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!

Three things: on high expectations, the Raymond/Seider re-signings and the Wings’ second line

Updated at 7:43 AM: Of Red Wings-related note this morning:

  1. MLive’s Ansar Khan kicks off our survey of morning news by discussing the heightened expectations for the Red Wings as they begin training camp with the goal of making the playoffs:

The Red Wings were in the postseason chase, leading by eight points on Feb. 27, due largely to their offense and their power play (both ranked ninth in the league). They didn’t get there because they weren’t good enough defensively (ranked 24th).

“Appreciated the goals last year. We’ll need those goals again this year,” Lalonde said. “But … finishing in the bottom half of the league with goals against (isn’t a) recipe for success. It’s certainly a point of emphasis from (Wednesday), our meetings into (Thursday).”

The Red Wings have increased their point total in each of the past four years, a trend Lalonde knows must continue.

“We keep going like this (upward) with our points. We keep going like this in the standings,” he said. “An 11-point improvement last year. You’re literally in a virtual tie for the last playoff spot. Of course, the expectations are going to keep moving this forward, but it is a little bit different. I think it was pretty clear that we were not expected to be a playoff team going into (last) season. And when you get to that point, when you start flirting with that type of season, you start getting those points … of course everyone wants a natural progression and that’s the way we see it and that’s what we want.

“We expect some internal growth and some guys that experienced that run last year and some help from some free agents and some help from our young guys. So, expectations have changed, and it’s going to be a reality, and I think our group will handle it well.”

2. The Free Press’s Helene St. James offers two columns this morning, with the first one discussing Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider’s re-signings as restricted free agents:

Continue reading Three things: on high expectations, the Raymond/Seider re-signings and the Wings’ second line

Carter Mazur has the right attributes to make the Wings’ roster

Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen posted an overnight column which discusses whether Red Wings prospect Carter Mazur may be able to make the Wings’ roster out of training camp:

Perhaps no one in the Red Wings organization is as fluent in Mazur’s charge to the top of the hockey world as Kris Draper. Detroit’s assistant GM and director of amateur scouting was Mazur’s youth hockey coach.

“Carter is an incredible kid,” Draper said. “The one thing I knew about Maze was that this kid was always low maintenance. It was just go out and play. You could see at 15, 16 years old he had a good feel for the game. He had the smarts, he had the competitiveness.

“He’s a wiry, strong player. You look at him and everyone says he’s gotta get stronger. But the thing you realize when he goes out and plays the game is No. 1, he has the puck. No. 2, he’s always hard to knock off the puck and that’s something that you don’t teach. It’s just something that’s there.

“He’s got that inner drive. He’s got that competitiveness. Carter was a kid that always wanted to get better. He was always asking the right questions. At practice time, a lot of the little things. The puck protection, the wall play. Understanding PK stick placement.”

Continued with comments from Patrick Kane, Dan Cleary and Shai Buium…

NHL.com’s Cotsonika previews the Red Wings’ keys to success

NHL.com’s doing a second round’s worth of season previews this month, and today, Nicholas J. Cotsonika previews the Red Wings ahead of the 2024-2025 season. Here are his “3 keys” to Red Wings success:

3 KEYS

1. Goaltending: The Red Wings are opening training camp with three goalies: Cam Talbot, Ville Husso and Alex Lyon. It remains to be seen whether they will keep three, who will emerge as the starter and whether the goaltending can help Detroit reduce its goals against, 24th in the NHL last season (3.33 per game). Talbot, who signed a two-year, $5 million contract July 1, went 27-20-6 with a 2.50 goals-against average, .913 save percentage and three shutouts in 54 games (52 starts) for the Los Angeles Kings last season. Can the 37-year-old play at a high level for the Red Wings? Can Husso, who was limited to 19 games (18 starts) by injuries last season, stay healthy? Can Lyon, who was hot in January and February before cooling off down the stretch, seize the net and sustain it?

2. Team defense: The biggest problem for the Red Wings last season was team defense. They added Talbot in goal and forward Tyler Motte, who signed a one-year, $800,000 contract July 2. But they will need rookie defensemen Simon Edvinsson and Albert Johansson to perform, and the coaches and players as a group to figure out how to possess the puck more and keep it out of the net better. Forward Patrick Kane said everyone needs to play better defensively, not just the players who are in defensive roles.

3. Replacing offense: The Red Wings ranked ninth in offense (3.35 goals per game) and the power play (23.1 percent) last season, but lost forwards David Perron and Daniel Sprong and defensemen Shayne Gostisbehere and Jake Walman in the offseason. Those four players combined for 57 goals and 167 points last season, including 13 goals and 62 points on the power play. Detroit will need contributions from forward Vladimir Tarasenko, who signed a two-year, $9.5 million contract July 3, and defenseman Erik Gustafsson, who signed a two-year, $4 million contract July 1. They’re counting on Kane to keep producing, forward Lucas Raymond to keep developing and forward Alex DeBrincat to cash in on more of his opportunities.

Continued

Two things: on first-day jitters and Larkin’s next level

Of Red Wings-related note this evening:

  1. DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills wrote a mid-evening column which summarizes the Red Wings’ first day of training camp…

Detroit’s Training Camp roster this year features 68 players, including 37 forwards, 22 defensemen and nine goalies. With several key pieces returning, along with a mix of faces young and new, captain Dylan Larkin said everyone’s excited to get back to work.

“It’s like the first day of school,” Larkin said. “There are some jitters, but it was good to get on the ice up here. Some guys are feeling it out, but I was very impressed with the intensity and thought the older guys – Ben Chiarot, Jeff Petry, myself, Lucas [Raymond], Alex [DeBrincat] – trying to push the battle and intensity a little higher than what we’ve had in the past.”

Red Wings head coach Derek Lalonde said it was important the veterans set the tone with a competitive practice to kick offTraining Camp.

“Our core is growing together,” Lalonde said. “I felt I’ve grown with this core a little bit too. This was their opportunity to set the tone. We keep talking about putting some of these words into action. It’s the first opportunity for action and was a good step on Day 1, but that’s all it was. I’d like to keep pushing this going forward, but it’s going to have to come from that leadership group.”

That leadership group is headlined by Larkin, who said missing out on the Stanley Cup Playoffs last season was a tough pill to swallow.

“It was extremely hard to get over that,” Larkin said. “We found out what we had in our room with our guys. We battled hard, but we came up short by one point. You learn how valuable every point is. Sometimes when you’re not feeling your best on the road, a long trip or whatever it is, we showed through adversity what winning hockey looks like for us.”

Mills continues…

2. And MLive’s Ansar Khan took note of captain Larkin’s remarks about himself, in which Larkin suggested that there’s room for improvement:

Continue reading Two things: on first-day jitters and Larkin’s next level

Coach Lalonde on the Red Wings’ desire to deliver post-season results

Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde told the Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan that he understands why the Red Wings are expected to make the playoffs (by their fans, anyway):

“That’s more reality than anything,” Lalonde said Thursday, meeting the media for the first time. “It’s a natural progression. We keep going like this (upward trend) with our points, keep going like this (upward) in the standings, an 11-point improvement last year, and you literally are in a virtual tie for the last playoff spot. Of course, the expectations will keep moving forward. But it’s a little different.”

Meaning, there’s more pressure to achieve those expectations and even surpass them, to claim a playoff spot. And for a large segment of this Wings’ roster, those type of expectations are different from years before.

Lalonde talked often last year about how many national analysts picked the Wings far out of the playoff picture before the season began.

That’s not the case, as much, anymore. Many people consider the Wings capable of making the playoffs.

“It was pretty clear that we were not expected to be a playoff team going into the season, and when you get to that point and start flirting with that type of season, you start getting those points in the high 80s or low 90s, where we were last year, everyone wants a natural progression,” Lalonde said. “That’s the way we see it and what we want.”

…

“It’s pressure, but it’s the reality of our league,” Lalonde said. “It’s so competitive. The parity in our league is at an all-time high and you want to keep this going, pushing it forward. We’ve done that the last two years, and you have to keep pushing it forward. You can call that expectation or pressure, but the simple reality of it is a team going in the right direction.”

Continued (paywall)

Evening Tweets of note: On preseason ESPN+ games, ‘the best #19,’ Seider and Tarasenko

Of Red Wings-related Twitter note this evening:

  1. EP Rinkside’s Sean Shapiro posted a list of the preseason games that will be aired on ESPN+:

Here’s ESPN’s official Tweet:

It looks like Thursday October 2nd vs. Toronto, Friday October 3 vs. Ottawa, and Saturday October 4 at Toronto will be streamed on ESPN+.

2. Discuss:

3. And, from the Red Wings comes this infographic about Moritz Seider…

As well as a mini-highlight clip of Vladimir Tarasenko: