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!

Red Wings still occupy the Eastern Conference’s second Wild Card spot

Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff notes that, as of this morning, the Detroit Red Wings still occupy the Eastern Conference’s second Wild Card spot:

Even with Saturday’s loss, Detroit has won seven of the past eight games. Among the teams in the hunt for the Wild Card placings in the East, only the Red Wings are showing any sort of recent life.

The standings show the Ottawa Senators with 62 points and occupying the first Wild Card spot. However, the Sens have lost three in a row.

Detroit sits with 61 points. Boston (60) has dropped two straight and is 5-5 over the past 10 games. Columbus (60) is 4-5-1 through the last 10 outings.

Sitting with 58 points, the Rangers are 5-4-1 over the last 10. The New York Islanders (57) were on a roll, with seven wins in the past 10 games. But they’ve suddenly dropped two in a row.

Of the three teams with 55 points, none among Montreal (3-6-1), Pittsburgh (4-5-1), or Philadelphia (3-6-1) is showing signs of life.

“I think our game’s in a pretty good spot,” [Alex] DeBrincat said. “Obviously not as good (Saturday), but overall we’re doing good things and winning games and, yeah, the feeling’s confident in that room. The break’s going to be nice to get rested and come back full strength.”

Here are the standings as of this morning. Tampa Bay will play against Montreal at 1 PM EST today, so they can increase their lead on the Wings from 1 to 3 points, should they defeat the Canadiens:

Continue reading Red Wings still occupy the Eastern Conference’s second Wild Card spot

Tweet of note: Sportsnet’s Friedman reports that Tarasenko may be moved

On CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada’s “Saturday Headlines,” Elliotte Friedman tells Ron MacLean that two players to keep an eye on are the Islanders’ Brock Nelson, Brayden Schenn, Ryan Donato and one Red Wings forward Vladimir Tarasenko.

Friedman says, at the 2:35 mark, “Yeah, so this one is a little bit of a surprise, you know Vladimir Tarasenko, is in the first year of two in Detroit, and he’s got a no-trade clause this year, but I ave heard there’s been some noise around him, the Red Wings have gotten much better, they’re in the race, a lot of their players have started to play better better, but it’s kind of struggled to be a fit. He scored today, they got ‘Vasilevskiy’ed,’ I know they out-shot the Lightning, but he beat them, and I’ve just heard Ron, that in his case, there’s been some conversation around him, and we’ll just see how it develops.”

You can watch in video form as well;

Update: Both Sportsnet and The Fourth Period reported Friedman’s comments.

Red Wings-Lightning wrap-up: disappointing loss to ‘flush’ sets up a post-Four Nations race for a playoff spot

The Detroit Red Wings lost a 6-3 decision to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday afternoon, snapping Detroit’s 7-game winning streak and 7-0-and-1 unbeaten streak.

I will say this: it’s going to be fun to watch these teams tangle on Friday, April 11th, because they do not like each other one bit:

Regrettably, the Red Wings showed more fire at the end of the game than they did for significant stretches thereof, and they enter the Four Nations Face-Off break with a 28-22-and-5 record and 61 points.

For the Lightning, who are 4-0-and-1 of late, their spirits are high going into tomorrow’s First Nations-half finale against the Montreal Canadiens, where they’ll be able to push their 3-point lead over the Red Wings to 5 points, presuming that they earn a victory.

The Lightning’s coach, Jon Cooper, told the Tampa Bay Times that he was pleasantly surprised by the Bolts’ scoring outburst:

Continue reading Red Wings-Lightning wrap-up: disappointing loss to ‘flush’ sets up a post-Four Nations race for a playoff spot

Post-Wings-Bolts videos: 2 highlight clips, and DeBrincat, Chiarot and coach McLellan post-game

Of video-related note from the Red Wings’ 6-3 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning:

  1. Sportsnet posted a 10:22 highlight clip:

2. NHL.com posted a 10:13 highlight clip:

And the Red Wings posted a 7:45 clip of comments from Alex DeBrincat, Ben Chiarot and coach Todd McLellan:

Red Wings-Lightning quick take: Wings fail a big test, but not all is lost

The Detroit Red Wings hosted the Tampa Bay Lightning for an essential Atlantic Division tilt on Saturday afternoon, with the Red Wings hoping to gain ground on the Bolts in the Atlantic and Wild Card standings, and holding a 7-game winning streak and a 7-0-and-1 record over their past 8 games.

This afternoon, the Red Wings failed their test, bluntly, and they did so because they had neither the defense nor goaltending to defeat Tampa Bay. Alex Lyon gave up 2 goals on 3 shots, Cam Talbot gave up 3 on 14, Detroit trailed 2-1 and 4-2 before they made it a 4-3 game, and Tampa would score the 5-3 marker as U of M alum Dylan Duke put the game away 4:10 into the 3rd.

Yes, the Red Wings mounted comebacks, and the final goal they surrendered to Brandon Hagel was merely an empty-netter…

But this was a frustrating, end-of-the-game-scrum-inducing loss, and now the Wings have to hope that the Vegas Golden Knights beat the Boston Bruins so that the Wings can hang on to that 2nd Wild Card spot.

It’s a bitter outcome and a bitter taste left in the Wings’ mouths for the 4 Nations break. Hopefully, they’ll come out of it with lessons learned, and they’ll be a better team for it.

Continue reading Red Wings-Lightning quick take: Wings fail a big test, but not all is lost

Tweet of note: WXYZ’s Galli interviews Elmer Soderblom

Per WXYZ’s Brad Galli:

Tweet of note from Duff: Buchelnikov wins ‘fastest skater’ at KHL All-Star Game

Via Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff: Red Wings prospect Dmitri Buchelnikov won the KHL’s “Fastest Skater” competition at the KHL All-Star Game:

Griffins struggling to score goals

Per Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen:

The Grand Rapids Griffins made the kind of history that they would have preferred to avoid. The Detroit Red Wings’ AHL affiliate was shut out for the third consecutive game.

Grand Rapids still leads the Central Division with a one-point lead over the Texas Stars (Dallas Stars).

The Milwaukee Admirals (Nashville Predators) pinned a 3-0 defeat on Grand Rapids to go with 2-0and 6-0 losses they suffered against the Colorado Eagles (Avalanche) a week ago. Grand Rapids had never before been shut out three games in a row.

Officially, the Griffins have now gone 181:53 minutes without scoring a goal. Milwaukee’s Matt Murray made 35 saves to earn the shutout.

Lack of power play production has hurt the Griffins recently. They have gone four games without a power play goal (0-for-12).

Captain Larkin sees the Red Wings’ winning streak as ‘sustainable hockey’

Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff took note of Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin’s comments made about the team’s 7-game winning streak:

“The way the guys have responded post-Christmas and the way things are going, you almost don’t want it to stop when you get on a roll like this,” Larkin said. “I think the break will be good for guys, but when we’re playing this well, you almost want to keep it going and keep playing.”

Twenty games into McLellan’s tenure, this Detroit turnaround can’t simply be chalked up to the new coach bump. There’s a different feeling about the club, a resiliency and a resourcefulness not witnessed for long stretches of time in past seasons.

“I saw something the other day that, with the (club’s) two seven-game winning streaks, it’s kind of been a tale of two different teams,” Larkin said. “The first one was power play and a few guys really taking charge. And this last seven games, the one we’re on now, it’s been by committee and that feels sustainable. And we’ve been getting unbelievable goaltending and we’ve been wearing teams down.”

He cites the addition of 6-foot-8 Elmer Soderblom to play alongside 6-foot-6 Michael Rasmussen as giving the club a heavy line. They’ve become hard to play against.

“I haven’t been able to say that for too many teams I’ve played on, but with the size, with Elmer coming in and Ras playing well, (and) the size we have on the back end,” Larkin said. “I look at that LA game (4-2 2win). It really felt like we just – it was a fast playoff style game. But we wore them down and that’s a big fast team as well.”

Continued