The Malik Report

The Athletic’s Katie Strang reports that Grand Rapids Griffins defenseman Vili Saarijarvi will draw in for tonight’s must-win game against the Manitoba Moose (7 PM EDT on ESPN 96.1 FM and The AHL Live), and Colin Campbell will return from his suspension:

Vili Saarijarvi draws in on D tonight for Dennis Cholowski; Colin Campbell, having served one-game suspension last night, in for Borkowski as Griffins aim to tie the series up in Game 4 vs. Manitoba Moose.

— Katie Strang (@KatieJStrang) April 26, 2018

Cholowski was good on Wednesday, but Saarijarvi has more pro experience; Campbell is a key cog in the Griffins’ penalty-killing machine.

MLive’s Ansar Khan spoke with Wings player development assistant regarding the NHL Draft Lottery, which will take place this Saturday, and Khan reveals that the draft lottery is going to be painfully slowly revealed to the public:

Red Wings general manager Ken Holland will be on stage for the event, when NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly reveals the selections live on NBC before and during Game 2 of the Western Conference semifinal series between the Vegas Golden Knights and San Jose Sharks (8 p.m.). The teams selecting fourth through 15th will be revealed in reverse order at 7:30 p.m. The teams selecting first through third will be revealed during the second intermission.

Daniel Cleary, the former Red Wings forward and current player development assistant, will represent the team backstage when the drawing takes place. He and the 14 other club reps will be sequestered, their cell phones taken away, so they will not be able to communicate the results with anyone.

“I’m excited. I think everyone should be excited,” Cleary said. “It would be a huge moment to win. There’s a lot of talented players. I’m going to try to bring some Irish luck.”

Cleary said he’s bringing his rosary beads blessed by Pope John Paul II.

Khan continues, and again, the Red Wings will have an 8.5% chance of earning the #1 overall pick and a 26.5% chance of drafting in the top three.

The Buffalo News’s John Vogl confirms:

The NHL Draft Lottery is undergoing another change. It’s meant to draw out the suspense, but it could also end it early for the Buffalo Sabres.

Sportsnet announced Thursday that it will unveil Saturday night’s lottery results throughout the course of the evening rather than all at once. Picks 15 through 4 will be revealed during “Hockey Central Saturday,” which goes on the air at 7:30 p.m. on NBC, CBC and Sportsnet. The top three picks, conducted via the lottery, will be announced during the second intermission of San Jose- Vegas playoff game that starts at 8 p.m.

So the No. 1 pick won’t be revealed until the 9:30 p.m. range.

By virtue of its last-place finish, the Sabres hold the best odds (18.5 percent) of landing the first overall pick. They could also drop to second, third or fourth if teams below them win the lotteries.

If three lower-seeded teams win, the Sabres will pick fourth and will know their fate before the Sharks and Golden Knights face off. If Buffalo makes the top three, it will have to wait through the opening two periods.

 

The Athletic’s Craig Custance took note of Jimmy Howard’s presence at the Red Wings’ unveiling of a “play space” at Children’s Hospital in Detroit on Wednesday, and Custance chose to mark the occasion by wondering aloud whether the Wings might want to move Howard in the final season of his contract:

Part of the appeal is an expiring contract. Goalies are such a risk that finding a starter without term remaining on his deal is an alluring asset. In 176 games over the course of the last four seasons, Howard has a .912 save percentage that is slightly below the league average but consistently in that range. With Howard, you know what you’re getting and that’s something. Down the stretch this season, he was often the only reason the Red Wings were competitive in games, part of the reason fans were rightly upset he was still getting starts in the final weeks on a team that needed better lottery odds more than it needed points in the standings.

The other part of Howard’s appeal is a weak free-agent market for goalies. The Coyotes removed the most intriguing name from consideration by signing Antti Raanta to a three-year contract worth $12.75 million. Carter Hutton had a good year for St. Louis, finishing with a .931 save percentage in 26 starts, but he’s played 40 games only once in his career. Jonathan Bernier may have saved Colorado’s season with stretches of strong play, but he also really likes it there. It wouldn’t be surprising if he stayed with the Avalanche.

Custance continues (paywall), and my question regarding this thought experiment is pretty simple: if the Red Wings trade Howard, who would the Wings use as their starting goaltender?

As much as I think Jared Coreau is a fine athlete and good fellow, he hasn’t proved himself ready; Tom McCollum’s ceiling may or may not be limited to the AHL, and Matej Machovsky’s decision to go home to the Czech Republic left the Wings in a bit of a bind because none of their other prospects–Filip Larsson, Kaden Fulcher, Keith Petruzzelli and Joren van Pottelberghe–aren’t anywhere near NHL-ready.

It’s arguable that the Wings could string together enough wins to be mediocre with one of the free agent back-ups out there, but I don’t see the team trading Howard unless it’s able to replace him immediately. That would take a 1-for-1 deal of some sort, and if we’re talking about the Islanders, Jarslav Halak and Thomas Greiss aren’t upgrades over Howard.

Update: Filip Larsson signed his letter of intent to play for the University of Denver on Thursday afternoon.

Red Wings prospect Filip Larsson missed half of his USHL season with the Tri-City Storm due to a groin injury, but Larsson believes that he needs to keep moving forward.

Larsson told the Kearney Hub’s Dan Zielinski that he will  begin his college career at the University of Denver next fall:

“(Detroit) supports me with my choice and thinks it’s a great choice. They wanted me to go to college.”

Larsson sat out 17 games with the injury and missed 11 games competing with Team Sweden in the International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship. Larsson missed a total of 30 games this season.

Despite missing significant time, Larsson was the USHL’s top netminder this season. His .941 save percentage is the highest-ever in a single season in USHL history, while he finished second all-time with a 1.65 goals against average.

“I played a lot and in every game I could,” Larsson said. “I felt like I developed a lot and think that I have made great progress here. My stick handling and adjusting from the bigger ice has helped me get a lot better.”

Continued

The Grand Rapids Griffins’ 6-3 loss to the Manitoba Moose included the debut of Dennis Cholowski, who acquitted himself well during limited duty as the team’s seventh defenseman.

Peter J Wallner of the Grand Rapids Press spoke with Cholowski and Griffins coach Todd Nelson regarding #44’s first pro game and first pro playoff game:

“I thought he did fine … maybe a few jitters here and there but he made some plays out there,” Nelson said. “When you have seven defensemen, sometimes it’s hard to get in a rhythm but with what happened, after we scored our first goal, I dropped down to five, so he got some ice there.

“But I think it was just a situation where he was kind of thrown into the fire, (we) wanted to see what he could do, but I thought he was fine.”

Cholowski wasn’t on the ice for the fights, but the 20-year-old acknowledged a different level of play from juniors.

“It’s a little more chippy. It’s pro hockey,” he said. “The guys are bigger, they’re older and they want to play hard. You’re getting slashed, you’re getting whacked, you’re getting hit, cross checked. So, I got to get used to it and give some of it back.”

Next season, Cholowski is expected to be a regular on the Griffins’ blueline next season. For the rest of the playoffs, though, he will be learning as much as possible.

“It was good,” he said when asked to evaluate his performance. “Obviously, wish I could have done a little more to help the team out to win. Down the line, I think I’m going to have to impose my will a little more and skate with the puck a little more and make strong plays.

Wallner continues, and here’s his interview:

 

Of prospect-related playoff note:

In the OHL, Givani Smith scored 2 goals on 3 shots, finishing at +1 in the Kitchener Rangers’ 7-4 win over the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds. Smith was named the game’s second star;

Jordan Sambrook finished at +2 for the Sault, who is now tied 2-2 in the OHL’s Western Conference Final.

From Michigan Hockey’s Michael Caples:

Though the Detroit Red Wings’ season ended earlier than it had hoped, it’s not stopping the team from making an impact off the ice.

The Red Wings teamed up with the Children’s Hospital of Michigan and Children’s Hospital of Michigan Foundation to unveil a 1,700-square foot Red Wings Play Zone on Wednesday. Al Sobotka and Jimmy Howard were present to help with the ribbon-cutting ceremony and introduce children to their new toys.

“Being a parent myself, I couldn’t imagine being one of these parents going through this, so to be able to come down here and help celebrate this new play structure thanks to our fans and our great organization, it’s a huge honor for me,” Howard said.

“For these kids, they go through so much and they’re so strong. For them to come out here and have a little bit of normalcy and just be kids, it’s huge for them.”

Caples continues, and he posted a photo gallery from the event, as did the Detroit News; WDIV Local 4 posted a video report (non-embeddable).

Updated 7x at 1:57 AM with recaps and video: Of note from the Grand Rapids Griffins’ 6-3 loss to the Manitoba Moose, or the post-game media availability thereof:

Dennis Cholowski was his thoughtful, studious self after the game, but Cholowski was also ready and able to admit that the difference between the WHL playoffs and the AHL playoffs was not that big of a battle this time, and he felt that he played well–which he did:

When a European player has a difficult game, his English gets, to use Pavel Datsyuk’s term, “short,” and Filip Hronek got in a fight, got a ten-minute misconduct, and got a talking-to from captain Matt Ford while sitting in the penalty box for another infraction, so Hronek was suddenly quite short on English language comprehension. The truth of the matter is that the Moose successfully targeted a player that, as Griffins coach Todd Nelson suggested, does instigate from time to time, and Hronek was not happy about it:

Ben Street was all specifics, on the other hand, in an easy two-minute interview, addressing the dislike the teams have for each other, the fact that the Griffins did not generate enough offensive chances, and he spoke about the need to bring it from roster stem to Toledo Walleye-employed stern in Game 4:

Grand Rapids Griffins coach Todd Nelson was honest–he was unhappy with his team’s effort, and felt that the Griffins needed to do what Street suggested, put more pucks in goaltender Eric Comrie’s feet instead of sending single, un-screened, un-tipped and un-pursued shots into Comrie’s Manitoba Moose crest. Nelson felt that the lack of rest between games should not be an issue when elimination is on the line, and he would not tip his hand as to which goalie he would start on Thursday:

Update: This might as well be my recap hub. Here’s the Grand Rapids Press’s Peter J. Wallner’s recap:

Continue reading Griffins-Moose Game 3 post-game audio, video and recaps

The Grand Rapids Griffins attempted to jump out to an all-important 2-1 series lead in the team’s best-of-5 playoff series against the Manitoba Moose.

Grand Rapids and Manitoba were tied 1-1 going into a game in which Colin Campbell (suspension) and Axel Holmstrom (injury) would not play, further depleting the Griffins’ forwards, which were already challenged by the injuries to Matt Lorito and Dominic Turgeon.

I took in this game from the press box, and the Grand Rapids Griffins struggled their way to a 6-3 defeat that was closer than it looked, in no small part because the Griffins out-shot the Moose 48-25. Grand Rapids worked its tail off with only 11 healthy forwards and 7 defensemen, but Tom McCollum got pulled after giving up 3 goals on 11 shots, Jared Coreau was only a little bit better, and Moose goalie Eric Comrie stopped far too many shots with the logo on his chest.

Grand Rapids’ quest to defend its Calder Cup title MUST include a win over the Moose on Thursday night (7 PM on ESPN 96.1 and the AHL Live); if it doesn’t, this best-of-three series will go Manitoba’s way.

Continue reading Grand Rapids Griffins-Manitoba Moose Game 3 long take: Griffins out-shoot but don’t out-play Moose, face elimination on Thursday

If you’ve missed my prospect reports, the Free Press’s Helene St. James notes that Red Wings prospect Michael Rasmussen is kicking butt and taking names in the WHL playoffs, where Rasmussen’s Tri-City Americans are playing in the Western Conference Final:

Rasmussen, selected No. 9 overall in last year’s draft, had two goals and an assist Monday in Game 3 of the third round of the Western Hockey League playoffs. It was his eighth multipoint game in 14 playoff games, giving him 14 goals and 15 assists for 29 points. Rasmussen has at least one point in every Tri-City playoff game.

The Americans ended up losing, 8-4, and trail the best-of-7 series against Everett, 2-1. Game 4 is Thursday.

Rasmussen, 19, is making a strong case to be on next year’s Red Wings squad. He had a good camp last year, and will come into this autumn’s camp on the strength of a phenomenal playoff performance and, presumably, a good summer in the gym. If Rasmussen doesn’t make the Wings, he will have to go back to juniors because he has a year left of eligibility.

At 6-foot-6, 221 pounds, Rasmussen has the ability to screen goalies and be effective down low. He’s mostly been a center, but he’s played some wing in the playoffs, and that versatility will help his audition in September.

Continued