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Red Wings-Flyers wrap-up: heading home with lessons learned after an OT loss to Philly

The Detroit Red Wings head home with 3 out of a possible 8 points on their 4-game road trip after losing 2-1 in overtime to the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday night.

As such, the Red Wings fell 3 points behind the Flyers in the Wild Card race, and they are 5 and 6 points behind the Montreal Canadiens and Tampa Bay Lightning–Thursday and Saturday’s opponents–respectively.

The Flyers know where they are in the Eastern Conference’s jumbled playoff race, too, as Flying Fish Hockey’s Wayne Fish suggested…

Continue reading Red Wings-Flyers wrap-up: heading home with lessons learned after an OT loss to Philly

Red Wings-Flyers quick take: Ground down and out of an OT loss to Philly

The Detroit Red Wings played an important game for Wild Card positioning against the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday night, with the Flyers sitting two points ahead of the Red Wings, who were on a 2-game losing streak, in the Eastern Conference standings.

On Tuesday night, the Red Wings lost a game that was hard to swallow. The Philadelphia Flyers won 2-1 in overtime, despite Ben Chiarot tying the game 30 seconds into the 3rd period from Raymond, and the Red Wings holding their own in OT until the Flyers rushed up ice, Seider and Raymond both tried to poke check, and Rasmus Ristolainen poked in the rebound of an Owen Tippett shot with 26 seconds remaining in the extra session.

Long story long, Detroit lost 2-1 to Philadelphia and will fly home having earned 3 points out of 8 on their road trip.

Detroit actually out-shot Philadelphia 28-26, but the Flyers held a 5-1 shot advantage in OT, and the Flyers out-shot Detroit 15-14 over the final two periods thanks to a gritty, grinding effort that seemed to wear the Wings down.

Continue reading Red Wings-Flyers quick take: Ground down and out of an OT loss to Philly

Tuesday Fundraising

I’m going to post this again as I very simply need to raise funds to pay my bills. It’s part of blogging when you don’t have commercial ads, and it’s not my favorite part of the job, but I hope you understand that it’s necessary.

The Malik Report needs your support to function. You receive quite a bit of information “for free,” but providing that information is not done for free. As such, we would like to ask that you kindly contribute to our monthly expenses.

If you’re willing to lend a hand, we have a PayPal option at https://paypal.me/TheMalikReport; there’s Venmo at https://venmo.com/george-malik-2; if you’re into the, “I don’t want to use any of those pages” option, here’s always the Giftly option by using my email, rtxg@yahoo.com, at https://www.giftly.com…

And in the banking options, you can contact me via email if you want to send me a paper check, or “Zelle” me via my email, rtxg@yahoo.com.

It’s my pleasure to provide you with as much information as I can give, but this is also a job, and it requires money, time, energy and effort (a.k.a. work). If you are willing or able to support this endeavor, it is greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your time.

Roughly translated: MBN won’t take part in Norway’s ‘Four Nations Tournament’ team play

Per Hockeysverige.se and Hockeynews.se, Red Wings prospect Michael Brandsegg-Nygard will not be taking part in the Norwegian National Team’s February participation in the Four Nations Tournament in Oslo.

Norway GM Tobias Johansson tells TV2 that, and I quote:

“We have made the decision that Michael will stay with SkellefteĂĄ. He has been through a year that has contained a lot. Therefore, we agreed that he will remain in Sweden and train. It is both best for him and for us in the long term,” says the national team manager.

“So there is nothing dramatic about rejecting him,” adds Johansson.

The ‘long shot’ Red Wings

Daily Faceoff’s Anthony Trudeau suggests that the Red Wings are, at best, a “long shot” to earn one of the Eastern Conference’s Wild Card spots, per an article which attempts to handicap the teams battling for said spot:

Detroit Red Wings

The Detroit Red Wings wanted to play a more disciplined defensive game this season, but that resulted in a lineup full of guys who were gripping their sticks too tight and generally afraid to make plays. Before they fired Derek Lalonde, the Wings were outshot by five attempts per game and had the second-worst goal differential in the NHL. In the immortal words of John Tortorella, “safe is death,” and the Red Wings’ season was on life support before Steve Yzerman pulled the plug on Lalonde.

Under Todd McLellan, they’ve been far more proactive, outshooting the bad guys and riding a sizzling power play (41.9% since the coaching change) back to the .500 mark. Patrick Kane looks rejuvenated (6 G, 16 P in 12 GP under McLellan), Lucas Raymond is a star (50 P in 46 GP), and Marco Kasper (3 G, 5 P in last 5 GP) has been a revelation on Dylan Larkin’s left wing.

So, why are the Wings a long shot? Just look at the schedule. The Red Wings have beaten some good teams including Florida and Washington on their road back to relevance, but the hard part starts now. Detroit has the toughest remaining schedule in the NHL, and losses to Tampa Bay and Dallas by a combined score of 9-1 over the weekend served as a reminder that even with McLellan on board, this team can be prone to sloppy, turnover-prone hockey. There will be growing pains, and for a team that probably can’t survive a three or four-game skid, that’s a problem.

Continued; we all know that the Red Wings are facing the toughest remaining schedule in the league in terms of quality of competition–the Wings’ broadcasters keep telling us that–and I do not disagree that coach McLellan is engaged more in a salvage job than he is engaged in a playoff run…

But I choose to believe that the Wings can at least stay relevant over the second half of the season.

From the Flyers’ side

The Philadelphia Flyers’ media corps posted some game-day stories ahead of tonight’s game between the Flyers and the Detroit Red Wings (7 PM EST on FanDuel SportsNet Detroit/NBCSP/Sportsnet One/97.1 FM), starting with a video preview from the Flyers’ website:

The Hockey News’s Siobhan Nolan described tonight’s rubber match thusly…

The Philadelphia Flyers, surging with momentum and confidence, are set to host the Detroit Red Wings in what promises to be another exciting matchup.

Last time these two faced off against each other, Scott Laughton enjoyed a four-goal game, and while Laughton won’t be available tonight due to a personal matter, the Flyers will be looking to continue collecting points to move themselves more comfortably into a playoff spot.

Noting that goaltender Samuel Ersson has a challenge ahead of him…

Continue reading From the Flyers’ side

Game-day notebooks: on Elmer Soderblom and being proactive

Updated at 5:52 PM: The Detroit Red Wings face the Philadelphia Flyers this evening (7 PM EST on FanDuel SportsNet Detroit/NBCSP/Sportsnet One/97.1 FM). Among today’s game-day notebooks:

  1. DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills spoke with Wings coach Todd McLellan about the team’s outlook heading into tonight’s game:

“I know I sound like a broken record, but I’m not in there looking at the standings or the stats,” Detroit head coach Todd McLellan said. “I’m watching video to make sure that the team is trying to get better night after night. That’s the only way we’re going to get wins.”

The Red Wings are in the City of Brotherly Love vying to get back on track after getting swept in their weekend back-to-back set, which ended with a 4-1 loss to the Dallas Stars on Sunday. Detroit fell behind early in Dallas, allowing three goals before the 15-minute mark of the first period, and ultimately couldn’t recover.

“On this trip, we’ve been able to beat the Stanley Cup champs but the two other teams, in a weight class that’s maybe a little more elevated than ours, we haven’t had success,” McLellan said. “So that’s a little disappointing. We’ve had to fix some things. Do it via video, a little bit on ice and challenge a few players. Now, we’ll see what happens here tonight.”

One player that will be embracing the challenge on Tuesday is Elmer Sodberlom, who the Red Wings recalled from the American Hockey League’s Grand Rapids Griffins prior to morning skate at Wells Fargo Center.

According to McLellan, Soderblom “has earned the right to come up here.”

“The last two to three weeks, really starting to come into his own and we’re hoping he can do that here,” McLellan said about Soderblom. “Obviously, a different league but he’s experienced it before. Hoping that he provides a little injection of life into the group, too. I think that will come out as the game goes on.”

2. The Free Press’s Helene St. James also wrote an article about Soderblom’s recall…

Continue reading Game-day notebooks: on Elmer Soderblom and being proactive

Video: Soderblom and coach McLellan speak ahead of Red Wings-Flyers game

The Detroit Red Wings face off against the Philadelphia Flyers this evening (7 PM EST start on FanDuel SportsNet Detroit/NBCS Philadelphia/Sportsnet One/97.1 FM).

The teams’ morning skates revealed that Samuel Ersson will start in goal for the Flyers, who are absent one Michael Laughton; Alex Lyon will start for Detroit, who will play the recently-recalled Elmer Soderblom.

After the Red Wings’ morning skate, Wings players and coach Todd McLellan spoke with the media:

NHL.com also offers this preview of tonight’s match-up:

Detroit Red Wings at Philadelphia Flyers (7 p.m. ET; FDSNDET, NBCSP, SN1)

The Red Wings (21-21-4) have lost three of four after a seven-game winning streak. Detroit forward Lucas Raymond‘s 90 goals in 284 NHL games are the third most by a Sweden-born player before age 23 behind Mats Sundin (125) and Filip Forsberg (91). The Flyers (21-20-6) are 4-0-1 in their past five games; Matvei Michkov leads rookies with 14 goals and has 33 points in 45 games.

Red Wings-Flyers morning skate Tweets: Ersson starts for Philly, Laughton out; Lyon starts for Detroit, Soderblom in

The 21-21-and-4 Detroit Red Wings face off against the 21-20-and-6 Philadelphia Flyers this evening (7 PM EST on FanDuel SportsNet Detroit/NBC Sports Philadelphia/Sportsnet One/97.1 FM). Detroit’s on a two-game losing streak, and as you’ll find out below, the Flyers have been doing very well of late.

The Red Wings recalled Elmer Soderblom this morning, and we’ll find out shortly whether Soderblom will play this evening. In the interim, PhiladelphiaFlyers.com’s Bill Meltzer posted “5 Things” to watch in tonight’s game, including the following:

Entering Tuesday’s game, the Flyers have gone 4-0-1 over their past five teams to climb back into the Eastern Conference Wild Card picture. The Red Wings had been scorching hot as they rattled off a seven-game winning streak. However, the club is just 1-3-0 over its last four games including a 5-1 loss in Tampa on Saturday and a 4-1 setback in Dallas on Sunday.

…

Between the pipes: Since the league-wide holiday break and a return from a recurring lower-body injury, Flyers netminder Samuel Ersson has posted a 6-1-0 record, 1.66 goals against average, .930 save percentage and one shutout (vs. Anaheim). Overall for the season, the Swede has improved to 13-7-2 with a 2.79 GAA and .889 save percentage.

On the Detroit side, ex-Flyer Cam Talbot is 4-1-0 over his five appearances. He turned back 41 of 43 shots in an upset road win against the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers but got roughed up by Tampa (five goals on 16 shots) before being relieved by fellow ex-Flyer Alex Lyon.

Lyon got the start in Dallas on Sunday, stopping 21 of 25 shots in the 4-1 loss. Dating back to the Christmas break, Talbot has made six starts to five for Lyon.

…

Between the pipes: Since the league-wide holiday break and a return from a recurring lower-body injury, Flyers netminder Samuel Ersson has posted a 6-1-0 record, 1.66 goals against average, .930 save percentage and one shutout (vs. Anaheim). Overall for the season, the Swede has improved to 13-7-2 with a 2.79 GAA and .889 save percentage.

On the Detroit side, ex-Flyer Cam Talbot is 4-1-0 over his five appearances. He turned back 41 of 43 shots in an upset road win against the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers but got roughed up by Tampa (five goals on 16 shots) before being relieved by fellow ex-Flyer Alex Lyon.

Lyon got the start in Dallas on Sunday, stopping 21 of 25 shots in the 4-1 loss. Dating back to the Christmas break, Talbot has made six starts to five for Lyon.

Flyers coach John Tortorella shared information in his pre-morning skate press conference…

Continue reading Red Wings-Flyers morning skate Tweets: Ersson starts for Philly, Laughton out; Lyon starts for Detroit, Soderblom in

A Ristolainen trade is unlikely

Daily Faceoff’s Matt Larkin lists the Red Wings as one of 8 potential destinations for Philadelphia Flyers trade target Rasmus Ristolainen:

Detroit Red Wings

Why he makes sense: Did anyone aside from Steve Yzerman actually think Justin Holl was going to cut it on the right side of that blueline when he signed in 2023? He’s been every bit the disaster we knew he’d be. Erik Gustafsson has never been a big minute muncher, either, and has played the left side of late anyway, so Detroit badly needs to upgrade at right defense. This team desperately wants a playoff berth this season, but the extra years of Ristolainen at least make him less of an “all the eggs in one basket” target. It’s never a bad thing for a bubble team to secure help for more than one season. Having missed the playoffs eight consecutive campaigns, the Wings also have an incredibly deep pool of prospects to dangle Philadelphia’s way, including plenty in the right price range to include in a Ristolainen deal.

Gustafsson’s come alive of late, and has been actually competent on defense while producing offense. And, of course, Simon Edvinsson and Albert Johansson have played particularly well together.

Fly in the ointment: The Wings rank among the worst defensive play-driving teams in the NHL. Would throwing Ristolainen at the problem actually repair that? It’s debatable whether he’d be enough, even though he’s improved defensively. I get that Detroit wants to halt its postseason drought, but is it worth paying a significant price just to nudge a middling team into the final Wildcard spot and get bulldozed by the top seed in the East in Round 1? More of a cautious buying posture would make more sense. As an example: you could pay less and target someone like Will Borgen. The Wings would also need to send some money the Flyers’ way to fit Ristolainen’s cap hit onto the books; I see no reason why the Flyers would need to retain money on Ristolainen given their strong bargaining position.

Continued; the fact that the Red Wings and Flyers are competing for the same Wild Card spots rules out this kind of deal as far as I’m concerned, never minding the cap concerns–and Ristolainen earns $5.1 million for the next two years.