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!

Recap: Griffins bested by IceHogs on Saturday evening

The Grand Rapids Griffins followed up Friday night’s big win over the Milwaukee Admirals by hitting the road and hitting the bricks against the Rockford IceHogs, dropping a 4-1 decision on Saturday evening.

Rockford scored the game’s first four goals–one in the 1st period, and then 3 more in the 2nd–but Sebastian Cossa finished the game with a solid-enough 29 stops on 33 shots, and Brogan Rafferty at least spoiled Drew Commesso’s shutout in the 3rd period, but there wasn’t much to write home about for the Griffins.

Per the Griffins website’s recap:

ROCKFORD, Ill. — Grand Rapids dropped its first road game of the campaign, 4-1, as the Rockford IceHogs used a three-goal second period to storm past the Griffins on Saturday at the BMO Center. 

Defenseman Brogan Rafferty scored the Griffins’ lone tally to secure his 150th point in the AHL. Veteran Austin Watson bagged his third assist as a Griffin in his first two games with the franchise. The contest marked a rematch of last season’s Central Division Semifinals where the Griffins bested the IceHogs 3-1 in the best-of-five series. 

After losing the puck behind his own net, Sebastian Cossa recovered with an acrobatic diving-stick save to keep the game scoreless early in the first period. However, the IceHogs capitalized at 16:57 when Grand Rapids failed to clear the puck, which dropped right to Colton Dach who found the back of the net over the glove of Cossa. The IceHogs’ goal snapped 76:57 of shutout hockey to start the season for Cossa. 

Rockford nearly doubled its lead with 1.2 seconds remaining but after further review the goal was called back due to the time expiring in the opening frame. 

The second period remained unkind, as Grand Rapids surrendered three goals. Kevin Korchinski made it a 2-0 game at 5:30 when he scored on the power play and 3:58 later Cavan Fitzgerald increased Rockford’s advantage to three. Samuel Savoie capped off the period with his first of the year with 2:58 left during a 2-on-0 breakaway with Gavin Hayes. 

Late in the final period, Rafferty put the Griffins on the board for their only goal of the outing.Watson shot the puck from the blueline through traffic before Rafferty tipped it in to prevent the shutout at 13:48. Rockford held the Griffins at bay for the remainder of the period and skated away with a 4-1 victory in its season opener. 

The Griffins’ website also posted a photo gallery, and if you’re interested, you can read Detroit Hockey Now’s Max Smith’s critique of Cossa’s ups and downs at your leisure.

Update: There’s a “5” next to Nate Danielson’s penalty-minute mark, which means that the young Wings prospect got into his first fight on Saturday night.

Kasper fought, too.

Red Wings-Predators wrap-up: Talbot, Red Wings’ defense out-last the Predators

The Detroit Red Wings won a hard-fought 3-0 victory over the Nashville Predators on Saturday night, assuaging (somewhat) their 6-3 loss to Pittsburgh on opening night.

But it was not an easy victory by any stretch of the imagination. Cam Talbot stopped 42 shots and faced 87 shot attempts–34 of which were blocked by Detroit…

And the Wings really nursed a 1-0 lead from the 1:02 mark of the 2nd period, when J.T. Compher scored, to the 6:35 mark of the 3rd, when Andrew Copp finally gave the Wings some breathing room with a 2-0 deflection on Juuse Saros. Captain Larkin wrapped things up with an empty-netter at 19:40 of the 3rd.

In the interim, Talbot made some spectacular stops, the Red Wings’ defense made some spectacular stops, and the Red Wings earned a “team victory” against a Predators team with the skill to out-star you and the grit to make you play a nasty, high-impact hockey game.

Regrettably, along the way in the high-impact variety, the Wings did lose Christian Fischer’s services to an upper-body injury, and we’ll see whether the Red Wings call up a forward, should Fischer miss any time.

Continue reading Red Wings-Predators wrap-up: Talbot, Red Wings’ defense out-last the Predators

Former Red Wing Riley Sheahan retires

We’ll file this under “Tangentially Red Wings-related,” as BP Sports Niagara’s Bill Potrecz reports that former Red Wing Riley Sheahan has retired:

Riley Sheahan is having fun at the rink again. The 32-year-old St. Catharines native achieved his dream and played more than 600 games in the National Hockey League, but it wasn’t all fun and games.

Sheahan was a first-round draft pick of the Detroit Red Wings in 2010 and seemed to be a perfect fit for the Wings as a strong, two-way centre. But Sheahan bounced around, also playing for the Pittsburgh Penguins, Florida Panthers, Edmonton Oilers, Buffalo Sabres and Seattle Kraken, as well as a stint in Switzerland before finally calling it a career.

“It was tough,” Sheahan said when asked about the decision to retire. “You definitely associate yourself with a sport and your ego — you definitely get voices in your head saying, ‘I wish I could still be doing this.’ I feel debatably like I do have some juice left, but you kind of have to make the agreement what’s best for you and my family. Sometimes it’s hard. As a high-end athlete, I think we’re all wired kind of the same way to keep pushing for the next thing and to keep pushing, never be satisfied, that whole thing. I think that’ll be a good challenge for me as my career ends, to really think about it, reflect on the good moments.”

Sheahan said moving from city to city, not knowing from one season to the next where he was going to be playing, took its toll.

“Year after year and being part of a new group of people and trying to break the ice and all the relationships and then all of a sudden, they’re gone. That stuff is really hard on me and it takes you away from the game too.  I’ve played the game to really enjoy it, to make plays and to feel excited out there and now that was starting to go away. Some days it’s hard but I also have a lot of other things in my life to be grateful for and to drive me now.”

Continued; I’m feeling old. Sheahan was an 18-year-old kid an eye-blink ago.

I suppose we’re going to hear more of this, but this is one hell of a ‘postulation’

I like and respect the New York Post’s Larry Brooks. I really do. But this set of comments from Brooks, via Paul Kukla of Abel to Yzerman, has me scratching my head:

It is obviously insane to assign disproportionate weight to a team’s season opener. But sometimes they can be symbolic. 

And I just wonder after the Red Wings’ opening, 6-3 defeat to the Penguins in Detroit — 24 hours after Pittsburgh had been used as a speed bag by the Rangers while Detroit was fresh — whether GM Steve Yzerman is going to have Joel Quenneville on speed dial? 

Yzerman is, of course, sacrosanct in the Motor City. But so was Willis Reed in New York, and he was fired by the Knicks as head coach. And so was Bart Starr in Green Bay, and he was fired as head coach. 

The Red Wings’ sin lays on the doorstep of former GM Ken Holland and ownership that prioritized extending their playoff streak to what became a pro sports record to 25 years rather than taking a step or two back to reload for a championship run. 

They talked about 25 years the way the Yankees sometimes talk about 32 straight years of above-.500 baseball. 

But the Red Wings now have missed the playoffs eight straight seasons — the past five on the watch of Yzerman, who took command in 2019-20. 

Everyone likes Detroit head coach Derek Lalonde. But time waits for no man, even an icon such as Yzerman. It would behoove the Red Wings to get on track early. 

If not a playoffs-or-bust Detroit, which projected contender will turn to Quenneville, cleared to return for duty by the NHL in July?

Continued; I’m sure we’ll hear more of this given that the Red Wings’ next two opponents are the Rangers in New York on Monday, and then the Rangers on ESPN+/Hulu at Little Caesars Arena next Thursday…

And yes, there are some very legitimate questions as to whether Derek Lalonde will be the Red Wings’ coach by the end of the season in Detroit. He’s on an expiring contract.

But there are no reasonable, legitimate suggestions that the Red Wings’ GM-for-life is going to be fired because he’s in rebuild year 5 of what Ken Holland himself warned us might be a 10-to-12-year affair, and there is no way in hell that I’d turn to Joel Quenneville of all people to try and get the Wings out of their struggles.

Red Wings-Predators quick take: Talbot’s 40 stops pace Wings to a 3-0 win

The Detroit Red Wings attempted to end their winless streak at one game as they faced the Nashville Predators on Saturday night. With both teams having lost their home openers, the Wings and Preds were in no mood to drop to 0-and-2 on the young season.

For the Red Wings, who are playing a stretch of 3 games to be played over the course of 5 nights, turning the ship around is particularly imperative, because losses add up in a hurry.

On Saturday night, the Red Wings were able to win from the goal on out, and by that, I mean Cam Talbot, who stopped 40 shots and faced a stunning 87 shot attempts.

Thankfully, the Red Wings blocked 34 shots en route to a 3-0 victory in which J.T. Compher, Andrew Copp and Dylan Larkin (empty net) were able to slowly but surely assail Juuse Saros (and the net behind him) in a game where the Red Wings really did skate uphill against the stacked Predators at times, but the Red Wings did prevail thanks to superb defensive play, a commitment to withstanding the Predators’ physicality (though the team did lose Christian Fischer to an upper-body injury), and just plain old out-working the Preds.

The teams will reprise their rivalry (it’s still a rivalry!) next Saturday in Nashville.

Continue reading Red Wings-Predators quick take: Talbot’s 40 stops pace Wings to a 3-0 win

Three things: on stemming self-inflicted errors, Albert Johansson’s debut, and teaching prospects to rebound from mistake-making

Of Red Wings-related note this afternoon:

  1. DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills noted in his game preview that the Red Wings are wary of giving the Predators unintentional assistance over the course of tonight’s game:

Detroit dropped its season opener on Thursday in a 6-3 setback to the Pittsburgh Penguins. Alex DeBrincat (two goals, one assist) and Lucas Raymond (two assists) each had multi-point nights, but a three-goal second period from Pittsburgh proved too much for the Red Wings to overcome.

Head coach Derek Lalonde said self-inflicted wounds hurt his club on Thursday.

“I was fully confident, after how we performed in the first period, that would translate over 60 minutes and be successful [on Thursday] but didn’t,” Lalonde said. “Even some of the things that crept into our game in the second, some D-zone structure, obviously puck play was an issue [on Thursday]. We had a lot of turnovers. I think it was pretty self-inflicted, so I think it’s important not to overreact but respond correctly on a performance like that. It feels like we kind of gave one away with the way we started the game.”

As for the Predators, they are coming off a 4-3 loss to the Dallas Stars on Thursday. Last season, Nashville finished fourth in the Central Division with a 47-30-5 record (99 points) before falling to the Vancouver Canucks in the Western Conference First Round.

“A different look than last year coming in [Saturday],” Tyler Motte said about the makeup of the Predators’ roster this season. “A better opportunity to take care of yourself, your details and hopefully put ourselves in a position to win a game.”

2. The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan discussed Anton Johansson’s imminent NHL debut, which will come with his parents and one of his two brothers watching in the stands:

Continue reading Three things: on stemming self-inflicted errors, Albert Johansson’s debut, and teaching prospects to rebound from mistake-making

Prospect round-up: Kiiskinen 1G + 2A for HPK; Sandin Pellikka 1A as MBN makes SHL debut

Of Red Wings prospect-related note in Europe today:

In the Finnish Liiga, Jesse Kiiskinen had a hell of a game against his “old team,” helping HPK Hameenlinna win 5-3 over the Lahti Pelicans thanks to 1 goal and 2 assists registered over the course of 17:13 played. He had 8 shots and finished even:

In the SHL, Noah Dower Nilsson did not play in Frolunda HC’s 2-1 overtime win over Linkopings HC;

Anton Johansson was a healthy scratch in Leksands IF’s 4-2 win over the Vaxjo Lakers;

Michael Brandsegg-Nygard made his SHL debut, finishing scoreless with a +1 and 2 shots and a penalty taken in 17:33 played on the second line, and Axel Sandin Pellikka had an assist, finishing at -1 with 4 shots in 21:02 played as Skelleftea AIK lost 4-2 to Timra IK:

In the Swedish Allsvenskan, Maximilian Kilpinen didn’t play in Ostersunds IK’s 5-2 loss to IK Oskarshamn;

In the Swedish J20 league, Charlie Forslund didn’t register a point in Mora IK’s 6-3 win over MoDo Hockey;

A bit more about Albert Johansson’s NHL debut

MLive’s Ansar Khan filed a game-day notebook about Albert Johansson’s NHL debut, noting that Albert is the son of former NHL defenseman Roger Johansson:

“It’s going to be a special night,” Johansson, 23, said. “It’s going to be a dream come true moment. I’m really excited. I just want to come in and play a simple game and move pucks and be solid defensively. I think that’s the biggest key for me.”

That was coach Derek Lalonde’s message as well. The Red Wings need to be much better defensively following Thursday’s 6-3 season-opening loss to Pittsburgh.

“It’s been a really nice progression, watching him develop from camp last year to this year and then you get the feedback from the coaching staff (in Grand Rapids), you get feedback from the management team,” Lalonde said. “They were very excited about his development. You can see it. You know what got him here is his puck play, defending, being smart and simple.”

When Johansson was informed Friday afternoon that he’d be playing tonight, he called his family in Sweden. His parents and one of his brothers arranged to get to Detroit as quick as possible and were scheduled to arrive early this afternoon.

“Long day for them, but it’s a special night and I’m happy they could come here and watch it,” Johansson said. “It’s a big moment for them, too. My family, they support me my whole life, so, I’m happy that they’re able to come watch it.”

Continued (paywall)

Game-day notebooks: Wings wary of Predators’ speed; Johansson, Holl in, Gustafsson, Petry out

Among the Hockey News’s Sam Stockton’s notes comes this quip from coach Derek Lalonde regarding the scrappy-in-general Predators…

“They’re north, they’re fast, they have an ability to spread the puck out with speed through the puck,” said Lalonde of [Predators coach Andrew] Brunette’s team.  “They play long, and I think they rely on one of the best goaltenders in the world [Juuse Saros].  I wouldn’t say they take it for granted, but I think they know that puck’s not going in.  It might be coming out [with Saros’ aptitude for puck-handling], and it might even fuel their north play.

For the Red Wings, the priority entering the evening is to finish what they started and lost Thursday against the Penguins.  “The whole first period was exactly what we wanted, obviously besides getting scored on,” said Michael Rasmussen of that defeat.  “There wasn’t anything in particular.  I think we just got deflated a couple of breakdowns and didn’t respond properly.”  To correct, per Rasmussen, the solution is simple: “Play a full 60 minutes and don’t beat ourselves.  I think if we do those things, we’ll be good.”

Stockton also spoke with Albert Johansson about his NHL debut…

On Wednesday, Albert Johansson was focused on staying patient, trusting that his time would come.  “I’m here right now, and I’m working every day, trying to be in the top six and play games, but I know all defensemen are good in here,” he told The Hockey News.  It’s gonna be a challenge every day, but [I’m focused on] coming in here, working hard during practice, trying to get better every day, trying to get into the top six.”

Four days later, his family is on its way to Detroit from Sweden, and he is getting ready to make his NHL debut tonight.  “It’s gonna be a dream-come-true moment,” Johansson said this morning.  “I just want to play a simple game, move [the puck], and be solid defensively.  That’s the biggest key for me, so just trying to keep it simple.”

Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff also filed a game-day notebook which includes coach Lalonde explaining why the Wings recalled Justin Holl…and why they’re sitting Erik Gustafsson:

“I told him I do expect him up soon and helping us out and be ready,” Lalonde said of Holl. “I didn’t expect it in Game 2, but here he is.”

Gustafsson’s Red Wings debut was not one he’ll remmeber fondly. He was beaten badly on one Pittsburgh goal and wound up minus-two. Gustafsson finished with a Corsi of 38.8%, the worst of any Detroit defender.

“It wasn’t a great game for him the other night,” Lalonde said. “I think he would probably self admit that.”

It may be a short-term formula. Petry was skating on Saturday morning.

“There’s no doubt I do come in here and lie to you guys sometimes (about players) in the day-to-day (category),” Lalonde admitted. “He is. No, really. He’s a true day-to-day. It’s a good sign. Hopefully have him Monday (at the New York Rangers). If not, pretty confident he’ll be around for us this following game.”

Saturday fundraising fun fandango to pay the bills

No fun on a Saturday, but this is the price we both pay for a paywall-free, commercial-free blog. Fundraising appeals. And I just lost $50 in assistance from the State, so it’s time to ask the readers (you) to chip in.

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