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!

Lo, the end is near

ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski issues “bold predictions” for every NHL team this morning, and he’s not bullish on the Red Wings’ chances of making a playoff spot to say the least:

Detroit Red Wings

Red Wings hit reverse in Motor City

Last season, the Red Wings pushed right to the end for a playoff spot, thanks to the NHL’s ninth best offense (3.35 goals per game) overcoming the ninth worst defense (3.33).

Goaltending woes received some of the blame for the latter, and GM Steve Yzerman turned to 37-year-old Cam Talbot to help solidify that spot. He joins no fewer than five goaltenders trying to stake a claim on NHL playing time in training camp. I believe it was the great John Madden — the football guy, not the former NHL center — who was credited with saying that “if you’ve got two quarterbacks, you’ve got none.”

But in reality, their goaltending (17th in save percentage) wasn’t the problem that their 5-on-5 defense (22nd in expected goals against) was last season. The Red Wings have to prove they can defend well enough to earn a playoff spot. I’m not confident they will, nor am I confident that they’re going to post another 12.1% shooting percentage.

Continued (paywall); again, the Red Wings will simply have to prove the media corps wrong, because we’re going to continue hearing “the Red Wings will be worse this year!” by prognosticators and predictors this fall.

Speaking of which, before I hit “publish,” I spotted this Bleacher Report “roundtable” of “hot takes” regarding the upcoming season:

Continue reading Lo, the end is near

Red Wings-Blackhawks preseason wrap-up: Wings skate out of United Center with a win to build upon

The Detroit Red Wings opened their exhibition season with a 4-2 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks on Wednesday night, kicking off the 8-games-in-12-nights stretch with a victory that took approximately as much effort as one might expect from what was the first game in five months for both teams.

As the Chicago Sun-Times’ Ben Pope noted, even the Blackhawks felt that the game was tinged with rust from a lengthy off-season:

Because the Hawks have scrimmaged so much in training camp, they haven’t spent much time practicing power-play situations yet, and that was evident Wednesday. Their first opportunity produced some good looks, but their three man-advantages after that yielded little. That was one of many areas where the Hawks weren’t sharp in their preseason opener.

“[There were] a lot of sloppy plays…on both ends,” Connor Bedard said. “But it’s all of our first games in four or five months, so [that’s] to be expected a little, I guess. There’s definitely a lot of areas to clean up for both teams.

“It takes a few games to get your legs feeling it. I feel like I did more conditioning than I’ve ever done, and I was still pretty gassed.”

Bedard assisted Teuvo Teravainen for the Hawks’ second goal; Teravainen said his United Center return “felt like the old days” again. Goalie Petr Mrazek saved 20 of 22 shots during his two periods of action.

Mrazek almost stole the first forty minutes for Chicago, as Chicago Hockey Now’s Jim Lynch noted…

Continue reading Red Wings-Blackhawks preseason wrap-up: Wings skate out of United Center with a win to build upon

Red Wings-at-Blackhawks exhibition game quick take: Wings skate into Chicago, take a 4-2 decision

The Detroit Red Wings jetted to Chicago to take on the Blackhawks at the United Center on Wednesday night, kicking off their 2024-2025 exhibition season.

The Red Wings scored only a minute and ten seconds into the game, via a Tyler Motte jab of a turnover retrieval by Joe Veleno, forwarded by try-out Austin Watson, but the Blackhawks would score the next two goals, and Detroit trailed 2-1 until late in the 2nd period, when Jeff Petry ripped a sneaky shot through a Carter Mazur screen to make it 2-2 at 18:38.

In the 3rd period, Lucas Raymond would score a power play marker on assists from Dylan Larkin and Alex DeBrincat to make it 3-2, at 3:41, and just over ten minutes later, Emmitt Finnie turned, found Erik Gustafsson at the center point, and he laterally passed the puck to Olli Maatta, who ripped a top-shelf blast over Blackhawks goaltender Mitchell Weeks.

Things got scrambly late, but Sebastian Cossa was excellent in the 3rd period, stopping 10 shots; Ville Husso made a couple of mistakes on the 2 goals he let up, but stopped 15 of 17, and Detroit both went 1-for-3 in 5:22 of PP time, and killed 4 Chicago Blackhawks power plays.

Continue reading Red Wings-at-Blackhawks exhibition game quick take: Wings skate into Chicago, take a 4-2 decision

Video: The NHL Network talks up Dylan Larkin

The NHL Network is posting YouTube-formatted videos of their Top 50 Players Right Now, so this is basically me posting something that I’ve been able to share in link form but not embed as NHL.com’s disabled its embedding code.

Here’s Stu Grimson and Jamie Hersch discussing the NHL Network’s 42nd-best player, one Dylan Larkin:

Tyler Motte sees potential in his new Red Wings team

The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan spoke with Red Wings free agent signing Tyler Motte regarding his decision to sign with his hometown team:

“It’s good to be home, a place where I played a lot of hockey growing up,” said Motte, who played at the Plymouth Township-based United State National Team Development Program and collegiately at Michigan. “But with the team heading in the right direction, hopefully I can continue this push. I had conversations with Steve (Yzerman, general manager) and the staff over the summer, and I really like the opportunity to be part of this group. There’s a lot of familiar faces, so that has helped make the transition pretty easy.”

Motte was an offensive force at Michigan playing on a line with current teammate J.T. Compher and Kyle Connor (Winnipeg Jets), but has evolved into an elite defensive forward in the NHL. Motte thrives on the chance to go on the penalty kill or getting to face a tough matchup.

“I enjoy it for sure; it’s my favorite part of the game,” Motte said. “It’s not the most sexy part, but I appreciate the competitive nature of it. Being down a guy and trying to get the job done, the momentum swing it can create for the group. It’s something I’ve always hung my hat on. When you’re doing your job and helping your team win, I really appreciate those opportunities to do that.”

Motte has noticed an intense, driven team so far in camp.

“The group as a whole basically fell a point short last year from getting in (to the playoffs),” Motte said. “They played a little bit of playoff-style hockey down the stretch to make it interesting and be in the conversation. (The coaching staff) just wants a little bit more from us.

Continued

Prospect round-up: Zeroes on the board for Kiiskinen and LDN; Greiss comes out of retirement to help Bicker’s Lowen

Of prospect-related note:

In the Finnish Liiga, Jesse Kiiskinen had 4 shots but finished at -2 in 14:54 of ice time as HPK Hameenlinna lost 6-5 in a shootout to TPS Turku;

In the Swedish Allsvenskan, Liam Dower Nilsson finished even in IF Bjorkloven’s 5-1 win over Almtuna;

And Maximilian Kilpinen didn’t register a point, finishing even with 1 shot, in Osterlunds IK’s 5-0 loss to Vasteras IK.

In the DEL, there’s a little bit of irony afoot as Thomas Greiss is coming out of retirement–short-term–to help the Frankfurt Lowen fill their crease as another former Red Wing, Jussi Olkinuora, suffered a knee injury.

Two Twitter things: MBN goes golfing and calendar options

Of Red Wings-related note in the Twitter department:

  1. The Red Wings posted a clip of Michael Brandsegg-Nygard discussing his off-ice activities in Traverse City…

2. And calendar options are never a bad thing:

Albert Johansson plans on keeping it simple during tonight’s game

The Hockey News’s Sam Stockton posted a particularly lengthy notebook this afternoon, and in it, he discusses Albert Johansson’s attempt to make the Red Wings’ roster as a player who’s out of waiver-exempt options:

This preseason will be an important one for 23-year-old defenseman Albert Johansson, whom Detroit selected 60th overall in 2019.  He’s spent the past two seasons in Grand Rapids with the Griffins, and now, no longer waiver exempt, he will be vying to be one of the defenseman on the Red Wings’ roster come opening night.

“I feel like it’s time for me to take the next step,” Johansson said this afternoon.  “Of course, my goal is to take a spot on the roster and play in Detroit this year.”  It’s been a process to reach this point, but Johansson believes he’s ready for NHL minutes.  “I think since I came over here, we had a good talk, and I knew my first year that I was going to be in Grand Rapids,” he recounts.  “And then my second year of course, I just tried to play as best as I could and hopefully get a chance up here. Last year, the defensemen up here stayed pretty healthy, so I didn’t get the chance, but I didn’t think about it too much. I played a lot of minutes down there, which I think was goo for me. Now, it’s a new season, and I think it’s time to take the step.”

…

As far as what he’s hoping to get out of tonight’s game, Johansson said, “First of all, it’s going to be fun to play a game again.  It’s been a long time.  I think it’s just gonna be fun to get out there and get the game started.  Of course, it’s the first game, so hopefully it goes well and then we can take it from there.”  When asked about the challenge of not trying to do too much, he added, “When you put pressure on yourself, you wanna do a lot and show the coaching staff that I’m ready, but I think the most important [thing] is just to play a simple game, especially in the first one here, so try to keep it as simple as possible.”

Continued

Tweets of note: Red Wings, Blackhawks post rosters for tonight’s game

Per the Red Wings and Blackhawks:

Again, tonight’s game starts at 8 PM EDT, and it will air on DetroitRedWings.com.

Experience counts for Michael Brandsegg-Nygard

Updated at 4:20 PM: MLive’s Ansar Khan took note of Red Wings prospect Michael Brandsegg-Nygard’s comments made to the media this morning, as well as those of coach Derek Lalonde, regarding MBN’s attempts to master an incredibly steep learning curve–learning the North American hockey game–at 18 years of age:

“If I will not make the team this year, next year I will have one more year of experience with training camp and stuff,” Brandsegg-Nygard said. “I’ll know the system more and will probably be more comfortable.”

A good-sized two-way winger with a terrific shot, Brandsegg-Nygard (6-1, 206) will skate on a line centered by 2022 first-round pick Marco Kasper and Elmer Soderblom [tonight vs. Chicago]. He also will get some time on the power play, on the left flank.

“North American game is a lot different,” coach Derek Lalonde said. “Even the pace of practice, pace of the game. At the same time, you still want him to flourish and grow with his offense. You want the puck on a stick.”

The Norwegian-born Brandsegg-Nygard, the 15th overall selection, started training last month with Skelleftea AIK in Sweden’s top men’s league. He doesn’t anticipate the smaller ice being an adjustment like it often is for European players.

“Where I’m from in Norway, we have an NHL-size rink, so it’s not like the first time I played on it,” he said.

“The game is a lot faster, smaller ice in the end zones, but also it feels like you can shoot from almost anywhere because it’s so close to the net. … I feel like I have a pretty quick release and will try to use it as best as possible.”

Continued;

Update: Here’s Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde’s take on Brandsegg-Nygard, per the Hockey News’s Connor Eargood:

Continue reading Experience counts for Michael Brandsegg-Nygard