Author: George Malik

Red Wings director of amateur scouting Kris Draper spoke with the Woodward Sports Network’s “Big D Energy” show regarding his expectations for the preseason:

Of prospect-related note in Europe:

In the Swedish Allsvenskan, Filip Larsson served as the back-up in HV71 Jonkoping’s 4-1 win over Vasteras IK;

In the Finnish Liiga, Albin Grewe missed Ilves Tampere’s 4-2 win over Assat;

Eemil Viro finished at -1 with 2 shots in 17:42 played as TPS Turku lost 3-2 to KooKoo;

And Otto Kivenmaki finished at -1 with 1 shot in a healthy 16:21 played as the Lahti Pelicans lost 5-3 to JYP.

MLive’s Ansar Khan took note of this remark from Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill regarding the difficulties involved in balancing his team’s lineup as the Wings prepare to play 8 exhibition games over the course of 11 days–including a 3-games-in-3-days stretch this weekend:

Coach Jeff Blashill explained on Tuesday how the staff determines how many games each player will play.

“It’s a little bit like that movie, ‘A Beautiful Mind,’ ” Blashill said. “You have all these numbers, and we have an excel spreadsheet we work off of and we plan it ahead of time and then three guys get hurt and you kind of re-plan it.

“The first two games we’re going to try to not have anybody play back-to-back unless something unforeseen happens. Larks, Bert, Staal and DK won’t play those first two games. We’ve got a set number of games for each player we try to get depending on where they’re at, what positions they’re fighting for, how many years they’ve been in the league. They need to be ready and hit the ground running. We try to stay within those set number of games, but it depends on injuries, how the guys play and all that stuff.”

Continued

The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan notes that Red Wings free agent signing Pius Suter and forward Robby Fabbri have been reunited on ice, as the pair played together in the Ontario Hockey League for the Guelph Storm:

[Red Wings coach Jeff] Blashill has had Suter and Fabbri together through training camp (Vrana was expected to complete the line), hoping the two can find their junior hockey chemistry.

“It’s been good to get on the ice with him in camp,” Fabbri said. “It’s going to be fun playing with him. Brings back memories.”

Suter, who the Wings signed as an unrestricted free agent in July, noted how the chemistry is returning in time through practices and continually being on the ice.

“We played a few games way back in Guelph, but it’s been a while,” Suter said. “As time goes on, every practice you kind of feel how he thinks, how I think, how we’re going to play it out. The more you play together the more you’re going to read off each other better, so with every game it’s going to improve. He’s a quick, smart player, so I don’t think it will take us too long.”

Continued

Reporting from Moon Base Alpha again…In other words, I made it home from Traverse City in one piece today, and am unpacked, doing laundry, and catching up on today’s stories.

The weather is very different here–in Traverse City, fall is peeking out of the trees, while it feels like summer here, even though this is the time of the year when Metro Detroit and Traverse City have the same weather temperature-wise–but I’ve taken a Tylenol Cold to help with the allergies, and Aunt Annie is very happy to see me back home as well.

I want to thank each and every one of you for contributing to the Traverse City trip and reading my articles while I was up there. I’m just so incredibly grateful for your generosity and your readership. I really don’t have enough of a grasp of the English language, degree included, to put my gratitude into words, so I just busted my ass over the past 15 days to give you as much as I possibly could.

Here’s the Red Wings’ lineup for tonight’s game vs. Chicago (8:30 PM EDT on the NHL Network [joined in progress around 9:30 PM], NBC Sports Chicago Plus, and WWJ Newsradio 950):

Our lineup in Chicago.

?: @WWJ950 | #LGRW pic.twitter.com/IVwxelBW8H

— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) September 29, 2021

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

PROJECTED LINEUP

Kubalik – Toews – Kurashev
Hagel – Dach – Connolly
Reichel – Borgstrom – Nylander
Khaira – Entwistle – Gaudette

Stillman – Murphy
C. Jones – Kalynuk
Phillips – Beaudin

Lankinen
Soderblom

Enjoy 46-seconds of time-lapsed footage of the ice going in at Van Andel Arena:

DetroitRedWings.com’s Ethan Sears filed a notebook article this morning, discussing Lucas Raymond’s chances of making the team, Danny DeKeyser’s recovery from surgery, and a set of personnel notes. Here’s his discussion of DeKeyser’s health:

There was a point last season where Danny DeKeyser didn’t know if he’d get better.

After undergoing major back surgery, DeKeyser struggled upon his return. He didn’t feel 100 percent, having lost strength in his left leg due to nerve damage that made it hard for the leg to fire properly.

“There was days where my hamstring would fire and my calf wouldn’t fire or vice versa,” DeKeyser said. “Kinda had to work to get everything working consistently together, so that whole chain produces a lot more strength.”

Late in the year, though, something clicked. He began to feel close to 100 percent, started playing better and looking like himself. Now, during training camp, Blashill has been talking of him as a “human eraser.”

“We give up a 2 on 1, a guy tries to go to the backdoor, he knocks it out of the air, or he gets stick on puck” Blashill said Saturday. “Or there’s breakdown in front of net and he’s able to get stick on puck. These are all kinds of things where people have made mistakes and you need a defensive play.”

“… He makes a lot of big-time defensive plays that becomes a human eraser for other people’s mistakes.”

Continued; here’s hoping that both DeKeyser and Filip Hronek find consistent form for the Red Wings this season.

I’ve been getting some questions about this one, so:

If you missed my discussion of the preseason game television/radio situation in yesterday’s practice impressions:

1. Tonight’s game between the Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Blackhawks (8:30 PM EDT start) will be “Joined in Progress” by the NHL Network, which is airing a 7 PM-start game between the Devils and Caps first (so the game will be joined in progress around 9:30), and it airs on NBC Sports Chicago Plus in the Blackhawks’ TV area.
2. Ken Kal and Paul Woods will also cover the game on the radio:

Hey Red Wings fans, Paul Woods and I will be calling tonight’s game from Chicago. You can hear all the action at 8:15pm @WWJ950 #tunein— Ken Kal (@KenKalDRW) September 29, 2021

3. Kal and Woods will also webcast the Red Wings-Sabres game on Thursday, September 30th (that’s tomorrow, a 7:30 PM EST start) on the Wings’ YouTube channel:

4. I have been told that the Red Wings’ exhibition games vs. Columbus on Saturday (7 PM EDT), Chicago on Monday (7:30 PM EDT) and Thursday vs. Pittsburgh (7:30 PM EDT) will all air on Bally Sports Detroit;

5. Kal and the Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan gave me the following radio schedule yesterday:

September 30 vs. Buffalo will air starting at 7:15 PM on WWJ;

October 6 @ Columbus starts at 6:45 PM 97.1 the Ticket;

And October 7th vs. Pittsburgh starts at 7 PM 97.1 the Ticket.

6. I am fairly certain that Sunday’s matinee game vs. Pittsburgh (1 PM EDT start) will be streamed but geo-blocked on the Penguins’ website, as they’re streaming their home games;

7. The other two games, at Columbus on October 6th (7 PM EDT) and Buffalo on October 9th (3 PM EDT start) are Mystery Games as far as TV or web coverage goes.

There have been rumblings of the Blue Jackets and Sabres picking up other teams’ streams, so they don’t seem to be doing their own thing. We’ll find out what happens with these two games over the course of the next week.

DetroitRedWings.com’s Daniella Bruce and Arthur J. Regner sat down for a lengthy interview with Red Wings prospect tournament/training camp try-out T-Bone Codd, who’s a Michigan native and a winger for the OHL’s Saginaw Spirit: