The Malik Report

File this one under, “I respect his point of view, but could not disagree more regarding his assessment of the Wings’ prospects.”

The Hockey News’s Matt Larkin was asked whether the Red Wings or Rangers are better-prepared for a “rebuild,” and here’s what Larkin had to say:

The Rangers are much better equipped for a rebuild in my opinion. First of all, while Detroit has started building a young group to get excited about in Dylan Larkin (no relation to me, by the way; Dylan and I and his uncle had a discussion about it at the 2016 All-Star Game and traced our lineage and there is no close family connection), Anthony Mantha, Michael Rasmussen and Dennis Cholowski. But none of those players is a Mittelstadt or an Eeli Tolvanen or an Elias Pettersson. In other words, the Red Wings don’t have any elite-ceiling prospects in my opinion. On top of that, they are saddled with just so many prohibitive contracts: Frans Nielsen, Justin Abdelkader, Darren Helm, Jonathan Ericsson, Trevor Daley and so on.

Continue reading Talking ‘rebuilds’ with THN

DetroitRedWings.com’s Dana Wakiji spoke with Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill on Thursday, discussing the Red Wings’ mediocre power play:

Having [Mike] Green back could help the power play, which is 22nd in the league at 18.5 percent.

“I think he just has that element of the big shot,” Blashill said. “He can shoot it in the net. The more weapons you have on the power play the better chance you’re going to score on a more consistent basis.”

The power play only had two opportunities Wednesday night in St. Louis and failed to convert on either. Obviously that could have made the difference in a 2-1 game.

“Our first, we had entries where we actually structurally we were fine, but we didn’t execute,” Blashill said. “We got in, we were OK and then we turned it over. The second power play, we actually did have some chances, some play around the net, and then (Gustav) Nyquist had the real chance where he hit the goalie in the head. If that goes in we’re not talking about it. And then we pulled the goalie late and I actually thought we had an opportunity to have the looks, but we didn’t execute. So we gotta execute better.”

Continue reading Wings hope to revive plodding power play

From the Free Press’s Helene St. James comes good news regarding defenseman Mike Green:

Green said after Thursday’s practice at MTS Place he will play Friday when the Wings face the Winnipeg Jets. It’ll be Green’s first game since a hit Feb. 15 at Tampa Bay that aggravated a neck injury dating to last season. His 29 points in 56 games leads team defensemen.

“He brings offense in a variety of ways,” coach Jeff Blashill said. “One is on the power play — he’s a weapon up top. One is just him jumping in the play — he really pushes up the ice, but also just his ability to break out and make outlet passes. He’s one of our best passers. Mike has really become a real top-four defenseman in the NHL on any team. He’s really built his defensive game up as well, so he’s a big piece for us.”

Green, 32, might have been a big piece for a Stanley Cup contender had he not been injured  leading up to Monday’s trade deadline. The Lightning and the Capitals both had interest, but were wary as the missed games grew. Furthermore, once the New York Rangers became sellers, the Lightning ended up successfully pursuing a trade for defenseman Ryan McDonagh.

Green had consented to waiving his no-trade clause, but no good offer materialized.

“Obviously it was bad timing,” Green said. He’d had “a few discussions, maybe a handful,” with general manager Ken Holland about trade scenarios. Green learned 30 minutes before the 3 p.m. closing bell that he wasn’t going anywhere.

“At the end of the day, I’m here, I’m focused and I’m happy,” Green said. “You never know what’s going to happen and the day off, it can weigh on you. After it’s all said and done, yeah, there’s a little bit of relief.”

Continued, and St. James posted a clip of Green and Blashill’s off-day remarks:

From the AHL:

JARED COREAU NAMED CCM/AHL GOALTENDER OF THE MONTH

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – The American Hockey League on Thursday announced that Grand Rapids Griffins goaltender Jared Coreau has been selected as the CCM/AHL Goaltender of the Month for February.

Coreau allowed just nine goals against on 185 shots and finished unbeaten in six appearances during the month, compiling a 4-0-2 record, a 1.46 goals against average, a 0.951 save percentage and two shutouts before being recalled by the Detroit Red Wings on Feb. 20. He combined for 66 saves during back-to-back shutouts of the Western Conference-leading Manitoba Moose on Feb. 15 and 17 and was named the AHL’s Player of the Week on Feb. 19. The Griffins finished the month 9-1-0-2 – which ties for the second-most wins in February in franchise history – and have climbed into second place in the Central Division with 19 games remaining.

Coreau began the month with 31 saves in a 3-2 shootout loss at Cleveland on Feb. 1, but rebounded with 25 saves in defeating the Monsters in a rematch on Feb. 4. He stopped 25 shots in a 4-2 win over Manitoba on Feb. 7, and later earned back-to-back shutouts of the Moose in Winnipeg, making 28 saves in a 1-0 victory on Feb. 15 and 38 stops in a 5-0 win on Feb. 17. He has not allowed a goal in his last 126:47 of AHL action.

The 26-year-old Coreau is yet to make his NHL season debut. He ranks among the AHL’s leaders this season with 20 wins (4th), a 2.47 GAA (16th), a 0.916 save percentage (14th) and 2092:11 minutes in (4th) in 36 games.

The 6-foot-6, 215-pound netminder garners his second career monthly accolade (Dec. 2015), and this award marks the fifth time a Griffins goaltender has earned Goalie of the Month honors (Jimmy Howard, Dec. 2007 and March 2006; Simon Lajeunesse, Jan. 2002). Coreau picks up his fourth career award from the AHL overall, having also been named Player of the Week on Feb. 1, 2015.

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 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 Goaltender of the Month, Coreau will be presented with an etched crystal award.

The Griffins are 21-4-0-3 in their last 28 games and will conclude a six-game homestand this weekend by facing the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins on Friday and the Milwaukee Admirals on Saturday. Both contests will begin at 7 p.m.

I apologize for the radio silence over the past day-and-a-half. I experienced a significant personal setback on Wednesday, and it literally and figuratively knocked me over.

This is the shitty part of having a single-operator blog-when really bad things happen, there’s only one point of failure, and I’m sorry that I had to take a step back.

I will attempt to restore blog operations to normal by Friday morning.

The Detroit Red Wings play what a “NBCSN Rivalry Night” game against the St. Louis Blues this evening (8:00 PM EST on NBCSN/97.1 FM).

As the Red Wings look to make a late playoff push, they’re going to find themselves in tough against a St. Louis Blues team that’s sitting one point out of a Wild Card spot in the Western Conference standings despite a very good 34-26-and-4 record.

Our friends from St. Louis have lost 7 straight games, including an ugly 8-3 loss to the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday evening, and the Blues were in a foul mood after their latest setback.

Coach Mike Yeo angrily suggested that his Blues did not play with pride, as he told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s Jim Thomas:

Continue reading The overnight report: Red Wings-Blues set-up–Blues take 7-game losing streak into a ‘Wednesday Night Rivalry’ game

In the ECHL, the Toledo Walleye withstood a challenge from the Indy Fuel, who rallied from 2-0 and 3-1 deficits to force a late-3rd-period tie that Kyle Bonis snapped en route to a 4-3 Walleye win.

Dylan Sadowy and Shane Berschbach had a goal and an assist apiece for Toledo, A.J. Jenks also scored and Pat Nagle stopped 27 of 30 shots for the Walleye.

The Walleye’s website posted a recap:

Continue reading Prospect news: Sadowy 1+1 in Walleye win; European prospect round-up; Griffins’ weekly press release

Niklas Kronwall offered an interesting take on the Red Wings’ trade deadline departure, Tomas Tatar, as it pertains to the state of the Red Wings. DetroitRedWings.com’s Arthur J. Regner offers Kronwall’s comments:

Continue reading Kronwall speaks with DetroitRedWings.com’s Regner regarding the ‘selling’ Wings

Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman spoke with The NHL Tonight last night, addressing trade deadline moves and non-moves…

Continue reading A little tangential Green talk: why didn’t he go to Tampa?

MLive’s Ansar Khan noted that the trade of Tomas Tatar will yield a significant opportunity for Tyler Bertuzzi to cement his status as a contributing player…

“Tyler Bertuzzi will increase his minutes by a lot,” Blashill said. “When Tyler first came up and there were injuries I thought he played very well. I thought he slipped a little bit, opened the door for some guys to take his spot, and then didn’t get much of an opportunity. I think all Tyler needs is opportunity and he’s going to get tons of opportunity.”

Bertuzzi played well earlier this season after being promoted from Grand Rapids. He had two goals, seven assists and a plus-7 rating during an 11-game stretch from Dec. 27 to Jan. 22. In 15 games since, he’s produced only two assists, with a minus-11 rating and his ice time has been trimmed significantly.

Bertuzzi is at his best when he’s forechecking aggressively, forcing turnovers, getting physical and being hard to play against.

“Ultimately, to be where we want to be, we need some guys to become great players,” Blashill said. “We think there’s some guys with the potential, but potential doesn’t get it done. Great players are guys that create way more chances than they give up on a nightly basis. They win their shift way more than not. Great players aren’t flash in the pans, they’re not guys that produce once in a while, they’re every single night, so whether it’s Tyler, Larks (Larkin), AA (Athanasiou), (Anthony) Mantha, any young players, whether it’s Gus Nyquist, we need guys to be great.”

Khan continues, discussing Martin Frk, and The Athletic’s Max Bultman discussed Tatar’s absence and its effects upon the Wings’ remaining forwards:

Continue reading On Bertuzzi’s ‘opportunity’ and Tatar’s absence as it affects the Wings’ forwards