Author: George Malik

I’m opening up the laptop at 9:09 PM at night after closing it just after 8:13 AM.

I’ve driven more than 300 miles today, and 238 of them were coming back from Traverse City. The rest of them were driving to and from Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak.

My aunt is in the cardiac unit at Beaumont. She has fluid around her heart and fluid in her lungs. That should be taken care of via diuretics and whatever the cardiologists determine when they meet with her and do an ultrasound of her heart tomorrow morning.

That was the story that I was told when I was there to see her, and I hope that things hold out that way. She’s a lot more humble than I’ve seen her in a long time regarding her health, though my dear aunt remains as insolent and willful as you would expect from the plucky 80-year-old.

Long story long, however, if she hadn’t fallen down the stairs, suffering compression fractures to her back and neck, she wouldn’t have gone to Providence and they wouldn’t have diagnosed her sodium levels as near fatally low…

Hi everyone,

I made it back safely to South Lyon, but I was surprised to not find my Aunt Annie at home. I’ve been informed that she had to be admitted to the ER at a different hospital after deteriorating last night.

She’s going to be admitted to the facility with fluid around her heart, and she wants me to come across town to see her, so I may it may not be able to update the blog at all this evening.

My apologies for any inconvenience.

USA Today’s Mary Clarke asks “one question” for every NHL team, and here’s her question for the Red Wings:

Detroit Red Wings: Can they play spoiler to a playoff team?

The Red Wings are in a tough spot in the 2022-23 season. Given all their offseason additions and the the return of the reigning Calder Trophy winner in Moritz Seider, the Red Wings should be a playoff team. However, the strength of the Atlantic Division is nothing to scoff at, as the Red Wings have stiff competition in the form of the Maple Leafs, Lightning, Panthers, Bruins, and likely Senators.

If one of the Atlantic’s heavy hitters falters, look to the Red Wings to potentially take their place if everything goes according to the Steve Yzerman plan.

Continued

The Detroit Red Wings play the Chicago Blackhawks tonight at 7:30 PM EDT, and the game will air on TV via Bally Sports Detroit Extra, and Ken Kal and Paul Woods will narrate the game on WWJ Newsradio 950.

Update: The Wings confirmed the broadcasting set-up on Twitter:

Home ice! #LGRW

🏒: 7:30pm ET
📺: @BallySportsDET extra
📻: @WWJ950
🤝: @UWMLife pic.twitter.com/uZvdn8X5B9— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) September 28, 2022

Detroit won a 6-2 decision over the Pittsburgh Penguins last night, and coach Derek Lalonde hinted to DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills that the “B Team” will get today off.

That means that the Larkin-Raymond-Seider group will probably play tonight’s game vs. the Blackhawks, who lost 4-1 to St. Louis last night at home.

I am going to be making the 4-hour, 238-mile trip home around the time that Detroit holds its morning skate, and as my Aunt Annie is being discharged from rehabilitation care today, I have no idea whether I’ll be able to cover tonight’s game in any way, shape or form.

As I said yesterday, I’ve got to go with the “family comes first” mantra here, and if I may be frank, she’s an utter mess after having fallen down the stairs after fainting due to near-fatally-low sodium levels.

Things have improved over the past five days, but she’s refusing to go to a rehabilitation center, so I’ll have to take care of her and her injuries at home (hopefully with the help of some home health care nurses).

Anyway, long story short, blog updates will be sparse today, and we’ll take it from there.

The Free Press’s Helene St. James discusses the possibility of Jonatan Berggren making the Red Wings’ roster this morning:

Berggren, a second-round pick from 2018, will have a chance this exhibition season to stake a claim on a spot on the Wings’ roster, or secure his name high on the depth chart should they need a call-up during the season.

“I just want to show them that I can play on this level, and come to know how to play at the NHL level,” Berggren said Tuesday. “Just go out there and have fun.”

Berggren got some looks on a line with Dylan Larkin and Lucas Raymond during training camp, and made a good impresson.

“He has to continue to play at the level he has, and he has played very well,” coach Derek Lalonde said. “Now we want it consistently; now we want an every-day mentality. He’s had a really good camp, had a really good Red-White game. Now you’re doing it against live bullets, if you will, top NHL competition. I think it’s a really good test for him.”

Berggren benefited from Tyler Bertuzzi being sidelined the second day of camp with a flare-up of an undisclosed injury. Lalonde said Bertuzzi had a really good skate Tuesday morning, and that “he was out almost 40 minutes with our skills coach. He’s coming along nicely, and we are expecting him shortly.” The Wings host the Chicago Blackhawks Wednesday.

Continued

Of recap-related note after the Red Wings’ 6-2 win exhibition win over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday night:

MLive’s Ansar Khan posted a superb summary of the Red Wings‘ win…

Dominik Kubalik scored a pair of goals – one on the power play and one shorthanded – and the Detroit Red Wings whipped the Pittsburgh Penguins 6-2 Tuesday in their preseason opener at PPG Paints Arena.

It was the first exhibition as a Red Wing for many, including new head coach Derek Lalonde, whose team that consisted of only a handful of regular players defeated a Pittsburgh club that dressed stars Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Jake Guentzel and Kris Letang. Crosby, Guentzel and Letang each posted a minus-3 rating.

Filip Zadina had a goal and an assist and Michael Rasmussen picked up a pair of assists for Detroit, which was outshot 33-21.

Elmer Soderblom scored a goal in his first-ever NHL preseason game. Tyler Spezia and Steven Kampfer (power play) also scored for Detroit.

Victor Brattstrom started in goal and stopped 19-of-20 shots in 31 minutes before giving way to Sebastian Cossa, who turned aside 12-of-13 shots in 29 minutes in his NHL preseason debut.

The Free Press’s Kirkland Crawford also posted a recap from the Red Wings’ perspective; Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff posted a recap focusing on Dominik Kubalik’s training camp comments; the Free Press posted a 10-image photo gallery, and the Detroit News posted a 12-image photo gallery; DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills offered the following post-game quotes from coach Derek Lalonde (and one quip from Dominik Kubalik)…

This was about as strange a preseason result as you could possibly imagine. The Red Wings played their “B Team” against a Pittsburgh Penguins lineup in which Sidney Crosby, Eveni Malkin, Jake Guentzel, Kris Letang and Bryan Rust lined up for a total of nine power plays against Detroit, but the Red Wings prevailed 6-2.

Dominik Kubalik scored two goals, Filip Zadina scored a goal and had an assist, Elmer Soderblom scored his first North American goal, Jason Spezia and Steven Kampfer aided the cause, Michael Rasmussen had 2 assists, and Victor Brattstrom (19 of 20 stops) and Sebastian Cossa (12 of 13 stops) split the win.

Friends,

I have to be honest with you. Without giving you too many details, my Aunt Annie has been in ill health since past Friday, and I’ve been trying to deal with the issue quietly over the past couple of days.

While AA was in the hospital, I was advised by my family to continue blogging to complete my training camp work. I did that.

Now AA has been discharged, and we are having trouble. She may have to come home from rehab care, and things are a big mess this evening.

I may have to step away from the blog for tonight’s game against Pittsburgh, and I am traveling home tomorrow during the mid-day hours, so I am definitely going to miss the morning skate and mid-day articles, if not more.

Tomorrow’s Wings-Blackhawks game is on Bally Sports Detroit Extra and WWJ Newsradio 950, but I may have to step away from the blog tomorrow, because it sounds like things…

Things are a mess right now. And I need to put my family first. And my family (Aunt Annie) is the biggest mess here. And if she’s going to be a pain in the butt, I’ve got to take care of my 80-year-old.

A 1:32 interview:

Gru? Uncle Fester? Derek Lalonde hears all the nicknames.

But the Red Wings head coach handles it all with poise — and his great asset of strong communication pic.twitter.com/EQdl9k3WVn— Brad Galli (@BradGalli) September 27, 2022

In YouTube form:

Reminder @DetroitRedWings fans, you can watch the stream of tonight’s preseason matchup with Pittsburgh here⬇️⬇️https://t.co/lvfBLQFwl8— Daniella Bruce (@daniellabruce_) September 27, 2022