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!

Allen on the Griffins’ positives

Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen posted a subscriber-only article which discusses the fortunes of the Grand Rapids Griffins of late:

Dan is Dandy: Dan Watson is doing an impressive job getting Detroit’s prospects to show improvement. [Nate] Danielson. Amadeus Lombardi. It seems like most Grand Rapids players are playing better than they did a year ago. Cross Hanas. Ondrej Becher. Alex Doucet. Even Jakub Rychlovsky. They all seem to be doing more.

Yzerman has to happy with how Watson has improved the team’s overall defensive play.

D Men Earning A Grades: The Griffins (16-8-1-0) have surrendered two or fewer goals in 14 of their 25 games. And Detroit prospects are playing big roles in that improvement. Shai Buium, in his first full season with the Griffins, has put up seven points in 21 games and has helped the Griffins hold an opponents to 2.52 goals per game. That ties Grand Rapids for first in the league. Buium is plus-4 on the season.

William Wallinder and Antti Tuomisto are two other Detroit prospects logging significant minutes on defense.

Continued (paywall)

On Augustine’s confidence level

The Hockey News’s Sam Stockton discusses Red Wings prospect, Michigan State University goaltender and U.S. World Junior Team starter Trey Augustine this evening:

Augustine—a sophomore at Michigan State and 2023 Detroit Red Wings draft pick—is quickly becoming one of the most decorated amateur goaltenders ever.  He has a World Junior gold medal, a gold medal from U-18 Worlds, a Big Ten regular season championship, and a Big Ten tournament championship (both program firsts for the Spartans) to his name already.

When asked yesterday about what’s changed for him at now his third World Junior camp (he also backstopped the Americans to bronze in the Maritimes at the 2023 WJC), Augustine quipped, “I just feel old now. I felt young at the start. I was a little above my level, but now I just feel comfortable, feel like I’m one of the old guys on the team.”

It was a light-hearted comment, but it also showed the confidence that Augustine has added to his trademark sense of calm in net, confidence earned from each added accolade.

“Each time you can see he’s out of his shell a little bit more,” said USA coach David Carle, who also coached the American WJC side a year ago.  “I heard, even last weekend, I heard he was kinda showing up the crowd a little bit against Minnesota.  People were surprised by that, but excited about that.  There’s nothing wrong with that.  We saw a little bit of that in Sweden actually.  When you watch the game back, you see some of the replays where he gets pretty fired up.  You’d never question his intensity or compete or desire to win, but he’s probably getting a little more external or forward facing.”

Continued

Knock on composite

The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan filed a notebook article which discusses the Red Wings’ relative health in goal, which Wings coach Derek Lalonde does not want to jinx:

“We’d like to get there first,” said coach Derek Lalonde, who has had the benefit of three NHL goaltenders on the roster for two seasons but rarely have all three been healthy. “Someone gave me the statistic of we were one of the first teams to have four goalie wins in the first (30) games in the year. We talk about starting with three goalies and needing three goalies and here we are again, four deep (Sebastian Cossa won one game). Let’s get to three healthy goalies, and then that’ll be a good decision to have.”

Lyon went through another full practice Tuesday — he’s been doing it for close to a week now — and has been cleared to play.

When it’s time to make a decision, it’ll most likely affect Husso, who won his first game in a calendar year Saturday over Toronto. After being plagued with injuries from the second half of last season, then being reassigned to Grand Rapids the first week of this regular season after being waived by the Wings, Husso appears as healthy and productive as he’s been in almost two seasons.

But with Talbot and Lyon likely targeted to share the load with the Wings, and Cossa and Jack Campbell in Grand Rapids, Husso’s immediate future looks unclear.

Lalonde, though, is appreciative of having a third goalie who is proven and capable at the NHL level.

“We’ve been able to turn to an experienced goalie that we believed in all year, over two years,” Lalonde said. “Good on our management team thinking outside the box with carrying three goalies. It’s kept us in the battle again this year. Ville is just a genuine good person, very well liked in the room. He’s a guy you root for. A lot of adversity he’s faced has come through injury. He keeps working at it and he got rewarded for it with a quality win against a quality opponent.”

Continued (paywall)

Prospect round-up: Buchelnikov plays nearly 20 minutes in Vityaz win

I’ve taken a while away from the prospect beat, but it’s time to start up again.

So, of Red Wings prospect-related note today in Russia:

In the KHL, Dmitri Buchelnikov had 2 shots, 3 hits and an intercepted pass in 19:28 played as Vityaz Moscow Region won 6-5 in a shootout over Nizhny Novgorod.

Red Wings Prospects on Twitter has something of a scouting report:

Wings suddenly healthy in the crease

MLive’s Ansar Khan filed an afternoon notebook discussing the Red Wings’ new-found health at the goaltending position:

Coach Derek Lalonde said after practice Tuesday that they hadn’t decided if Lyon or Ville Husso will start Wednesday against the Philadelphia Flyers at home (7 p.m., TNT). Lyon hasn’t played since a 4-2 victory at the New York Islanders on Nov. 25.

“I think first and foremost, you just have to make sure there’s no setbacks,” Lyon said. “And when you have an injury and then you have a setback later, there’s nothing worse. You want to nip it in the bud and make sure that everything’s good. Mentally you don’t want to just feel it out. I want to try to come in and hit the ground running and pick up where I left off.”

Husso is coming off a strong performance Saturday in a 4-2 victory over Toronto, his first win of the season. He joined Lyon, Talbot and Sebastian Cossa in the win column.

“We’ve been able to turn to an experienced goalie that we believed in all year, over two years,” Lalonde said of Husso. “Good on our management thinking outside the box in carrying three goalies. It salvaged our season, got us on the brink of the playoffs last year and kept us in the battle this year.”

Continued (paywall)

A bare-bones Wings-Flyers preview

The Associated Press posted a simple Red Wings-Flyers game preview ahead of tomorrow night’s game between the two teams:

BOTTOM LINE: The Detroit Red Wings host the Philadelphia Flyers after Jeff Petry’s two-goal game against the Toronto Maple Leafs in the Red Wings’ 4-2 win.

Detroit is 12-14-4 overall and 6-7-2 in home games. The Red Wings have a 3-4-2 record when they serve more penalty minutes than their opponent.

Philadelphia has a 7-5-3 record in road games and a 14-13-4 record overall. The Flyers have a -14 scoring differential, with 90 total goals scored and 104 allowed.

Wednesday’s game is the second time these teams square off this season. The Flyers won the previous meeting 4-1. Scott Laughton scored four goals in the victory.

TOP PERFORMERS: Lucas Raymond has 12 goals and 19 assists for the Red Wings. Alex DeBrincat has four goals and two assists over the last 10 games.

Travis Sanheim has six goals and 13 assists for the Flyers. Owen Tippett has five goals and one assist over the last 10 games.

LAST 10 GAMES: Red Wings: 4-4-2, averaging 2.8 goals, 4.9 assists, 3.8 penalties and 8.1 penalty minutes while giving up 2.9 goals per game.

Flyers: 5-3-2, averaging 3.3 goals, 5.1 assists, 3.4 penalties and 8.2 penalty minutes while giving up three goals per game.

Video: Lalonde, Lyon and Copp speak after Tuesday’s practice

The Detroit Red Wings practiced with a healthy roster ahead of tomorrow night’s game vs. Philadelphia (7 PM EST start on TNT/97.1 FM), and after practice, coach Derek Lalonde told the Wings’ media corps that he may or may not start a healthy Alex Lyon tomorrow evening.

After Tuesday’s practice, the Red Wings posted a video of coach Lalonde, Lyon and Andrew Copp answering questions:

Tuesday post-practice Tweets: starting goaltender uncertain for Wednesday vs. Philadelphia

The Red Wings appeared to be a healthy team as forwards Dylan Larkin and Marco Kasper took part in Tuesday’s practice, as did goaltender Alex Lyon.

With the Wings preparing to play a slate of 4 games over the course of 6 nights, starting tomorrow with a home game vs. Philadelphia (7:00 PM EST on TNT/97.1 FM), the Wings will need all hands on deck to turn their 12-14-and-4 record around.

After practice, Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde spoke with the assembled media regarding the state of the Wings’ health, as noted by DetroitRedWings.com’s Daniella Bruce:

Tweets from Tuesday’s practice: Wings are healthy-ish as they prepare to host Flyers

The Detroit Red Wings will begin a slate of four games to be played over the course of pre-Christmas nights when they host the 14-13-and-4 Philadelphia Flyers tomorrow at Little Caesars Arena.

Detroit will play the Flyers, get a day off, then play a home-and-home series with the Montreal Canadiens on Friday and Saturday, and host the St. Louis Blues this upcoming Monday, all before taking a 3-day Christmas break. They’ll conclude December with 3 home games vs. Toronto, Washington and Pittsburgh.

After yesterday’s news that Alex Lyon is expected to start Wednesday, that Cam Talbot may return for Friday’s game vs. Montreal, and that Dylan Larkin (maintenance) and Marco Kasper were expected to play on Wednesday, the Wings were anxious to see what happened as they took to the ice at the BELFOR Training Center under LCA.

MLive’s Ansar Khan reported good news from today’s practice:

Meanwhile, in suburban Philadelphia…

Back at “The BELFOR”…

A simple remedy for the Red Wings’ lack of offense in shooting the puck

Both the Free Press’s Helene St. James and Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff discuss a simple solution to the Red Wings’ difficulty in producing offense this morning, with an emphasis on the team producing a higher volume of shots on goal in order to score more goals.

That’s not as simple as it sounds, but it’s also not as complicated as the Wings’ players may think, as St. James notes…

“You don’t want to waste shots, but if we’re in an area to have a good chance to shoot it on net or get some action at the net, we want to be a team that takes those chances, instead of looking for a better play or another pass,” veteran forward Patrick Kane said. “We’ve got good players in here that can read the play but sometimes I think we want to have that possession and maybe we overpass a little bit. So just having a shooting mentality has been better for us.”

The Wings (12-14-4) are trying to climb inside the playoff picture and win consecutive games for the first time since Thanksgiving. Head coach Derek Lalonde has fingered the team’s DNA multiple times, essentially pointing out the forwards especially are prone to passing rather than shooting. And while there’s something to be said for holding onto the puck when a path to the net is not clear – well, on the flip side, there’s an argument favoring creating chaos and heeding Lalonde’s message to put the puck at the blue paint.

“I think they just learn to trust it a little more,” Lalonde said. “I get it, it’s a weird NHL right now – I saw an article on goalie save percentages being so low. I do think there’s an NHL today where people don’t waste shots. The old-school coming down the wing, throwing it into the goalie’s stomach, the goalie sees it – [don’t] waste shots. But I still think we can have a little more predictability knowing the puck is going to the net, because we have bodies there. I just think there’s a little messaging from the success we had in third period of Philly to that game – I just hope they can trust it a little more.”

St. James also posted a video of Kane, Moritz Seider and coach Lalonde addressing the shooting issue…

Continue reading A simple remedy for the Red Wings’ lack of offense in shooting the puck