Author: George Malik

Overnight, I’ve been thinking about the 6-7-and-1 Red Wings’ plight, and what the team should do after dropping a disappointing 4-0 decision against the New York Rangers.

In all honesty, I’d give the Red Wings’ coaches and management similar advice to what I’d tell a losing political party: proceed with caution, be patient and deliberate, and don’t jump to conclusions here.

Thanks to the jumbled-up nature of the Atlantic Division standings, the Red Wings are not already doomed to struggle their way through the Division of Death; in fact, the Red Wings own 2 games in hand on the 3rd-place Boston Bruins, who sit at 7-7-and-2, and the Bolts, Sabres and Senators sit 2, 2 and 1 point ahead of the Red Wings, respectively:

Goaltender Ville Husso and the Red Wings were skating uphill into their match-up with the Jonathan Quick’s New York Rangers on Saturday night.

As Detroit hoped to snap a single-game losing streak after Friday’s loss to Toronto, the Rangers were planning on sweeping their 3-game season series against the Red Wings, bouncing back from an ugly 6-1 loss to Buffalo on Thursday, and adding to their 4-1-and-0 road record.

On Saturday night, the Red Wings lost an utterly demoralizing 4-0 decision to the New York Rangers, out-shooting New York 37-24, but finding themselves bedeviled by Jonathan Quick and an opportunistic Rangers team that capitalized on the Red Wings’ few mistakes.

Detroit drops to 6-7-and-1, and the Wings rather desperately need to generate some wins as they embark upon a 4-game road trip starting on next Wednesday in Pittsburgh.

The Detroit Red Wings attempted to earn their 3rd straight win as they faced the Toronto Maple Leafs (7-5-and-2) in the “Hockey Hall of Fame” game on Friday night. Detroit was playing its 2nd game over the course of 3-games-in-4-nights slate, with the New York Rangers awaiting the Wings back in Detroit for a Saturday night tilt.

Toronto played without the services of Auston Matthews, who had an “upper-body injury,” and the Red Wings both recalled Ville Husso due to an injury to Alex Lyon, and they swapped out Jeff Petry for Justin Holl on defense.

On Friday night, the Red Wings seemed to be one bad bounce and one bad pass away from just about everything, and the pregame ceremony to honor the Hockey Hall of Fame’s inductees for 2024 was probably the highlight of the game, Dylan Larkin’s 1-1 goal excluded.

Detroit lost a 3-1 decision to John Tavares (2G), Mitch Marner (1G, 1A) and Anthony Stolarz (21 stops) and the Toronto Maple Leafs, playing a sleepy, stumbly, frustrating game as their 2-game winning streak snapped.

From the Detroit Red Wings;

RED WINGS RECALL VILLE HUSSO FROM GRAND RAPIDS UNDER EMERGENCY CONDITIONS

  … Goaltender Has Appeared in 133 Games with St. Louis and Detroit Since 2020-21 …

DETROIT – The Detroit Red Wings today recalled goaltender Ville Husso from the American Hockey League’s Grand Rapids Griffins under emergency conditions.

Husso, 29, has started one game with the Red Wings during the 2024-25 season. The 6-foot-3, 208-pound netminder has also posted a 2-0-0 record with a 1.23 goals-against average, a 0.958 save percentage and one shutout in three appearances with the Griffins this season. Husso was limited to 19 appearances with Detroit in 2023-24, logging a 9-5-2 record with a 3.55 goals-against average and an 0.892 save percentage. He also stopped all 25 shots he faced with the Griffins on Jan. 26 against the Belleville Senators during a conditioning stint. Originally selected by the St. Louis Blues in the fourth round (94th overall) of the 2014 NHL Entry Draft, Husso has compiled a 69-41-16 record with a 3.03 goals-against average, a 0.902 save percentage and seven shutouts in 133 appearances with the Blues and Red Wings since 2020-21. Additionally, Husso has posted a 53-54-16 record with a 2.65 goals-against average, a 0.910 save percentage and 12 shutouts in 133 AHL games with the Chicago Wolves, San Antonio Rampage and Griffins, earning a place on the AHL All-Rookie Team in 2017-18. 

Evan Sabourin, Tony Wolak, Devin Little and myself discuss the Red Wings’ recent performance vs. Chicago, the Edvinsson-Seider pairing’s success and the team’s identity in the latest episode of The Flying Octopus podcast:

The Detroit Red Wings kicked off a three-games-in-four-night slate of games against Original Six opponents with a battle against the resurgent Chicago Blackhawks on Wednesday evening.

Detroit came into the game on a 1-game winning streak; Chicago had won 2 straight and 3 of their past 4, and was aiming to earn a 3rd straight win as they hosted the hated Red Wings.

On Wednesday night, on TNT, the Red Wings played a bit of a sleepy first, but after Alex DeBrincat scored with 1.5 seconds remaining in the 1st, Detroit systematically disassembled Chicago, responding to a tying goal by Nick Foligno 8:42 into the 2nd with goals from Larkin at 12:27, Veleno at 3:03 of the 3rd, Copp at 17:47 (empty-net) and a 28-stop effort from Cam Talbot…

Defeating the Blackhawks 4-1, and making a tidy job doing so.

Now the Wings head to Toronto for a Friday night road game, and return home for their last home game for 12 days against the Rangers on Saturday.

I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to take at least half a day’s worth of “maintenance” as my flu has resurfaced, and I feel too sick to even sit up and man the blog right now. I’ll get back ASAP and catch up on today’s practice. My apologies for any inconvenience.

Both the Free Press’s Helene St. James and MLive’s Ansar Khan posted articles this morning which discuss the Red Wings’ overall play thus far, as well as last night’s 2-1 victory over the Buffalo Sabres.

St. James wonders whether the 5-5-and-1 Red Wings can kick themselves into gear without the services of Shayne Gostisbehere and David Perron, suggesting that the team’s uneven performances aren’t acceptable–and I think that the fan base would agree with that:

“We’ve done some good things, but it hasn’t been consistent enough,” veteran Patrick Kane said. “Sometimes you’re trying to find your way as a team. There’s different things that go on throughout the game, whether it’s penalties or momentum. I think sometimes when we have momentum, we can keep it a little bit more. Other times when we’re chasing, I think we can kill their momentum quicker.”

Coach Derek Lalonde has pointed to some improvement in underlying numbers, like rush chances against. But as it stands now, the numbers that matter — wins and points — don’t favor the Wings competing for a playoff spot. That needs to change, and pretty much every skater needs to show more. There have been spurts of that next level of play, but not nearly enough of it.

“We’d like to seek some 60-minute consistency,” Lalonde said. “It’s something we’re battling through, all 12 [forwards, all six [defensemen]. There are signs of it being good. Hopefully we can start playing more consistent, 60-minute games.”

MLive’s Ansar Khan discusses the team’s play as it applies to last night’s 2-1 victory over the Sabres:

The Red Wings’ narrow 2-1 victory over the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday night evened the team’s record at 5-5-and-1, snapping a 3-game winless streak.

It really was a matter of survival as both Cam Talbot (30 saves) and Dylan Larkin (2 power-play goals) assuaged an early mistake in a shorthanded goal against, and then the Wings did a lot of surviving the Sabres’ relentless forecheck for parts of the 1st and the majority of the 3rd periods…

But the Wings out-ground the Sabres well enough to hold onto their 2-1 lead and take the game, and, while it was not exactly ideal in terms of time spent in the offensive zone vs. time spent in the defensive zone, nor in the number of shots against (30) or attempts against (71)…

Detroit will get three days’ worth of rest and practice to re-set ahead of Wednesday’s game vs. Chicago, which opens up a stretch of 3 games to be played over the course of 4 nights.

There’s no disrespect to the Sabres intended here–they pushed the Red Wings very hard, as they told BuffaloSabres.com’s Jourdon LaBarber…

The Detroit Red Wings attempted to snap a 3-game slide (0-2-and-1) against the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday night at Little Caesars Arena.

The Sabres had dropped a Friday night loss to the New York Islanders, and had lost 2 straight, but playing back-to-back is usually not a problem for Buffalo, which most recently inflicted 5-3 win over the Red Wings last Saturday.

On Saturday night, well…You don’t write this kind of game up in the manual as “The Kind Of Game You Want To Play” against Buffalo, but the Wings rallied from a shorthanded Jason Zucker goal vs. Dylan Larkin via–get this–2 Dylan Larkin power play goals–and Cam Talbot was stout in the Wings’ net, stopping 30 of 31 shots against, as Detroit rallied and prevailed 2-1 over the tough-luck Sabres.

Detroit gave up too many shots against, Detroit gave up too much zone time against–again–and Detroit really had to play rope-a-dope hockey in the 1st and 3rd, but it was enough thanks to dogged effort.

Enough to snap the 3-game losing streak, and enough to build upon going into Chicago on Wednesday.