Interactive Tweets of note

Of interactive note on Twitter:

 

State of the blog: On the logo contest, website design, ‘crowdfunding’ and audience-building

Of website-related note:

  1. We are still holding a logo design contest, and as I’m still “building an audience” (to say the least), I’m not putting a deadline on the contest. I’ve got all of one entry after four days, so whenever you feel like trying to post a 500×100 pixel “banner” logo and a 150×150 “watermark,” give ‘er a go–when there are enough entries to vote upon (5-ish? 10-ish?), we’ll hold a vote.

The prize is $50 and a cut of merchandise sales, and yes, the goal is to produce merchandise that’s worth wearing…as well as to capture “the spirit” of TMR.

Entries can be posted in the comments section via your own upload or sent to me at rtxg@yahoo.com, and you can always reach me on Twitter or Facebook as well.

2. Website design will follow the logo/theme contest. I have had two people step forward to discuss possibly designing the website, and I don’t want to leave them in a lurch, but I will admit that if you’re familiar with WordPress or are willing to work for a reasonable rate, I will consider all comers. Again, my email is rtxg@yahoo.com, etc etc.

3. Regarding fundraising, I’m still pushing http://www.patreon.com/themalikreport as the main “crowdfunding” source, but if you’re not cool with Patreon (yes, they do take a cut of the $), you can always go with http://paypal.me/TheMalikReport.

Crowdfunding is basically a euphemism for, “I post content and you pledge $ to support the work,” and the reason I ask for monthly pledges instead of a lump sum is to provide a monthly income (Ideally a monthly income I can live off of, so that I can 1. continue working and 2. reinvest as much $ as possible in the website and YOU)…but however you want to structure the crowdfunding, if you’re kindly considering doing so, is fine.

I will keep my pledge to both keep content free and keep content commercial-free for as long as I possibly can, but as they say, “Freedom isn’t free,” so while I hate to do it, I have to ask for your support to keep doing this. Honest-to-Pete, as little as $1 a month makes a big difference.

4. Finally, the biggest favor I can ask of you is to spread the word that TMR is up and running and that this place is a decent spot for Wings news. The truth of the audience-building matter is that what I expected happened–most of the KK TMR people stayed with KK, which is fine, and most of you are either people who follow on Twitter/Facebook, or you’re new readers. Most of the people who read this blog will consist of Twitter/FB people who’ve already followed me for a while and/or new readers, and I need your help to build a new audience and build a new community of readers.

The unspoken goal of all of this stuff is to build the community of readers and supporters who enjoy/find meaning in/interact with what they’re reading and writing (in the case of Red Wings fans, tolerating, coping with, withstanding, grieving over, etc.) with some sort of sense of, “We’re in this together”-ness. I know that sounds campy, but community-building is the underlying goal of the blog.

Jared Coreau named the AHL’s Player of the Week

From the Grand Rapids Griffins:

JARED COREAU NAMED CCM/AHL PLAYER OF THE WEEK

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – The American Hockey League announced today that Grand Rapids Griffins goaltender Jared Coreau has been selected as the CCM/AHL Player of the Week for the period ending Feb. 18, 2018.

Coreau led the Griffins to consecutive road shutouts of the Western Conference-leading Manitoba Moose last week, stopping all 66 shots he faced.

Grand Rapids brought a nine-game points streak (7-0-0-2) into a two-game series against Manitoba at Bell MTS Place, and Coreau helped the Griffins maintain their winning ways with 28 saves in a 1-0 victory over the Moose on Thursday night. Coreau came back on Saturday with his second consecutive shutout, making a season-high 38 stops in a 5-0 win to improve to 5-1-0 (1.41 GAA, 0.955 save percentage) in seven appearances against Manitoba this season. Coreau became the first Griffins goaltender to record a shutout in back-to-back starts since Petr Mrazek on Feb. 27-28, 2015, and his 13 career shutouts place third in franchise history.

Since Dec. 22, the 6-foot-6 netminder sports a 13-2-3 record along with a 1.92 goals against average and a 0.933 save percentage in 18 appearances, as the Griffins have gone from being five games under 0.500 (10-15-1-3) to 10 games over 0.500 (28-18-1-6) in a span of 24 games.

Coreau, the first Griffin this season to garner Player of the Week accolades, collects his third career honor from the AHL, as he was named Player of the Week on Feb. 1, 2015, and Goaltender of the Month in December 2015.

The 26-year-old Coreau ranks among the AHL’s goaltending leaders this season with 20 wins (T3rd), a 2.47 GAA (13th), a 0.916 save percentage (T13th) and 2092:11 minutes (3rd).

A fifth-year pro from Perth, Ontario, Coreau started all 19 games of last spring’s Calder Cup championship run, showing a 15-4 record, a 2.84 GAA and a 0.909 save percentage. In 146 career AHL games all with Grand Rapids, Coreau has an 84-48-10 record to go along with a 2.42 GAA and a 0.919 save percentage. He became the 158th Griffins alumnus to play in the NHL when he debuted with the Red Wings on Dec. 3, 2016 at Pittsburgh. In his first taste of NHL action last season, Coreau posted a 5-4-3 mark, a 3.46 GAA, a 0.887 save percentage and two shutouts in 14 appearances.

In recognition of being named the CCM/AHL Player of the Week, Coreau will be presented with an etched crystal award prior to an upcoming Griffins home game.

The Griffins have points in 11 straight games (9-0-0-2) and will host the Chicago Wolves on Wednesday at 7 p.m. to begin a six-game homestand.

Griffins highlight Dominic Turgeon’s first hat trick

Dominic Turgeon scored his first professional hat trick in the Grand Rapids Griffins’ 5-0 win over the Manitoba Moose this past Saturday, and the Griffins posted a highlight clip spotlighting Turgeon’s natural hat trick:

 

Zettergood, Zetterbag, Zetterfatigued

Red Wings captain Henrik Zetterberg hit a milestone marker last night…

But Zetterberg was not happy after last night’s loss to Toronto, as the Free Press’s George Sipple noted:

“It’s hard to figure it out right now why they won,” Zetterberg said. “They scored three. We scored two. But we had enough chances to win. They probably felt the same. Thought Petr (Mrazek) was really good in net.

“It’s frustrating for us as a team when we played a good game in Nashville and then we don’t get anything out of this one, when we played pretty good. But (there’s) a lot of things behind that.”

Asked what that meant, Zetterberg refused to say anything more: “No, no…. Thank you.”

Zetterberg, 37, is one of two players on the Wings to reach the 40-point plateau this season. Zetterberg has eight goals and 32 assists in 58 games.

You can hear Zetterberg make that last remark at the end of Fox Sports Detroit’s clip of “Z’s” post-game remarks:

I believe that Zetterberg’s simply getting worn out by having to answer the same questions over and over again, but that’s just me.

 

Custance on ‘where things stand’ in terms of the Red Wings and the deadline

From The Athletic’s Craig Custance:

Setting the Red Wings’ deadline trades over/under: 2.5

There are a lot of irons in the fire for GM Ken Holland but varying degrees of heat. He doesn’t seem especially motivated to move anyone with term on their contract who he believes can keep the team competitive during the rebuild. The Red Wings have a lot of those players, which we’ll get at in a second.

So let’s start with the low-hanging fruit. Barring an injury, and it’s not believed his current upper-body injury is serious, Mike Green will get traded. There’s one. The Philadelphia Flyers goalie situation ups the likelihood that Petr Mrazek gets dealt, with TSN’s Darren Dreger first reporting that there are ongoing discussions between the Red Wings and Flyers on that front. There has been interest in both Red Wings goalies, with Detroit more eager to move Mrazek than starter Jimmy Howard. That gets you to two trades. Then it becomes about trading a player with term on his contract, which brings us to our next area of analysis.

Continued (paywall)

Fox 2’s Sportsworks: Niyo, Wojo talk Wings with Dan Miller

Fox 2’s Sportsworks crew discussed the Red Wings on Sunday night, with the Detroit News’s John Niyo and Bob Wojnowski speaking with Fox 2 sports director Dan Miller regarding the Wings’ loss to Toronto, possible trade deadline moves and Ken Holland’s possible exit from the scene. They talk about the Wings for the first 3 minutes of the clip:

 

Russian Five author Keith Gave appears on 97.1 the Ticket’s Jamie and Stoney Show

Author Keith Gave appeared on 97.1 the Ticket’s Jamie and Stoney show this morning, discussing Gave’s new book about The Russian Five and the upcoming movie of the same name, which will premiere at the Free Press’s Film Festival at the Filmore Detroit on April 11th.

Here’s Gave’s interview in SoundCloud form:

The Athletic’s Pronman on possible prospect targets

The Athletic’s Corey Pronman examined the prospect pools of this year’s trade deadline “buyers,” discussing possible trade deadline chips, and as Mike Green is probably headed to the Tampa Bay Lightning, here’s what Pronman had to say about the Bolts’ prospect pool:

Tampa is in an interesting spot. They have a deep system of solid prospects but don’t have one true high-end guy outside the NHL. Teams looking to their system will have plenty of options and different kinds of players. Want a skilled playmaker with size? Alexander Volkov is your man and is the top guy in their system for me right now. Want a hard-worker with some touch? Boris Katchouk. A reliable two-way center? Brett Howden, Mitchell Stephens and Anthony Cirelli. A winger with great speed and solid skill? Mathieu Joseph. A big winger with good sense and goal-scoring ability? Taylor Raddysh. A big puck-moving defenseman? Cal Foote. A solid two-way defender? Libor Hajek. Connor Ingram is a nice goalie too. There were others I didn’t mention as well, but the point is selling teams have a lot to pick from here depending on what they value and/or need.

Continued (paywall)…

Cup of Khan: Wings ‘leaving points on the table’

MLive’s Ansar Khan addressed the Red Wings’ status as “leaving points on the table” in a Monday morning column:

Even with 24 games remaining, the playoffs are a longshot for the Detroit Red Wings. It is difficult to erase a seven-point deficit this late in the season and it’s even tougher to leapfrog four teams in between.

But the Red Wings could have been in the thick of the race by doing a better job closing games. Sunday’s 3-2 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs at Little Caesars Arena was the latest squandered opportunity. Auston Matthews scored with 30.2 seconds remaining in regulation to snap a tie.

They lost 3-2 at Florida on Feb. 2 when Jonathan Huberdeau scored with 7.7 seconds to play in the third period. They blew a three-goal lead with less than six minutes left in the third and lost 7-6 in overtime to the New York Islanders on Feb. 9.

That’s five potential five frittered away in those three games.

“I thought we did a good job in Nashville (3-1 victory Saturday). I thought we did a good job against Anaheim (2-1 win last Tuesday), but we’re leaving points out there in those tie games.”

Blashill, whose team fell to 24-25-9, said it’s a matter of players growing.

“Understanding that they got to dig deep in those little situations,” he said. “The Florida game was different, they were really leaning on us for two straight shifts. (Sunday) was not that case. I thought we had some good chances in the last 10 (minutes) of the third.”

Khan continues…