Author: George Malik

It must be the day after Thanksgiving, because The Athletic’s Dom Luszczyszyn and Sean Gentille are back with their weekly power rankings list, full of smarm, sarcasm and witty banter, and this week Luszczyszyn says…Something nice about the Red Wings?

25. Detroit Red Wings

Record: 9-9-3
Last Week: 25
Dom rank: 24
Sean rank: 26

What should this team be thankful for? Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider look like draft-day steals to numb the pain of their low lottery luck.

Dom: I don’t know if the Red Wings have enough depth to really take a leap, but the emergence of Raymond and Seider to start the season means the team is a lot closer than they appeared to be before the season. Their underlying numbers are slightly above average, the goaltending is good enough to steal games and they have one of most electrifying top lines in the league. Add a true number one defender to the mix as Seider is working his way towards and a path forward starts looking a lot clearer for Detroit. It may not be much, but compared to other rebuilds around the league that are struggling to get off the ground it looks very promising. The 2017-18 Avalanche and 2016-17 Leafs are the blueprint here and while Detroit may be a bit off from that, even being in the same breath is a step in the right direction.

Continued (paywall);

I don’t know whether the Red Wings have the depth to “take a step” yet, either, but I do know that the team appears likely to hit on a couple more draft picks before all is said and done, and that’s going to tell the tale for the course and duration of the Wings’ rebuilding effort under GM Steve Yzerman.

The Athletic’s Max Bultman spoke with several Red Wings players regarding their difficult searches for the flavors of home this morning, and, as you might expect, it’s not as easy as going to IKEA for the Wings’ Swedes…Though IKEA helps…

Gustav Lindstrom is in his third pro hockey season in North America. He left his native Sweden to come stateside in 2019, and by all hockey measures, he’s making the adjustment quite well — slowly but surely working his way into becoming a regular in the Red Wings lineup.

But Lindstrom is still just 23, and still a long way from home. And one of the places that distance can become most obvious is at the dinner table.

“Doesn’t matter what you eat, really, but it feels like the taste is like, different,” Lindstrom said recently. “It’s kind of (the) same food, but it still tastes a little different.”

He’s not alone in this. Hockey is a global game, and the NHL is made up of players from all around the world. The Red Wings alone have nine Europeans on the roster.

So when Swiss-born Pius Suter was told after a recent practice about Lindstrom’s experience with the different flavors in his new home, Suter was quick with a quip.

“He go to Ikea?” Suter laughed.

Continued (paywall); this is a fun one.

The Toronto Star’s Chris Johnston posted a column this morning which discusses his NHL Awards favorites at the “Quarter Pole” of the season. I know that we already know around here that Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider are going to be finalists for the Calder Trophy as the NHL’s best rookie, but it’s sure nice to read other people from other media markets saying so:

Calder Trophy: Lucas Raymond Detroit

You can’t ignore a teenager who puts up 20 points in his first 21 NHL games, especially with most of that production coming at even strength. Raymond’s closest Calder competition comes from teammate Moritz Seider, who is playing more than 22 minutes per game on the Detroit blue line. It’s been a bleak couple of seasons for Steve Yzerman’s team, but the future is now.

Continued; at this point, “hope is a good thing” in Detroit. A really refreshing thing.

The Free Press’s Helene St. James focuses on Alex Nedeljkovic’s steady play in the Red Wings’ crease this morning

Nedeljkovic made 35 saves total against the Blues, improving his season numbers to a 2.76 goals-against average and .917 save percentage. He and Thomas Greiss (3.41 GAA, .901 save percentage) have taken turns starting games, and are key reasons the Wings sit at 9-9-3.

“It’s hard to win in this league without good goaltending,” Blashill said. “The reality is you need to need have upper-level goaltending to win, and we’re certainly in that boat. We don’t want to give up the number of chances we’ve given up over the last little bit, so we’ve got to get better in that area to help them maintain their steady play, but then ultimately then they’ve got to do their job and continue to play at that level.”

Improving team defense has been a focal point, but the Wings needed Nedeljkovic to bail them out especially the last 20 minutes against the Blues. Like every goaltender, Nedeljkovic said he wants to give his teammates “the confidence to play with some swagger, knowing that if something slips up, I’ll able to make the save for them.

“As a group we’ve gotten better at being more consistent. Chemistry is there, everybody is comfortable with each other. Just some nights, we’re having too many miscues and we’re not as consistent as we’d like to be. Coming into December, we’ve got to tighten up and really start to hunker down.”

Continued…

I never quite know what to do with the Toledo Walleye as they have exactly one Red Wings prospect right now in goaltender Victor Brattstrom, who’s the back-up behind Billy Christopoulos this season, but for completeness’ sake:

Toledo won a 3-2 overtime decision vs. the Fort Wayne Komets on Thursday, with Christopoulos stopping 33 shots. The Walleye’s website posted a recap:

TJ Hensick netted two goals in regulation, Billy Christopoulos made a season-best 34 saves, and Josh Dickinson saved the day with a game winner as the Toledo Walleye defeated the Fort Wayne Komets for their first overtime victory of the year.

The Walleye’s Thanksgiving victory in Fort Wayne marked the Fish’s fourth win in the last five games. Toledo leapfrogged the Komets in the Central Division standings with the win to take control of the division lead with a 9-5-0 record.

Continued; the Walleye will wrap up a stretch of 3 games in 3 nights tomorrow at home vs. the Indy Fuel.

Of Red Wings prospect-related note in Europe on Thursday:

In the Finnish Liiga, Eemil Viro finished at -1 with 1 shot in 15:30 played as TPS Turku lost 4-1 to KooKoo;

In a derby between Southern Swedish teams, William Wallinder missed out on Rogle BK’s 4-3 overtime victory over the Malmo Redhawks;

Albert Johansson had an assist, finishing at +1 with 2 shots in 21:02 played as Farjestads BK won 4-1 over Timra IK:

Albert Johansson assist on Färjestad's 3-0 goal #LGRW pic.twitter.com/KNCPqBtEcc

— IcehockeyGifs (@IcehockeyG) November 25, 2021

And in Frolunda HC’s 5-1 setback vs. Orebro:

Simon Edvinsson had an assist, finishing at +1 with 3 shots in 19:44 played:

Simon Edvinsson assist, Frölunda down 3-1 in the 2nd period #LGRW pic.twitter.com/UKRfLTx3QW

— IcehockeyGifs (@IcehockeyG) November 25, 2021

Theodor Niederbach finished at -1 with 1 shot in 10:40 played;

And Elmer Soderblom finished even with no shots in 16:33 played.

The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan filed an American Thanksgiving Day notebook this afternoon, suggesting that the Red Wings might want to “go” with Alex Nedeljkovic as their starting goaltender after his spectacular performance against the St. Louis Blues on Wednesday:

Since an opening-night 7-6 overtime loss against Tampa Bay — a game Nedeljkovic, though allowing seven goals, was still one of the Wings’ better players that evening — Nedeljkovic has gradually progressed to a level close to last season’s Calder Trophy finalist-level season he had in Carolina.

Nedeljkovic is now 5-3-3 with a 2.76 goals-against average, and .917 save percentage.

“As the year’s gone on, as a group, we’ve gotten better and better,” Nedeljkovic said. “We can be a little more consistent in some areas. The chemistry is there, and everybody’s comfortable with each other, we are jelling pretty good. Some nights we’re having a little too many miscues and we’re not really as consistent as we’d like to be. Coming into December, we have to kind of tighten up there and really start to bunker down.”

As for the dramatic third-period saves, Nedeljkovic felt there was a factor involved for his teammates as much as the saves were important for him.

“For the guys, it’s just knowing I have their backs,” Nedeljkovic said. “A few of them I was caught out of position. So just giving them confidence they can play their game and swagger, and if something slips up, I can come up with the save.”

Continued

This is cute, admittedly, if a little frivolous:

Who are you trusting in the kitchen?! pic.twitter.com/9zx9gf0Dgb— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) November 25, 2021

The Athletic’s Eric Duhatschek filed a mailbag article this morning, and he leads things off with a question regarding the Red Wings’ dynamic rookie duo of Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider:

Regarding Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider’s strong starts in Detroit; are there comparables to having 2 players on the same team that will both most likely take top 2 of the top 5 slots in Calder? — Kyle A.

Actually, there are a number of parallels to the situation you outline, and a lot depends on how far back in time you want to go. In the NHL’s Original Six era, Dave Keon won the 1961 Calder Trophy ahead of his Maple Leafs teammate Bob Nevin. In 1950, two Bruins (Jack Gelineau and Phil Maloney) ran one-two; the year before, in 1949, it was a pair of Rangers (Pentti Lund and Allan Stanley) who managed the trick. In the modern era, as reader Andy B. pointed out, the best example came in the 2002 Calder race, when Thrashers teammates Dany Heatley and Ilya Kovalchuk finished one-two ahead of third-place finisher Kristian Huselius of the Panthers.

Others came close to duplicating that feat:

In 2007, the Penguins’ Evgeni Malkin won the Calder, with teammate Jordan Staal finishing No. 3. (Paul Stastny, then with Colorado, was second).

In 2008, the Blackhawks’ Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews finished first and third, with the Capitals’ Nicklas Backstrom sandwiched in between.

In 2013-14, when Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon won the award, a pair of Tampa Bay Lightning forwards, Ondrej Palat and Tyler Johnson, finished second and third.

In 2016-17, the year Auston Matthews won, the Leafs placed three in the top six: Mitch Marner was No. 5 and William Nylander No. 6.

So, there is a lot of precedent to think that if Raymond and Seider can keep up their early-season performances, the voters would have no issue rewarding them both. I’m assuming your concern is they might split the vote. History shows that while that can often happen in the Hart Trophy race, it’s less likely to occur in Calder voting.

Continued (paywall)

I kind of keep my eye on the University of Denver Pioneers more than most teams because they’re the Frolunda Indians of NCAA Hockey–they’ve got three Red Wings prospects on the team in sophomore defenseman Antti Tuomisto, freshman defenseman Shai Buium and Jackson, MI native and freshman forward Carter Mazur.

Mazur was named the NCHC Player of the Week last week, and Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff discusses Mazur’s play of late in his daily hockey digest:

Detroit Red Wings draft pick Carter Mazur has wasted little time adjusting to NCAA hockey. The Denver Pioneers left-winger has scored seven goals in 12 games. That gives Mazur a share of the NCHC freshmen lead in goals with his Denver teammate Massimo Rizzo.

Netting his seven goals on 37 shots, Mazur is showing a 18.9% shooting percentage. With 7-3-10 totals, he’s averaging 0.833 points per game.

Born in Jackson, Michigan, Mazur grew up a Red Wings fan. His favorite player as a kid was Darren Helm. In youth hockey, one of his coaches was Red Wings director of amateur scouting Kris Draper.

“Being drafted by an organization like the Red Wings is unreal feeling and so surreal to me,” Mazur admitted, recalling the atmosphere when he heard the Wings calling his name 70th overall on draft day.

Duff continues, also discussing Jonatan Berggren’s surge in Grand Rapids; I got to meet Mazur and Buium at the World Junior Summer Showcase in Plymouth, MI last summer, right after I got my gallbladder out, and you couldn’t meet two more grounded kids.

Buium’s parents are Israeli, so he’s had the first-generation-American-immigrant’s experience, and Mazur’s just this plucky kid that is delighted to be a pain in the ass.