Posted for cuteness factor:

This article comes to us via Abel to Yzerman’s Paul Kukla: long-time NHL’er Bruce MacGregor and his wife, Audrey, spoke with the Edmonton Sun’s Terry Jones regarding the fact that Christmas used to be like any other game day in the NHL:

“The Red Wings always played in Chicago on Christmas Day so the team would board a train on Christmas Eve in Detroit, play there Christmas Day and return by train to Detroit on the 26th. Then we’d pretend to have Christmas,” she said.

“What I remember is when we arrived in Chicago on the 24th, it was like a ghost town and finding some place to eat was a problem. We didn’t have much choice about treating it like any other game day.”

It was actually easier on the players than the families.

“I didn’t handle it so well,” said Audrey. “That was especially true when Brad was just a baby, which would be our second year in Detroit. That part I remember like it was yesterday.

“We were living over in Windsor where we didn’t really know anybody. Most of the other Red Wings were living in Detroit. And back in those early years you had a very difficult time phoning long distance as the lines were always busy. I cried a lot that Christmas Day. I remember having a grilled cheese sandwich for Christmas dinner and watching it rain.”

Continued

Of Swedish Red Wings-related note:

1. The rumor that the Red Wings might trade Henrik Zetterberg’s contract to the Tampa Bay Lightning to facilitate Long-Term Injured Reserve (LTIR) space for the Bolts has been bouncing around for a while now, but Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman mentioned it on the radio in Calgary last night, and the Swedish papers are…Kind of freaking out about it. Hockeysverige’s Robin Olausson, Expressen’s Gunnar Nordstrom and Aftonbladet’s Mattias Karlsson all wrote about the possibility this morning, and it’s a little surprising to see such an animated reaction of shock and almost offense taken regarding what would be a “paper move,” but that’s the way it goes;
2. And it’s worth noting that SVT.se, Sweden’s ESPN, has produced a series of profiles of five World Junior Championship participants of Swedish descent. Each profile runs about 18 minutes. You may not get much out of the audio, but the storytelling is good, and both Lucas Raymond and Albert Johansson are profiled. The profiles include analysis from former NHL’er Mats Sundin, current New York Ranger Mika Zibanejad, prospect Rasmus Dahlin and some guy named Nicklas Lidstrom. The videos are worth watching even if you don’t understand Swedish.

The Free Press’s Helene St. James wrote an article reflecting upon Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman’s comments during yesterday’s press conference with the Wings’ media corps, and she takes note of the fact that Yzerman stated he’s intrigued to see what this year’s team can do on the ice–twice:

Yzerman made one trade (Staal) and otherwise looked to free agency to make the Wings more competitive. With the Wings in a rebuild, Yzerman kept contracts to either one or two years — and signed players who are looking to either establish themselves as NHL regulars (Merrill) or reboot their careers (Ryan).

It should make for a competitive 14 days of camp.

“We’ve made several changes and all the players were very enthusiastic when we talked to them prior to signing with the team,” Yzerman said. “That was very encouraging for me. I think there will be a lot of renewed enthusiasm. The majority of our players are on relatively short, one- or two-year contracts. They’ve got a lot to play for.”

Continued; if you missed the presser, here it is:

WDIV’s Dave Bartkowiak Jr. filed his weekly Red Wings column this morning, and he reports that the Wings are not exactly odds-on favorites to win big this season…Which is to be expected…

The Red Wings are listed at +20000 (money line) odds to win the Stanley Cup in the 2020-21 season by BetOnline.ag. That means if you bet $100 on the Red Wings and they somehow won Lord Stanley’s Cup this season you would cash out $20,000. Good luck!

BetOnline also has the NHL division futures set — the Red Wings have the worst odds, out of any team, for winning their division: +2500. Detroit will be playing in the realigned Central Division (Carolina, Columbus, Dallas, Detroit, Chicago, Florida, Nashville, Tampa) for this pandemic-stricken season.

If you believe the odds, the Central Division promises to be grueling for the Wings. Tampa (+750), Carolina (+1800) and Dallas (+2000) all have some of the league’s better odds for winning the Stanley Cup.

Continued, with various hockey-related topics discussed; I can only shrug my shoulders regarding the odds or lack thereof. This team will be better, but it’s going to take time.

This is pretty damn cool. Red Wings play-by-play announcer Ken Daniels’ suggestion that players no longer be considered offside if they have “broken the plane” of the offensive zone blueline has been adopted by the NHL and NHLPA as their one big rule change for the 2020-2021 season. From the NHLPA:

NHL Rule 83 (Off-side)

Beginning in the 2020-21 regular season, a player’s skate will not have to be in contact with the blue line in order to be on-side. The updated language for NHL Rule 83.1 follows.

83.1  Off-side – Players of the attacking team must not precede the puck into the attacking zone.

The position of the player’s skates and not that of his stick shall be the determining factor in all instances in deciding an off-side. A player is off-side when both skates are completely over the leading edge of the blue line involved in the play.

(NEW) – A player is on-side when either of his skates are in contact with the blue line, or on his own side of the line, at the instant the puck completely crosses the leading edge of the blue line. On his own side of the line shall be defined by a “plane” of the blue line which shall extend from the leading edge of the blue line upwards. If a player’s skate has yet to break the “plane” prior to the puck crossing the leading edge, he is deemed to be on-side for the purpose of the off-side rule.

UPDATE TO @NHL RULE 83.1 (OFF-SIDE): Beginning in the 2020-21 regular season, a player's skate will not have to be in contact with the blue line in order to be on-side.

Updated language: https://t.co/gp5npRIw9k pic.twitter.com/pT6YmA6qP5

— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) December 22, 2020

Updated 2x at 7:37 PM: The Red Wings’ beat writers are beginning to file their stories regarding Wings GM Steve Yzerman’s press conference from earlier this afternoon…

Of note from MLive’s Ansar Khan comes this regarding the Wings’ captaincy:

“We haven’t figured out exactly how we’ll roll that out, but our plan right now hasn’t changed as we had spoken about earlier in the offseason,” Yzerman said during a media Zoom availability.

Dylan Larkin is the obvious choice. It would be shocking if anyone else were named.

Larkin was been an alternate captain the past two seasons. Yzerman opted not to name a captain in 2019-20, wanting to get more familiar with the players. Larkin, Justin Abdelkader (bought out in October), Frans Nielsen and Luke Glendening were alternate captains.

Yzerman, the longest-serving captain in NHL history (22 seasons) said there more of a heightened sense of responsibility when someone is named captain.

“In most situations you try to react in a leadership role or a responsible role,” Yzerman said. “I just think you take a lot more things into consideration that you may not normally, whether it’s a call by an official or a situation off the ice with a teammate or just anything to do with the team. As a captain you get a little bit more sense of responsibility regarding every situation.”

Continued;

The Free Press’s Helene St. James also weighs in regarding several topics:

Red Wings prospect Joe Veleno wrote an entry in his “Taking Flight–From the ‘Q’ to the ‘D'” blog on DetroitRedWings.com, and in today’s entry, he discusses playing for the SHL’s Malmo Redhawks:

The way I’m looking at it, this is an exciting time in my career. This could be, for all I know, the last time I come over to Europe. Honestly, it’s a great experience talking to some former players who’ve had this experience coming to Europe, especially Sweden, such an amazing country where the hockey’s really good and the culture and all that stuff is quite interesting to get to know. So I looked at it as a positive step forward. I’m enjoying it each day that I’m here, I’m embracing all the experiences I can get with the players, trying out some different restaurants or different food. Although there’s not a significant difference in food in Sweden, it’s more or less quite the same. But the whole experience, just everything, the lifestyle and all that stuff is pretty cool.

Honestly, nothing’s really that different over here. Everything’s quite similar to how it is in North America. But I guess just a lifestyle that the people have over here, it’s more European culture so sometimes you see just the way people dress, going out for coffee a lot, there’s a lot of cafes here on the street and a lot of people like to sit outside and enjoy their coffee. It’s not that much different than North America from what I have seen so far. On top of that, I haven’t gone out too much because of COVID-19.

Continued

Sportsnet’s Justin Bourne posted a list of 15 possible “breakout” player candidates, and he included Red Wings forward Filip Zadina on his list:

Filip Zadina, age 21, Detroit: He’s proven he can score basically everywhere, and though he’s played less than 40 NHL games, he’s already averaging about a goal for every four outings so far – a pretty nice pace. Detroit is dying for some offence, so he should be given chances to produce, which put together is a recipe for meaningful totals.

Continued

Of prospect-related note on a lighter sort of Tuesday:

In Belarus, Kirill Tyutyayev scored a goal, finishing at +2 with 1 shot in Yunost Minsk’s 3-1 win over Gomel;

In the ICE Hockey League, Jesper Eliasson served as the back-up in the Red Bulls Salzburg’s 4-2 loss to Fehervahr 19 AVS;

And Calvin Pickard stopped 24 of 28 shots in the Vienna Capitals’ 5-3 loss to KAC.

In NCAA Hockey, tonight at 5 PM EST, Keith Petruzzelli and Quinnipiac are battling Holy Cross.

Update: Keith Petruzzelli stopped 11 of 12 shots as the Quinnipiac Bobcats won 6-1 over Holy Cross.