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FanRag Sports’ Chris Nichols snagged a set of quotes from TSN’s Bob McKenzie, who spoke with Montreal’s TSN 690 this morning, and among McKenzie’s comments:

“I know Nashville – well, they’ve been watching a lot of teams and you don’t read too much into where guys go, but I think they’ve been checking the Detroit Red Wings out. Gustav Nyquist is a player who could become available. Tomas Tatar – I don’t think Detroit wants to trade Tatar; but again, they’re in a mode where they’re going to be rebuilding and they’re also looking to offload some contracts.

“So yeah, there’s a lot out there. Right now, I would say it’s a buyer’s market for those scoring wingers. But that can change in a hurry. And at the end of the day, whether you’re Montreal with Pacioretty or Hoffman with Ottawa, you’re not obliged to trade these guys so you’re not moving them unless you get top dollar on the return. And if the Preds aren’t going to pay top dollar for that, then maybe they’ll go a more bargain way with a rental or to get a guy like Nyquist out of Detroit.”

Nyquist has this season and next left on his contract at a $4.75 million hit, while Tatar has three more years beyond this one at $5.3 million.

Pacioretty has one more season after this one, and his cap hit is $4.5 million.

Nichols continues (as does McKenzie), and I wonder whether the Wings really are considering moving Nyquist and/or Tatar.

The Red Wings hit the ice at Little Caesars Arena just after 11 AM, preparing for the Boston Bruins…

Back to work on Monday. #LGRWpic.twitter.com/7hUBh5eFO9

— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) February 5, 2018

And DetroitRedWings.com’s Dana Wakiji reported in…

Detroit Public School students watch #RedWings practice at BELFOR Training Center. Part of STEM Day. pic.twitter.com/4GUIa5oVrP

— Dana Wakiji (@Dwakiji) February 5, 2018

#RedWings Zetterberg not practicing today, most likely a maintenance day.

#RedWings Helm also not on the ice today at BELFOR Training Center.

As did the Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan:

Continue reading Tweets from practice: More maintenance days for Zetterberg, Helm

MLive’s Ansar Khan tends to post feature articles at 6 AM. This morning, he discusses several Red Wings-related topics, including the fact that Petr Mrazek’s making a stand in the Wings’ crease:

The Red Wings will look to move one of their goaltenders — Jimmy Howard or Mrazek, whoever garners the better return – but that might not be possible with few playoff-contending clubs seeking help in net.

Mrazek is 4-1-1 in his past six starts and has a 1.30 goals-against average and .958 save percentage over his past seven appearances. Howard has played better than Mrazek most of the season, but suddenly, Mrazek (2.75 GAA, .914 save percentage) has better overall numbers than Howard (2.82 GAA, .911 save percentage).

If Mrazek continues to play well, he’ll not only get the bulk of the starts, he’ll likely get qualified. If the Red Wings aren’t able to move either goalie between now and training camp, they could start 2018-19 with the Howard-Mrazek tandem again.

Khan continues, discussing the Bruins’ dominance over the Wings, as well as possible trades with the Islanders and Capitals.

 

The evening after the Detroit Red Wings lost 3-2 to the Florida Panthers thanks to a heavily-disputed goal, I don’t want to poke the wound, per se, but:

The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan penned a “the day after” notebook, and these player comments stood out to me:

“It’s frustrating because we battled our tails off to get at least a point in this game and to get that ripped away from us, at this stage of the season, it’s probably the most frustrated I’ve been,” Abdelkader said.

Especially when the rule is so hazy.

“Losing a game like this, with the points so important, on a call that yesterday could have been goalie interference and tonight it’s not,” Zetterberg said, “that’s what’s frustrating.”

The Wings are still only 7 points behind the Flyers with a game in hand, but they’d have to climb over the Islanders, Hurricanes, Rangers and now the Panthers to swipe the Flyers’ Wild Card spot.

Worse, the Wings have only 17 regulation-or-overtime wins, which is 3rd-worst in the Eastern Conference, so Detroit would have to earn more points than their opponents to break any ties in the standings.

The loss to Florida isn’t going to be what kicks the Wings out of the playoffs, but it will serve as a moment that makes Wings fans go, “Damn, if we could’ve had that one…”

The Grand Rapids Griffins did an excellent job of “tackling” a 3-game road stint in Cleveland, taking 2 of 3 games from the Cleveland Monsters.

Grand Rapids lost 3-2 in a shootout on Thursday, the Griffins won 4-2 on Friday, and on Sunday,  Eric Tangradi scored 2 goals, Matt Puempel had a goal and 2 assists, Filip Hronek had 2 assists (finishing at a stunning +5) and Jared Coreau stopped 25 of 28 shots as the Griffins won a 6-3 decision.

The Griffins’ website posted a recap:

Continue reading Prospect round-up: Griffins take 2 of 3 from Milwaukee; Gallant scores for Petes

The Grand Rapids Griffins posted a late-breaking Game-Day Preview video in which Bob Kaser profiles the Griffins ahead of their 1 PM EST game against the Cleveland Monsters:

 

The Red Wings have posted a video called “The Forecheck,” in which Carly Johnston and Chris Chelios discuss the Red Wings’ games this week–Detroit hosts Boston on Tuesday, February 6th and will play in Brooklyn against the Islanders on Friday the 9th:

Our friends from Boston sit at 31-11-and-8, and  Tuukka Rask won or earned a point in his 20th straight game in Saturday night’s 4-1 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs. Boston has won 7 of its past 8 games  and they’re absolutely dominant over the Wings.

After Friday night’s game, the Wings will play 9 games over the course of 15 nights leading up to the trade deadline on February 26th.

According to Crain’s Detroit Business’s Kirk Pinho, a “conceptual” map from Olympia Development, obtained by Crain’s, shows as-yet-unannounced plans for the District Detroit:

Two high-rise buildings are planned to flank Comerica Park.

The towers, overlooking the home of the Detroit Tigers, are just a few of the developments in the Ilitch family’s District Detroit project revealed in an aerial map that shows the latest vision for what surrounds the 41,299-seat baseball stadium.

In addition, a new hotel where Hockeytown Cafe now stands and retail flanking both sides of Woodward Avenue’s passage over I-75 are planned, according to the map, which Crain’s obtained last week.

All told, it includes nearly 200,000 square feet of new retail space, plus the previously undisclosed hotel, a “tech store” and a market, in addition to the two high-rise buildings referred to as Montcalm Tower and Adams Tower.

Continued

MLive’s Hugh Berenreuter spoke with Wings director of player recruitment Jiri Fischer after his annual “Shocks vs. Saves” game in Saginaw, and Fischer stated that his sons are playing hockey with an eye on their secondary education:

So it turns out that most people start with the logo, then get the website sorted out, and worry about the content last.

I blame being left-handed for thinking backwards, then, because I went with the content, assuming that it would drive a logo and a website.

Did I mention that I’m doing crowdfunding? That the goal at least is to keep ads away from this website (or at least inconspicuous), so that you can go ahead and support the website without having to turn off your ad-blockers or script-blockers that you should probably be using on your browser like a condom for the World Wide Web?

This week, we are having a contest to design a new logo for the website. I will pay real money to the winner.

This week, I will be talking to the couple of website designers that have reached out. I know the website can be buggy with new updates. I plan on hammering that out very soon.

After the logo and website are sorted out, I’ll try to work on merchandise, because the concept here is that a significant percentage of the funds raised go back into the community–and more than just in the form of, “No more fundraisers for Traverse City, ‘selling’ Patreon subscriptions.'”

Yes, I want a nice logo, a pretty, functional website and am aiming for 200 subscribers as part of the larger community, but I sort of figured that you’d be willing to put up with the hiccups if there was content first and foremost.

That’s the message, I suppose, to the stakeholders, a.k.a. you. I’m one human being here, but I’ll work my ass off to churn out content whenever possible. That means working harder than I ever have and smarter than I ever have, but ultimately, it’s about sharing the story for me, and there are always stories to tell.

It’s been six days. There are bugs to iron out. They keep me up at night. I’m working on it. I’m working on a lot, actually, one skate stride at a time.