Author: George Malik

The Detroit Red Wings played the back half of a home-and-home series with the Chicago Blackhawks on Friday night at Little Caesars Arena.

Detroit won their first game against Chicago 4-2 on Wednesday in the Windy City, and Friday’s lineup for the home opener was a little different:

The Red Wings were of course the undercard to the playoff-clinching Detroit Tigers on Friday night, but they were nonetheless efficient, defeating Chicago 2-0 on the strength of an even-strength goal by Christian Fischer (from Copp and Seider) at 4:10 of the 2nd, a 5-on-4 power play goal from Tarasenko (from Copp and Compher) at 12:32 of the 2nd, and fine performances by Alex Lyon and Cam Talbot, who stopped 13 and 9 shots, respectively.

The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan filed a notebook article which discusses both Alex Chiasson’s recovery from hip surgery and Marco Kasper’s evolution as a young pro hockey player:

If you’re looking for Marco Kasper, you can usually find him on the ice still working on his skills after practice. The Wings’ 2022 first-round draft pick (eighth overall) is a genuine rink rat, along with several other young Detroit players.

“It’s just us, all of the players, pushing each other,” Kasper said. “We all want to get better and really strive to be a hard-working team. Just working with the skill guys out there. That makes us get better.”

After a slow start last season, Kasper ended on an impressive note in Grand Rapids, with 35 points (14 goals, 21 assists) in 71 games. Kasper was one of the better Griffins in the playoffs, with seven points (four goals) in nine games. Kasper felt his first pro season in Grand Rapids was a big step in his career.

“I have a lot more confidence this year,” Kasper said. “We worked a lot last year in Grand Rapids. That was a big part for us young guys to develop, get a chance to adjust to the pro level over here in North America and just work on our game a lot.”

Lalonde has been impressed by the amount of work Kasper has put in.

“He doesn’t even look like the same athlete as last year at this time,” Lalonde said. “He built some confidence from his growth last year and that was very valuable for him. He’s got some attitude into camp this year, which is certainly a positive.”

Continued

The Pittsburgh Penguins are playing back-to-back games this weekend, coming to Detroit for Saturday night’s 7 PM game vs. Detroit and then heading to Sudbury, Ontario for Kraft Hockeyville on Sunday, so their lineup for Saturday’s game, released today, is not inspiring:

Of Red Wings prospect-related note:

In the Finnish Liiga, Jesse Kiiskinen finished even with 2 shots in 12:35 played as HPK Hameenlinna won 5-2 over Kiekko-Espoo;

In the Swedish Allsvenskan, Liam Dower Nilsson finished even with 1 shot as IF Bjorkloven won 4-3 in a shootout over Sodertalje SK;

Maximilian Kilpinen didn’t play in Osterlunds IK’s 3-2 shootout win over Vimmerby HC;

In the Swedish J20 league, Charlie Forslund finished even with 2 shots as Mora IK lost 4-2 to Leksands IF;

And in the DEL, Kevin Bicker finished even in a very solid 15:13 played (he was playing 5-8 minutes last year) as the Frankfurt Lowen lost 2-0 to ERC Ingolstadt.

Update: in the OHL, Landon Miller gave up 4 goals on 11 shots and was pulled in the Soo Greyhounds’ 6-4 loss to the Saginaw Spirit.

The Red Wings posted their official lineup for this evening, and it reflects the lineup appoximated by the Wings’ beat writers during the morning skate…

Game #2 vs. Chicago!

🏒: 7:00pm
🎟️: https://t.co/ZTtCRKFpbQ pic.twitter.com/pag9cquu8i

— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) September 27, 2024

And the Red Wings are all Tigers fans today:

Whole city behind you, @tigers! Let's go! pic.twitter.com/AeOyk7GYaJ

— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) September 27, 2024

Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde spoke with the media around 1 PM today, and the Wings posted this video thereof recently:

MLive’s Ansar Khan posted an article noting that Vladimir Tarasenko is making his Red Wings game debut tonight:

Tarasenko makes his Red Wings preseason debut tonight against Chicago at Little Caesars Arena (7 p.m., no TV, livestreamed on detroitredwings.com).

He’ll be skating on a line centered by J.T. Compher, with Jonatan Berggren on the left wing. Patrick Kane might ordinarily be in Berggren’s spot, but Berggren is getting a look with more skilled players.

Kane has played against Tarasenko for many years.

“He’s a great shooter and he’s similar to (Alex) DeBrincat in the way he’s able to find open areas and get his shot off quickly,” Kane said. “So, hopefully if I’m controlling the puck I can find him in certain areas where he can have a good chance to score. I think we know each other from our time in New York as well, so pretty familiar with personality and the way he wants to play. We’re both right wingers, so it’ll be a little bit different to see who’s going to move over to the left or what we’re going to do in that respect. But playing with J.T. and Vlad, there’s a lot of potential there and could really be a good second scoring line.”

…

Coach Derek Lalonde said Tarasenko’s game has evolved.

“He was an offensive-only type guy, maybe leaned a little bit for the offense, and I think he’s seen winning a little bit,” Lalonde said. “Watching him in Florida last year, he’s F-3 (third forward high), he’s above the puck. Hopefully, he can bring some of that to us because that’s an area we need to grow as a group.”

Continued

The Hockey News’s Connor Eargood offers 3 items of note to watch in tonight’s rematch between the Red Wings and Blackhawks (7 PM EDT start on DetroitRedWings.com/ChicagoBlackhawks.com), and while I must suggest that all preseason games need to be taken with some salt, I’m interested in Eargood’s 3rd item the most:

Moritz Seider and Ben Chiarot Building off Experience Together

The Red Wings’ top pairing heading into both Friday’s preseason game will be Ben Chiarot and Moritz Seider. While Lalonde stressed not reading too much into line combinations, it appears as though this is the most likely top pair duo for the season as well. After playing together parts of the past two seasons, Chiarot and Seider build on a wealth of experience together. The hope is that this experience can make them more effective together.

“I think over the years, I’ve learned (you’re) just not so much complimenting the other guy. You just play your game, and he plays his game,” Chiarot said Friday. “And over time, through camp and over the years now, we’ve played together a decent amount. We know what to expect of each other. I know what he’s going to try and do in most circumstances, and I think he has a good read on what I’m going to do.”

When Chiarot first joined the Red Wings, the vision was that he and Seider would comprise the top pair. But struggles showed up early. He and Seider were one of Detroit’s least efficient units, finishing the 2022-23 season with a meager 44.4% expected goal share while bleeding 2.66 goals against per 60 as tracked by Moneypuck. And on the heels of Seider’s Calder-winning rookie season, a lot of fans pinned these struggles on Chiarot. 

Right or wrong, once Jake Walman and Seider played together after that, they took off as one of Detroit’s better pairings. The Chiarot-Seider pairing was left on a shelf until late last season, when Jake Walman was out of the lineup with an injury. The statistical results were once again poor — an even worse 43.1% expected goal share and 2.98 goals against per 60 compared to their previous campaign. But this came in the context of tougher usage, and they were also the best numbers among all of Seider’s consistent pairings.

So now, the Chiarot-Seider pairing is together yet again, and this time they have more experience to work off of. The hope is that increased experience can help them improve.

Continued; I’m still hoping that the Wings find a way to spare Seider and Chiarot of some of their difficult shut-down minutes, be that by adding a defenseman via trade or by organically finding someone on the team who can step up and play shut-down time (Simon Edvinsson at some point?).

Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff discusses Alex Lyon’s attempts to earn a regular role among the Red Wings’ 3-goalie rotation:

The Red Wings believe Lyon made considerable gains when he was Detroit’s No. 1 for a good chunk of the season.

“Competition, compete, confidence, I think maybe even a little mental toughness, never getting minutes at this level, maybe going past the threshold for him.

Lyon had previously never played more than 15 games in an NHL season. His 44 appearances for Detroit was the most he made since playing the Lehigh Valley Phantoms in the American Hockey League. Lalonde suggests that the Red Wings probably had to play him to much last season.

“You can almost read him because he lost a little of that swagger towards the end of the just being a little bit tired and then that opportunity to have (for Team USA at the) worlds, he had that look going again.”

Lyon had to leave the World Championships because of a hand injury.

“I think the biggest thing (last season) was confidence. Not only that, he believes he can play in this league. He belongs in this league, but he can win in this league, which he did of course.”

Continued; all Lyon can do is attempt to force the Red Wings management’s hand by playing well.

Red Wings pro try-out Alex Chiasson didn’t play at all after being released from a PTO by the Boston Bruins last season, and he told the Hockey News’s Sam Stockton that there’s a good reason for his absence:

“Obviously, I went through quite a bit last year, and I decided that I wanted to give myself another shot and play,” said Alex Chiasson after this morning’s skate at Little Caesars Arena. “Obviously, really appreciated my time here in Detroit and in Grand Rapids.”  

The 33-year-old joined the Red Wings—with whom he spent the 2022-23 season—for this year’s training camp on a Professional Try-Out contract.  Chiasson knows he’s a long shot to crack the NHL roster, but he’s beaten long odds before.  What he went through was hip surgery in January and a confrontation with the reality that his hockey career might be over.  Now, he’s ready to make the most of his new lease on NHL life.

“I was able to manage [the pain] for a while,” he said, when asked how long the hip had been nagging him. “It just got to a point where life outside the rink was just not great.”  

“If we go back maybe a year from today, I wasn’t sure where my career was at,” Chiasson reflected.  “Thought maybe that was it for me.  Hockey was hard physically, but just life in general wasn’t much fun.  So went through the process and ended up getting surgery in January, and here we are today.  [I’m] grateful for the opportunity to be here, obviously worked really hard to come back.  It’s not easy at 33 to put in the work and all that, but you can only do this for so long, and hopefully I can show what I can do.”

Continued