Author: George Malik

The Grand Rapids Griffins struggled to score goals on Wednesday night, dropping a 3-0 loss to the Chicago Wolves at Van Andel Arena.

The Griffins’ website posted a game recap:

Chicago Wolves 3 at GRAND RAPIDS GRIFFINS 0

Oct. 27, 2021

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – The Grand Rapids Griffins were unable to stop their cold streak on Wednesday and endured a 3-0 defeat to the hands of the Chicago Wolves at Van Andel Arena. This marked the second time that Grand Rapids has been shutout through five games this season.

The Griffins looked poised to grab the lead in the first period when Joe Veleno skated out on a breakaway, but his attempt was saved by the blocker of Eetu Makiniemi 2:43 into the frame.

Chicago received a power play at the 5:00 mark and made Grand Rapids pay just 20 seconds later. Cole Smith sat at the top of the left circle and sent a wrister past the glove of Calvin Pickard.

After a faceoff win in the Griffins zone, Chicago’s David Gust made it a two-goal game when he fired a one-timer into the left corner with 1:41 remaining.

The Detroit Red Wings embarked upon a stretch of 3 games to be played over the course of 4 nights on Wednesday, visiting Anthony Mantha and the Washington Capitals.

To their credit, the Red Wings battled back from a 2-0 deficit, earning a point on gritty goals by Adam Erne and Robby Fabbri; Thomas Greiss was excellent, stopping 26 shots; and Dylan Larkin scored the overtime winner on passes from Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider, affording Detroit a 3-2 OT victory in a fast-paced, intense game vs. the Capitals.

OT WINNER ?

Dylan Larkin rips home the @SUBWAYCanada OT winner for the @DetroitRedWings. #NHLonSN pic.twitter.com/1A0qfqsNAz— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) October 28, 2021

OT winner: Here is Dylan Larkin’s snipe that led the Red Wings to the 3-2 comeback win

VIDEO: @BallySportsDET pic.twitter.com/bIoC4fFLyu— Brad Galli (@BradGalli) October 28, 2021

Of prospect-related note in Europe today:

In the Finnish Liiga, Otto Kivenmaki finished even with 3 shots in 14:27 played as the Lahti Pelicans lost 3-2 in a shootout to Karpat Oulu;

Eemil Viro finished at -1 with 2 shots in 12:24 played during TPS Turku’s 5-2 win over JYP;

In the Swedish Allsvenskan, Albin Grewe finished at -1 with no shots and Gustav Berglund did not play in Mora IK’s 8-2 loss to IF Bjorkloven;

Jesper Eliasson served as the back-up in Almtuna IS’s 2-1 loss to BIK Karlskoga;

Filip Larsson stopped 17 of 20 shots in HV71 Jonkoping’s 6-3 win over Troja-Ljungby;

And in the Swedish J20 league, Liam Dower Nilsson scored a goal and added an assist, finishing at +1 with 5 shots and a 11-and-5 faceoff record in Frolunda HC’s 5-4 loss to Rogle BK.

Rakapuckar’s Henrik Lehman reports that LDN will play for Frolunda’s men’s team on Thursday.

Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff discusses the Red Wings’ rematch with one Anthony Mantha this evening:

Interestingly, [Mantha’s] numbers are showing the same production in Washington that Mantha was providing for Detroit. He’s netted six goals in 20 games with the Capitals. That works out to 0.30 goals per game. Mantha scored 95 goals in 316 games for the Red Wings. That’s also 0.30 goals per game.

He was recently promoted from the third line to second-line duty with the Caps alongside Connor McMichael and T.J. Oshie. However, the big winger was dropped from Washington’s struggling No. 1 power-play unit.

Vrana, currently out following shoulder surgery, scored eight goals in his first 11 games as a Red Wing.

While recognizing what Mantha meant to many in his team’s dressing room, Blashill assesses that Wednesday will just be business as usual once the puck drops.

“I think certainly he was a big piece of our group and really good friend to a number of our players, so that’s always different for those guys,” Blashill acknowledged. “But I also think it’s a new season and it’ll be more about getting opportunities for guys who are good friends with him to say hi and then competing against each other. So, I don’t expect it to be a real big deal.”

Continued

The Detroit Red Wings’ final game of the 2019-2020 season was supposed to take place against the Washington Capitals, but it was cancelled on March 12th, as was the rest of the NHL season. The team the Red Wings bring to Washington tonight is very different, as the Free Press’s Helene St. James notes:

“[Lucas Raymond] and Mo [Seider] have been outstanding for us,” [Robby] Fabbri said. “They’re fun to watch. They’re pretty special players and showing it early in their careers, which is nice.”

Raymond is one of multiple changes Yzerman made to the roster that limped toward the finish line in 2020. Gone are forwards Anthony Mantha, Luke Glendening, Darren Helm, Justin Abdelkader, Brendan Perlini, Valtteri Filppula, Frans Nielsen, Dmytro Timashov and Christoffer Ehn; defensemen Trevor Daley, Madison Bowey, Alex Biega, Jonathan Ericsson, Patrik Nemeth and Dennis Cholowski; and goaltenders Jonathan Bernier and Jimmy Howard.

Yzerman replaced Howard with Thomas Greiss, and Bernier with Alex Nedeljkovic. The defense has been bolstered by Seider, Nick Leddy, Marc Staal, Troy Stecher, Jordan Oesterle and the return of Danny DeKeyser from back surgery. Up front, Raymond, Pius Suter and Mitchell Stephens are among the new faces. Jakub Vrana was supposed to make up for the scoring lost in the Mantha in last season’s Mantha trade, but Vrana is out through January with a shoulder injury.

“There’s a process that has to happen when you’re in a rebuild where it takes time for draft picks to come to fruition,” Blashill said. “That’s one area where we are in a better spot today. And then obviously Steve has made some moves, whether it be signing free agents or through trades, that have definitely strengthened our team.”

Blashill wanted to eat dinner Tuesday at the same restaurant he had dinner March 11, 2020, when he saw the news that the NBA had shut down. What he saw was a reminder of the last 19 months.

“The place I went to eat was closed,” he said. “It was boarded up. We’ve all been through lots in the last year and a half. I look forward to not remembering. I look forward to where we recall it, but it’s been a while.”

Continued (paywall)

“The Word on Woodward’s” Daniella Bruce and Art Regner engaged in a 15-minute interview with Lucas Raymond:

As MLive’s Ansar Khan notes, the Red Wings will welcome Filip Hronek back into the lineup this evening:

Defenseman Filip Hronek returns to the lineup tonight after being a surprise healthy scratch the past two games. Gustav Lindstrom (undisclosed injury) is out tonight and possibly on the weekend, too.

“When Fil plays his best, he’s doing a real good job of moving the puck,” Blashill said. “He manages it well, takes what’s given, passes it to people when they’re open, lives another day if he needs do. I think he’s always been and has been all year highly competitive and his decision-making defensively is real good. I think he can be a really good all-around defenseman who can contribute on the power play and the penalty kill.”

Continued

As the Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan notes, the Red Wings’ final game of the 2019-2020 season was supposed to take place in the nation’s capital city, so coach Jeff Blashill admitted that it felt a little weird to return to Washington, DC:

“I remember being pretty sure we weren’t going to play, but there was no official word,” [Wings coach Jeff Blashill] said. “Then there was an official word we weren’t going to skate and just the unknown (of it all). I had conversations with (general manager) Steve Yzerman at that point and potentially flying to Tampa, that was our next opponent. And to think about that now, there was no chance we were going to play another game after.”

The NHL had a shortened 2020-21 season beginning in January with severe restrictions upon staff and players. Flashing forward, the Wings appear to be in a much better place.

The team was going through a historically bad season when the pandemic shut things down. As they returned to Washington on Wednesday, with rookies Moritz Seider and Lucas Raymond igniting things, the focus is on the future.

“(It was) as hard a year as I’ve been through professionally, and we were in a spot where we look back at it now, and think it was kind of rock bottom,” Blashill said. “(But) organizationally we started to trend in the right direction last year. We were better, and this year we have an opportunity to be better.

[Robby] Fabbri is appreciative of the return to some sense of normalcy.

“We have more freedom on the road (compared to last season),” he said. “We can go out to dinners and get out of the hotel and do things, which is nice. But you have to do your part to make sure you’re following the rules in different cities and do your part to keep yourself safe.”

Continued

It’s my least favorite time of the week, but financial pressures require me to do so, so:

This blog is generally free to use, and there are no commercial ads on this website. As I require money to operate it, however, I must raise funds from time to time.

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You’ll see these posts intermittently over the next couple of weeks. They’re not scintillating, but they’re necessary so that I can keep a roof over my head.

The Grand Rapids Griffins posted a game-day preview video ahead of tonight’s game against the Chicago Wolves (7 PM EDT on AHLTV.com):