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!

Video: Larkin, Soderblom, Finnie and coach Tanguay speak after the Red & White Game

Updated at 6 PM: 15 minutes’ worth of commentary:

Update: MLive also posted a massive 70-image photo gallery from the game….

And here’s the Griffins’ game recap:

Team Red 2 vs. Team White 3

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Rounding out the Detroit Red Wings’ 2025 Training Camp, the team made the trip to Van Andel Arena to compete in the Red & White Game in Grand Rapids for the first time since 2011. In front of a sell-out crowd of 10,834, Team White came away with a 3-2 victory over Team Red, highlighted by two-point outings from Elmer Soderblom (2-0–2) and Amadeus Lombardi (0-2–2). 

Continue reading Video: Larkin, Soderblom, Finnie and coach Tanguay speak after the Red & White Game

It’s a Red & White Game Tweetcap!

Updated at 5:28 PM: It may have been just a scrimmage, but the Red & White Game was incredibly fun to watch. Coach Todd McLellan’s emphasis on players playing with their “foot on the gas pedal” was evident in what was a fast-paced, intense and sometimes (when Mo Seider was on the ice, anyway) physical game that resulted in a 3-2 win for the White Team.

Here are some highlights from the game in Twitter form:

Continue reading It’s a Red & White Game Tweetcap!

Prospect round-up: Tyurin posts an assist for Spartak, Miller stops 27 shots for Soo Greyhounds

Of Red Wings prospect-related note today:

In the DEL, Kevin Bicker wasn’t able to make it home in time to participate in the Frankfurt Lowen’s 6-3 loss to the Schwenninger Wild Wings;

In the KHL, Dmitri Buchelnikov finished even with 1 shot on goal, 1 takeaway and 1 intercepted pass in 14:38 as CSKA Moscow lost 5-4 to Metallurg Magnitogorsk;

And in the MHL, Nikita Tyurin had an assist, finishing even with 4 shots and 4 blocks in 25:46 played as MHK Spartak lost 4-3 to Taifun.

In North America, in the OHL, Landon Miller stopped 27 of 29 shots in the Soo Greyhounds’ 5-2 win over the Sarnia Sting:

Tweets of note: Red vs. White Game rosters and more

Of Red Wings-related note this afternoon on Twitter:

Continue reading Tweets of note: Red vs. White Game rosters and more

On Compher and Copp

As Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff notes, Red Wings coach Todd McLellan believes that J.T. Compher and Andrew Copp can still be useful members of the team as Swiss Army Knife players:

“I think (Copp) and JT could be different difference makers this year,” McLellan said.

At the same time, he’s witnessed two players in action who are far too often all about inaction.

“In JT and in Copper, I saw two different players,” McLellan said. “I saw somebody that wasn’t getting after it. They were a little reserved, holding back, kind of (getting there) second to different scenarios. And then when they got after it and they went after it, they were way better.

“They have to decide which one of those they want to be. And if they want to be ahead of things and using their hockey sense and getting after it, then they’re going to be really good players. If they want to be reserved and playing in the middle of the rink all the time and calculated well, we’ll have to figure that part out.”

Continued

Morning news: Regarding the Red & White Game and what happens afterward

If you missed it, the Grand Rapids Griffins posted a Tweet with information you can use regarding today’s Red & White Game (3 PM EDT start on WXSP and DetroitRedWings.com)…

And WOOD TV8’s Cameron James posted a video report regarding today’s affair:

The Free Press’s Helene St. James also posted a morning article which discusses coach Todd McLellan’s goals for Detroit’s 8-games-in-12-nights exhibition season:

Continue reading Morning news: Regarding the Red & White Game and what happens afterward

Fit and Finnie

Emmitt Finnie is one of those players who I almost feel guilty for judging to project as more of a Kris Draper-style, grinding dynamo than what he’s shown at the WHL level in terms of scoring (see: 37 goals and 84 points in only 55 games with Kamloops this past season).

Finnie is very fast, Finnie works very hard, and the 6’1,” 190-pound Finnie is still growing into his stocky, strong frame at all of 20 years of age.

But my stupid job is to try and guess as best I can how a player’s skills at the developmental level translate into professional level roles, and I just see Finnie as a superstar of the “grinder’s” world at the NHL level.

The one thing we can all agree upon with young Emmitt, however, is that he has the work ethic of a superstar, and, as Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff notes, Red Wings coach Todd McLellan is a believer in Finnie’s “motor”:

“I’d heard about Emmitt and his game, but he’s really grown on me,” McLellan said on the club’s website. “The pace of play, the detail that he has, the courage that he has to take pucks to the net, the tenacity that he plays with. So he’s in one spot, then he’s getting to the next with some meaning.”

During Saturday’s final day of training camp workouts, Finnie, the club’s seventh-round pick in the 2023 NHL entry draft, got his chance to work on the club’s top line alongside captain Dylan Larkin and Lucas Raymond.

“Emmitt Finnie played pretty damn well up there,” McLellan said.

As Duff notes, when Finnie played his first pro games last season, he posted a goal and 4 assists for 5 points in 10 games, and he fit like a composite-molded $1,000 hockey skate at the AHL level. I don’t know whether that’s going to translate to NHL scoring, but we know one thing about Finnie already:

“I told the group today that there’s some players that have come here and they’re kind of riding the brakes a little bit,” McLellan said. “Maybe (they’re) afraid to make mistakes. And then there’s players that have come to make the team.

“And if you’ve been riding the brake a little bit, figure out who you are and let loose. You can’t play conservative all the time. If you make mistakes, we’ll help you. But if your biggest mistake is you’re playing with your foot on the brake all the time, we can’t help you with that. And I don’t think Emmett’s been one that’s been riding the brake. He’s been full on the gas.”

Finnie knows no other way to play, and for the Red Wings, that’s a very good thing.

Day 3 of training camp involved the Red Wings ‘getting closer to what real hockey should look like’

DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills posted his late-evening recap of the events of Day 3 of Red Wings’ 2025 training camp, and tonight, Mills frames Saturday’s activities in terms of what coach McLellan hopes will carry over to Sunday’s Red & White Game (3 PM EDT Sunday on WXSP and DetroitRedWings.com):

A productive scrimmage for McLellan will start with the players carrying over the level of competition that he saw on the ice on Saturday.

“I thought the guys were a little more competitive today than they were yesterday,” McLellan said. “There was physicality in the game. The ice was harder to come by, so it was tighter. There wasn’t a lot of free space. It was getting closer to what real hockey should look like. I hope that continues tomorrow in GR. Then we can pack up, get home, have a day off and a lot of games are going to come at us in a real short period of time.”

Creating that tough, but beneficial, environment in Training Camp has been a group effort.

“[The veterans] have been really good,” McLellan said. “There hasn’t been anybody dragging their butts or cutting corners, but I expected that from all of them. The youth have certainly pushed. There have been some real good performances by some players who have provided pace and tenacity, and that’s a real good sign as well.”

McLellan added that he’s encouraged the skaters to embrace a mindset that includes a willingness to take risks.

“I told the group today that there’s some players who have come here and they’re kind of riding the brake a little bit, maybe afraid to make mistakes,” McLellan said. “And then there are players who have come to make the team. If you’ve been riding the brake a little bit, figure out who you are and let loose. You can’t play conservative all the time. If you make mistakes, we’ll help you. But if your biggest mistake is you’re playing with your foot on the brake all the time, we can’t help you with that.”

Continued; hockey-wise, I get the feeling that coach McLellan’s brakes don’t get a whole lot of work. He seems like a gas pedal kind of coach.