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. Thank you for reading!

Kulfan on Yzerman’s presser

The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan posted an initial reaction to Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman’s morning press conference:

The Red Wings weren’t playing as well as expected, and general manager Steve Yzerman felt it was time to do something.

And Yzerman did Thursday, replacing coach Derek Lalonde with Todd McLellan, who will be behind the bench Friday when the Wings face Toronto.

“As our season started and has progressed to today you start to think about how do you improve your team and get going in the direction we want to, or playing the way we want to,” Yzerman said Friday during a press conference before the morning skate. “The first option is player personnel to move things around. Then as we get closer to yesterday, you start to think you might have to make a change here.

“Our team isn’t performing to what my expectations are, whether anyone agrees with that or not. The players aren’t playing to each of their expectations collectively and we are where we are and we’re playing the way we are and the decision comes at some point.”

The Wings are stuck in 14th place in the Eastern Conference, only two points above last place. They are eight points from a playoff spot.

“Ultimately you need good players to have a good tea and a coach needs good players,” Yzerman said. ” Just watching our team play, the spirit and zap and watching our coaching staff, everyone is frustrated. You can see it in the players’ faces.”

Continued

Red Wings-Maple Leafs morning skate Tweets: Edvinsson, Chiarot taking part in ‘morning practice’

The Detroit Red Wings host the Toronto Maple Leafs this evening (7 PM EST start on FanDuel Sportsnet Detroit/Sportsnet Ontario/97.1 FM), and the Wings engaged in their first morning skate under Todd McLellan today:

Continue reading Red Wings-Maple Leafs morning skate Tweets: Edvinsson, Chiarot taking part in ‘morning practice’

Tweets of note from Steve Yzerman’s press conference

Of note from Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman’s press conference discussing the firing of Derek Lalonde and hiring of Todd McLellan:

Continue reading Tweets of note from Steve Yzerman’s press conference

Tweet of note: It’s Mickey Redmond’s birthday

From FanDuel Sportsnet Detroit:

Update:

Two English-language articles about Axel Sandin Pellikka’s big night

The Athletic’s Julian McKenzie and Sarah Jean Mayer posted an article which includes some post-game comments from Axel Sandin Pellikka after Team Sweden’s captain, the Red Wings prospect defenseman, scored a hat trick vs. Slovakia:

A good captain wants to lead by example. Axel Sandin-Pellikka said it himself Sunday afternoon.

“I feel like everyone can come and talk to me, but I mostly lead by example,” said the Swedish captain.

But whether he was totally expecting the defense to lead the offense in Sweden’s 5-2 win over Slovakia is another thing.

The Detroit Red Wings prospect and Swedish captain scored a natural hat trick in the tournament’s opening game to kick off his third World Juniors.

“We have a lot of good defensemen here in the team that likes to play with the puck, so it’s fun. Fun we got some goals from there,” Sandin-Pellikka said. “I think we played a good game overall, so we’re happy.”

Continued;

Daily Faceoff’s Steven Ellis also posted a profile of Sandin Pellikka:

Entering his third World Junior Championship with Team Sweden, Axel Sandin-Pellikka – donning the captain’s “C” – had a three-goal, four-point debut in a 5-2 win over Slovakia. It was a truly dominant performance from the Detroit Red Wings prospect, who was just as good away from the puck as he was with it.

“It was a special night for a special player,” one NHL scout said after the game.

Sandin-Pellikka has a chance to become just the second player in tournament history to win the directorate award as top defenseman, with Russia’s Viacheslav Fetisov being the lone man to hold the designation. ASP won it as an 18-year-old in his sophomore appearance after making his debut in Halifax in 2023.

The two-way defender earned rave reviews for his play with the puck, but many scouts thought he was just as good, if not better, handling the competition from his own zone.

“His physicality is an underrated element of his game,” a scout said after the tournament in Sweden. “He doesn’t want you to snag open ice and has the gap control and the hockey IQ to take advantage.”

Continued

Red Wings-Maple Leafs post-Christmas game preview

The Detroit Red Wings play their 3rd game of the season against the 21-12-and-2 Toronto Maple Leafs tonight (7 PM EST start on FanDuel Sportsnet Detroit/TVA Sports/Sportsnet Ontario/97.1 FM), and Todd McLellan’s first game as the Red Wings’ new head coach is not going to be an easy task.

The Leafs have lost two straight games, dropping a 6-3 decision to the New York Islanders and then a 5-2 loss to the Winnipeg Jets just before the holiday break, but they did so without the services of captain Auston Matthews or goaltender Anthony Stolarz, who are both nursing injuries.

NHL.com describes tonight’s match-up thusly…

Toronto Maple Leafs at Detroit Red Wings (7 p.m. ET; FDSNDET, SNO, TVAS)

Todd McLellan will make his debut as coach of the Red Wings (13-17-4) when they host the Maple Leafs (21-12-2) at Little Caesars Arena. The 57-year-old, who replaced Derek Lalonde on Thursday, was an assistant coach with the Red Wings from 2005-08, including winning the Stanley Cup in 2008. Detroit, which has not qualified for the Stanley Cup Playoffs since 2016, has lost three straight (outscored 13-4). The Maple Leafs assigned goaltender Dennis Hildeby to the American Hockey League on Thursday and recalled Matt Murray, who won his first NHL game in almost two years by making 24 saves in a 6-3 victory against the Buffalo Sabres last Friday. The big question looming over Toronto, however, will be the availability of captain Auston Matthews, who has missed the past two games — both losses — with an upper-body injury.

Field Level Media posted a Wings-Leafs write-up…

Continue reading Red Wings-Maple Leafs post-Christmas game preview

Video: Episode 16 of the Flying Octopus podcast

Last night, the Hockey Writers’ Tony Wolak and Devin Little, host Evan Sabourin and I discussed Derek Lalonde’s firing and Todd McLellan’s hiring, and we talked about the World Junior Championship’s first day of competition as well:

HSJ in the morning: McLellan tasked with a salvage job

The Free Press’s Helene St. James summarizes the tasks which new Red Wings coach Todd McLellan faces in her morning column:

The Wings chased a playoff spot all the way till Game 82 in [coach Derek] Lalonde’s second season, in 2023-24. But the team underwent numerous personnel changes headed into this season, including the departures, through free agency or trades, of defensemen Shayne Gostisbehere and Jake Walman, and forwards David Perron, Daniel Sprong and Robby Fabbri.

Newcomers in forward Vladimir Tarasenko and defenseman Erik Gustafsson have failed to overcome those losses and the Wings have struggled to show even a modicum of mediocrity. Entering the holiday break, the Wings ranked 29th in goals per game (2.56), 25th in goals against per game (3.26) and 31st on the penalty kill (68.8 percent).

Now it falls to McLellan, 57, to try to salvage things. He should benefit from his first game being against the Leafs, as the Original Six and Atlantic Division rival brought out the Wings’ best performance of the season when the teams met at Little Caesars Arena on Nov. 14.

But showing up now and then hasn’t been the Wings’ problem – if anything, it’s magnified issues. They have at times demonstrated just how competitive they can be, but then they’ve also performed so poorly, like in the 4-0 loss to the Blues that preceded the holiday break and led to fans booing the team on home ice.

After that performance, captain Dylan Larkin acknowledged the bleakness of it all, saying fans were, “rightfully so frustrated. We didn’t give them any reason to cheer and have a good night. We feel it. It’s just a disappointing effort and disappointing game for playing on home ice before a holiday.”

Continued