Author: George Malik

The Detroit Red Wings face off against the Columbus Blue Jackets this evening (7 PM EDT on 97.1 the Ticket), and Ken Kal Tweeted out tonight’s lineup…

Tonight’s Red Wings line up vs Columbus. pic.twitter.com/DxgUwuf8wg— Ken Kal (@KenKalDRW) October 6, 2021

As did The Athletic’s Max Bultman…

Morning skate lines from Detroit’s game group

Zadina-Larkin-Raymond
Erne-Veleno-Ryan
Berggren-Stephens-Barber
Smith-Rowney-Elson

Renouf-Seider
Lashoff-Stecher
Sebrango-Lindstrom
Brubacher— Max Bultman (@m_bultman) October 6, 2021

And MLive’s Ansar Khan:

#RedWings lineup for tonight’s preseason game at Columbus: pic.twitter.com/Hbz9VN5Ol6— Ansar Khan (@AnsarKhanMLive) October 6, 2021

Update #1: We’ve seen this before:

Larkin and Raymond working on their no-look passes to each other pic.twitter.com/n22b3QmwFb— Max Bultman (@m_bultman) October 6, 2021

FYI:

UPDATE: The #RedWings today assigned defenseman Alex Cotton to the WHL’s Lethbridge Hurricanes and released right wing Davis “T-Bone” Codd and defenseman Mason Word from their amateur tryouts.

More » https://t.co/wO7eNZ2A8r pic.twitter.com/FMwm3yqE6v— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) October 6, 2021

Expressen’s Albin Julin and Adam Johansson spoke with several former NHL players regarding Robin Lehner’s accusations that former NHL teams handed out prescription medication on demand, and Nicklas Lidstrom addresses his situation with the Red Wings.

What follows is the pertinent part of Julin and Johansson’s article, roughly translated from Swedish:

Red Wings prospect Albin Grewe, who’s all of 20 years of age, has bounced around over the past couple of seasons, and Aftonbladet’s Mattias Karlsson reports this morning that Grewe will play for Mora IK of the Swedish Allsvenskan after being released by Ilves Tampere yesterday.

Mora’s website reports that Grewe’s signed a two-year contract with the team.

The Free Press’s Tyler J. Davis posted a mini Red Wings-Blue Jackets game preview ahead of tonight’s match-up (7 PM EDT start), and he confirms that tonight’s game will not air on TV anywhere.

Tonight’s game is a radio-only affair in both the Red Wings and Blue Jackets’ marketplaces, with 97.1 the Ticket and Columbus’ 97.1 The Fan being the only places broadcasting the game.

Here’s Davis’ game preview:

Game notes: The Wings meet the Blue Jackets in a rematch of Saturday’s exhibtion. Detroit won that one convincingly, 5-1, behind two goals from Dylan Larkin. Larkin is unlikely to play Wednesday, but Lucas Raymond may. Raymond, the Wings’ 2020 first-round pick, leads the team with six points in just three preseason games. 

The Wings have two more exhibitions following Wednesday’s contest. Fans will get one final look at potential starters in a Thursday night home meeting with the Pittsburgh Penguins. Detroit closes the preseason on the road vs. the Buffalo Sabres before the Oct. 14 season opener vs. the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Thursday’s game airs on Bally Sports Detroit, but I’m not sure whether the Sabres’ website will stream Saturday’s game or not. In any case, for tonight, at least, we’ll have to leave the goals to our imaginations, which seems a little silly in 2021.

Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff explains how, 89 years ago today, the Detroit Red Wings were officially born:

Detroit’s NHL team was born as the Cougars and became the Falcons but it wasn’t until the team was christened the Red Wings that the franchise truly arrived in the NHL.

It was on October 5, 1932 that the announcement was made that henceforth, Detroit’s NHL team would be known as the Red Wings.

“Detroit Falcons became the Detroit Red Wings in the National Hockey League and John Ross Roach of New York Rangers became the regular goaltender for the Motor City troupe as the new hockey interests started housecleaning and remodeling for the 1932-33 season,” Windsor’s Border Cities Star reported of the October 5, decision to rename the team.

The story continues…

ESPN’s Victoria Matiash, Sean Allen, Arda Ocal and Greg Wysyhnski engaged in a roundtable discussion, making fantasy hockey picks, and Allen believes that Moritz Seider should be a breakout rookie for the Red Wings:

Sean:Moritz Seider, D, Detroit Red Wings. Everything is lined up to give Seider the best chance at success this season. He has pro experience in North America already, having skated in the AHL back in 2019-20. In Nick Leddy, the Red Wings brought Seider an experienced defense partner that has had success being a two-way force in the game for many years. Seider has natural offense to his game and the Red Wings have a desperate need of it being generated from the blue line.

Continued; here’s hoping.

MLive’s Ansar Khan filed a notebook article discussing Tyler Bertuzzi’s tentative preseason status, Robby Fabbri’s play, and Moritz Seider’s status as having played an up-and-down game last night, alongside defensive partner Nick Leddy:

Moritz Seider scored one of the team’s four power-play goals in Monday’s 6-4 loss to Chicago, blasting in a one-timer on a pass from Filip Zadina. Seider also had an assist, but he struggled at times defensively, posting a minus-3 rating.

“I thought Mo had moments of really good and Mo had moments where he’s got to be way better, probably same for (Nick Leddy, his defense partner),” Blashill said. “They looked like they were a real good pair and then they had moments where they created some trouble for themselves when they didn’t need to.”

Blashill said Seider needs to move the puck quicker.

“Take what’s given, not panic by any stretch,” Blashill said. “He’s got such great poise and he’s so strong that at times he wants to hold onto it and draw people to him, but if you don’t need to, you don’t need to. We got to be a team that moves it up the ice quick.

“But he certainly has some good moments, too. He’s going to be a good player and our job is to help him become the best player he can become. I told him I don’t want him to be a solid player in the NHL, I want him to be a really good player in the NHL, and for that I’m going to make sure that I’m on him and we’re pushing him to be the very best.”

Continued; Moritz is human, after all. He’s going to have rough games at times as he adjusts to NHL-level play.

Of prospect-related note in Europe:

In the Champions Hockey League, Simon Edvinsson finished even with 3 shots in 20:17 played, Theodor Niederbach finished even with a 66% faceoff win percentage in 9:17 played, and Elmer Soderblom finished even with 2 shots in 9:46 played as Frolunda HC won 3-2 over IFK Helsinki;

Eemil Viro finished even with 1 shot in 14:34 played as TPS Turku won 3-1 over the Vaxjo Lakers;

And William Wallinder played as the 7th defenseman, finishing at -1 in 9:57 played during Rogle BK’s 3-2 win over Sonderjyske Vojens.

DetroitRedWings.com’s Ethan Sears has broken down the battle for forward spots on the Red Wings’ roster heading into tomorrow’s game vs. the Columbus Blue Jackets (7 PM EDT start, no TV?/97.1 the Ticket), offering this post-Lucas Raymond-discussion take on the state of the forward corps:

Really, [Raymond’s status is] one of just a few questions swirling around what the 23-man squad will look like when the puck drops on Oct. 14 against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Starting with Wednesday night’s affair against the Columbus Blue Jackets (7:00 p.m.), the Red Wings have just three preseason games left to find the answers.

Coming out of training camp, we had a pretty good idea of how the defense would shape up. Blashill said during camp that he planned to carry eight defensemen. Nick Leddy, Moritz Seider, Danny DeKeyser, Filip Hronek, Troy Stecher, Marc Staal, Gustav Lindstrom and Jordan Oesterle were the obvious players to fill those spots at the time, and nothing has happened to change that. Alex Nedeljkovic and Thomas Greiss were always going to be the two goaltenders on the roster barring injury.

That leaves 13 forwards – which is where things get complicated.

Blashill said before Monday night’s game that he wants the Red Wings to be “fairly close” to their Opening Night roster by Saturday’s preseason finale against the Buffalo Sabres. In a perfect world, things would have more clarity, but because of Jakub Vrana‘s shoulder surgery – which will keep him out for the season’s first four months – and Tyler Bertuzzi‘s ongoing recovery from back surgery, the Red Wings have questions as to what their top line will look like.

“Ultimately he’s gotta be ready for game 1 against Tampa,” Blashill said of Bertuzzi, later adding that he’s been cleared. “And there’s a lot of different ways you can get ready.”

Continued