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!

Impressions from the Red Wings prospects’ 6-5 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs at the 2023 Prospect Tournament

The Detroit Red Wings’ prospects closed out the 2023 Prospect Tournament with an unpleasant 6-5 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Sunday afternoon, and the Wings’ 0-and-3 record at their own prospect tournament, combined with Sebastian Cossa’s struggles in goal, has the fan base pretty freaked out right now.

More than a few of you seem to believe that 1) Cossa’s career is over before he even made the jump to the AHL, and that the Red Wings are clearly 2) Struggling from a dearth of prospects under the collapsing Yzerplan.

Now I’m not about to make excuses for the prospect tournament team here–they weren’t good enough in terms of their play over the course of three games in four nights.

They blew leads in every single game–the 4-2 loss to Dallas on Thursday, the 10-7 loss to Columbus on Friday, and today’s 6-5 loss–Detroit had a middling power play, the worst penalty-kill in the tournament, and they couldn’t score to rally from their self-inflicted wounds in terms of bad goals against and bad penalties taken at the wrong times.

Continue reading Impressions from the Red Wings prospects’ 6-5 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs at the 2023 Prospect Tournament

Prospect round-up: Bicker still breaking in; Buchelnikov 1A in VHL; Kilpinen scores 3rd goal in J20

Of prospect-related note on Sunday:

In the DEL, Kevin Bicker finished at +1 in 6:24 of ice time as the Lowen Frankfurt won 3-2 over Augsburger Panther.

In the VHL, Dmitri Buchelnikov had an assist and 4 shots in 16:21 played as SKA Neva St. Persburg won 3-2 in overtime over Dynamo Altai;

And in the Swedish J20 league, Maximilian Kilpinen scored a goal on 2 shots, finishing at +1 in Modo’s 4-1 win over Brynas IF.

Red Wings’ prospects lose 6-5 to the Toronto Maple Leafs to close out the 2023 Prospect Tournament

The Detroit Red Wings’ prospects wrapped up their 2023 Prospect Tournament with an 6-5 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs’ prospects, finishing with a record of 0-and-3 for the first time ever at the prospect tournament.

Update:

Tweet of note: Osgood and Zetterberg, taking in the Lions-Seahawks game

Detroit Red Wings alumni Chris Osgood and Henrik Zetterberg, the latter of whom was inducted into the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame this past week, are taking in today’s Detroit Lions-Seattle Seahawks game:

Tweets of note: Detroit and Toronto’s lineups for today’s 2 PM game

Here are the lineups for today’s 2 PM EDT game between Detroit’s prospects and Toronto (to be streamed on the Red Wings’ social media channels), per Wings play-by-play announcer Ken Kal:

THN’s Stockton weighs in regarding the Red Wings’ 10-7 loss vs. Columbus

The Hockey News’s Sam Stockton breaks down “film” (Tweets) and adds context to last night’s 10-7 loss for the Red Wings’ prospects against the Columbus Blue Jackets:

After the game, head coach Dan Watson was predictably non-plussed by his team’s performance.

“Our start was fine, then the second period certainly got away from us,” Watson said.  “The emotional side of it—some undisciplined penalties—their power play certainly made us pay for those undisciplined penalties. The consistency in our compete wasn’t there tonight.”

Of Cossa (whom Watson coached in Toledo a year ago), Watson said, “I thought he battled hard in the first period.  Then you could see the way some of the goals given up — it wasn’t all on him, certainly, but it’s trying to find that consistency from game to game. It was a tough one here for him.”

Cross Hanas, meanwhile, emphasized that Cossa’s disappointing effort was inextricable from the performance of the skaters in front of him.

“I went up to him in the second intermission and let him know it’s all right. Stuff like this happens,” Hanas said. “There’s always going to be a game like this. We kind of didn’t do our part. We him on the penalty kill a lot. He faced a lot of shots early in the second period. It’s nothing that’s just his fault. It’s the whole team’s fault. I just told him, ‘You’re good, man. We’re sorry we put you in that situation.’ I know Coss, he’ll be good. He’ll be ready to go for the next time he’s in net.”

Continued

Coach Derek Lalonde speaks with DetroitRedWings.com’s Mills

Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde spoke with DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills regarding his expectations for the 2023-2024 season:

“We wanted to push and make a step last year,” Lalonde told DetroitRedWings.com. “We did that. Again, not where we want to be or need to be, but we just want to keep pushing this in the right direction. It starts in Traverse (City).”

As Lalonde readies for this year’s camp, which will kick off Thursday at Centre Ice Arena, the 51-year-old coach said continuity will bode well for he and the Red Wings.

“Anything new takes a little bit of time,” Lalonde said. “But we feel a lot more comfortable with where we’re gonna start this year over last year.”

Upon being hired as head coach in June 2022, Lalonde highlighted several areas he wanted Detroit to improve upon during his first campaign behind the bench. After reflecting on last season, Lalonde said the Red Wings made strides in several categories, especially team defense.

“Overall goals and chances against, our penalty-kill percentage, all improved,” Lalonde said. “That is a good sign and a step forward, but nowhere near good enough or where we want to be. Those will be similar goals going into this year, to try to take another step.”

Continued

A bit about Marco Kasper’s lack of offense

As Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff notes, Red Wings prospect Marco Kasper has played well over the course of two prospect tournament games, but the offensive part of his game appears to be missing…Thus far…

Two games into the tournament, center Marco Kasper has accounted for 25.7% of Detroit’s penalty minutes and zero percent of the club’s offensive output. Though he’s dropping the mitts, he’s yet to be displaying his silky mitts.

The Red Wings 2022 first-round draft choice hasn’t figured in any of the club’s nine goals. However, he did drop the gloves and duke it out with Corson Ceulemans of the Columbus Blue Jackets in a rare fight between NHL first-round picks.

“You see the emotion side of it, (Kasper) getting in a fight there at the end,” Watson said. “He’s a competitor, he’s hungry for it. He wants to do the right things to help the team win.”

Watson is witnessing plenty of good things from Kasper’s game so far in the tournament.

“I like the fact he does go to those hard areas, the net, the corners, and he’s physical about it,” Watson said. “He’s not scared or looking to shy away from that type of game. That’s what’s going to help propel him to a long pro career. You use the word tenacity, I use the same one. It’s right on target.”

Continued; I think that Kasper’s offense will come along as he continues to adjust to the North American-sized rink and North American pace of play.