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!
Buffalo took to the ice for its morning skate at the KeyBank Center having recalled goaltender Aaron Dell from the Rochester Americans, which probably means that Dustin Tokarski will start vs. the Wings, per NHL.com’s Heather Graham:
Sabres’ morning skate in session. No Olofsson or Craig Anderson. Goalies on the ice are Dustin Tokarski and Aaron Dell, who was called up from Rochester this morning. pic.twitter.com/vgcBag6teq— Heather Engel (@engelheather) November 6, 2021
Last night, I posted a fairly good Red Wings-Sabres preview ahead of tonight’s game between the two Atlantic Division rivals in Buffalo (7 PM EDT on Bally Sports Detroit/MSG-B/97.1 FM). This morning, BuffaloSabres.com’s Chris Ryndak offers a set of stats regarding tonight’s game which remind us that each and every one of the Wings’ 11 games to be played over the course of 17 nights are “trap games”:
This is the first of four meetings between the Sabres and Red Wings this season.
Last meeting: Buffalo defeated Detroit 3-2 in Buffalo on Feb. 11, 2020.
Next meeting: Saturday, Nov. 27, 2021 in Detroit.
The Sabres are 7-1-2 in their last 10 games against the Red Wings; 4-3-3 at home.
This is the 146th game all-time between Buffalo and Detroit; Buffalo has a 66-59-20 series record.
The Sabres are 39-20-12 at home against the Red Wings all-time.
Ryndak continues, offering more game preview details and the particulars of tonight’s tribute to Val James, the first African American player to play in the NHL.
After tonight’s game, the Red Wings, who are 0-3-and-1 in their past 4 games, will head home to meet the Vegas Golden Knights on Sunday evening (6 PM EST on Bally Sports Detroit/ATT Sportsnet Rocky Mountain/97.1 FM). 5-5-and-0 Vegas will spend their Saturday night in Montreal, facing the 3-and-9 Canadiens.
In the WHL, Somewhat shockingly, Sebastian Cossa had an off night, giving up 6 goals on 25 shots in the Edmonton Oil Kings’ 6-5 loss to Red Deer;
Cross Hanas had 3 assists, finishing at +3 with 2 shots in the Portland Winterhawks’ 5-4 shootout win over Kelowna. Hanas was named the game’s second star;
Taro Hirose had a goal and two assists; Riley Barber, Turner Elson and Hayden Verbeek all had a goal and an assist; Jonatan Berggren had the OT winner, and Calvin Pickard stopped 28 shots in the win.
The Detroit Red Wings continue their stretch of 11 games to be played over the course of 17 nights with Saturday’s game against the Buffalo Sabres (7 PM EDT on Bally Sports Detroit/MSG-B/97.1 FM).
The Wings are also amidst a set of 3 games to be played over the course of 4 nights; they’ll be returning to Detroit on Sunday to host the Vegas Golden Knights as well.
Most of the focus in Buffalo involved Thursday morning’s Jack Eichel trade with Vegas, and its ramifications for the Sabres, but Buffalo is 1-and-3 over its past four games, and they’ll be looking to turn things around as well.
The Vancouver Giants have acquired Detroit Red Wings prospect, defenceman Alex Cotton from the Lethbridge Hurricanes. In exchange, the Hurricanes receive sending the WHL rights to 2005-born defenceman Hunter McInnes, as well as second, fifth and sixth-round selections in the 2022 WHL Prospects Draft, and a fourth round selection in the 2023 WHL Prospects Draft.
The trade was announced by both Clubs Friday afternoon.
“It’s always hard to trade key members of your team, especially someone like Alex who has been a big part of our organization for many years but being able to acquire a 16-year-old prospect and four additional draft picks made this a very enticing move for where we are at,” said Hurricanes general manager Peter Anholt.
“We want to thank Alex for all of his contributions over his time with the Hurricanes and wish him all the best in his future,” added Anholt.
Cotton, 20, was selected by the Hurricanes in the fifth round (99th overall) of the 2016 WHL Draft. The Red Wings prospect skated in 154 career regular season games with Lethbridge totaling 110 points (33G-77A) along with 100 penalty minutes. Cotton, who hails from Langley, B.C., led all WHL defencemen in scoring during the 2019-20 season with 20 goals and 67 points.
Larkin has been out of the lineup for “personal reasons” since Monday. Coach Jeff Blashill said after Friday’s practice there was “no further update as of right now,” and wouldn’t speculate as to when Larkin would return.
The Wings haven’t disclosed anything other than “personal reasons” for Larkin’s absence. Blashill said Friday the Wings support Larkin.
“He’s somebody we all care tons about and we’ll continue to care tons about him,” Blashill said. “Certainly I don’t want to get into it too deep, because that’s not fair. So our guys care a ton about him and certainly that continues.”
Now I’m not going to deny for a second that this approach isn’t working for most Wings fans, who would desperately want to know something, anything, about Dylan Larkin, whether he’s dealing with a personal issue, an illness, the illness of a family member, if his dog, Ellie is ill, if he has a hangnail, you name it…
But a lot of the same people who said that Tyler Bertuzzi is “brave” for declining a vaccination for COVID at the expense of his teammates are the people who are bitching about Larkin’s absence, suggesting that Larkin is being selfish by putting himself ahead of the team, and that’s just silly.
The truth of the matter is that we just…don’t…know…And absent information, we can’t really pass judgment on the Wings’ captain. I hope that whatever’s taken him away from the team for almost a week will end soon, and that he’s okay. That’s about all I can do.
There are only four Holland first-round picks in the Detroit lineup. One of them, Joe Veleno, just arrived on the scene. The others, for a variety of reasons, aren’t making significant contributions.
Captain Dylan Larkin can’t be criticzed for his absence. He’s been away from the team for a week dealing with an undisclosed personal matter. That it’s keeping a staunch competitor such as Larkin off the ice tells you the issue must be dramatic in its seriousness.
Winger Filip Zadina continues to be more hype than reality. Every so often – usually on the power play – he’ll flash an indication of his ability to finish. Then he goes back into hibernation.
That brings us to Michael Rasmussen. The 6-foot-6 center is looming large as an enigma. On Tuesday, he was skating in the middle of the team’s top line. Saturday against the Sabres, he’ll start the day as the fourth-line center.
When Blashil spoke of missed assignments on the penalty kill during Thursday’s 5-1 loss at Boston, Rasmussen was the unnamed guilty party. He was caught in no man’s land on the game’s first two goals as his man, Patrice Bergeron, was netting two of his four goals.
“When he’s on his game I think he does a pretty good job of defending, being long, making it hard on other people, being physical, being hard at the net,” Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said of Rasmussen. “When he gets off his game a little bit he probably thinks too much and it slows you down a little bit and you start to second-guess yourself. That’s the reality of a young guy being in a prominent role.”
Continued; I’m a little more forgiving of the Wings’ “Holland picks,” but it’s early yet.
