Author: George Malik

The Detroit Red Wings drafted two players over the course of the 2023 NHL Draft’s first round. With the 9th overall pick, the Wings chose Brandon Wheat Kings center Nate Danielson, and, with the 17th overall pick, they chose Skelleftea AIK defenseman Axel Sandin Pellikka.

You can click on those links above for my Tweet-by-Tweet blog entries regarding Danielson and Sandin Pellikka.

Just a couple of first round studs. pic.twitter.com/WqEevlhZt7— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) June 29, 2023

Fans at Little Caesars Arena (and Larry Murphy and Ville Husso) weighed in:

Two new additions joined the Detroit Red Wings family tonight. @NatalieKerwin1 got reaction from LCA when Steve Yzerman selected Nate Danielson at 9, and Axel Sandin Pellikka at 17. #LGRW pic.twitter.com/uC029eqLvR— Bally Sports Detroit (@BallySportsDET) June 29, 2023

What we’re going to do this evening is survey the media’s takes on the Red Wings’ pair of first-round picks, starting with the “local takes,” and expanding our perspective to those of the “national media.”

Ready? In classic TMR fashion, this is a “scroll fest,” so enjoy as you wish.

Let’s go!

The Detroit Red Wings have drafted defenseman Axel Sandin Pellikka with the 17th overall pick in the 2023 NHL Draft.

With their second pick of the first round, the #LGRW select Axel Sandin Pellikka 17th overall! #2023NHLDraft

🔗: https://t.co/7rVdAIcqNp pic.twitter.com/ISnYw9sk8W— Elite Prospects (@eliteprospects) June 29, 2023

With the 17th pick in the 2023 NHL Entry draft, the #LGRW select… Axel Sandin Pellikka !

D • 5’11 • 180 lbs

Last season with Skellefteå AIK U20 (SWE-JR)

31 GP • 16 G • 20 A • 36 P

Listen Live 🎧 https://t.co/C81TUUvLIP pic.twitter.com/d0ScyMfeNK— SiriusXM NHL Network Radio (@SiriusXMNHL) June 29, 2023

Welcome to the NHL, Axel. 👊

The Red Wings have selected Axel Sandin Pellikka with the No. 17 pick in the #NHLDraft.#LGRW | @BallySports pic.twitter.com/c85TLJIZDn— Bally Sports Detroit (@BallySportsDET) June 29, 2023

https://t.co/lB3yJeaYy3— FCHockey (@FCHockey) June 29, 2023

So, to recap, Red Wings use the first pick they got for Filip Hronek on a new offensive-minded young RHD in Sandin Pellikka— Max Bultman (@m_bultman) June 29, 2023

The Detroit Red Wings select Axel Sandin Pellikka with the 17th Overall Pick in the 2023 #NHLDraft. 👏 pic.twitter.com/uYM6U6SyTQ— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) June 29, 2023

For TSN Director of Scouting Craig Button, Sweden’s Axel Sandin Pellikka is the best blueliner available in the 2023 NHL Draft https://t.co/OrpF9n2J7f #drw #NHLDraft2023— Sarah Lindenau (@Lindy72) June 29, 2023

With the 17th overall pick in the 2023 NHL Entry Draft the Detroit Red Wings have selected defenceman Axel Sandin Pellikka of Skellefteå AIK! pic.twitter.com/5pr0Qmekj2— Complete Hockey News (@CompleteHkyNews) June 29, 2023

With the 17th pick in the 2023 #NHLDraft, the @DetroitRedWings select @Trekronorse‘s Axel Sandin Pellikka pic.twitter.com/hEmrxMJbta— IIHF (@IIHFHockey) June 29, 2023

The Detroit Red Wings select Axel Sandin-Pellikka with the 17th overall pick in the 2023 NHL Entry Draft. pic.twitter.com/HUeIgoi4q8— TSN (@TSN_Sports) June 29, 2023

Post being repeatedly updated: The Detroit Red Wings have drafted center Nate Danielson with the 9th overall pick in the 2023 NHL Draft.

Detroit Red Wings select center Nate Danielson with ninth pick in #NHLDraft2023— Helene St. James (@HeleneStJames) June 29, 2023

#RedWings select C Nate Danielson— Ted Kulfan (@tkulfan) June 29, 2023

New blood in Hockeytown! 🌟

With the No. 9 pick in the #NHLDraft, the Red Wings have selected Nate Danielson.#LGRW | @BallySports pic.twitter.com/aP0iqgh7uv— Bally Sports Detroit (@BallySportsDET) June 29, 2023

Red Wings pick Nate Danielson out of WHL Brandon, smooth skating two-way center. Red Wings center mix has improved tremendously the last two drafts, slotting Marco Kasper and Danielson in behind Larkin— Max Bultman (@m_bultman) June 29, 2023

With the 9th pick in the 2023 #NHLDraft, the #RedWings select…

Center Nate Danielson! #DRWDraft pic.twitter.com/c1RZnw88F4— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) June 29, 2023

With the ninth overall pick of the 2023 #NHLDraft, the Detroit Red Wings select Nate Danielson! 🐙 pic.twitter.com/CIKNJNIRBK— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) June 29, 2023

Nate Danielson goes to the Detroit Red Wings at #9!#LGRW | #NHLDraft pic.twitter.com/CGqKy3giAk— Hockey Daily 365 l NHL Highlights (@HockeyDaily365) June 29, 2023

The Red Wings picked Canadian center Nate Danielson with the No. 9 overall pick in the 2023 NHL Draft.

Danielson is 6’2″ who plays for Brandon of the WHL. pic.twitter.com/SM7cLrsCZs— Brad Galli (@BradGalli) June 29, 2023

From Red Deer to Red Wings … the @DetroitRedWings make Nate Danielson the 9th overall pick.

De Red Deer aux Red Wings… Detroit sélectionne Nate Danielson neuvième au total.#NHLDraft | #RepêchageLNH | @HockeyAlberta pic.twitter.com/mxLjaMS8mP— Hockey Canada (@HockeyCanada) June 29, 2023

The Red Wings select Nate Danielson ninth overall pic.twitter.com/B6HYGmt9LH— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) June 29, 2023

TSN’s Mark Masters posted a profile of Nate Danielson…

Detroit native and “Detroit Ice Dreams” founder Jason McCrimmon won the U.S. edition of the Willie O’Ree Community Hero Award during Monday night’s NHL Awards, and McCrimmon spoke with DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills regarding his experience:

Jason McCrimmon took a deep breath before approaching the mic on stage after being presented with the 2023 Willie O’Ree Community Hero Award at the 2023 NHL Awards on Monday.

After gazing out to the audience inside Bridgestone Arena, McCrimmon briefly gathered himself and started to deliver his acceptance speech.

Then, according to McCrimmon, he quickly went off script.

“They have all the finalists, if you want to, write a 30-second speech,” McCrimmon recently told DetroitRedWings.com. “But when I got up there, I was able to see the crowd. So the part where I talk about the city of Detroit wasn’t originally in there; it was what I felt. I love my city. I want my city to be seen in a different light. I want us to be in a situation where there is so much love in the city and we can do more as a group. Hopefully getting this puts us in a better light, for everything and everyone who is involved.”

Continued; the honor was well-deserved and hard-earned!

Hello, and welcome back to The Malik Report.

Here’s the long story as to why I haven’t been around:

It’s been nine months since my now 81-year-old aunt fell down the stairs and broke her back and neck. Shortly thereafter, she found out that she had congestive heart failure, she got COVID at the nursing home where she spent much of October.

After a relatively quiet November and December, January and February included two more hospital stays–one for the entire month of February–due to a really horrible flare-up of ulcerative colitis, an illness we didn’t know she had until it hit her like a truck of bricks.

She then spent a couple of months regaining her mobility (spending a month bedridden is not good for you), learning how to deal with a slate of new medications, and getting used to her new life.

My life also has changed significantly over the course of the last nine months. I’ve become Aunt Annie’s primary caregiver a much more hands-on sense of the term. Aunt Annie needs help from the time she wakes up until the time she goes to sleep, at least in terms of medications (she takes 21 prescriptions, which I organize and refill when necessary), mobility (she’s using a walker right now), meal preparation, and sometimes wound care (thanks to a fall this past weekend).

It’s a different kind of life. I’ve gotten used to it, but it’s not easy. And we both understand that it’s never going to be like it was prior to her fall.

She and I have also talked about possibly re-starting the blog, especially with the 2023 NHL Draft looming, and the Red Wings’ summer development camp around the corner.

A short update and an “ask” this morning:

Aunt Annie ended up spending a month in the hospital in February, and was ultimately diagnosed with ulcerative colitis.

She came back home on February 27th, and, since then, we’ve been working very hard to claw back some of her mobility and adjust to a slew of new medications necessary to treat her UC. I’ve taken over the medication distribution as she’s up to 18 prescriptions, and we’re doing our best to get by as her mobility is limited–she’s supposed to use a walker to head to the restroom and back, and that’s about it.

We’ve worked with physical therapy and occupational therapy to increase her endurance, and, in general, my caregiving job has been completely engrossing over the past two months.

I barely have moments to breathe, and while I’m able to Tweet during playoff games, that’s about as much as I get in terms of free time as I prepare meals, I’m on call to escort her to the restroom, and I take on the daily tasks involved with caring for her, sometimes at the expense of my own mental and physical health. That’s just part of the job, however, and I’d much rather be doing it myself to help keep her at home.

The “state of the blog” remains on hiatus as we hope for a more stable situation for the aunt’s health, but I fully plan on returning to work as soon as I am able.

In the interim, things are rough financially as plain old bills have caught up to us, and we’ve got yet another GoFundMe going to try and make ends meet.

That’s where the blog is at and where I am at. I’m trying to keep up with Red Wings news, but it’s hard when I have so very little free time, and things are just tough all over right now.

Here’s a short update as to what’s going on away from the blog:

We’re in month six of my Aunt Annie’s health care adventures, and over the past two weeks, we’ve had to make two trips to the ER at Beaumont in Royal Oak (a.k.a. Corewell Health).

Aunt Annie was having some significant confusion from a UTI, had imbalanced electrolytes and showed the signs of having had a cardiac event when she headed into the hospital in mid-January.

She was discharged on the day of the big blizzard a week ago Wednesday, but sent home with a vicious intestinal bug called “C Diff.,” and from last Friday on, well…

I’ve been changing diapers up to ten to twelve times a day. She was placed on a course of heavy antibiotics last Tuesday, but she didn’t improve, and she became more and more fuzzy-brained, so our home health care nurse gave us the, “Time to go back” nod and helped us wheel AA out of the house and into the car via her wheelchair on Friday.

After a very long day yesterday, she was diagnosed with having C Diff., having another UTI and displaying some odd kidney functions.

Despite the fact that she was very foggy, she asked me to stay home and enjoy the All-Star Game today, however, and I know that she’s in good hands at Beaumont, so…

We’re hoping that this weekend’s stay, combined with some post-hospitalization physical therapy = a more stable situation.

In the interim, yes, I have a GoFundMe set up (https://www.gofundme.com/manage/wt4t5h-george-and-anne-malik) to help with the bills and things like getting back and forth to the hospital and, very frankly, paying for medical supplies. Right now is a pretty desperate moment due to some blog bills coming due, but it is what it is. I wish I was providing some content in exchange for charity right now.

I do this reluctantly, but:

Since I last spoke with you, my Aunt Annie has been hospitalized again, and has come home with a stomach bug. We are “underwater” as far as paying our bills this month, in no small part due to blog expenses that I cannot pay while I’m not working, and on top of that, we need to buy some medical equipment to help AA out.

I have a GoFundMe up here (https://www.gofundme.com/manage/wt4t5h-george-and-anne-malik), and if there is any way that you are able to lend a couple of bucks, we’re in a time of pretty desperate need.

Thanks.

Hi, everybody. It’s been a LONG time since I last updated you on the state of the blog, and it’s time to do so again.

I apologize for the lack of posts over the last couple of months. Aunt Annie and I have been dealing with our post-medical adventures life, which has involved a lot of unpacking of the events that took place for AA (who likened her emotions to PTSD), some depression and anxiety for me, and financial stress on top of it all…

But we’ve gotten through with the support of family and friends, both online and “IRL,” and many of you know that I’m at least trying to show up for Red Wings games on Twitter.

Right now, Aunt Annie is having some complications due to her congestive heart failure (again, “heart failure” is a very liveable-withable condition, which still surprises me) that we’re trying to sort out. It’s taken a significantly longer period of time to get her sleepiness diagnosed, and it’s been very stressful to care for her while worrying about her so very much…

So yes, part of me wants to come back to work, and come back to work badly; I miss covering the Red Wings and their hockey world, I miss talking to you, and I miss writing for a living. My blogging job is stressful some times, too, but it’s also fun. It is still my intention to restart The Malik Report, and I owe those of you who have supported the blog a damn hard effort at achieving that goal.

The other part of me wants to see some sort of resolution to figuring out what the flying flurk is going on with my aunt’s health first, and we don’t have a definite timeline as to when things will get sorted out.

It’s scary when a loved one is having new chronic health issues, and neither you nor your physicians quite know why they are happening. It’s stressful, it wrecks your attention span (an attention span is necessary to be a blogger), and it drains your energy reserves.

It also sparks ye olde anxiety and depression, too, and as we’ve faced some rough times without the income that the blog generates (it ain’t much, but something is still something), I’ve had a rough go there from time to time.

So the household remains in flux health-wise. My chronic health conditions are liveable-withable, and my aunt’s chronic health conditions are, when controlled, liveable-withable, so there should be no reason, long term, for TMR to not resume normal functioning.

But we aren’t in that spot yet. So we’re going to get her out of, “This is scary and we don’t know why it’s happening” territory, and then I’ll get my butt back to work.

Hi, everybody. I wanted to post a short update as it’s been a couple of weeks…

Aunt Annie got out of the nursing home a week ago Friday, on October 28th, after clearing her 10-day COVID isolation.

It’s been a big adjustment to go back to two people living together, especially with her severely-limited mobility initially, but after being basically bedridden for the better part of a month, she decided to get up and walk, and she’s doing a really good job.

We’ve got a slew of doctor’s appointments to cover over the next couple of weeks, but she’s doing very well as she learns to live as a heart failure patient, and we’re resting up after five weeks of heck and are recovering slowly.

As soon as I’ve got the energy to get back to blogging, this blog will be back up and operational. I miss you all and, quite frankly, I need to help the household by making some money, so I’ll be back ASAP.

We’re very relieved that we’ve made it through the hardest part of our Fun Fall Health Journey, and we’re very thankful for your well-wishes and prayers. They worked!