Author: George Malik

ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski discusses NHL rookies who have impressed and those who have struggled over the first month-and-a-half of the NHL season, and this morning’s column for ESPN+ begins with mentions of Moritz Seider and Lucas Raymond:

Moritz Seider, D, and Lucas Raymond, F, Detroit Red Wings

The arrival of Seider and Raymond were like a shot of adrenaline to the heart of this moribund Original Six franchise. Through Wednesday night’s games, Raymond led all rookies with 14 points in 14 games, including six goals. The 19-year-old Swede played left wing with Dylan Larkin and Tyler Bertuzzi to form one of the league’s top trios — 61.6% expected goals at 5-on-5 and four power-play points. Raymond has become the betting favorite for the Calder at +275.

Shawn Horcoff, the Red Wings’ director of player development, said Raymond played his way onto the roster in rookie camp and the preseason. “It was just a question about if he was ready physically. And we didn’t have an answer. He was going to show us with his play,” he said. “You can see the kind of player he can turn into.”

Seider is leading all rookies in average ice time (22:25) and has 11 points in 14 games. The Red Wings have a 2.26 expected goals against per 60 minutes with Seider on the ice, best among any Detroit player.

“Mo has just had a nice, steady development curve since we drafted him. He’s put the work in during the offseason. It’s still early, but he’s playing in every situation for us,” Horcoff said.

Continued (paywall); Alex Nedeljkovic is also mentioned by Wyshynski.

WXYZ’s Brad Galli posted Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill’s post-game presser from last night’s 2-0 loss to the Washington Capitals, and the Red Wings’ coach was downright combative while sparring with the media, displaying a Babcockian level off grumpiness.

While the Free Press’s Helene St. James’ morning article doesn’t directly address the time that Blashill barked at St. James, she does call coach Blashill “testy” while discussing a Red Wings power play that went 0-for-4 with 0 shots against the Capitals, including on a lengthy 5-on-3 opportunity:

“They have to look and say they’re going to decide to shoot it,” coach Jeff Blashill said. “We’ll work through it as a group. I don’t know if it’s as easy as you and I sit here and say it, in the sense that if you don’t think you have a lane and you shoot it and it gets blocked, you feel like it’s the wrong play. That’s what happens. The reality is, a lot of times a block ends up with chaos, and it’s OK to make them block shots. I think getting past that and having more of an attack mentality — we’ll work through it.”

It’s not the first time Blashill has lamented a lack of shooting mentality on the power play units, which feature Moritz Seider, Dylan Larkin, Lucas Raymond, Tyler Bertuzzi and FIlip Zadina on one unit and Nick Leddy, Pius Suter, Robby Fabbri, Filip Hronek and Sam Gagner on the other.

The Wings did not register a shot on net in 6:37 of man-advantage time, which included 1:23 of 5-on-3 play.

“We just didn’t execute, and we weren’t good enough,” Larkin said. “They made it hard for us on the walls and we put pucks there. We didn’t get to the net, we didn’t get it around the net, we didn’t get it up top and we didn’t take enough shots.”

Pressed on how he will get the message through, Blashill asked if the question meant it was something on a game-in and game-out basis that “hasn’t been good enough or it’s something that’s been some games.”

The Wings (7-6-2) have converted eight times on 50 power plays, a 16% success rate that ranks in the NHL’s bottom third.

Continued

The Free Press’s Shawn Windsor posted a fine subscriber-only article which discusses the Red Wings’ new-found ability to stick with teams like the Washington Capitals, who defeated Detroit 2-0 last night:

Already this team has shown it can come back; it did against these same Capitals a couple weeks ago in Washington. Mostly because the Wings don’t just fight, they bring some juice, if not always precision. 

To truly contend for a playoff spot, the precision will have to be there more consistently, mixing with the effort and the speed and the skill. The Capitals may have held the tactical advantage after the two goals in 10 seconds, forcing the Wings to the perimeter and then meeting them there. But the Wings didn’t help themselves, either. 

Too many giveaways killed their best scoring chances, though calling them giveaways is understating it. 

There were mishandled passes that crept away from the stick, breaking momentum or forcing a restart in the neutral zone. There were hesitations on one-timer possibilities, especially on the power play, and most egregiously during a 5-on-3 advantage. 

There were mistimed passes across the top of the zone and pucks that just seemed to float in the creases. The Capitals got to most of them a tick or two faster. Not because of a speed advantage as much as an experience advantage. 

Sometimes the fear of a mistake causes a moment of indecision, and those moments of stasis are the difference in hockey. And yet, the Wings continue to do things they wouldn’t  — or couldn’t — a year ago. (Heck, dating back over the last several seasons.)  

Continued (paywall)

MLive’s Ansar Khan filed a 7 AM-posted article which discusses the Red Wings’ unwillingness to make goaltender Zach Fucale’s life difficult during last night’s 2-0 loss to the Washington Capitals:

“We didn’t make it hard enough on him,” Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin said.

Fucale, 26, needed to make only 21 saves to become the first goalie ever to shut out the Red Wings in his NHL debut. Detroit (7-6-2), trying to win four in a row for the first time since March 2019, instead was shut out for the third time this season.

“I didn’t think we had enough chaos at the net,” Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said. “I thought we had guys at the net. I thought when we shot, a number of them got fronted or blocked in front and we didn’t do a good enough job of winning those puck battles that were laying there in front.”

The Red Wings started strong, controlling the play and outshooting Washington 7-1 at one point. But the game turned after the Capitals (7-2-4) scored twice in a 10-second span in the first period on goals by Dmitry Orlov (12:43) and Lars Eller (12:53).

“A shot from the point where our wing (Tyler Bertuzzi) probably got too buried and we didn’t get a block,” Blashill said. “And then you’re out for the next face-off and you win the face-off and it’s in your net within (10) seconds. That’s not good enough. We didn’t win a battle at the red line (by Givani Smith). We got on the wrong side of people, and we gave up a two-on-one that really shouldn’t happen out of nowhere. Nonsensical.”

Continued

Red Wings prospect Alex Cotton was just traded from the WHL’s Lethbridge Hurricanes to the Vancouver Giants, and the Vancouver Province’s Steve Ewen reports that nobody could be more excited about the trade than Cotton’s family.

Cotton is from Langley, BC, where the Giants play, and his mother spoke with Ewen regarding the trade that will afford Cotton “home ice” for the final steps of his Major Junior career:

Cotton played just one game — a 6-0 Lethbridge win over the Giants on Nov. 17, 2019 — of his first 154 in the WHL at the [Langley Events Centre]. He has a chance to play 28 of his final 58 in the league at the LEC after the trade. That explains why his mom is so pleased. She knows how lucky they are.

“As soon as the trade was announced, our phones started to go crazy with calls and texts,” Jennifer said about hearing from excited family and friends.

…

“It’s a complete upheaval right away. Alex had been in Lethbridge for four years. He was very connected to the community and he was very connected to his billet family,” Jennifer said. “They become an extended family for your family. It’s emotional. I know the billet family had a hard time. It’s a big change.”

There’d been rumours about the Giants being interested in Cotton for a couple of seasons. General manager Barclay Parneta admits to “kicking tires,” especially this past summer. He and Lethbridge general manager Peter Anholt had talked about a trade off and on since, and he says it largely came together last Wednesday, when both he and Anholt were in Kamloops watching the Winterhawks take on the Kamloops Blazers.

Cotton said last week he was “surprised but not surprised about getting traded,” realizing that the Hurricanes could be looking to build for the future this season. They were 5-8-0-0 going into action Thursday against the Brandon Wheat Kings.

Last Friday, Cotton explained that his family is “super stoked about the trade. And I’m super stoked, too.”

Continued

NHL.com’s Tim Campbell penned a fine profile of former Red Wings and current Edmonton Oilers GM Ken Holland ahead of this weekend’s Hockey Hall of Fame induction for the 65-year-old Holland…

Holland was 19 when he was selected No. 188 by the Toronto Maple Leafs in the 1975 NHL Draft. He played nine pro seasons in the Hartford Whalers and Detroit organizations and got into four NHL games, one with the Whalers in 1980 and three with the Red Wings in 1984.

He needed that strength of belief to carry on after playing his first NHL game, against the Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Nov. 16, 1980, a day of career highs and lows. Rangers forward Anders Hedberg scored three goals on him, one in each period, and the Whalers lost 7-3.

“After the first period it’s 1-0 for the Rangers and I made some saves and I felt good,” Holland said. “I’m sitting in the locker room in the intermission thinking to myself, ‘Ken, you finally made it.’ I felt like I’m an NHL goalie. In the second period, the Rangers get 21 shots and score four goals. And it’s 5-1 for the Rangers after two periods and I remember sitting in the locker room thinking to myself, ‘Ken, you’re never going to be in the NHL ever again, so really savor and enjoy the third period.'”

Whalers goalie John Garrett, Hartford’s backup that night, remembered thinking Holland had been thrown to the wolves in a back-to-back situation. Hartford, which was 21-41 with 18 ties that season, lost 8-4 at home to the Washington Capitals the previous day.

“Every time one went in, he’d look over with kind of a forlorn look,” Garrett said. “Really, he was incredible, but we weren’t very good. They thought it was the goaltending, but Turk Broda in his prime wouldn’t have helped that team.”

Holland’s induction into the Hall of Fame will come one day before the 41st anniversary of that game.

“From that game and now you’re asking me about going into the Hockey Hall of Fame, there are a lot of emotions while I’m remembering all the people that contributed,” he said. “So many people involved on and off the ice that it doesn’t happen without all those people. I could go on and on and on with names. In order to be a Builder you have to have a lot of talented people around you on and off the ice in order to do that. So I’m not tricked into thinking I’m smarter than everybody else. I’m just a little guy from Vernon, B.C., that chased his passion and had a lot of people along the way that believed in me and gave me an opportunity. And you’ve got to have some luck along the way.”

And former Red Wings assistant GM and current Dallas Stars GM Jim Nill penned a tribute to his colleague:

The Detroit Red Wings got Fucale’d. Washington Capitals goaltender Zach Fucale stopped 21 Red Wings shots, and his Capitals defenders stopped 15 more attempts as the Washington Capitals defeated Detroit 2-0 on Thursday night, dropping Detroit to 7-6-and-2.

According to MLive’s Ansar Khan, the Red Wings were at least a part of history on Thursday night:

Zach Fucale did what no other goaltender has done to the Detroit Red Wings in their 95-year history – record a shutout against them in his NHL debut.

Fucale made 21 saves Thursday and the Washington Capitals defeated Detroit 2-0 at Little Caesars Arena, snapping the Red Wings’ three-game winning streak.

The Red Wings (7-6-2) didn’t exactly make Fucale work that hard. They failed to record a shot on goal during four power plays, including a length five-on-three advantage.

NBC Sports Washington’s Andrew Gillis took note of Fucale’s comments in his post-game interview on TV:

Of prospect-related note in North America on Thursday:

In the QMJHL, Jan Bednar stopped 38 of 43 shots as the Acadie-Bathurst Titan lost 6-4 to Halifax.

The Toledo Blade’s Mark Monroe reports that this year’s Toledo Walleye team is off to a superb start…

The Walleye have a 5-2-0 record and they lead the ECHL in scoring with 35 goals in seven games (5.00 per contest). The defense is allowing just 2.57 goals per game, which is fourth-best in the ECHL.

Aside from veteran forward T.J. Hensick — who is off to a torrid start after he contemplated retirement — no other player on the roster had appeared in more than 50 games for the Walleye.

“I like where this team is at already,” Walleye coach Dan Watson said. “It’s a close group, and good character guys.”

The Walleye, who will play three games in three days this weekend, host Wheeling on Friday night and Indy on Sunday at the Huntington Center,

Toledo has the second-most points (10) in the ECHL. After dropping their first game of the season, the Walleye reeled off five wins, including a 6-0 waxing of Kalamazoo on Saturday in the home opener. They opened the season with five straight road games, and went 4-1-0 before losing 5-2 to Fort Wayne at home on Sunday.

And goaltender and Red Wings prospect Kaden Fulcher has been excellent thus far:

Toledo goaltender Kaden Fulcher (3-1-0) has the sixth-best goals-against average (1.51) and a .939 save percentage. Fulcher had 22 saves to earn the shutout against Kalamazoo.

“We’re rolling pretty well and we’ll keep the foot on the pedal,” Fulcher said. “It’s a nice feeling to see a lot of guys get on the score sheet.”

Continued

The Detroit Red Wings attempted to earn their 4th straight win while taking on the Washington Capitals on Thursday night.

The game turned over the course of only 10 seconds of play, in which Washington scored 2 goals on the Red Wings, and after that, it was the Zach Fucale and the Washington Defense show, as Fucale pitched a 21-save shutout, Washington blocked 15 Red Wings attempts, and Detroit was shut out 2-0.

Detroit drops to 7-6-and-2 heading into Saturday’s home stand finale vs. the Montreal Canadiens. The Red Wings are now halfway through their stretch of 11 games to be played over the course of 17 nights.

Both teams’ lineups were in flux prior to the game, so warm-ups resolved the personnel issues: