Author: George Malik

The Grand Rapids Griffins forwarded this message to their email list this morning:

The American Hockey League today announced the following suspensions:

Grand Rapids Griffins defenseman Luke Witkowski has been suspended for two (2) games as a consequence of a cross-checking incident in a game vs. Milwaukee on Oct. 30.

Witkowski will miss Grand Rapids’ games Friday (Nov. 5) at Iowa and Saturday (Nov. 6) at Rockford.

Springfield Thunderbirds forward Tanner Kaspick has been suspended for one (1) game as a consequence of an interference incident in a game vs. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on Oct. 30.

Kaspick will miss Springfield’s game Friday (Nov. 5) vs. Hershey.

ESPN’s Kristen Shilton posted a set of power rankings this morning, and she offers her take on a pleasant conundrum for Red Wings fans–debating whether Lucas Raymond or Moritz Seider has been more impactful as a rookie (thus far):

23. Detroit Red Wings

Previous ranking: 22
Points percentage: 0.500
Upcoming schedule: @ BOS (Nov. 4), @ BUF (Nov. 6), vs. VGK (Nov. 7), vs. EDM (Nov. 9)

Lucas Raymond (rookie). The Red Wings are off to their best start in years, and it’s been powered (in large part) by their top freshman. Raymond leads all NHL rookies in goals (four), 5-on-5 points (seven) and total points (nine) through nine games, and is second among rookie forwards in average ice time (16:07). And he has a flair for the dramatic too: Raymond has already scored his first NHL hat trick.

Continued; I’d go with Seider over Raymond, by a nose…

The Free Press’s Helene St. James offers a set of 10 thoughts on the Red Wings’ first 10 games today, and among here thoughts are the following items:

Rated rookies: [Lucas] Raymond and [Moritz] Seider are garnering early talk for the Calder Trophy, the rookie of the year honor awarded by members of the Professional Hockey Writers Association. Players from the same team have finished as Calder finalists before  most recently in 2014. That year, Ondrej Palat and Tyler Johnson of the Tampa Bay Lightning finished behind Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon. Likewise, in 2008, Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews of the Chicago Blackhawks finished in the top three, with Kane winning. The last time two Wings were finalists came in 1948, when forward Jim McFadden beat out teammate Red Kelly on defense.

…

In the Nick of time: What a difference defenseman Nick Leddy has made. He’s an excellent skater, plays with a lot of calm and makes good decisions with the puck. He has added an offensive dimension to a blueline that sorely lacked it. Leddy came to the Wings in the offseason from the New York Islanders, who were in a bind because of the expansion draft. Yzerman took advantage by sending a draft pick (2021 second round) acquired in 2020’s Andreas Athanasiou deadline. That trade has yielded Leddy plus the returns in the original deal: veteran forward Sam Gagner and prospects Theodor Niederbach and Sam Stange.

Net gain: Thomas Greiss and Alex Nedeljkovic are forming a nice, dependable tandem in the crease. Greiss, who struggled at the start of the last season, has provided steady goaltending. Alex Nedeljkovic seems to be gaining his footing as he adjusts to coming over from Carolina. After giving up seven goals in the season opener, Nedeljkovic has a .930 save percentage and 2.22 goals-against average in five appearances.

Continued (paywall); as St. James notes, the Wings’ special teams are still an issue, and not a good issue…

The Associated Press’s Stephen Whyno penned an article discussing the NHL’s rebuilding teams this morning, and his analysis of the Red Wings’ efforts in building a 4-4-and-2 record serve as the “lede” for the article:

Last week, Jeff Blashill tried to go to the same restaurant where he had dinner in March 2020, before the NHL season shut down. He found the windows to be boarded up.

The reminder of how many things have changed over the past 19 months was followed the next day by his Detroit Red Wings coming back to win a game they likely would have lost at any other time over the past two years. It showed their longtime coach how far the team has come.

“We’ve been in situations where we’ve found our way to wins and I think that breeds confidence,” Blashill said. “I think we have some guys that have matured over the years in terms of living through some of that. As hard as some of those moments are to live, you hope you grow, and a number of our guys have grown even through some of the difficulties we faced.”

Rebuilding is a difficult time in any professional sports league, and the opening weeks of the NHL season show just how different things can be. The Red Wings added talent and no longer look like the league’s doormat. The Buffalo Sabres are showing what good coaching can do for a young team, while the Ottawa Senators are a stride behind Detroit in hanging with better opponents.

…

Detroit is a good blueprint. A few years removed from a roster purge, the Red Wings are showing the fruits of picking high in the draft with rookies like Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider contributing to morale-building victories.

“You can see it with some of these young guys that they’re gaining a feel for the league,” veteran Red Wings forward Adam Erne said. “We’re confident in each other. We’ve had some young guys coming in, we still do, but every game and every season that goes by is huge for experience and confidence.”

Continued with a weekly notebook’s list of notes…

My apologies for this one sliding under my radar: the Toledo Blade’s Mark Monroe reports that Toledo Walleye forward John Albert was named the ECHL’s Player of the Week on Monday:

Walleye forward John Albert, who notched a hat trick in just his second game in a Toledo uniform Friday, has been named the ECHL’s player of the week.

Albert scored three goals and had an assist in the Walleye’s 10-1 win at the Iowa Heartlanders. He followed that performance with a goal and an assist in Toledo’s 5-2 victory over the Heartlanders on Saturday.

Albert finished the two games against Iowa with four goals, two assists, and a plus-minus rating of plus-6.

The Cleveland native is tied for the ECHL’s early lead with five goals and is tied for fourth with seven points in three games.

The 32-year-old veteran was brought in by coach Dan Watson to provide leadership and experience. Watson said Albert also plays a smart two-way game and will be a valuable contributor to the offense.

Continued

MLive’s Ansar Khan posted a column discussing the Red Wings’ 3-0 loss to the Montreal Canadiens last night, noting that Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill and defenseman Danny DeKeyser were completely dissatisfied with their team’s effort against the struggling Canadiens, who still sit at 3-and-8 after last night’s game vs. 4-4-and-2 Detroit:

“You have a chance to come out and have a great third period against a team that’s come off a West Coast trip, that lost a player early with (Jonathan) Drouin, and we didn’t come close to mustering the effort we need to have in order to win the hockey game,” Blashill said. “I think we’ve worked hard to develop an identity as a team that’s hard to play against, and tonight we weren’t.”

The Red Wings have lost twice in 10 days to a struggling Canadiens club (3-8-0), getting outscored 9-1.

“It’s a tough building to play in. It’s a momentum building,” DeKeyser said. “They came out right from the first shift and kind of tilted the ice. We weren’t able to really push back at all. We didn’t have enough shots, didn’t get enough traffic in front of the net, made it too easy on them.”

The Red Wings last week came back from 0-2 deficits to defeat Washington and earn a point in an overtime loss to Florida. That same urgency was lacking on this night.

“We had a whole bunch of players not even close to what they’re capable of, so we didn’t create any pressure on their D at all, in the third especially,” Blashill said. “We didn’t create a lot of chances. In the third we had zero. To me, it’s inexcusable. We got to find a way to make sure we’re way better than that.”

Continued; here’s hoping that, this year, anyway, the players heed their coach’s words.

The Athletic’s Max Bultman offers 10 Thoughts about the Red Wings after 10 games this morning, and several of his observations involve Tuesday night’s 3-0 loss to Montreal, and some involve the schedule ahead:

The big question coming out of these first 10 games is which team represents the real Red Wings? Is it the shot-blocking, willing-to-fight-for-each-other team that showed up against Tampa Bay, Washington, Vancouver and Florida? Or is it the flat-footed group that has now reared its head twice against the Canadiens?

All fall, we’ve known Detroit would be playing with thin margins, especially without Jakub Vrana. And losing Bertuzzi for those games in Montreal cannot be ignored; he’s a tone-setting player, and losing him surely factors into the Red Wings’ 0-3 results in Canada thus far. But his absence was far from the only reason the Red Wings came up short, and now the question shifts to which Detroit team will show up more often.

It’s hard (frankly, impossible) to play the way the Red Wings want to play for 82 straight games in the regular season. So, slip-ups and off nights are to be expected. And by and large, Detroit has seemed to make legitimate progress from last year to this one.

I buy that it can win games by being resilient and hard to play against, and I’m increasingly sold that Seider and Raymond can keep making big impacts (even if I think the point production is destined to slow down a bit soon).

Bultman continues (paywall), noting that the Red Wings have 11 more games to play between now and U.S. Thanksgiving on November 25th. 10 of those games will be played over the course of 17 nights, and we’re definitely going to know a lot more about the Red Wings by the 20th.

NHL.com’s Dan Rosen posted a mailbag article this morning, and he addresses the emergence of a pair of surprise Calder Trophy candidates from the Red Wings:

What is your take on the Calder Trophy race right now? Cole Caufield being sent down by the Montreal Canadiens while Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider are bringing it all. Who are you picking? — @alehtonen_

I picked Florida Panthers goalie Spencer Knight to win the Calder Trophy voted as NHL rookie of the year before the season. It’s early to move off that pick, especially because Knight has played well, but if Sergei Bobrovsky continues to play like a candidate for Vezina Trophy, given to the goalie voted best in the NHL, it’ll be hard for the 20-year-old behind him to play enough games to earn enough Calder votes. 

Bobrovsky is 6-0-0 with a 1.81 goals-against average and .944 save percentage (11 goals on 198 shots) in six games. Knight is 2-0-1 with a 1.95 GAA and .929 save percentage (six goals on 85 shots) in three games. I picked Knight thinking Bobrovsky could struggle, and Knight would have the No. 1 job by December of January. Clearly, Bobrovsky has thrived so far.

Seider was named NHL Rookie of the Month for October. I would say the Detroit Red Wings defenseman is the early favorite for the Calder with about 11 percent of the schedule completed (143 of 1,312 games have been played to date). Seider has been physical, aggressive in the corners, strong with the puck on his stick, smart with his reads, and a weapon on the power play. He leads Detroit and NHL rookies with eight assists, including four on the power play. He was also the first Red Wings defenseman in history to score eight points in his first nine NHL games. Nicklas Lidstrom scored seven points (one goal, six assists) in his first nine games, and he’s one of the best defensemen to play in the NHL. Seider is playing 22:26 per game, first among rookies and second on the Red Wings behind defenseman Filip Hronek (23:05). He looks like a future franchise defenseman.

Raymond looks good, but three of his four goals and four of his nine points (four goals, five assists) came in a 6-3 win against the Chicago Blackhawks on Oct. 24. If he continues to produce at a point per game pace, then he’ll be running neck and neck with his teammate in the Calder Trophy race. 

Continued (welcome to the new world order)

Detroit dropped their 3rd straight game overall (Detroit is 4-4-and-2 now) and their 3rd straight game in Canada (without Tyler Bertuzzi and Dylan Larkin alike) on Tuesday night, losing 3-0 to the Montreal Canadiens in La Belle Province.

To say that the Montreal Canadiens are dominant at home vs. Detroit is an understatement:

Defeating the Red Wings 3-0 tonight, the #Canadiens have now gotten 2 of their 3 wins in 11 games so far this season against the Wings and by a combined score of 9-1. Overall, the Habs are a superb 15-3-3 in their last 21 home meetings with DET (dating back to the 2003-04 season) pic.twitter.com/M60fDfTMFn— StatsCentre (@StatsCentre) November 3, 2021

Nick Suzuki, Josh Anderson and Brendan Gallagher each scored as the @CanadiensMTL skated to a 3-0 win. Montreal has now scored nine straight goals against Detroit dating to Oct. 23.#NHLStats: https://t.co/vnOf7gR16Z pic.twitter.com/VTR6RaIXfE— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) November 3, 2021

I’m in the minority here, but I’m not buying the whole, “Oh, the Wings didn’t have Bertuzzi or Larkin, so you can write the game off” theory tonight. Tonight, I’m actually pretty pissed off at the Red Wings for not showing up the way they should have against a struggling, now 3-and-8 Canadiens team.

The Wings had every opportunity to pounce upon the Habs coming back from a West Coast trip, and instead, they laid an egg, and that’s on the personnel that was on the ice and the coaches who were behind the bench.

As you might imagine, the Canadiens were delighted after the game, none more than Nick Suzuki, who scored a goal and added two assists as the Habs pounced on the Red Wings early and often. Suzuki told the Montreal Gazette’s Pat Hickey that it was easy to “bounce back” from the Habs’ 4-2 loss to Anaheim:

Of prospect-related note from North America on Tuesday:

In the WHL, Red Wings prospect Sebastian Cossa was named the WHL’s goalie of the month on Tuesday, and Cossa pitched a 28-save shutout as his Edmonton Oil Kings won 7-0 over the Lethbridge Hurricanes. Cossa was named the third star for Edmonton; Alex Cotton finished at -4 for Lethbridge, with 3 shots.