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The Detroit Red Wings struggled through a 4-0 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday night, and things won’t get any easier when the Wings play the playoff-desperate Columbus Blue Jackets this evening (7:00 PM EST on FSD Plus/FS Ohio/Sportsnet/TVA Sports/97.1 FM).

For the Red Wings, Thursday night’s game was more than enough of a reason to stop and talk.

As Henrik Zetterberg and coach Jeff Blashill would suggest, the Wings’ younger players displayed the kind of bad defensive habits that the rebuilding Wings are trying to guard against.

I’m going to forego my usual opponent-talks-then-home-team-talks style of recap to get right to the nitty gritty, via the Free Press’s Helene St. James…

Continue reading Red Wings-Golden Knights wrap-up: bad habits bite Wings in embarrassing loss

The Detroit Free Press has posted an excerpt from former Free Press scribe Keith Gave’s new book, The Russian Five, and Gave tells the story of his clandestine meeting with Sergei Fedorov Vladimir Konstantinov in Helsinki, Finland:

A month or so after the annual National Hockey League entry draft, in mid-July 1989, a time when most folks involved in the league were enjoying some respite between seasons, my phone rang. Jim Lites was on the line inviting me to lunch. Strange timing, I thought, to hear from the executive vice president of the Detroit Red Wings, then the son-in-law of owners Mike and Marian Ilitch.

I had a good working relationship with Lites, but I usually only heard from him like this after I’d written something he didn’t like. He’d rant, I’d listen, we’d agree to disagree, and it was over.

The next day, we were sitting across from one another at the recently renovated Elwood Bar and Grill, which at the time was across Woodward Avenue from the Fox Theatre.

“Just let me say right up front that if I cross any lines here or make you uncomfortable in any way, I’ll stop and that will be the end of it,” he said.

I raised my eyebrows.

“We’re prepared to pay considerably — serious money,” he said. “We can assure you exclusivity to any stories, book rights, you name it.”

Continued, and here’s a one-minute clip discussing the Russians’ slow but steady trickle onto the Red Wings’ roster:

 

 

In the Finnish Liiga, Libor Sulak had an assist and finished at +3 with 6 shots in 24:38 played during the Lahti Pelicans’ 3-1 win over KooKoo;

Julius Vahatalo finished even with 2 shots and a 16% faceoff record in 9:31 played during Jukurit’s 4-3 OT loss to Tappara;

In the SHL, Christoffer Ehn finished even with 1 shot and a 50% faceoff ranking in 17:34 played during the Frolunda Indians’ 5-3 win over Karlskrona HK;

In the OHL, Jordan Sambrook finished at -1 with 2 shots in the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds’ 3-2 loss to Windsor;

And Cole Fraser finished at -2 and Zach Gallant returned from an injury with a rough outing, going -5 with 3 shots and an 11-for-29 faceoff rating in the Peterborough Petes’ 8-7 loss to Mississauga.

 

 

 

Fox Sports Detroit assembled Mickey Redmond, Darren Eliot, Chris Osgood and Trevor Thompson for a little “talk in the hockey shack” (in Chris Osgood’s backyard) during Thursday night’s broadcast:

 

From the Grand Rapids Griffins:

The Detroit Red Wings hoped to upon the Vegas Golden Knights’ injury-induced losses of late, with Detroit looking to snap a 3-game winless streak in the process.

The Red Wings did not play a farce of a game, they did not respect the logo on the front of the jerseys or the names on the back, but they got very close to doing so over the course of a 4-0 loss to Vegas that was nothing less than embarrassing, humbling and humiliating. I’ll leave the rest of the critiques to you.

Continue reading Red Wings-Golden Knights quick take: not a disgrace…but not by much

Here’s the Red Wings’ tribute video to Tomas Tatar…

Welcome back, @Trto90!

Thank you for keeping us… ENTERTAINED. pic.twitter.com/xVxLeigLtc

— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) March 9, 2018

And Sportsnet’s Bob McCown spoke with Vegas GM George McPhee on Prime Time Sports, with McPhee addressing the acquisition of Tatar:

“Well, it wasn’t cheap,” McPhee said during a Prime Time Sports appearance on Thursday afternoon.

Vegas sent a first-round pick in 2018, a second-rounder in 2019 and a third-round pick in 2021 to the Detroit Red Wings in exchange for the 27-year-old Tatar.

“It’s the one area where we’re deep — we have a lot of picks,” McPhee told hosts Bob McCown and Brad Fay on Sportsnet 590 The FAN. “We spread it over four years. There are times when the decisions you make are all data driven and there are times when it’s market driven. That was the price. We either get the player we thought we needed to have and give up those assets or you don’t.

“And I wanted to help the club.”

The expansion franchise has been the NHL’s biggest surprise this season, currently sitting first place in the Pacific Division.

The acquisition of Tatar was particularly interesting given that the seven-year veteran has seen his production dip this season. His best totals came in 2014-15, when he scored 29 goals and 56 points. The Slovak scored 28 points in 62 games with Detroit this season and, since the trade, has registered one goal in four games. However, he is under team control through 2020-21, a key factor for McPhee.

“It was important to us that it wasn’t a rental,” said the GM. “It was someone we’re going to have for a while. I don’t think anything is inexpensive at the trade deadline.”

 

Of Red Wings-related note this evening:

1. Tomas Tatar returned to Detroit as a member of the Vegas Golden Knights today, and Tatar spoke with the media regarding his return. Here’s the Free Press’s Helene St. James’ Tatar article…

Tomas Tatar wasn’t sure what to pack, how much to pack, or what to do.  His Feb. 26 trade from the Detroit Red Wings to the Vegas Golden Knights was a jolt, a sudden, life-altering event.

“The first hour was pretty stressful,” Tatar said Thursday morning as he prepared to face his former teammates for the first time. “I didn’t really know what to do. It was my first time traded. Should I start packing? What should I pack and for how long? Then when you realize what kind of team you are joining, it was fun. I was really excited.”

Tatar was home watching TV when he saw the trade announced, simultaneously as Wings general manager Ken Holland called to inform Tatar he’d been moved. It came  seven months after the Wings signed Tatar for four years and $21.2 million. The Wings are in rebuild mode and Tatar was an opportunity to flip for a first-round pick in June, a second-round in 2019 and a third-round pick in 2021.

“When you sign this kind of deal, you are thinking you are going to be here,” Tatar said. “But I knew we had to start playing better. Unfortunately we didn’t so something had to change. I’d heard rumors teams were interested about me. I was a little ready for it.”

St. James continues, and she posted a video of Tatar speaking with the media:

Continue reading Red Wings and Golden Knights game-day articles: On Tatar, Svechnikov and the game at hand

The comments section has gotten a little heated of late, and it’s done so regarding a certain member. I am offering the TMR community the opportunity to hash things out in adult and courteous manners here in this thread…

In an ideal world, yes, there will be an “ignore” button (I’m working on finding one), but at present, we do not have one, and that means that we have to live with each other, even if we do not like everyone we meet. I would kindly ask that we all press the “re-set” button regarding our scraps and give each other one more chance to interact with respect, dignity and in a spirit of understanding that disagreement does not have to equal disrespect.

If you’d like to hash things out in this post–or inform me why things have been a mess over the last couple of days–I would appreciate that you do so here in the comments section. If you have concerns about a particular member or members or feel uncomfortable elucidating your concerns publicly, please email me at rtxg@yahoo.com.

In an ideal world, we are a community united by hockey; in real life, we’re different people with different ideas, and while we’re all on the “same side” as Wings and hockey fans, we have disparate points of view.

I get that, but I want you to understand that you are all here because I approved your membership into the community, and I don’t want to have to stick my dictatorial-leaning nose into the comments section…

But if I have to, I’m not going to hesitate to do so, and I’d prefer that we work things out in a semi-democratic manner.

Discuss, please!

The Athletic’s Craig Custance has penned a list of the top 20 Red Wings prospects. Let’s start at the top:

1. C Michael Rasmussen, Tri-City – Rasmussen, selected with the No. 9 overall pick, is turning in another productive season in the WHL. He has 25 goals and 50 points in 41 games, once again producing heavily on the power play where he has scored 14 of his 25 goals. Dan Cleary, who shares Red Wings player development duties with Shawn Horcoff, got in a viewing in of Rasmussen a few weeks ago and left feeling good about the big center. “When I saw him the first game, he was flying,” Cleary told The Athletic. “The best I’ve seen him skate. He was skating excellent, he was on the forecheck, in the middle of the ice he was backing defensemen off. He has such good poise and patience and makes plays.” Rasmussen had a strong training camp and the smart bet is that he makes the Red Wings out of camp next year if he repeats that performance. Detroit wants to get him an NHL look, likely on the wing as he breaks into the league. What Rasmussen needs to work on is his quickness and explosiveness to create space between him and defenders, and the Red Wings have talked to him about having a more shoot-first mentality. There were more dynamic players available who fit the Red Wings’ need for high-end talent better than Rasmussen, but he’s still on track to be an important part of Detroit’s youth movement.

Continued (paywall)…