Author: George Malik

The Detroit Red Wings will attempt to stretch their winning streak to 5 games as they face the Calgary Flames this evening (10 PM EST start on FanDuel SportsNet Detroit/CBC/Sportsnet/City TV/97.1 FM).

The Red Wings are coming off a 4-2 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday; Calgary most recently snapped a 2-game losing streak with a 4-1 win over the Anaheim Ducks on Thursday.

Tonight’s game kicks off a stretch of back-to-back games for the Wings (they play in Vancouver on Sunday night) and 3 games to be played over the course of 4 nights (as the Wings play in Seattle on Tuesday evening).

The Flames’ press corps is really, really excited about the Flames’ recent acquisitions of Joel Farabee and Morgan Frost from the Philadelphia Flyers. Maybe a little bit too excited:

I’m intrigued to see the new-look Flames hit the ice tonight against the Red Wings.

The debuts of Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee, acquired Thursday from Philadelphia, will come 15 years to the day of the last time the club acquired two NHL forwards in the same mid-season trade.… pic.twitter.com/GApMhH1e9T

— Darren Haynes (@DarrenWHaynes) February 1, 2025

Anyway, the Flames hit the ice at the Saddledome just after 10 AM local time, and The Fan 960’s Pat Steinberg reports that the Flames’ starter will…well, start…this evening:

Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen surmises that, in a couple of years, the Red Wings may have an all-Yzerman-draft-pick defensive corps. It’s a bit of a stretch, but one never knows. As part of his article, Allen speaks with Grand Rapids Griffins coach Dan Watson regarding Antti Tuomisto and William Wallinder, who could join Albert Johansson, Simon Edvinsson, Moritz Seider and Axel Sandin Pellikka on the Wings’ blueline:

Six-foot-5 Finnish defenseman Antti Tuomisto is in his second season at Grand Rapids, and pro scouts tell Detroit Hockey Now they believe he has a chance to play in the Show.

“He’s been steady for us defensively, he’s been steady for us moving pucks, and that’s one of his biggest attributes, the way he sees the ice and can distribute the pucks,” Watson said. “He makes great passes. He sees it extremely well.”

Watson said what Tuomisto is working on now on his footwork and his mobility.

“He understands that and knows that,” Watson said. “So he puts himself in position to have success defensively. Again, with the length of a stick, you know, his angling, the way he is around our net right now, he’s got that intensity that maybe that he lacked a little bit last year, that’s growing and you have to build on that. That’s just not something that happens overnight. You have to do that consistently. So through practices, through games up to this point.”

…

Another Swede,William Wallinder, is showing in Grand Rapids he’s not far away from being ready.

“(When) I think for him, again, it’s growing, the intensity and, and moving his feet,” Watson said.  “When he moves his feet, he’s an elite skater. He’s one of the best in our team, if not the best defenseman at closing gaps, using his stick. He’s right there.”

Continued; not everybody makes the NHL, but the Wings’ defensive corps has very good depth in terms of NHL-ascendant prospects.

Of “Good Reading” note this morning:

1. The Grand Rapids Griffins’ website posted its latest issue of “Griffiti,” which includes articles about top prospect Nate Danielson’s development, veteran forward Austin Watson’s scrappiness, forward Sheldon Dries’ hockey story and Griffins assistant equipment manager Kyle Hornkohl;
2. Also of Griffins-related note: 100 Degree Hockey’s Stephen Meserve posted an article about Texas Stars equipment manager Charlie Kaser, who’s the son of Grand Rapids Griffins announcer Bob Kaser;
3. The Hockey Writers’ Devin Little posted a mid-season update for 25 Red Wings prospects;
4. We head back to the Griffins for a clip chronicling the “Tip-a-Griffin” charitable event:

6. And finally, the “Frozen Fish Fiasco” is happening this weekend at Detroit’s Clark Park, and Darren McCarty appeared on Fox 2 Detroit to discuss the event.

Updated 2x at 11:36 AM: The 25-21-and-5 Detroit Red Wings head into a difficult stretch of 3 games to be played over the next 4 nights as they take on the 25-18-and-7 Calgary Flames (10 PM EST start on FanDuel SportsNet Detroit/CBC/Sportsnet/City TV/97.1 FM), and Calgary is something of a mixed bag team-wise.

The Flames made a very big trade recently, adding Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee from Philadelphia, and Calgary sits one point ahead of tomorrow night’s opponent, the Vancouver Canucks, in the Western Conference’s Wild Card race.

The Flames have actually won 4 of their past 6 games and 6 of their past 10, but their 4-1 win over Anaheim on Thursday snapped a 2-game losing streak.

Goaltender Dustin Wolf has been excellent in the Flames’ crease, but the Flames don’t score a ton of goals:

Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen explained why the Flames needed to bring in Frost and Farabee while previewing tonight’s game–they need help in the goal-scoring department…

Detroit’s four-game road trip continues Saturday (10 p.m. ET, FanDuel Sports Network) with a game against the Calgary Flames. Detroit is 1-0 after downing the Edmonton Oilers Thursday 3-2 in a shootout. The Red Wings are 12-4-1 in their 17 games under McLellan. The Flames are 4-4 in their last eight. Calgary ranks 28th in scoring (2.68 goals per game) and 19th in goals-against per game (2.92).

The Calgary Sun’s Daniel Austin notes that “the buzz” going into tonight’s game will involve the Flames’ new acquisitions…

Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff considers several factors which may improve the Red Wings’ chances of making the playoff cut–presuming that their 4-game road trip through Western Canada and the Pacific Northwest goes well–this morning:

Red Wings Need To Start On Time

It’s great that Detroit has been able to rally from 2-0 deficits to win each of the last two games. This shouldn’t be viewed as a pattern the Red Wings will want to be continuing.

Chasing the game wears a team down. Catch-up hockey is losing hockey in the long run. The Wings are 10-18-1 this season when the opposition opens the scoring.

Winning The Race To Three

When he was first arriving in Detroit, McLellan was talking about NHL games being a race to three. His theory was that the first team to score three goals won the vast majority of games.

So far, he’s been proven a prophet. Under McLellan, the Wings are 11-0 when getting to three goals first in a game. They are 0-4 when the opponents is the first to net three times.

Continued

According to Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff, Red Wings goaltending prospect and Grand Rapids Griffins Sebastian Cossa had an interesting conversation with Rockford IceHogs goaltender Drew Commesso when the two encountered each other as their respective teams engaged in a spirited bout:

An altercation beside the Rockford net broke out between Grand Rapids forward Cross Hanas and Icehogs defenseman Kevin Korchinski. Bantle went after Korchinsi and then suddenly, Rockford goalie Drew Commesso was jumping into the fray to make it a foursome.

The next thing you know, Cossa is rambling all the way down the ice. He and Commesso wound up paired off in the midst of what was now a melee involving all 12 players on the ice.

“I asked him if he wanted to go,” Cossa said. “He said, ‘No.’ And then it was just kind of congratulating each other on our NHL debuts and stuff like that.”

…

On December 14, Commesso made his first NHL start. He was making 20 stops in a 4-1 loss to the New Jersey Devils.

“Wished each other the best of luck the rest of the way here,” Cossa added. “We’ll be seeing them down the road here.”

Continued

The Red Wings posted a 4-and-a-half-minute long highlight clip spotlighting the best plays from January, 2025…

A highlight-filled month. 🤩

Check out our Hardest Working Plays of January, presented by @carhartt! pic.twitter.com/5OrrzAiY2W

— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) February 1, 2025

And they added another 26 seconds of big hits:

January's big hits. 💪

Next month is heart month – get yours 'checked' & stay in the game! pic.twitter.com/gEBQxTPafl

— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) February 1, 2025

Both the Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan and DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills discuss topics related to the Wings’ road-heavy second-half-of-the-season schedule, with Kulfan noting that the Wings are attempting to become a better road team…

“You have to be prepared to start because you can lose games quickly on the road,” [coach Todd] McLellan said. “With momentum and fans and energy in the buildings, you’re playing back-to-backs often on the road. Your starts are important. The start against L.A. was not the start that we wanted. Here again (Thursday), when we were rolling a month ago, we were coming out of the gate. We were aggressive, we were the attacking team. (Now) we’re dipping our toe in the water a little bit and trying to wait to see what happens.”

Against Edmonton, a pair of fluky bounces hurt the Wings early. Ben Chiarot’s attempt at clearing the puck went awry when the puck skipped over his stick directly to Draisaitl, who one-timed a power-play goal. Then goaltender Alex Lyon was unable to cover up a bouncing puck, leading to Jeff Skinner tapping in a loose puck all alone in front of the net.

But the Wings settled down and played a sound, impressive road game, ultimately leading to a shootout victory behind the goaltending of Lyon.

“We’re just taking it one day at a time, which is important for us,” Lyon said of the upcoming road-heavy schedule to the finish line. “We can’t get ahead of ourselves. I don’t really want to look too far ahead, just want to stay in the moment. The coaches have done a good job of bringing us back and bringing us in when things get wonky.”

Making safer, smarter decisions during games, said McLellan, will be crucial on the road.

“You have to understand game management,” McLellan said. “In my mind, you have to pick your spots, when to go and not to go, and you have to win games in different ways. Sometimes you have to outscore mistakes or out-check your way there. You do those things, and you give yourself a chance.”

And Mills discusses the larger picture of the Red Wings’ attempts to build together as a team:

The NHL released its “payroll ranges” for the next three seasons, with the salary cap tentatively rising to $95.5 million, $104 million and $113.5 million over the next three seasons. As such, MLive’s Ansar Khan assessed the Wings’ cap situation going into this summer:

The Red Wings are in good shape, cap-wise. Their top players (Dylan Larkin, Moritz Seider and Lucas Raymond) are locked up to long-term contracts through 2031 and 2032, and Alex DeBrincat has two more years on his deal after this season.

The Red Wings also will be trimming more than $10 million from their payroll with the unrestricted free agents not expected to return.

Their young players on entry-level contracts, notably Simon Edvinsson and Marco Kasper, aren’t up for new deals until 2026-27 and 2027-28, respectively.

This will give general manager Steve Yzerman flexibility to seek big-money players through free agency or trade, if the opportunity is there.

As of now, the Red Wings have 15 players signed for 2025-26 (nine forwards, five defensemen and one goaltender) at a cap figure of $69.6 million. That would give them roughly $25 million to fill out their 23-man roster with eight more players. That includes their own restricted free agents and any prospects being promoted to the NHL, most notably of which figures to be defenseman Axel Sandin Pellikka.

Continued (paywall)

Per the Detroit Red Wings: