Author: George Malik

Of Red Wings-related note after I took a very long pre-game nap on Tuesday afternoon:

1. MLive’s Ansar Khan noted that Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde’s family has evacuated from the Tampa Bay area, which is about to get hit by Hurricane Ian…

Lalonde was relived his family landed in Detroit Tuesday morning after being evacuated from their home in Tampa due to Hurricane Ian.

“This time of year, it’s a reality living in Tampa,” Lalonde said. “We get these all the time and everyone always calls me ‘are you OK?’ and the worst we get is a broken branch up front. But to evacuate, this is real. This is kind of the way of life for them. My family is up north now, which I’m excited about but obviously very scary.”

After Lalonde was hired on July 1, his family decided it would be best to remain in the Tampa area for the season with his kids in school.

2. Khan also posted an article about Jonatan Berggren’s attempts to make the Red Wings’ roster…

This is a little late, my apologies:

The Associated Press’s Larry Lage posted a Red Wings season preview, and in said preview, he discusses the Red Wings’ “sources for hope” for the upcoming season:

The Detroit Red Wings have faded from relevance in the NHL due to a lack of stars. Help appears to be on the way with Moritz Seider and Lucas Raymond. Seider, a savvy defenseman, is the reigning rookie of the year. Raymond is a skilled forward coming off a 57-point debut season.

“They have tremenous potential,” general manager Steve Yzerman said. “You look at the top teams in the league, they have elite players.”

Seider and Raymond are probably not ready to lead the Red Wings to the playoffs this season, but both players should be able to help to push them in the right direction. Detroit drafted Seider out of Germany with the No. 6 pick overall in 2019. The next year, the Red Wings selected No. 4 overall.

“We talked a lot about the (draft) lottery and not having success, but we’ve been fortunate and lucky to have these kids come in,” Yzerman said.

The duo provides a jolt of talent on a roster that includes a trio of proven scorers in Dylan Larkin, Tyler Bertuzzi and Jakub Vrana.

In what has been a long rebuild in Detroit, the Red Wings have missed six straight playoffs after earning a spot in 25 straight postseasons and winning four Stanley Cup championships.

“We’re a long ways from where we want to be, but I think there’s some excitement, some optimistim and (Yzerman) feels that,” first-year coach Derek Lalonde said.

Continued

My apologies for these being late, but here are videos of coach Derek Lalonde, goaltender Sebastian Cossa and

The Red Wings and Penguins’ morning skates are underway ahead of tonight’s game between the two teams (7:00 PM EDT on DetroitRedWings.com/97.1 the Ticket), and while the Penguins are stacking their lineup for a home game, Detroit is not doing so for their road exhibition opener:

Lineup heading to Pittsburgh!#LGRW pic.twitter.com/gN59LyHgTJ— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) September 27, 2022

Updated 6x at 12:35 PM: The Detroit Red Wings begin their slate of 8 exhibition games to be played over the course of 12 nights with a game in Pittsburgh against a stacked Penguins team tonight (7 PM EDT start on DetroitRedWings.com, PittsburghPenguins.com, and 97.1 FM), and the odds are not stacked in Detroit’s favor heading into this game.

The Penguins hit the ice at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh around 10:30 AM…

Morning skate! Pens and Wings at 7pm. -DP pic.twitter.com/nsDMHsw8VP— AT&T SportsNet™ PIT (@ATTSportsNetPIT) September 27, 2022

Kapanen is the only player in tonight’s lineup who is absent for morning skate. Here is the Penguins workflow:

Guentzel-Crosby-Rakell
Zucker-Malkin-Rust
Zohorna-Blueger-McGinn
O’Connor-Poehling-Caggiula

Dumoulin-Letang (Pickering rotating in)
Pettersson-Petry
Smith-Rutta— Pens Inside Scoop (@PensInsideScoop) September 27, 2022

Penguins’ lines, pairs and power-play groups: pic.twitter.com/3HviW9EkXB— Seth Rorabaugh (@SethRorabaugh) September 27, 2022

Meanwhile, DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills posted a game preview:

From the Red Wings Alumni:

This Thursday, September 29th, the Detroit Red Wings Alumni will hit the ice at USA Hockey Arena in Plymouth.

Puck drop is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.— Official Detroit Red Wings Alumni (@DRWAlumni) September 27, 2022

Roster for Thursday:

Coach Nick Libett@eddiemio
George Bowman

Mathieu Dandenault
Brent Fedyk
Drew Miller@kbmiller23
Larry Murphy
John Ogrodnick
Mickey Redmond@jason15woolley

Alex Foster
Trevor Hamilton
Ethan Graham
Kraig Nienhuis@bsmoke4869— Official Detroit Red Wings Alumni (@DRWAlumni) September 27, 2022

The Pittsburgh Penguins’ website previewed tonight’s game between Detroit and Pittsburgh (7 PM EDT, streamed on DetroitRedWings.com and airing on 97.1 the Ticket), and while the Penguins are stacking their roster against the Red Wings this evening, recent history between the two teams suggests that such a decision just isn’t necessary:

Following Sunday’s split-squad games against the Columbus Blue Jackets, the Penguins return to PPG Paints Arena to host the Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday, September 27 at 7:00 PM. Last season, the Penguins went 2-0-1 against Detroit, which gives Pittsburgh a 7-1-1 record against the Red Wings dating back to the beginning of the 2018-19 season. The last time the two teams met, six different goal-scorers, including a two-goal game from Evgeni Malkin, propelled the Penguins to a 7-2 win on April 23rd in Detroit. During their final two matchups last season, Pittsburgh outscored Detroit 18-4.

FYI:

Fans can listen to the game live on the team’s official radio flagship, 105.9 The X. Josh Getzoff and Phil Bourque will call the action. Fans in the U.S. can also stream the game on pittsburghpenguins.com.

Continued

The Athletic’s Sean McIndoe, a.k.a. “Down Goes Brown,” posted a set of the “most intriguing names” to watch during the 2022-2023 NHL season, and he made a familiar pick for the Red Wings:

Moritz Seider, Red Wings: Can somebody be a sleeper Norris pick if just about everyone is picking them? No, of course not, but that won’t stop any of us. For years, the Norris was largely a lifetime achievement award, one that a defenseman would become eligible for after roughly a decade of dominance, often at the expense of younger and more deserving options. Not anymore, with Adam Fox and Cale Makar taking home the last too. So is Seider next? Maybe, although for this roster I’m going to put him on a pairing with another candidate…

Continued (paywall)…and he pairs Seider with Quinn Hughes, which is not surprised.

The Athletic asked its beat writers to answer one “burning question” in the fantasy hockey category for each and every one of the NHL’s 32 teams, and Max Bultman offered the following:

Detroit Red Wings: What does Moritz Seider have in him for an encore — and how many points will he hit?

It’s certainly not going to be easy for Seider to top his stellar rookie season, in which he chipped in 50 points from the blue line en route to the Calder Trophy. But if he’s going to top it, it has to start with an improved Red Wings power play. Detroit converted on just 16.3 percent of its man-advantage opportunities a year ago, and while Seider did pick up 21 of his 50 points on the power play, that number could grow if the Red Wings find a way to be better five-on-four. Interestingly, the coach in charge of the power play, Alex Tanguay, was the only one retained from the previous staff, but you can still expect Detroit to revisit its approach under new coach Derek Lalonde. By this point, you can feel good that Seider is going to bring production (and hits, if you play in a bangers league), but a better power play could take him one level higher. — Max Bultman

Continued (paywall);

Update: Daily Faceoff’s Matt Larkin also offers a “bold fantasy hockey prediction” regarding Seider:

Moritz Seider finishes as a top-three fantasy defenseman in banger formats.

Even the rookie version of Seider finished as the No. 11 fantasy blueliner in my scoring system. His Calder Trophy campaign included 50 points, 187 shots, 151 hits, 161 blocks and 0.0 missed games. He’s established himself as a horse at both ends of the ice, which will keep his workload in the 23-minute range at worst, and with the Red Wings adding more talent around him, he should rack up additional assists, particularly on the power play, where UFA signee David Perron is a wizard.