Author: George Malik

MLive’s Ansar Khan’s 6 AM-posted column discusses the Red Wings’ loss to Washington and the Wings’ post-game discussion regarding their youth movement.

Coach Blashill weighed in regarding the concept of simply giving young players ice time because the team’s out of the playoffs…

“There’s a fine line there,” coach Jeff Blashill said following his team’s 1-0 loss to the Washington Capitals Thursday at Little Caesars Arena. “You have to make sure you compete and work. If you don’t compete and work you’re not getting ice time.

“Two … if you want to take one of those guys’ job, you got to play better than them. If I start playing guys because of their age, you lose 100 percent credibility and you don’t teach lessons of earned ice.”

And both Jimmy Howard and Henrik Zetterberg spoke with Khan regarding the players’ belief that “the kids” need to play in a competitive environment:

Continue reading Cup of Khan: Wings’ leadership on the youth movement

Of playoff, related note, in the KHL, Alexander Kadeikin didn’t play in Lokomotiv Yaroslavl’s 3-1 loss to SKA St. Peterburgh.

SKA eliminated Lokomotiv 4 games to 1, and Kadeikin probably won’t be signed by the Wings;

In the Swiss NLA, Joren van Pottelberghe served as the back-up in HC Davos’ 5-3 loss to EHC Biel-Bienne. EHC eliminated Davos 4 games to 2.

I believe that JvP has another year as Wings property, and it’s going to take another season for the Wings to decide whether to sign him as he’s just played a very limited role behind Gilles Senn in Davos;

In the OHL, Kaden Fulcher stopped 20 of 23 shots as his Hamilton Bulldogs won 6-3 over Niagara, taking a 1-0 lead in the teams’ first-round playoff series;

And in the WHL, Michael Rasmussen had an excellent playoff debut as the captain of the Tri-City Americans, scoring 2 goals in Tri-City’s 5-0 win over Kelowna.

Rasmussen had 2 goals and an assist, finishing at +1 with 5 shots and went 4-for-5 on faceoffs, and he was named the game’s 3rd star.

The WHL’s Twitter account posted Rasmussen’s goals:

23 seconds is all it takes! @DetroitRedWings prospect @mrasmussen16 makes it 4-0 @TCAmericans! #KELvsTC #WHLPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/wf9AVZYrOY

— The WHL (@TheWHL) March 23, 2018

? Ra ra Rasmussen/Leading Tri-City to an incredible win. ?

His second of the game makes it a 5-0 win for the @TCAmericans in the first game of the 2018 #WHLPlayoffs! #KELvsTC pic.twitter.com/0sJtLZxQTG

— The WHL (@TheWHL) March 23, 2018

Updated at 12:16 AM: Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill spoke with the media after the Wings’ 1-0 loss to the Washington Capitals on Thursday, and I listened in on 97.1 the Ticket…to rather disturbingly hear Blashill tell the media that Mike Green’s neck injury was a long-term issue dating back to last year, which could flare up with the “wrong type of hit.”

According to Blashill, the Red Wings had hoped that Green would be able to play through the injury through the balance of the season, but he was definitely going to need surgery (the same doctor that performed the discectomy on Henrik Zetterberg will perform a similar procedure on Green), and that’s why he wasn’t traded.

Also:

#RedWings Blashill said they’ll use their final @griffinshockey call-up on a defenseman, with Green out rest of the season. Didn’t say who and didn’t know exactly when. He said Howard will start Saturday at @MapleLeafs

— Ansar Khan (@AnsarKhanMLive) March 23, 2018

blashill says #RedWings will call up defenseman from GR.

did not say whom.

howard starts in turrana.

— gregg krupa (@greggkrupa) March 23, 2018

Who would you prefer to see the Wings recall, Joe Hicketts or Filip Hronek? I’m guessing Hicketts will come as the Griffins kind of need Hronek’s offense to make the playoffs.

Also, no surprise here:

Continue reading Khan, Krupa: Wings will call up a defenseman with Green out

The Detroit Red Wings attempted to earn a rare two-game winning streak when they hosted the Washington Capitals on Thursday night.

The Red Wings played damn well over the course of a 1-0, playoff-eliminating loss to the Capitals, attacking well, defending superbly and getting good goaltending from Jimmy Howard, but the Red Wings were unable to dent Philipp Grubauer and one mistake–a fall from Xavier Ouellet–yielded surrendering a goal to Brett Connolly that the team could not recover from.

The fact that the Wings blew a 2-minute 5-on-3 didn’t help, but the Wings got more than enough chances to score on Grubauer (includling an Athanasiou goal waved off due to goaltender interference by Bertuzzi), and they couldn’t find a way to beat the Caps on 39 shots and 70 shot attempts.

Continue reading Red Wings-Capitals quick take: Grubauer grabs a win for Washington as Wings are eliminated from playoff contention

From the Red Wings:

MIKE GREEN TO UNDERGO NECK SURGERY; WILL MISS REMAINDER OF 2017-18 SEASON

Detroit, MI…The Detroit Red Wings today announced that defenseman Mike Green will undergo surgery on his cervical spine and will miss the remainder of the 2017-18 season.  Green missed seven games from Feb. 17-28 with the injury but returned to the Detroit lineup on March 2 at Winnipeg.  He re-aggravated the injury during the team’s practice on March 21 at Little Caesars Arena.  The procedure is scheduled for April 5 at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City and will be performed by Dr. Frank Cammisa.  A minimum two months of recovery time is expected.

Green, 32, has appeared in 65 games for the Red Wings this season.  He leads all Detroit defensemen in assists (25) and points (33), while ranking second among blueliners with eight goals.

Here’s the Red Wings’ Game Day Preview video ahead of tonight’s game against the Washington Capitals (7:30 PM EDT on NBCSN/97.1 FM):

The Athletic’s Max Bultman spotlights Red Wings prospects Givani Smith and Jordan Sambrook this week, and as far as I’m concerned, Sambrook doesn’t get enough press, so:

Sambrook was also traded earlier this year, going from the Erie Otters to the Sault St. Marie Greyhounds and joining a higher-scoring team in the process. That hasn’t always led to more individual scoring for Sambrook, but at least he’s playing with a team that’s working the attack.

“He’s been steady in transition,” Greyhounds general manager Kyle Raftis told The Athletic. “He’s been able to kind of separate guys from pucks, get the puck going the other way. And we have a real lethal attack up front, but it really starts at our back end and our back end is really what kind of drives the bus for it.”

It’s worth remembering that Raftis traded for Sambrook, so he’s probably inclined to have a pretty high opinion of him. That said, any praise of the 6-foot-2 defenseman’s ability to generate offense — whether directly or indirectly — is a good sign for a prospect developing an all-around game, even if it’s perhaps more firmly rooted in his defensive basics.

“I think you look at the defensemen in the National Hockey League and it’s tough to play in that league if you can’t play in your own end,” Otters coach Chris Hartsburg told The Athletic. “And the guys that are one-dimensional players on the offensive side, generally, — they see their offensive time on power play — but for guys that play heavy minutes it’s important that they’re good in their own end.

Bultman continues (paywall)…

The Free Press’s Helene St. James spoke with Red Wings forwards Martin Frk and Evgeny Svechnikov regarding the pair’s chemistry:

As the Red Wings’ season closes in on the final two weeks, Frk is trying to regain his scoring touch. He had two assists in the two games entering Thursday’s game against the Washington Capitals at Little Caesars Arena, one of them an especially joyous one. He’s been playing on a line with newcomer Evgeny Svechnikov and veteran Luke Glendening, and had a hand in Svechnikov’s first NHL goal when his own shot rebounded to Svechnikov. The two have history from playing together last season in Grand Rapids.

“I was really happy for him,” Frk said after the morning skate. “I was actually glad I didn’t score and it bounced right to him, because it was special moment for him. I know that he has really good shot. When I play with him, it’s like I don’t want to take all those shots because I know he can shoot the puck as well. If he is open in the slot, he can fire the puck.”

The line has a nice mix of size and skill. Svechnikov (6-foot-3, 212 pounds) plays in dirty areas and is heavy on the puck. Frk (6-1, 205) has an incredibly hard shot, and he makes nice short plays along the wall. Glendening (5-11, 192) is a good face-off guy and all-around responsible defensively.

“They’ve played well together, and then Glennie gives them a great veteran presence,” coach Jeff Blashill said. “He’s probably our best defensive player, and so with two younger players, in Svech’s case still learning some of the system stuff, I think Glennie can really help them. He gives them a stabilizing force, gives me lots of trust to play the line — any time Glennie is on the ice, there is way more trust.”

St. James continues, and she posted a video of Frk and Svechnikov (and coach Blashill) speaking with the media as well:

Continue reading HSJ on Frk and Svechnikov

As the Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan notes, Dylan Larkin was mired in a 17-game goal-less streak prior to Tuesday’s game against Philadelphia, but the Red Wings’ expectations of Larkin in terms of his overall play have not diminished:

“Dylan has played real good and hasn’t gotten rewarded with points,” [Red Wings coach Jeff] Blashill said. “That can be a hard thing but he’s stayed with it. He’s done a real good job of playing a 200-foot game. That’s what’s going to make him a great player in this league. He’s got to be a 200-foot player to be a great player. He understands that. He’s a guy who can certainly produce offense.  (It) was good for him to get rewarded a little bit. He’s had chances and hasn’t got rewarded.”

Now in his third pro season, Larkin continues to display a work ethic that has been impressive since his rookie season.

“One of the hardest-working guys on our team,” goaltender Jimmy Howard said of Larkin. “He’s one of the first guys on the ice every single day for practice and one of the last ones off – and by last one off, he’s usually out there for a solid half hour after everyone is gone. As he continues to put in the work and effort, we’ll continue to see great things from Dylan. He’s working hard to being great at both ends of the ice, he’s taken on a bigger role this year, and he’s embraced it.”

Continued

Updated 2x at 1:59 PM: The Detroit Red Wings host the Washington Capitals this evening (7:30 PM EDT on NBCSN/97.1 FM), and the teams’ respective morning skates revealed that Jimmy Howard will start opposite Philipp Grubauer in goal, and that Evgeny Kuznetsov (upper-body injury) will miss tonight’s game for the Caps.

As the Caps wrap up their post-skate media availability, the Free Press’s Helene St. James has already posted a video of Martin Frk and Evgeny Svechnikov discussing their chemistry…

Continue reading Red Wings-Capitals game-day articles: On Svechnikov and Frk, “building” as the season winds down, and the Caps’ goaltending situation