Author: George Malik

My name is George Malik, and I'm the Malik Report's editor/blogger/poster. I have been blogging about the Red Wings since 2006, and have worked with MLive and Kukla's Korner. Thank you for reading!

ESPN’s Power Rankings reveal a pair of crucial games against the Bolts

At this time of year, power rankings are mostly irrelevant to the Red Wings’ cause, and I feel that to be the case right now…But ESPN’s power rankings for this week point out that the Red Wings have a pair of pivotal games to play against the Tampa Bay Ligthing both tomorrow and on February 8th, with both taking place at Little Caesars Arena:

24. Detroit Red Wings

Previous ranking: 20
Points percentage: 51.04%

Jan. 25, Feb. 8 vs. Lightning. Given the ties between the franchises — including current Detroit GM/former Tampa Bay GM Steve Yzerman — games between the two are always must-see affairs. And with the Red Wings currently chasing the Lightning in the standings, these will matter even more.

Next eight days: vs. TB (Jan. 25), vs. LA (Jan. 27), @ EDM (Jan. 30

Continued; the Wings go West to play the Oilers, Flames, Canucks and Kraken on January 30th, February 1st, February 2nd and February 4th, and then the Wings get a break before that February 8th game vs. the Bolts, which closes out the Wings’ pre-Four Nations schedule.

Right now, the Wings are only 4 points behind the Bolts in the Eastern Conference standings, with Tampa having 2 games in hand over Detroit, so it’s crucial that the Wings win the next 2 meetings against the Lightning.

Morning news round-up: Wings-Habs recaps, and praise for Larkin and the penalty-kill

The Detroit Red Wings won 4-2 over the Montreal Canadiens last night at Little Caesars Arena.

The Red Wings now sit only 3 points behind Montreal, 5 points behind the Wild Card-holding Tampa Bay Lightning, and 6 points behind the Boston Bruins, who sit 3rd in the Atlantic.

This morning, four Red Wings pundits discuss last night’s result:

  1. The Free Press’s Helene St. James discusses the Wings’ ability to “not be too cute” over the course of a strong start to last night’s game:

“I think we can skate with anybody,” defenseman Moritz Seider said after the Wings’ 4-2 victory over the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday. “We have to have a shooting mentality. Don’t necessarily be too cute, and at the start, really focus on playing north-south hockey — get pucks to the net, really grind their D out. I think that’s stuff we can do over and over again.”

The Wings (22-21-5) will need to do it over and over again: Even when they had won seven in a row earlier this month, the closest they got to the playoff picture was two points out, with two teams ahead of them. Since that streak, they’ve gone 2-3-1, and now there are a handful of teams ahead of them.

That’s where Thursday’s game can help. The Wings had jump from the get-go, they scored first, and they scored five-on-five, with a man advantage — and with a man disadvantage. It wasn’t hard for McLellan to answer what he liked best.

“I liked our start,” McLellan said. “I thought everybody got into the game. We were aggressive, we looked fast. I challenged the group before the game, because part of the pre-scout was the two games that they had played against Montreal pre-Christmas. In that game, we looked slower and a little indecisive, and wanted them to give us a guideline of whether we’ve made progress.

“We were aggressive, we were quicker, we played faster. For the most part, that was how we looked 10 days, two weeks ago, so that’s a good sign for us.”

2. MLive’s Ansar Khan focused on Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin’s 700th game and 650th and 651st points:

Continue reading Morning news round-up: Wings-Habs recaps, and praise for Larkin and the penalty-kill

Red Wings-Canadiens wrap-up: Led by Larkin, Wings out-Hab the hot Canadiens

The Detroit Red Wings won a critical 4-2 decision over the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday evening, squeezing the Eastern Conference standings into an club sandwich of teams atop each other by single layers of points.

Detroit could have sat 7 points behind the Habs if they lose, and now they’re 3 points behind ’em.

This was far from a perfect game, in no small part thanks to Samuel Montembeault’s 41-save performance, partially because of the Habs’ pluck in the 2nd and 3rd, and partially, honestly, because the Wings aren’t quite able to play a full 60 minutes yet, but when the team did connect, like Lucas Raymond did with Alex DeBrincat on the 2-0 goal, the Wings were making beautiful things happen:

There were definitely some hairy moments after the Red Wings built 3-0 and 4-1 leads, and the score read 4-2 for a reason, especially against a Canadiens team that had won 13 of 20…

But when the Wings were able to kill a delay-of-game penalty with ease after coach Todd McLellan unsuccessfully challenged a Michael Rasmussen goal that was negated due to goaltender interference, halfway through the 3rd period…The feeling was that somehow, things were going to end up going well.

The Montreal Gazette’s Herb Zurkowsky reports that the Canadiens felt that they’d been out-Habbed on Thursday night…

Continue reading Red Wings-Canadiens wrap-up: Led by Larkin, Wings out-Hab the hot Canadiens

Red Wings-Canadiens quick take: Wings hold off the Habs

The Detroit Red Wings faced off against the Montreal Canadiens with the Wings looking to narrow the 5-point gap between the teams in the Eastern Conference standings–and looking to gain some revenge for the Canadiens’ sweep of a home-and-home series between the teams last December.

On Thursday night, the Red Wings tried their fans’ pulses, racing out to a 3-0 lead on goals by Berggren, DeBrincat and Copp (shorthanded) before giving up a 3-1 and 4-2 goals sandwiched by Dylan Larkin’s 21st of the season in game 700…

But Cam Talbot ended up stopping 28 of 30 shots, the Wings peppered Samuel Montembeault with 45 shots, Detroit went 1-for-4 in 4:55 of PP time and killed not only 3 Canadiens power plays in 5:16, but also killed a failed goal challenged at 9:39 of the 3rd…

And the Wings held on to defeat the dangerous Habs 4-2.

Continue reading Red Wings-Canadiens quick take: Wings hold off the Habs

Tweet of note: The Forecheck previews Red Wings-Canadiens game

Daniella Bruce and Ken Kal preview tonight’s game between the Red Wings and Canadiens:

Tweet of note: Larkin 700

As Dylan Larkin prepares to play in his 700th career NHL game, FanDuel Sports Network Detroit posted a highlight clip of Larkin’s career:

Game-day notebooks: on Wings-Habs, filling Kane’s skates, Larkin’s 700th and rediscovering ‘offensive confidence’

Of Red Wings-related note this evening:

  1. DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills previews tonight’s game between the Red Wings and Canadiens:

The Detroit Red Wings will try to secure two big points when they kick off their four-game homestand with an Atlantic Division battle against the Montreal Canadiens at Little Caesars Arena on Thursday night.

“We take pride in taking care of our home ice, especially against guys in our division and around us [in the Eastern Conference standings],” Lucas Raymond said. “It’s a big stretch for us obviously, and I think everyone is looking forward to it.”

Puck drop for the third battle of the season between Detroit (21-21-5; 47 points) and Montreal (24-19-4; 52 points) is set for 7 p.m., with broadcast coverage on FanDuel Sports Network Detroit and the Red Wings Radio Network (97.1 The Ticket in Detroit).

The Red Wings trail the season series 0-2-0 after getting swept in a back-to-back set last month, first dropping a 4-3 decision at Little Caesars Arena on Dec. 20 then a 5-1 score at Bell Centre on Dec. 21.

“I can speak for myself, it feels like almost a new season since then,” Alex DeBrincat said. “We know what we’re capable of. We’ve had some tweaks to different things, and it’s been working well. Obviously, the last three games haven’t been as good, but I think it’s more execution based.”

2. MLive’s Ansar Khan discusses the ways in which the Red Wings can create offense without Patrick Kane (out with an upper-body injury)…

Continue reading Game-day notebooks: on Wings-Habs, filling Kane’s skates, Larkin’s 700th and rediscovering ‘offensive confidence’

Video: Coach McLellan, Raymond, DeBrincat speak with the media ahead of tonight’s Red Wings-Canadiens game

The Detroit Red Wings received bad news at their morning skate ahead of tonight’s game against the Montreal Canadiens (7 PM EST start on FanDuel SportsNet Detroit/TSN5/RDS2/97.1 FM).

Patrick Kane has been deemed out and day-to-day with an undisclosed injury by coach Todd McLellan, with the Free Press’s Helene St. James and the Hockey News’s Sam Stockton stating that it’s an upper-body injury.

The Canadiens aren’t holding a morning skate today, and will speak with media at the team’s hotel, per the Canadiens’ website.

The Red Wings posted a video of coach McLellan, Lucas Raymond and Alex DeBrincat speaking with the media this morning:

Update: The Free Press’s Helene St. James posted a 5:14 clip of coach McLellan’s morning presser: