sets up tonight’s Wings-Leafs game (7:00 PM EDT on FSD/CBC/97.1 FM):
On Mantha emulating van Riemsdyk, and Mantha and Larkin’s chemistry
The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan and the Free Press’s Helene St. James spoke with Anthony Mantha, Dylan Larkin and coach Jeff Blashill regarding a pair of topics…
First discussing the Wings’ hope that Mantha can emulate James van Riemsdyk’s net-front presence, as Kulfan noted…
Mantha (6-foot-5, 225) and van Riemsdyk (6-foot-3, 217) have the same body type – lanky and with a long reach – and with Mantha’s hand-eye coordination and knack with the puck, the potential is there to dominate around the net.
“He’s a good player in this league – I look at his game,” said Mantha, who has watched video with the coaching staff on JVR’s work. “Watch a lot of clips of him net-front, learn the details, and how to get into the right spot.”
Entering Saturday’s game, van Riemsdyk leads the Maple Leafs with 34 goals, while averaging 14:49 of ice time. Of the 34 goals, a team-leading 11 have come on the power play.
Over the last five games, van Riemsdyk had scored eight goals.
“James van Riemsdyk is a guy we’ve talked about with Anthony,” Blashill said. “JVR has as good a hands around the net for a big guy, and makes a lot of plays, makes their power play extremely dangerous. A lot of penalty kills want to leave the net-front guy to the goalie. He’s a tough guy to leave alone for a goalie because of how dangerous he is in that area.”
Kulfan continues, and the Free Press’s St. James both spoke of Mantha’s desire to emulate van Riemsdyk as well as the Wings’ decision to reunite #39 and #71:
Continue reading On Mantha emulating van Riemsdyk, and Mantha and Larkin’s chemistry
Wakiji on the brothers Svechnikov
DetroitRedWings.com’s Dana Wakiji spoke to Evgeny Svechnikov about his brother Andrei, with whom “Geno” was able to catch up on Friday night:
Rookie Evgeny Svechnikov was in an especially good mood Saturday morning as he got a chance to spend time with his mom, Elena, and younger brother, Andrei, the night before.
“It’s a good feeling, seeing my mom and my brother last night,” Svechnikov said. “They came for dinner. We went to CN Tower. It was nice dinner. It was a great atmosphere. I haven’t seen my brother since the summer, so I was very happy. He’s bigger than me, so it was exciting to see.”
Andrei Svechnikov, who turns 18 in two days, plays for the OHL’s Barrie Colts and is listed at 6-foot-3, 184 pounds.
Evgeny Svechnikov, 21, is 6-foot-3, 212 pounds.
“He’s bigger in the shoulders and a little bit taller,” Svechnikov said. “It’s impressive. I’m really happy with what’s he got for the future.”
Red Wings-Maple Leafs game-day articles: Wings aim for better play opposite a Leaf team on cruise control
Updated 2x at 2:33 PM: The Red Wings and Maple Leafs engaged in their morning skates ahead of tonight’s game (7:00 PM EDT on FSD/CBC/97.1 FM), and at present, the post-skate media available comes from Leaf sources.
According to TSN’s Kristen Shilton, the Leafs do not plan on looking past the Wings…
Regardless of where they are in the standings, Detroit frequently plays the Leafs tough – The last time the two teams met on Feb. 18, the Leafs let their lead evaporate midway through the third period and it took a goal from Auston Matthews with 31 seconds left in regulation to put Toronto over the top.
“Absolutely, every time we play them it seems to be a close game and a good battle. We expect nothing less from them tonight,” said Matthews. “[But] knowing [Nashville] is one of the best teams in the league and at the top of their conference, to play as well as we did, it definitely gives us some confidence moving forward and into another game tonight.”
Quote of the day: Blashill on returning to ‘great’-ness
The Toronto Sun’s Lance Hornby landed quite the quote from Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill after the Wings’ morning skate in Toronto:
Jeff Blashill tells Det fans to hang in there: “Our team has competed hard, with structure. But thats not OK. We don’t want to be a team that plays pretty good and loses, we want to be a team that plays great and wins. Everytime you put on that jersey that has to be your mindset”
— Lance Hornby (@sunhornby) March 24, 2018
Red Wings-Maple Leafs morning skate Tweets and articles: No Komarov for Toronto; Witkowski draws in for Detroit
Updated 2x at 12:34 PM: The Detroit Red Wings will battle the Toronto Maple Leafs this evening (7:00 PM EST on FSD/CBC/97.1 FM), with the Red Wings hoping to derail some of the Leafs’ pre-playoff momentum by stealing a win at the Air Canada Centre.
On this day in #RedWings History: 3/24/1956: Ted Lindsay, who received a death-threat from Maple Leafs’ fans earlier in the day, scored the game-winner to lift the Red Wings to a 5-4 overtime victory in Game 2 of the #StanleyCup semifinals in Toronto. pic.twitter.com/qVHNfS9x1p
— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) March 24, 2018
The Maple Leafs hit the ice at the ACC before the Red Wings, as noted by TSN’s Kristen Shilton…
Leo Komarov is the only absentee at #Leafs morning skate. Appeared when I arrived around 9 am this morning that someone had already been skating, I’m assuming that was probably him.
#Leafs lines at morning skate: Hyman-Matthews-Nylander Marleau-Kadri-Marner
van Riemsdyk-Bozak-Brown
Johnsson-Plekanec-Kapanen
Leivo, Moore, Martin
Rielly-Hainsey
Gardiner-Zaitsev
Dermott-Polak
Carrick
Andersen McElhinney
And TSN’s Mark Masters:
Meet the Toledo Walleye’s emergency substitute goaltender
The Toledo Blade’s Mark Monroe penned a superb article profiling the Toledo Walleye’s emergency substitute goaltender, Kent Nusbaum:
When Toledo Walleye trainer Brad Fredrick walked into Jimmy John’s in Sylvania before a recent Sunday game, the last person he expected to make his sub was someone who has served as one of the team’s goaltenders.
Yet there was Kent Nusbaum, a 22-year-old fledgling netminder, standing behind the counter. The Temperance native has one of the most unusual part-time occupations in sports: emergency backup goaltender.
Nusbaum has become the Walleye’s go-to reserve player when a need arises. He has dressed several times for Toledo’s ECHL team — and its opponents — but has played in only one game.
“It’s unique,” Nusbaum said. “It’s exciting. I’d rather be doing something I love than working a normal job.”
But he is not a full-time member of the team. So to make ends meet while pursuing his dream of playing pro hockey, the 6-foot-6 and 180-pound Nusbaum also is sandwich-maker. And that was news to the team’s longtime trainer, Fredrick.
“Brad was shocked. He said, “Hey Baumer, what are you doing here?’ I said, ‘Just working my day job,’” Nusbaum said. “I made him a sandwich. I believe it was a No. 5.”
Every ECHL team has its own list of go-to substitute goalies who can be available at a moment’s notice. If the local team or its visiting opponent loses one of its two goalies to a sudden injury, illness, or transaction on game day, a substitute has to be available to sit on the bench in case he is needed.
Prospect round-up: Griffins beat Iowa; SHL, OHL, WHL playoffs underway; Kotkansalo’s BU Terriers on ESPNews 1 PM Sat
In the AHL, the Grand Rapids Griffins bolstered their playoff hopes by scoring 4 2nd-period goals over the course of 5 minutes, rallying from a 2-0 deficit en route to a 5-3 victory over the Iowa Wild. Ben Street had 3 assists, Eric Tangradi had a goal and 2 assists and Tom McCollum stopped 25 shots.
Grand Rapids will battle the Iowa Wild tonight (Saturday) as well.
Red Wings-Maple Leafs set-up: how do you ‘play spoiler’ when there’s nothing to spoil but a Hockey Night in Canada home game?
The Detroit Red Wings can at least theoretically “play spoiler” when they face the Toronto Maple Leafs this evening (7:00 PM EDT on FSD/CBC/97.1 FM). That term can be used more in the sense of giving the playoff-bound Leafs a rare home loss as opposed to truly denting Toronto’s playoff hopes or playoff positioning.
With the Red Wings’ last wisps of playoff hopes extinguished, the Wings can help prevent the Leafs from climbing the Eastern Conference standings, where the Leafs sit 3rd in the Atlantic Division. The 44-23-and-7 Leafs have won 5 of their past 6 games, including a 5-2 decision over the Nashville Predators on Thursday (in which Auston Matthews returned from injury).
As the Toronto Sun’s Terry Koshan notes, Toronto plays 6 of their final 8 regular season games at home, so their goal is to “get on a roll” with the playoffs two weeks away: