Red Wings prospect Albert Johansson was the only Red Wings prospect named to Team Sweden’s roster for the Beijer Hockey Games, the next step of the Euro Hockey Tour, but it’s good news for Johansson, who’s never played for the Swedish national team before.

On Monday, Johansson spoke with Hockeysverige.se’s Rasmus Kagstrom regarding his good news, and what follows is roughly translated from Swedish:

“A shock—I did not think it was true”

When the unknown number appeared on his cell phone, Albert Johansson chose not to answer it. Then a text message from Marcus Ragnarsson appeared in his inbox—and the 19-year-old called and received the message that he had been selected for the Tre Kronor.

“I was a bit shocked and didn’t think it was true, to be honest,” Johansson says to Hockeysverige.se.

Taking part in Tre Kronor games was not something that Albert Johansson had expected this season. When assistant national team GM Marcus Ragnarsson tried to get a hold of Farjestad BK’s teenage defensemen, the 19-year-old didn’t answer when the unknown number appeared on his cell phone’s display.

It was only when he received an SMS [text message] signed by Ragnarsson that Johansson understood what it could all be about.

“No, I actually didn’t answer when he called me at first,” Johansson chuckles. “When I saw the ‘signature,’ it was obvious to call. It was a great conversation. I was a little shocked and didn’t believe it was true, to be honest.”

It took a couple of days to get this article from Kvallsposten’s Linus Vedmar, thanks to a very kind TMR reader who has a subscription to the paper, and since February 1st, a certain Moritz Seider has suffered a shoulder injury that appears to be likely to keep him out of action until the middle of the month.

That being said, the Rogle BK defenseman has had a superb season with the Southern Swedish SHL team, and Vedmar’s superb interview was worth roughly translating from Swedish. Enjoy:

“Going to the SHL has been the right step for me”

Moritz Seider joined Rogle in early October, and he’s become a key defender for the Scanians since then.

Already as a teenager, he left his hometown of Erfurt to invest himself wholehartedly in hockey with his favorite team, Adler Mannheim.

After the NHL draft, where he was selected by the classic Detroit Red Wings, and a short stay in Grand Rapids, Moritz Seider has become a dreaded name in Sweden.

Where he chases Swedish championship gold with Rogle.

“Our goal is to win the league and we have the team necessary to make it [happen],” says the successful defenseman, who is called by some “the new Niklas Kronwall.”

The Ontario Hockey League’s website posted a profile of Max Namestnikov, the younger brother of one Red Wings forward Vladislav Namestnikov:

Touted as one of the most offensively gifted prospects to come out of the 2020 OHL Priority Selection, third overall pick Max Namestnikov can’t wait to hit the ice with the Sarnia Sting for the first time.

When he does, he’ll be sporting 81 on the back of his black and gold jersey; reminiscent of his brother, Vladislav, who donned 18 with the London Knights this time 10 years ago.

If you ask the former Detroit Honeybaked standout to describe his game, he’s unsure if he should refer to himself as a two-way forward, but he’ll tell you how much he loves playing in the defensive zone.

“I think defence comes before offence,” said the nearly 17-year-old of his style of play. “I help my D out, do all that work in the D zone, and then go score some goals.”

Continued

TampaBayLightning.com’s Bryan Burns filed a report regarding tomorrow’s rematch between the Red Wings and Lightning (7:30 PM on FSD/FS Sun/97.1 FM), and Burns’ statistics regarding the Wings-Bolts match-up over the past half decade.

The statistics are scary:

Friday’s Matchup

The Lightning and the Red Wings are playing their second of eight meetings this season and complete a two-game set tonight…

Tampa Bay is on an 18 game point streak versus Detroit dating to February 3, 2016, the Bolts posting a 17-0-1 record over that stretch…Tampa Bay’s last regulation loss to the Red Wings in the regular season came Nov. 3, 2015 at Detroit in a 2-1 defeat…

The Lightning have won 15 in a row at home over the Red Wings, which is the longest home win streak against one opponent in franchise history, the second longest active home win streak against one opponent in the NHL (longest: PHI 16-game active home win streak vs. CHI) and tied for the 16th longest home win streak against one opponent in NHL history…

The Bolts’ last home loss to Detroit came Feb. 17, 2011 in a 6-2 defeat, Pavel Datsyuk scoring a pair of goals to pace the Red Wings.

Oy.

The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan posted a notebook article in which he noted Wings coach Jeff Blashill’s take on goaltender Thomas Greiss, who’s winless in his tenure with Detroit thus far:

Ultimately [on Wednesday], Greiss remained winless on the season, seeing his record drop to 0-6-2, with a 3.46 goals-against average and .885 save percentage.

Especially early in the season, Greiss was playing well but not getting any offensive support. Blashill doesn’t feel the difficult start has affected Greiss.

“I’m not worried about Greiss at all,” Blashill said. “Mentally, he’s in a great spot. He’s been through the rigors of the NHL. He’s an even-keeled person. He knows games like last night will happen and he’ll move on.

“He started out playing real good (this season) and he just didn’t get much offensive support. He should have wins on the board, he’s certainly played well enough, good enough, to have wins.

“Like the rest of our team, all of our games’ have slipped a little bit and confidence is a factor. We have to grind through it and get our confidence back.”

Continued; I’m not worried about Griess–I’m worried about the team in front of him.

Of prospect-related note this afternoon, from Belarus and Sweden:

In Belarus, Kirill Tyutyayev finished even in Yunost Minsk’s 1-0 overtime win over Lokomotiv-Orsha;

In the SHL, Jonatan Berggren had 2 assists, finishing at +1 in 15:30 in Skelleftea AIK’s 4-1 win over Djurgarden. Albin Grewe missed the game for Djurgarden:

Berggren finds Hugg with the backhand pass, 1-1. pic.twitter.com/B5Jojsnu8L

— IcehockeyGifs (@IcehockeyG) February 4, 2021

Jonatan Berggren’s 2nd assist of the game pic.twitter.com/T3B5pNshIU

— IcehockeyGifs (@IcehockeyG) February 4, 2021

Lucas Raymond had an assist, finishing even with 1 shot in 13:17 played, and Elmer Soderblom had a goal and an assist, finishing at +1 with 3 shots in 13:29 played as the Frolunda Indians won 6-3 over Orebro:

Sportsnet’s Rory Boylen offers one good thing and one bad thing about each team ahead of the NHL reaching the quarter point of its 56-game season, over the course of a set of power rankings, and he’s accurate in assessing where the Wings are at today:

30. Detroit Red Wings
The good: Dylan Larkin’s nine points in 11 games to lead the team is exactly what you want to see from him after he regressed in offence last season. And Bobby Ryan’s season start deserves a nod.

The bad: They’re still in for a long season. Neither of the two goalies who’ve played more than one game has a save percentage over .900, their power play and penalty kill units are both third-worst in the league, and they have an overall goal differential of minus-19 — better than only Ottawa, and still 10 behind the next-worst team.

Continued; put bluntly, the Wings are a bit of a mess :/

Filip Zadina and Jeff Blashill spoke with the media this afternoon, and then the pair spoke about the realities of playing hockey in a COVID world. MLive’s Ansar Khan took note of Blashill’s belief that the coronavirus is being spread through play…

Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said he is certain his players who contracted COVID got it in games against Carolina on Jan. 14 and 16. The Hurricanes had four games postponed shortly after due to a rash of positive tests.

“That’s just the reality of testing being delayed. … It’s really hard to avoid (contracting it),” Blashill said. “It didn’t spread with our team any more than that. We’ve enforced protocols that have been in place to make sure we mitigate any further spreading. I think out staff and players did a real good job of that.

“The problem with hockey is we played in a rink where the humidity is dry and the air is cool, and my understanding, with the research I’ve done, that potentially lets that virus sit right there in the air and it doesn’t dissipate, so one team has it and you play a game, it’s hard. You don’t get an instant (test) result that is reliable. The fact that games are getting postponed is unfortunate, but from our perspective we just got to keep trying do the best we can with the protocols.”

Khan continues, and the Free Press’s Helene St. James picks it up from there:

Zadina’s return gives the Wings more options up front, especially with Tyler Bertuzzi sidelined at least through Feb. 9 because of an upper body injury.

“It’s a cautious boost,” coach Jeff Blashill said. “I think the boost will come in time, for sure, but as you saw, your first game back is not easy. It’s hard enough when you’re coming out of training camp and you’ve been going, and then to take a pause, it will take Filip some time to get going at full speed. But it’s just the situation we’re in, where guys have to get back to full speed as fast as they can.

“The one thing I’d say with Filip is, he appears to be feeling good, so hopefully he can hit the ground running.”

Goalie Jonathan Bernier, out with an upper body injury since Jan. 28, also practiced, but Blashill wasn’t sure Bernier would be available by Friday. The Lightning chased Thomas Greiss after scoring three goals in five minutes Wednesday, but the Wings’ offense offered Greiss little support before that — and that is a major focus headed into the rematch.

“We have to do a better job slowing them down, so we have to check better than we did, for sure,” Blashill said. “And then we have to have the puck more. It’s a combination of the two — you have to check to win. You have no chance in this league if you don’t check. But the best way to check is to have the puck a lot. When you have the puck a lot, you’re not tired trying to change and then they’re jamming it back down your throat, like what happened on the first goal. So let’s have the puck more and then let’s do a better job checking.”

If you’re interested, the Grand Rapids Griffins’ coach Ben Simon, captain Brian Lashoff, defenseman Joe Hicketts and forward Michael Rasmussen spoke with the media for half-an-hour today:

Here are Filip Zadina and coach Jeff Blashill speaking with the media today: