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!

Red Wings-Maple Leafs morning skate Tweets: Leafs send B Team to Detroit, where Wings prepare for dress rehearsal

The Detroit Red Wings will hold a “dress rehearsal” for the regular season by hosting the Toronto Maple Leafs’ “B Team” tonight at Little Caesars Arena (7 PM EDT on Bally Sports Detroit/TSN4/NHL Network, 97.1 FM).

As this is the final game of the preseason for the 4-2-and-1 Red Wings and the Maple Leafs, the teams held separate morning skates in their respective cities this morning.

We begin with a few quips and quotes from DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills’ game-day preview:

Continue reading Red Wings-Maple Leafs morning skate Tweets: Leafs send B Team to Detroit, where Wings prepare for dress rehearsal

Tweet of note: Maple Leafs bringing their ‘B Team’ to LCA for final preseason game

Here is the Toronto Maple Leafs’ roster for tonight’s game vs. the Red Wings at Little Caesars Arena, serving as Detroit’s exhibition finale (7 PM EDT start on Bally Sports Detroit/TSN4/NHL Network, 97.1 FM):

Betting against the grain

Now I don’t believe in raining on anyone’s parade, so if sports betting makes you feel more excited about games or player performances, I’m glad for you–but it’s just not for me. I don’t enjoy sports betting. You’ll have to excuse my eye-roll as The Athletic’s Jesse Granger insists that Ville Husso’s win total is one of several “prop bets” worth spending money on this upcoming season:

Ville Husso under 26.5 goalie wins: Husso had an excellent start to last season, but eventually ran out of gas and struggled down the stretch. Detroit responded by brining in James Reimer to lighten Husso’s workload. And while that’s probably a good move for the Red Wings, it’s not for Husso’s win total.

Husso hasn’t won more than 26 games in a season in his career, and it’s been seven years since the last time any Red Wings goalie did it.

Bah, humbug.

DHN’s Duff discusses a sticky wicket

This morning, Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff discusses and Aftonbladet article that pissed me off enough that I almost closed the laptop lid when I read it.

As Andreas Kack reports, Linkopings HC player Jonas Junland told a hockey betting podcast that he believes that Red Wings prospect Anton Johansson is only earning ice time with Leksands IF because Anton’s dad, Thomas, is the team’s general manger.

Junland bullshitted that an injury on Leksand’s blueline means that Anton will receive a bigger opportunity after teammate Anton Lindholm was suspended for five games only because Anton is “Tjomme’s” son:

“Tjomme’s son will soon be playing 40 minutes per game and he might not have a SHL job if dad wasn’t sports director,” Junland said during an appearance on the Swedish show Hockey Thursday.

That’s horseshit. And “Tjomme” Johansson knows it:

“Haha… We are quite used to different people having opinions and thinking things about our children,” Tjomme Johansson wrote in a text to Swedish website Aftonbladet.se. “Otherwise, I have no comments.”

In other words, the bologna being spouted by Junland is baseless. Anton’s playing because he’s earned the ice time.

Anybody who’s seen him play away from Leskand knows he’s a talented middle-pair defenseman with a strong all-round skill set and a right shot–the 20-year-old has the tools that the Red Wings need in terms of building the right side of their defensive prospect pool.

Junland won’t be the last person to accuse “Tjomme” of nepotism as his son continues to build upon his performances with Leksand. But it’s a bunch of crap.

HSJ in the morning: Wings-Leafs exhibition affair tonight serves as final preparation for regular season

The Detroit Red Wings will battle the Toronto Maple Leafs tonight (7 PM EDT on Bally Sports Detroit/TSN4, 97.1 FM) to close out their 2023-2024 exhibition season.

The 4-2-and-1 Red Wings have been told that the Leafs won’t bring their NHL team’s roster to Little Caesars Arena, but the Red Wings still plan on holding a “dress rehearsal” for the regular season, as the Free Press’s Helene St. James notes this morning:

“You can get your lines together, get everyone out there with who they’re going to play with,” veteran defenseman Ben Chiarot said. “It’s like of like a dress rehearsal for us.”

Goaltender Ville Husso is earmarked to play the full game. He has appeared in two preseason games, logging just short of 61 minutes of work and posting a 1.97 goals-against average and .933 save percentage.

As St. James notes, the one wrinkle in the Red Wings’ Friday practice lineup involved Michael Rasmussen skating alongside the duo of Alex DeBrincat and Dylan Larkin.

Wings coach Derek Lalonde made some interesting comments about both the Red Wings’ lineup and the exhibition grind on Friday:

Continue reading HSJ in the morning: Wings-Leafs exhibition affair tonight serves as final preparation for regular season

Prospect round-up: Gibson 1G, 2A for Greyhounds

Of Red Wings prospect-related note in North America on Friday night:

In the OHL, Tnias Mathurin finished at +1 in the North Bay Battalion’s 4-1 win over London;

Andrew Gibson scored a goal and added two assists, finishing even with 2 shots in the Soo Greyhounds’ 7-4 loss to Sarnia:

In the USHL, Rudy Guimond served as the back-up in the Cedar Rapids Roughriders’ 5-2 loss to the Tri-City Storm;

And in the BCHL, Larry Keenan scored a goal in the Penticton Vees’ 4-3 overtime win over the Trail Smoke Eaters.

A different kind of waiver wire target

The Red Wings waived 8 players on Friday as part of the team’s attempt to send their Grand Rapids Griffins-bound players to the AHL successfully. I’m honestly a little surprised to see one of them named by The Athletic’s Harman Dayal and Corey Pronman as a strong waiver wire target:

Jared McIsaac, D, Detroit Red Wings

McIsaac was the No. 36 pick in 2018 by Detroit. He’s a mobile defenseman with decent size and puck-moving ability who has been an all-situations guy in the AHL. The concern with McIsaac has been a definable NHL role. He’s not this super physical/competitive hard to play against defender, nor is he a big-time offensive player. There’s probably enough to his game to help a lesser team at the bottom of their NHL depth chart, though. —Pronman

Continued; McIsaac is a 23-year-old, stay-at-home defenseman who’s looking to earn some ice time in Grand Rapids among the Red Wings’ constellation of Swedish and Finnish, mostly offensively-minded rearguards. I could very easily see McIsaac picked off by another team that’s looking for a third-pair guy who is probably NHL-ready.

Where the Walleye stand ahead of the start of ECHL training camps

The Toledo Walleye announced the signings of four players today, per the team…

The Toledo Walleye have agreed to terms for the 2023-2024 season with forwards Patrick McGrath and Sam Sternschein (STERN-shine), along with defenseman Will Cullen and goaltender Rylan Parenteau.

And the Toledo Blade’s Mark Monroe explains what that means for the Red Wings’ ECHL affiliate:

Cullen is the fifth former [Bowling Green State University] player who has signed with the Walleye this offseason, joining forwards Brandon Hawkins, Brandon Kruse, Sam Craggs, and Chase Gresock.

The Walleye have now signed 18 players: defensemen Cullen, Adrien Beraldo, Riley McCourt, Grant Gabriele, Thomas Farrell, and Jake Willets, and forwards McGrath, Sternschein, Gresock, Orrin Centazzo, Kirill Tyutyayev, Carson Denomie, Kruse, Hawkins, Conlan Keenan, Craggs, and Mitchell Lewandowski along with Parenteau.

The team will hold its first practice on Monday at 6 p.m. It will be free and open to the public.

The Walleye will then have their first preseason game against Kalamazoo at home next Friday. Toledo then plays at Kalamazoo on Saturday, Oct. 14.

The two ECHL Central Division opponents then meet in the season opener for both teams on Saturday, Oct. 21. Toledo’s home opener is on Friday, Nov. 3 against Reading.

You can assume that the Griffins will probably assign a player or two to Toledo, filling out their roster. Griffins-contracted goaltender Jan Bednar will be among them.

Tweet of note: Wings show us a behind-the-scenes peek at media day

The Red Wings held their “media day” at Little Caesars Arena today, and that’s just a fancy term for saying that they made the players shoot promotional video for both Bally Sports Detroit’s broadcasts and the in-arena broadcasts which air during home games.

The Red Wings posted a minute and one second’s worth of footage of what the players endured…I mean engaged in!