Author: George Malik

All my life–since I was a very little kid–I can remember living with chronic anxiety and depression.

From answering the door to talk to the Jehovah’s Witnesses that had a Kingdom Hall two blocks away to ordering at McDonald’s to starting my homework to facing a test in school to doing laundry, I’ve always had a heightened level of anticipatory anxiety, toward everything I do in my life, and there are times that the anxiety I feel is disabling.

I take medication to combat my anxiety, under a psychiatrist’s care, and I see a therapist. I have been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder and major depression–they walk hand in hand in my case–and I’ve made a lot of progress in my life as far as dealing with anxiety and depression goes…

But my brain chemistry is messed up, my perceptions don’t necessarily match reality when it comes to anticipating anxiety-causing actions, and no amount of the little blue pill I take called Klonopin can knock my anxiety below what is probably a 9 on a normal person’s scale of 1 to 10.

Long story long, despite a lot of support from my family and friends (and readers!), psychiatric medication and significant progress made in terms of coping skills, I deal with anticipatory anxiety on a daily basis, on a task-by-task basis, and even though I’ve been blogging since 2006 and talking about hockey online since 1999, this whole blogging business causes me anxiety.

Most of the time, I’m able to battle through it, but there are times that I have episodes where the anxiety spirals out of control, and it can literally knock me off my feet.

I live with psychiatric disabilities. I try my best to be productive and useful to others.

I care for my aunt, I care for myself as best I can, and I try to keep this blogging business going on a semi-professional level. But there are days that I can’t make it through it all–or any of it.

I don’t expect you to understand it, to relate, or to even have sympathy for people with mental illness, but I do think that you should know why there are times that I miss games or “miss time,” and I do still believe that, at least most of the time, I can work through my illnesses to provide you with a solid product.

I’m trying my best every day, but some days are better than others, still, and that’s frustrating as hell for me, but I’m going to keep trying.

I hope you’ll come along for the ride.

The Detroit Red Wings face off against the Carolina Hurricanes tonight at 7 PM EST (on FSD+ and 97.1 the Ticket), hoping to avenge Thursday’s 3-0 loss.

The Wings plugged their “Morning Skate” webcast with their first Tweet of the morning…

We’re live at Morning Skate presented by: @littlecaesars. #CARvsDET #LGRW

Tune in » https://t.co/FpcREWdS2q pic.twitter.com/u3vFBa8WPt— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) January 16, 2021

For what it’s worth, Thomas Greiss was the goaltender who stayed on the ice the longest, and Darren Helm was allowed to skate with the team this morning…

The Athletic’s Max Bultman confirmed…

Jonathan Bernier is the first goalie off the ice this morning for the Red Wings— Max Bultman (@m_bultman) January 16, 2021

Darren Helm is out there skating, too— Max Bultman (@m_bultman) January 16, 2021

FYI:

Toronto Maple Leafs president Brendan Shanahan appeared on the “Ray and Dregs Podcast” with Ray Ferraro and Darren Dreger a couple of days ago…

And the Detroit News’s Mark Falkner took note of Shanahan’s remarks:

“When a sentence starts off with no one has ever won like this, I remember when people would say no one has won with Russians, no one has ever won with a European captain, no one has even won when they’ve been in last place in January … and then someone does,” Shanahan said on this week’s edition of The Ray & Dregs Hockey Podcast, featuring TSN insider Darren Dreger and analyst Ray Ferraro, whose son Landon was drafted by Detroit in 2009.

“Every time a Stanley Cup is given out, we sort of look at that team and how they’ve been assembled. Are they a puck-moving speed team? Ok, well let’s copy that. The next year, a big physical team wins and we say, let’s copy that. I think what’s important to learn is there’s a lot of different ways that you can win this thing.”

The Red Wings were the first team to win the Cup with a Russian-dominated lineup in 1997 and with Nicklas Lidstrom as the first European captain in 2002. The St. Louis Blues were in last place on Jan. 2 in 2019 but won the title for the first time in 52 years.

Shanahan, the only player in NHL history with 600 career goals and 2,000 penalty minutes, said the Leafs have tried to find “the balance between analytics and old-school thinking” to build a winner.

Continued

Here’s the Red Wings’ stream for today’s morning skate ahead of tonight’s game against the Carolina Hurricanes (7 PM EST on FSD+/97.1 FM):

I’m having another anxiety attack this morning, and my body is shutting down on me. I’ll be back as soon as I’m able, which is most likely to be closer to game time. I’m sorry.

MLive’s Ansar Khan filed an article discussing the ways in which the Red Wings can improve upon their frustrating 2019-2020 season by “owning the puck” this upcoming season…

The Detroit Red Wings for many years were predicated on puck possession. With players like Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg and Nicklas Lidstrom, they played keep-away with the puck on many nights, leading to much success.

The current Red Wings do not have nearly that kind of talent and haven’t for several seasons, leading to a painfully prolonged rebuild.

But as the 2021 Red Wings return from a historically bad season, they have many new faces and a renewed emphasis on puck possession.

“We’re valuing the puck,” Dylan Larkin, named captain on Wednesday, said. “You got to start with that, and the rest will take care of itself.

“This whole camp we’ve been focusing on breaking the puck out as a five-man unit, going up the ice together, moving the puck, moving our feet, not just throwing it away, not just rimming it around the boards and just getting it out of our zone. We’re trying to come back to it, talk, communicate, and then get out as five men and attack up the ice together so we can spend time in the offensive zone. There’s been a huge emphasis on that, and I like the way it’s going.”

And Khan continues; but the Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan, filing a subscriber-only set of “5 predictions” for the Red Wings, questions whether the Red Wings will find sufficient offense:

Here’s Fox 2’s Woody Woodriffe’s report on the Red Wings naming Dylan Larkin the Red Wings’ 37th captain:

Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman was asked questions regarding multiple topics during his Dylan Larkin-related press conference, and the Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan noted that Yzerman had this to say about his expectations for his team for the upcoming season:

“As simple as I can put it, I’m just looking for improvement,” Yzerman said.

The Red Wings had the NHL’s worst record last season and struggled mightily all season. So Yzerman, during this long, pandemic-driven offseason, went to work acquiring or signing veteran free agents to short-term deals, to improve the roster and enable young players to continue maturing.

It’s the young players Yzerman will keep a specific eye on.

“As a team, we want to be better,” Yzerman said. “Certainly we’re expecting our younger players to be improved. They’re a year more mature and experienced and hopefully stronger and explosive and a little better conditioned. Again, we just to see improvement. We’re trying to progress and if we can be better in every area, I don’t know what our point total will be or where we’ll finish in the standings, but throughout the whole organization we’re looking at improvement.”

And that doesn’t necessary mean, Yzerman said, just the Wings’ NHL roster. But also prospects and draft picks just starting out in the Wings organization.

“What people see, the fans, are the Detroit Red Wings on the ice, and we want that group to be better,” Yzerman said. “But we’re hoping our kids in the minors are getting better, we’re hoping everyone gets better, as we inch closer and we become more competitive. Regardless of whether they’re in Detroit or Grand Rapids, or wherever they’re playing, I want see us be a little better and have more optimism we’re getting closer by the end of the season.”

Continued

The Free Press’s Helene St. James offers a great “evening line” from Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman, who discussed his naming of Dylan Larkin as the Red Wings’ captain yesterday afternoon:

Larkin described how, after the deal was sealed, the new captain and former captain smiled through the masks they wore to help prevent or slow the spread of COVID-19.

“We were sitting there, just the two of us,” Yzerman said. “I really would have liked to take the masks off and have a conversation, but I am keeping this mask on because the last thing I want to do is come up with COVID, and you don’t have your mask on and you’re going to spend the first two weeks of your captaincy in quarantine due to contact tracing.

“We kept our masks on but one rule we did break, and I’m going to confess to, we did shake hands at the end of the conversation. I don’t know about Dylan, but I immediately went to the hand sanitizer afterwards, so I hope that the protocol police will accept that.” 

Continued

97.1 the Ticket’s Will Burtchfield discusses Dylan Larkin’s being named the Red Wings captain as, well, what it is:

Larkin doesn’t need to change to change the Wings’ fortunes, because talent and leadership will change them in time. The team has leaned on Larkin for both, and Larkin continues to find more of both to give. He’s been Detroit’s best player for the past three seasons and its de facto captain for the past two. The ‘C’ on his jersey merely confirms what we already knew.

“In order to lead people, you have to have the respect of those that you’re leading,” said Jeff Blashill. “There’s no doubt Dylan has the respect of every person in that room, players, coaches, staff, because of who he is. Because of his work ethic, because of his competitiveness, how much he wants to win, how much he wants this organization to get back to the top, because of his care for others, how he treats people, his selflessness. He just has the ultimate respect of every guy in that room.”

It reads like a fairytale, the story of Larkin’s life. That’s probably what it was until his second season with the Wings, until his favorite team collapsed and Larkin was part of the rubble. It’s been cold, hard reality ever since, a $30 million payday notwithstanding. His reality doesn’t change with his captaincy, because his captaincy isn’t the conclusion to a story that’s just getting good.

“I never dreamt it to be like this,” Larkin said. “I just tried to be myself every day and had a great support system and great teammates who allowed me to do that. It continues. It doesn’t stop here. It doesn’t change necessarily who I am, just makes me more responsible and allows me to voice my opinion to the guys. It’s hard to put into words. This means so much to me.”

Continued;

Update: MLive’s Ansar Khan weighs in with Steve Yzerman’s take:

“He’s a really good person. He’s a mature young man. He’s responsible. He cares. We feel with our team, the age he’s at (24), where we are as an organization, his maturity as a hockey player, he just has a lot of attributes that make him a natural leader and perfect fit for us as our captain.”

It is an exclusive club. Yzerman was the longest-serving captain in NHL history (22 seasons). Nicklas Lidstrom wore the C the next six seasons and Henrik Zetterberg for six more. The Red Wings had only alternate captains, of which Larkin was one, the past two seasons.

“I strongly believe he represents our organization extremely well,” Yzerman said.  “He’s extremely proud to be a part of the Red Wings organization and has a burning desire to be successful here.”