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!

Press release: Red Wings announce Bally Sports Detroit and Audacy broadcast schedules

From the Detroit Red Wings:

RED WINGS, BALLY SPORTS DETROIT AND AUDACY ANNOUNCE BROADCAST SCHEDULE FOR 2024-25 SEASON

  … Bally Sports Detroit to Air 69 Regular-Season Games; 97.1 The Ticket Continues as Radio Home of Red Wings …

DETROIT – The Detroit Red Wings, in conjunction with Bally Sports Detroit and Audacy, today announced the Red Wings local television and radio schedules for the 2024-25 season. This schedule is subject to change.

Bally Sports Detroit (BSD) continues its award-winning production and carriage of Red Wings games by airing a total of 69 regular-season contests with 59 slated for BSD, nine on Bally Sports Detroit Extra (BSD EXTRA) and one (Friday, April 11 at Tampa Bay) to be determined.

Ranked as the NHL’s top local broadcast team in a poll conducted by The Athletic, the popular announcing duo of Ken Daniels and Mickey Redmond return to call the action. In addition to live reports from Little Caesars Arena, studio portions of RED WINGS LIVE will originate from Bally Sports Detroit’s studios at its Southfield headquarters.

Continue reading Press release: Red Wings announce Bally Sports Detroit and Audacy broadcast schedules

Tweet of note: Trey Augustine named to preseason All-Big 10 first hockey team

Via Red Wings Prospects on Twitter, Detroit prospect and Michigan State University goaltender Trey Augustine was named to the preseason All-Big 10 first hockey team via a poll of the NCAA league’s coaches–and Augustine was selected by every coach:

Free advertising: Check out these ‘bomber jackets’ from FE Apparel

Just as an FYI: I’m fairly certain that these “bomber jackets” will be insanely expensive, but FE Apparel is launching a line of varsity-style jackets which include really cool artwork of Steve Yzerman, Nicklas Lidstrom and Gordie Howe, among other NHL teams’ legends:

Tweets of note: Bally Sports Detroit asks Larkin, Raymond and Petry about their offseason activities

Per Bally Sports Detroit:

Update: Also:

Tweet of note: Asking the right questions

The Hockey News’s Connor Eargood reports that Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde is impressed with forward Vladimir Tarasenko’s questions as he adjusts to becoming a Red Wing:

Update: Also:

Alex DeBrincat is thrilled to be teammates with Patrick Kane

Red Wings forward Alex DeBrincat spoke with the media today, and he spent quite a bit of time discussing his admiration for his friend and teammate, Patrick Kane, as noted by the Hockey News’s Connor Eargood:

“When he speaks up in our room—and to be honest with you before playing with him last year I didn’t know he was like that—but he will stand up, and he will say things, and when he talks, people listen,” [Red Wings captain Dylan] Larkin explained Thursday. “He’s earned that in this league and especially with our team, so to see that he wanted to come back and know that he had a full summer of training, he’s gonna get a full camp in, I’m very excited for him.”

For DeBrincat, the benefit of Kane isn’t just what he brings on the ice. He also credits Kane as a key mentor for cracking it in the NHL way back when he was a rookie.”He’s taught me so much, on the ice and off the ice” DeBrincat said. “I think off the ice, he treats his body really well. And he eats the right stuff and he does whatever he can to get ready for the next game.” DeBrincat also credited Jonathan Toews, Brent Seabrook and Duncan Keith as key mentors in his career, too. “Those guys, really helped me throughout the early parts of my career. Just how to act like a pro, how to treat your body like a pro.”

Considering how he treats his body, it’s no stroke of luck nor accident that Patrick Kane is the last one standing of the Chicago Blackhawks’ core players from its Stanley Cup heyday. Toews is retired in practice if not in definition, meanwhile Seabrook, Keith and Marian Hossa haven’t played in years. Kane’s care for his own body — even his risky hip surgery before joining Detroit — has equipped him to play in the NHL as a soon-to-be 36-year-old, still an impact player if not to the same degree as his former Hart-winning form.

“He’s a huge part of our team,” DeBrincat said. “He can create so much on offense and he has so much leadership. He’s been through a lot throughout his career. That leadership in the locker room, we have a lot of guys who bring that but him in general on the ice, he plays such a different way from everyone. I think it just adds another element of offense. He’s a big part of our team, so it’s great to have him back.”

Continued

ESPN’s Allen suggests that fantasy hockey players ‘wait and watch’ the Red Wings’ goaltenders

ESPN’s fantasy hockey writer, one Sean Allen, suggests that hockey poolies should “wait and watch” as to whether the Red Wings’ goaltenders might turn out to be good picks for your fantasy hockey team:

Detroit Red Wings

2023-24 season

  • Ville Husso: 20.6% crease share, 17.2 fantasy points (29 years, 216 days)
  • James Reimer: 27.5% crease share, 43.4 fantasy points (36 years, 178 days)
  • Alex Lyon: 50.8% crease share, 80.6 fantasy points (31 years, 274 days)
  • Michael Hutchinson: 1.2% crease share, 0.6 fantasy points (34 years, 192 days)

2024-25 roster

Among all the Red Wings goaltenders from last season as well as the ones available this coming season, only Talbot finished with enough fantasy points to be among the relevant goaltenders in 2023-24. And the fact he finished 10th overall comes with a huge asterisk, as his stats fell off a cliff when the calendar flipped to 2024 (27th among goaltenders from Jan. 1 onward).

Surely some kind of tandem will emerge here between Talbot, Husso, Lyon and maybe even Campbell. But perhaps the bigger question is whether the Red Wings take a big enough step forward overall to provide the requisite wins required for the production of fantasy points. There is something positive to be said for all of these suitors: Talbot has finished among the top 12 goaltenders in three of the past four seasons; Husso is eight years younger and two seasons removed from a 15th overall finish (in a season in which his crease share was just 47.7%); Lyon has had some positive stretches in the past two seasons, though hasn’t put it all together; and even Campbell was a top-12 goaltender in both 2020-21 and 2021-22.

I don’t think I’m trying to draft any of them out of the gate, but the Wings will be worth watching in October for signs of life in the crease.

Continued; we’re all going to be waiting and watching as the Red Wings’ goaltending sorts itself out.

Luszczyszyn suggests that the Red Wings are an easy ‘fade’ for bettors

I don’t speak the language of hockey betting, but it comes as no surprise that The Athletic’s Dom Luszczyszyn leads off his “NHL Futures” article by giving the Red Wings a “fade” for this upcoming season:

Detroit Red Wings
UNDER 90.5 points, -120 (Stake: 7.5 percent)
NO playoffs, -162 (7 percent)

The Red Wings are easily my biggest fade this year. A 90.5-point total feels extremely generous for a team that felt fortunate to land at 91 last season. The Red Wings had the seventh worst expected goals percentage last season, but survived off hot shooting. They allowed the second most chances on the penalty kill, but countered that with unsustainably good goaltending. 

All that would be fine if the team was relatively young (they’re not), made meaningful improvements in the offseason (they didn’t), or could count on declines from teams around them (not likely). Unless Simon Edvinsson is the missing a piece and a day-one god, it’s difficult to envision a playoff path for the Red Wings this season — or matching last year’s 91 point total.

Continued; whether it’s betting futures or season previews, the Red Wings are going to be “bagged on” often this month and next month. The team’s not going to get any real respect from the media, and that’s just the way it is. Detroit’s got to prove that it is a playoff team by going out on the ice and winning.