Author: George Malik

Winging It in Motown contributor Kyle McIlmurray’s beloved friend, a Boston Terrier named Butters, is going to lose his left eye to glaucoma, and Kyle had to take out a loan to pay for Butters’ care.

I’m not afraid to ask you to help me raise funds as a commercial-free blog, but I think this is a lot more important right now, so if you can lend a hand to Kyle, please consider doing so:

Hey friends. Unfortunately I had to take a loan out to get Butters the best care and ophthalmology team as quickly possible. If you can help at all, it would mean a great deal to us. ❤️https://t.co/rOPoitKfgG— Kyle M. (@KyleWIIM) October 5, 2021

He’s in good spirits. He’s in good hands. Thank you all so much. ❤️ pic.twitter.com/WDgSrGk8vl— Kyle M. (@KyleWIIM) October 5, 2021

You can donate to his GoFundMe here. I gave some of the Traverse City $ to Kyle if that’s okay.

The Athletic’s Sean “Down Goes Brown” McIndoe and Scott Wheeler published two very different articles this morning, with “DGB” discussing potential divisions for NHL teams based upon their predicted performances (in which the Wings qualify as “Bottom Feeder” stock)…

Detroit Red Wings

Last season: 19-27-10, -43, missed playoffs

Their offseason in one sentence: It was another relatively quiet offseason for Steve Yzerman, although he did land Alex Nedeljkovic for a third and get him signed to a reasonable deal.

Why they’re here: Like a few other teams on this list, the Wings are still in rebuild mode and don’t seem to be in a huge hurry to make a push back into the playoff picture. Given their top-heavy division, that’s probably wise. It’s certainly possible Nedeljkovic lives up to the high expectations, as he looks to follow his excellent rookie year with, uh, another excellent rookie year. Look, the Calder eligibility rules are weird, you’re just going to have to trust me.

(Yes, a quiet offseason for a team that jettisoned half-a-dozen veterans, brought in half-a-dozen new players, and is giving Moritz Seider and Lucas Raymond opportunities to make the team)…

And Scott Wheeler breaks down probable Canadian Hockey League (i.e. Major Junior team finishes, with this rather smarmy remark regarding Sebastian Cossa probably finishing as the WHL’s goalie of the year:

Top goalie: Sebastian Cossa (Detroit Red Wings)

This one probably isn’t going to be close. Cossa scared me a little with his spotty play in Calgary and Traverse City, but he’s the best goalie in the league and he gets to play behind its best team.

He had one horrible game. ONE game. Oy.

Updated at 10:03 AM: MLive’s Ansar Khan and the Free Press’s Helene St. James both posted articles discussing Lucas Raymond’s dominant preseason performances this morning, with Khan discussing how Raymond is making it hard for the Red Wings to send him to Grand Rapids…

The fourth overall pick in the 2020 draft has been one of the main storylines in each of his three preseason games – for the right reasons. He contributed a goal and an assist in Monday’s 6-4 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks at Little Caesars Arena and leads the team with six points (two goals, four assists).

“My mindset was to do whatever I can to make the team and do the things I can control and impact and then it’s up to the staff to decide,” Raymond said.

Raymond will get at least one and possibly two more exhibitions before the Red Wings make their final cuts and set their 23-man season-opening roster.

“Obviously, we don’t have to make that decision yet,” coach Jeff Blashill said. “He’s played good in the games he’s played so far and that’s all he can do, take the challenges he has ahead of him and do a good job. He’s got a mature game for a young guy, and he’s obviously got talent. Let’s keep evaluating.”

Raymond will only stick around if he is logging decent minutes on a top-two line and playing on the power play.

Jakub Vrana will miss at least four months due to shoulder surgery. That creates an opportunity for a skilled player. It could prompt the Red Wings to sign veteran Bobby Ryan, in camp on a tryout. But that wouldn’t necessarily preclude the team from keeping Raymond around.

And St. James discusses similar themes in a subscriber-only missive:

The Toledo Blade’s Mark Monroe reports that the ECHL’s Toledo Walleye inked a scoring forward two weeks before the start of the ECHL season:

The Toledo Walleye have signed Matt Berry, a forward who has averaged nearly a point per game in the ECHL in five seasons.

Berry, a native of Canton, Mich., has amassed 165 points in 171 career ECHL contests. Berry has scored 67 goals to go along with 98 assists. The 29-year-old has played for Utah, Florida, and Kalamazoo in the ECHL. He has also a plus-minus rating of plus-54 in those games.

Berry also has played in 62 games in the American Hockey League, producing 22 points (7 G, 15 A).

Walleye coach Dan Watson said Berry will bring an offensive touch to the team.

“He will be counted on heavily to play against other teams’ top players, contribute on the power play, and provide leadership,” Watson said.

Continued

The Detroit Red Wings dropped a 6-4 decision to the Chicago Blackhawks on Monday night, wrapping up their stretch of 3 games played over the course of 3 days with a 1-and-2 record.

Detroit is now 3-and-2 in the preseason, with three more games remaining (Wednesday @ Columbus, Thursday vs. Pittsburgh and Saturday @ Buffalo).

Monday’s effort was a wild and woolly game, in which Detroit rallied from 3-0 and 4-1 deficits, in no small part thanks to a 4-for-5 power play, but the Wings couldn’t solve Marc-Andre Fleury for the winner in an up-and-down third period, and, ultimately, the Wings’ mistakes against the high-flying Hawks came back to bite them in their collective hockey pants.

NHL.com posted a concise recap…

The Detroit Red Wings wrapped up a slate of 3 games played over the course of 3 days and nights with a 6-4 loss to a loaded Chicago Blackhawks team on Monday.

Detroit did a fine job of rallying from 3-0 and 4-1 deficits to tie the game at 4-4 thanks to a 4-for-5 power play, but Chicago was able to pull away late in the 3rd period, negating excellent efforts by Lucas Raymond, Moritz Seider, Robby Fabbri and the rest of the Red Wings’ youth movement.

The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan took note of coach Jeff Blashill’s remarks regarding Tyler Bertuzzi’s status as not-quite-ready-to-play as he continues to recover from back surgery:

“You’d love to do that; you’d love to have him play a few games,” coach Jeff Blashill said. “But he’s in a spot where we’re progressing him and we’ll see. I’m not going to put a timeline on it, and I’m not going to say that it’s something that is a must.  He has to be ready for Game 1 against Tampa and there are a lot of different ways you can be ready. Some of it is playing in the exhibition season, but we’ll see how it progresses.”

Bertuzzi has been physically cleared to practice and play, and has been a regular in practices since the start of training camp. He also played in the intrasquad Red & White scrimmage. But through five exhibition games, Bertuzzi has yet to play as the Wings remain cautious with the forward.

“Returning to play coming off a major back surgery, there’s a lot that goes into that,” Blashill said. “Part of it is just getting your body ready. He hasn’t skated this hard in a lot of months, way more than other people. Part of it is just getting his body ready and getting into a spot to be ready to feel comfortable to go out and be successful.”

Blashill said Bertuzzi would take part in Monday’s practice. But whether Bertuzzi would be able to jump into an exhibition game later in the week remained unclear.

“Our goal is for him to be ready for Game 1 against Tampa,” Blashill said. “We’d love to get him in exhibition games, they can help you feel your way into it. We’d love to get him some games, but right now we’re trying to keep progressing at the right speed.”

Continued

MLive’s Ansar Khan filed an article discussing the challenges which Lucas Raymond faces in terms of making the Red Wings’ roster as the exhibition season progresses:

“The challenges are going to get greater and greater as the exhibition season goes along, so he’s got to continue to make a big impact as the lineups get better and better.” Coach Jeff Blashill said.

Raymond had a goal and an assist in Thursday’s 6-2 victory over Buffalo while playing on a line with Pius Suter and Robby Fabbri. Then he made two terrific seam passes on the power play in Saturday’s 5-1 victory over Columbus to set up goals by Dylan Larkin and Joe Veleno.

“He’s got confidence, he’s got a swagger to his game,” Larkin said. “He’s a smart headsy hockey player and he waits and waits, and then it’s right on your tape. He is going to be a special player. I think he’s got a great attitude about the game. He loves hockey, loves making plays like that. And I think his game is very responsible where he’s going to earn trust from any coach he plays for.”

Raymond will make the season-opening roster only if he is logging a decent amount of ice time on one of the top three lines – if not top two –and playing on the power play. Otherwise, he will start with the AHL Grand Rapids Griffins, but likely would be the first forwards recalled.

“It’s something he can make a statement on, his power-play plays,” Blashill said. “He’s a guy who I think ultimately can be a real good power-play player. He’s got to keep proving it. Part of being able to make seam passes is somebody probably screwed up at the other end, but he’s got good deception. He hit people on the tape. All he can do is face the challenges he’s facing and so far, he’s doing a good job.”

Continued

The Red Wings Tweeted out their lineup for tonight’s game vs. the Chicago Blackhawks (7:30 PM EDT on Bally Sports Detroit/NBCSCH):

Game #5.#LGRW pic.twitter.com/m9pl4broy6

— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) October 4, 2021

ChicagoBlackhawks.com’s Carter Baum posted the Hawks’ lineup earlier today:

#Blackhawks depart for Detroit soon for tonight’s preseason tilt.

Projected lineup:
DeBrincat – T. Johnson – Kane
Kubalik – Toews – Kurashev
Hardman – Borgstrom – Carpenter
Hagel – Gaudette – Entwistle

McCabe – S. Jones
de Haan – Murphy
C. Jones – Galvashttps://t.co/sKEsjaik0m

— Carter Baum (@CarterBaum) October 4, 2021

DetroitRedWings.com’s Daniella Bruce and 97.1 the Ticket’s Ken Kal preview tonight’s game vs. Chicago (7:30 PM EDT on FSD/NBCSCH):

The Wings also posted a teaser for Episode 3 of “The Winged Wheel”: