Author: George Malik

The Detroit Red Wings hit the ice at Little Caesars Arena today to prepare for tomorrow’s home opener vs. Tampa Bay (7:30 PM EDT on Bally Sports Detroit/97.1 FM):

#RedWings lines/D pairs in final practice before tomorrow’s season-opener vs. Lightning at LCA:
Bertuzzi-Larkin-Raymond
Fabbri-Suter-Zadina
Namestnikov-Rasmussen-Erne
Smith/Rowney-Stephens-Gagner
DeKeyser-Hronek
Leddy-Seider
Staal-Lindstrom
Oesterle-Stecher pic.twitter.com/6gHklZiGvq— Ansar Khan (@AnsarKhanMLive) October 13, 2021

Arriving for work… It is Hockey Eve! Opening Night for the Red Wings is tomorrow night at LCA. They start with the Cup champion Lightning on Bally Sports Detroit… pic.twitter.com/k3WWTHGc0N— John Keating (@JohnKeatingBSD) October 13, 2021

#RedWings power play units:
1. Bertuzzi (net front), Erne (bumper), Larkin-Raymond (flanks), Leddy (point). Gagner rotating with Erne.
2. Suter (net front), Fabbri (bumper), Hronek-Zadina (flanks), Seider (point). Rasmussen rotating with Suter. pic.twitter.com/nw29YmZZWo— Ansar Khan (@AnsarKhanMLive) October 13, 2021

WXYZ’s Brad Galli also posted a clip of the top line doing drills:

DetroitRedWings.com’s Ethan Sears filed his morning notebook article today, discussing both Lucas Raymond making the Red Wings’ roster and the shape of the Wings’ power play:

The Red Wings practiced special teams at the end of Tuesday’s practice, giving a glimpse at what the power play units could look like on Thursday. There was a fair amount of rotating, with Blashill saying 13 guys are competing for 10 spots – a competition that may not be over by Opening Night.

“It doesn’t have to be to 10 in Game 1,” Blashill said. “Ultimately we’d like to get to where there’s chemistry built. I also think competition’s important, and we’ll (see) which guys get it done.”

On the first unit, Tyler Bertuzzi played net-front with Nick Leddy quarterbacking the group. Dylan Larkin and Raymond were on either side, with Adam Erne and Sam Gagner rotating in the middle slot.

On the second unit, Seider was up top with Filip Hronek, Robby Fabbri and Filip Zadina on the flanks and in the bumper spot. Pius Suter mostly played the net-front role, with Michael Rasmussen getting a couple of reps.

Due to injuries and roster rotation in the preseason, the Red Wings have only had limited chances to play their preferred groups together. But the power play looked much improved in the preseason compared to last year, when Detroit ranked 30th in conversion rate on the man advantage.

“I think when we’ve been successful, we’ve moved the puck crisply, we’ve moved it quickly and we haven’t forced plays,” Blashill said. “And when we’ve struggled, we’ve become too nonchalant with the puck or careless and forced plays. I thought it’s got a chance to be good power play units, but we’ve gotta move it quickly and make sure we don’t force plays.”

Continued

The Athletic’s Sean Shapiro discusses the imminent deal between Bally Sports Detroit and the Red Wings and Tigers in his sports business column this morning:

The exact term and valuation of the deal aren’t yet known, but inevitably other team executives are scrambling to find out how much the Red Wings got from Sinclair for the rights. In the past, Detroit was reportedly taking home $25 million per season from Sinclair, which was one of the most lucrative local TV deals in the United States for NHL teams.

Because of the ownership situation, the Red Wings’ deal isn’t exactly comparable for other NHL teams. When negotiating with Olympia Sports, Sinclair is also negotiating about the rights to the Tigers, which are roughly double the value because of the expanded inventory an MLB schedule offers.

But the fact Olympia stuck with Bally is a pretty clear indication that any rumbling that a team is trying to build its own regional sports network (RSN) is nothing more than public posturing or a negotiating tactic. Olympia has floated the idea of building its own RSN and even looked into finding a partnership with the NBA’s Detroit Pistons, but in the end, circled back to a more traditional model with the RSN.

Other NHL teams have tried to hint at building their own individual distribution models, but each time networks have called their bluff. It comes down to the financial situation; for an NHL team to go around the RSNs or build a straight-to-consumer model, it would have to find a way to make up $15 million, on average, in profit.

That cost, even with great advertising, would inevitably be put to the consumer. One source said it would likely cost at least $20 per month for a team, and even that price point is probably generous considering what teams would need to make for it to be worthwhile to try to distribute games themselves.

Continued (paywall)

97.1 the Ticket’s Will Burchfield notes that the Red Wings’ defensive depth may be the best that it’s been over the course of coach Jeff Blashill’s tenure with the team:

“We have the most depth on D that we’ve had probably since I’ve been here,” Blashill said Monday. “That, to me, is for sure.”

The Red Wings open the season Thursday night against the defending Cup champs. And they’ll likely have two healthy NHL defenseman watching from up top: Troy Stecher and free-agent acquisition Jordan Oesterle. Stecher was a regular in last year’s lineup. Oesterle surely would have been. That was before Moritz Seider showed up, before Gustav Lindstrom showed up for more and before Nick Leddy arrived via a trade.

Seider and Leddy are slated to play on Detroit’s second pair. Filip Hronek and DeKeyser are slated to play on the first, which says a lot about DeKeyser’s ongoing recovery from back surgery in 2019 — and a lot about back surgery itself. Nearly two years later, DeKeyser looks and feels more like himself. The third pair will likely be comprised of Lindstrom, who’s entering his first full NHL season, and Marc Staal, who’s entering his 15th. And at the first sign of trouble, Stecher and Oesterle will be waiting to swoop in.

“As I said to those defensemen, there’s going to be good players sitting out and they’re going to have to find a way to keep their heads above water and not let the mental strain (cause them) to lose confidence, because I just think it’s going to be really competitive back there,” Blashill said.

Continued

MLive’s Ansar Khan discusses 5 ways in which the Red Wings can improve upon last season’s performance this morning, and these two points struck me as the most important in terms of means by which the team can better themselves:

A reliable second scoring line: Pius Suter could solidify the troublesome second-line center spot. He collected 14 goals and 27 points in 55 games as a 24-year-old rookie with Chicago last season. He will be paired, at least initially, with his former junior teammate Robby Fabbri. Fabbri is another player who missed time last season due to illness (COVID-19) and injury (concussion), but produced when healthy (10 goals, 18 points in 30 games). He has 24 goals and 49 points in 82 games over parts of two seasons in Detroit, where he has resurrected a career plagued by knee injuries.

A potent power play: The Red Wings’ 11.8 percent conversion rate last season on the power play was their worst in recent memory. They have ranked 30th, 29th, 19th, 24th and 27th in the league on the man-advantage the past five seasons. But they didn’t have a former highly skilled player in charge of this vital area of the game before. New assistant coach Alex Tanguay has stressed quicker puck movement and encouraged players to use their instincts more rather than going by the book. Entries, one of the main issues last season, have been noticeably smoother in the preseason. The additions of Suter in the net-front/slot area, Lucas Raymond with his seam passing and Nick Leddy and Moritz Seider at the point provide more depth on the units.

Continued; secondary scoring is a primary concern for the team, as are better special teams.

The Free Press’s Helene St. James posted an early-morning article discussing Red Wings forward Lucas Raymond’s challenges as he prepares for his NHL debut, and the ways in which Raymond’s linemates can help him along the way:

“[Dylan Larkin] gives anybody he plays with pace, and one thing Lucas has to continue to learn is how to play at that higher pace,” coach Jeff Blashill said. “He’s a really smart player that has to move his feet more, to go get pucks. [Tyler Bertuzzi] is a guy who goes gets puck a lot, Larks brings a high pace and Lucas is a really smart offensive player.”

It’s a fitting compliment for Larkin that he’s now the captain who will center a talented young rookie; six years ago he was the talented rookie and Henrik Zetterberg the captain and center. Larkin repeatedly has raved about how smart a player Raymond is, and Raymond has felt at ease being his linemate.

“Dylan is a great player and a great leader off the ice,” Raymond said. “When I’ve played with him it’s been really, really easy, because he’s a really smart player. He plays with a lot of speed and does everything at a high pace, and has a great mind. He’s easy to read off.”

Raymond and Seider, 20, played in the Swedish Hockey League last season, so they are used to playing with men. But they’ve never faced anything like the rigors of an 82-game schedule.

“There’s nothing like the NHL in terms of the day-to-day competition, the pressure, internally, externally, that you face,” Blashill said. “Part of becoming an elite athlete is mental toughness matters tons. Guys that can take coaching, can take positive reinforcement, can take criticism, and stay pretty even keeled and continue to do what they think is right on the ice are the ones that are ultimately have success. Both of those two young guys have that mental makeup, and I think it will be critical to their success.”

Continued (paywall)

As NHL.com’s Stan Fischler notes this morning, former Red Wings coach and GM Jack Adams had one hell of a knack for finding NHL-caliber goaltenders during the Original Six era. If only he held onto them…

No NHL executive has had as good fortune at discovering elite goalies as former Detroit Red Wings boss Jack Adams. 

Adams had the uncanny ability to find the right goalie at the right time, beginning in 1934 when the Red Wings acquired Normie Smith from the Montreal Maroons. Smith helped Detroit win the Stanley Cup in 1936 and 1937 and led the League in wins each season. He starred in the longest game ever played in the NHL, when he made 92 saves in a 1-0 win against the Maroons that was decided at 16:30 of the sixth overtime on March 24, 1936. 

Smith merely was the first in Adams’ production line of quality goalies. His next ace arrived in 1940 when future Stanley Cup and Vezina Trophy-winner Johnny Mowers signed with the Red Wings. Adams’ goalie magic lasted until the mid-1960’s when his final discovery, Roger Crozier, became the first player from a losing team to win a Conn Smythe Trophy voted as MVP of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Between the reigns of Mowers and Crozier, Detroit’s minor league farm teams produced such legendary goalies as Harry Lumley, Terry Sawchuk and Glenn Hall, each a Hall of Famer.

Continued

Per TSN’s Insider Trading:

NHL almost fully vaccinated

It was about a month ago that NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly came out and said he anticipated by the time the puck dropped on the NHL regular season 98 per cent, maybe even 99 per cent of the players would be fully vaccinated, how did they do?

Johnston: They scored even better than that, which is not something any of us saw in our schooling careers of course, but as the NHL season started on Tuesday there were just four players on NHL active rosters that were considered unvaccinated. That is quite a contrast of what we’ve seen in the other leagues, you know on this day the Brooklyn Nets suspended, essentially, their star player Kyrie Irving saying he won’t play or practice while going through that. Two of the players that we know are unvaccinated in the NHL are Mackenzie Blackwood of the Devils, who told reporters over the weekend that he thinks he’ll likely get a shot at some point in the next few weeks. Another holdout is Tyler Bertuzzi of the Detroit Red Wings, it doesn’t remain clear if he’ll get it but needless to say we’re already very, very close to 100 per cent and there is a chance we get there before the end of this season.

Per the Detroit Free Press’s Evan Petzold:

Bally Sports Detroit isn’t going anywhere.

The regional sports network, part of Sinclair Broadcast Group, has agreed to multi-year contract extensions with the Detroit Tigers and Detroit Red Wings to continue broadcasting games, sources with knowledge of the situation told the Free Press on Tuesday night.

A formal announcement could come as soon as Wednesday.

Bally Sports Detroit does not anticipate changes in talent at this time and seems pleased with its group of on-air staffers, headlined by hosts and reporters John Keating, Mickey York, Johnny Kane and Trevor Thompson.

For the Tigers, Matt Shepard has been the play-by-play announcer since 2018. He works with analysts Kirk Gibson and Jack Morris and studio analysts Dan Petry and Craig Monroe. For the Red Wings, play-by-play announcer Ken Daniels and analyst Mickey Redmond have called games together since 1997. Chris Osgood and Larry Murphy provide analysis in the studio.

Continued

Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen penned a subscriber-only article regarding Lucas Raymond making the team, noting that Raymond will have to step into Jakub Vrana’s shoes to some extent, and Allen also discusses the parallels between Raymond and both Dylan Larkin and a certain Moritz Seider:

(Vrana) is a big player in this team and then of course when a player like him gets injured, it opens up a spot,” Raymond said. “And I think everyone during the training camp had a chance to get in that spot.”

But it was Raymond who took advantage of it. The Red Wings only had one real roster spot open up front. Veteran Bobby Ryan was released from his tryout contract Monday. Another promising rookie, Joe Veleno, was sent to Grand Rapids yesterday. He had played solidly in training camp, but doesn’t boast the offensive magic that Raymond commands.

Jonatan Berggren might have had a shot, but he was injured early in training camp and never really got going. He also ended up in Grand Rapids.

It’s interesting to note that Seider and Raymond, the only two prospects to make the team, were Yzerman’s first round picks over the previous two seasons. Raymond is moving in with Seider. Raymond said early in training camp that Veleno had been his “Uber Driver.” Seider just bought a new car. “So now he has that spot,” Raymond said.

Continued (paywall)