Khan talks Wings and free agency

MLive’s Ansar Khan posted his weekly mailbag feature today, and Khan is asked whether the Red Wings will be active in free agency. For the first time in a long time, Khan suggests that the Red Wings may finally get behind their own youth movement…mostly…

Now they’re rebuilding and might be more inclined to fill with prospects who might be ready, like Evgeny Svechnikov and/or Michael Rasmussen at forward and one of Filip Hronek or Joe Hicketts on defense.

General manager Ken Holland said he hopes to see between two and five young players on the roster during the course of the season (who weren’t on the 2017-18 season-opening roster).

They’ll sign a free-agent goaltender to either compete with Jimmy Howard for the No. 1 job or serve as the back-up. They would like to re-sign defenseman Mike Green. Other than that, why bother dipping into the thin free-agent pool, especially if it would require a multi-year commitment? Give the younger players an opportunity.

I cringe when I hear that Mike Green might be re-signed. I understand that the Wings don’t have any other defensemen with Green’s puck-moving abilities (even if the Wings have to deal with Green’s so-so defensive play)…

But Green’s 32, and he’s not going to take that much of a discount on the $6 million he earned this past season…

During a summer in which the Wings could, say, make a pitch for 28-year-old John Carlson–or, perhaps better, do nothing at all and “give the younger players a [real] opportunity” to play, I’d rather see the Wings embrace the rebuilding effort and see what Joe Hicketts, Filip Hronek and Libor Sulak can do, hiccups of adjusting to the NHL included.

Khan continues, discussing Sulak, Matt Puempel and Kaden Fulcher.

For the record, the free agent market for back-up goalies isn’t particularly good this summer,

Prospect playoff round-up: Fulcher back-stops Hamilton to 3-0 lead in OHL ECF

Of prospect-related playoff note:

In the OHL, Kaden Fulcher stopped 30 of 31 shots as his Hamilton Bulldogs won 3-1 over the Kingston Frontenacs.  Fulcher was named the game’s second star, and you can watch highlights of the game here;

Hamilton leads the OHL’s Eastern Conference Final 3 games to 0.

Grand Rapids Griffins take Game 2 vs. Manitoba, winning 5-1; the series is tied 1-1

Updated 7x at 10:33 PM: The Grand Rapids Griffins attempted to even their series against the Manitoba Moose at 1 game apiece on Sunday afternoon.

The Griffins were hoping that history would be on their side…

And history, plus a tremendous first period, yielded a 5-1 victory for the Griffins, who tied the best-of-five series at 1 game apiece. The teams will play again on Wednesday and Thursday in Grand Rapids (both 7 PM EDT starts).

Both Ben Street and Matthew Ford posted a goal and 2 assists, Eric Tangradi, Turner Elson and Evgeny Svechnikov also scored, and Tom McCollum stopped 21 of 22 shots.

Continue reading Grand Rapids Griffins take Game 2 vs. Manitoba, winning 5-1; the series is tied 1-1

Strack: Toledo Walleye to play Fort Wayne Komets in 2nd round

Per Toledo’s WTOL 11’s Jordan Strack:

 

Simmons’ profile of Mike Babcock includes takes from Jimmy Devellano, Ken Holland

The Toronto Sun’s Steve Simmons spoke to coaches (both assistants and head coaches) who worked with Mike Babcock and executives who know Babcock well to determine “What makes Mike Babcock tick?” and part of the article involves his tenure with the Red Wings:

“Scotty Bowman was different than Mike and Al (Arbour) was different than Scotty,” said Devellano. “I worked with all three. They’re all different, very effective, very affected, very driven. Mike can be like a race car driver, he only knows one speed and he keeps his foot on the gas all the time. He’s like that so he expects everyone else to be like that. I don’t think he cares whether the players like him or not. He cares about results. Scotty was a lot like that. He didn’t care what you thought of him. Mike has some of that in him.”

In Detroit, where Babcock made his National Hockey League reputation, he became known as a demanding almost obsessive coach, not only to his players but to the Red Wings front office. At times it was thought he tried to coach, play and manage the team all at the same time. He was forever asking the front office for players, demanding change or trades.

“He can be very disrespectful of coaches, players, general managers,” said an NHL executive, who didn’t want to be identified.  “He’s not asking for things sometimes, he’s demanding them. He tries to run the team. He’s not easy to work with.”

Red Wings general manager Ken Holland disagrees. Sort of. He hired Babcock to coach the Wings and the two worked together and became close friends in their 10 years in Detroit . He knows what Babcock is, how good he is at his job, how much of a pain in the butt he can be.

“He’s a great coach,” said Holland. “In life, experience is a good thing. We all get excited about youth. But in the coaching fraternity, experience is very, very valuable. He went from Lethbridge to Moose Jaw to Spokane to the Memorial Cup to World Junior to the American Hockey League. He didn’t get here by accident.

“And he’s consistent. No matter what time you get up on a road trip, you’re going to meet with him at 7 in the morning and we’ll go over the tape from the night before and talk about what our plan is for the next day. It’s relentless, it’s day after day after day and he does it because he believes in it. He does it because he believes in routine and that’s how he lives his life.”

Simmons continues…

Talkin’ about Todd Nelson’s NHL prospects

The Hockey News’s Jared Clinton lists Grand Rapids Griffins coach Todd Nelson as a possible candidate to succeed Carolina Hurricanes coach Bill Peters, but Clinton does a good job of explaining why Nelson might not get the chance to audition for the job:

Todd Nelson
Current: Coach, Grand Rapids Griffins (AHL)
Past NHL Experience: Interim coach, Edmonton Oilers; assistant coach, Atlanta Thrashers

Nelson gives the Hurricanes another potential option out of the AHL, but the difference here is that he has experience behind an NHL bench. It’s not much, mind you, but it’s something. For two seasons, from 2008 to 2010, Nelson was an assistant with the Thrashers, and after some excellent work with the Oilers’ farm team, he earned a chance to coach Edmonton on an interim basis. It was only 46 games, but that’s 46 games more than Keefe or Brind’Amour. Nelson has really turned some heads in recent years, too, coaching the Griffins to the 2016-17 Calder Cup. Here’s the catch, though: will Detroit let Nelson interview for the gig? The past two seasons have been dreadful under coach Jeff Blashill, and if the coming campaign isn’t much better, Nelson might be next in line for the Detroit job.

I’m assuming that Rod Brind’Amour will get the Canes’ gig, and I’m sure that Nelson will be in the running for other coaching positions, but his lack of NHL experience–and the Wings’ possible desire to keep him in the fold for one more year–yield a probable return behind the Griffins’ bench.

Russian Five film earns award at Free Press Film Festival (plus some distribution news)

According to the Free Press’s staff, Joshua Riehl’s film chronicling the story of the Red Wings’ Russian Five earned an award at the Free Press Film Festival–and the Free Press also reveals some distribution news regarding the Russian Five film:

Spirit of Michigan Award

This award honors the movie that best exemplifies the state of Michigan’s spirit of ingenuity and creativity — both in filmmaking quality and topic. It was chosen by a Freep Film Festival jury.

The recipient was “The Russian Five,” the festival’s opening night film that went on to sell out three screenings during the weekend. “Port Huron native and director Joshua Riehl worked for years to gain access to high-profile NHL players, acquire all the necessary archival footage and craft this truly inspirational hometown story, making it an obvious choice for this award,” said Kieliszewski.

“It is an absolute honor to be awarded the Spirit of Michigan Award by the Freep Film Festival for ‘The Russian Five’! When people think of the spirit of Michigan (and Detroit) they think of hard-working, industrious people who persevere through life’s adversities and I can’t think of a better way to describe the story of the Russian Five and our incredible team’s efforts in bringing this documentary to the big screen,” said director Riehl. “We had an absolute blast premiering the documentary at Freep Film Festival, and the fans’ outpouring of love and support is something that I will cherish for the rest of my career.”

According to the film’s producers, “The Russian Five” will continue its festival run through the summer and is exploring options for distribution, while looking into creative ways to bring the film to fans.

Continued

Howard at the bat, I mean pitcher’s mound

This is a bit of a fluff entry, but sometimes you’ve got to change it up. Red Wings goaltender Jimmy Howard threw out the first pitch at today’s Tigers game (Tweets via the Red Wings), and he did…okay…

Prior to throwing out the first pitch, he sat down for a short interview with Fox Sports Detroit’s Trevor Thompson:

 

Griffins’ Game Day Preview video sets up Game 2 of Griffins-Moose series

Here’s the Grand Rapids Griffins’ Game Day Preview video ahead of today’s game against the Manitoba Moose (3 PM EDT on the AHL Live and ESPN 96.1 FM):

Update: Here are some game notes from the AHL’s “Morning Skate” story:

After its first third-period rally of the season, Manitoba brings a 1-0 series lead into Game 2 against Grand Rapids today… Michael Spacek‘s goal with 1:09 remaining capped a three-goal final frame and lifted the Moose to a 3-2 win of the Griffins yesterday… Manitoba was 0-18-2-2 in the regular season — one of two AHL teams without a win — when trailing after 40 minutes… Eric Comrie, one of 12 Moose players making his Calder Cup Playoff debut in Game 1, finished with 34 saves… Jan Kostalek and Cameron Schilling also scored for Manitoba, and Chase De Leo recorded two assists… Kostalek’s goal at 6:22 of the third period ended a Moose drought of 225:29 without a goal against Grand Rapids at Bell MTS Place… Ben Street and Turner Elson had the goals for the Griffins… Tom McCollum got the start for Grand Rapids and stopped 28 shots… The Griffins outshot Manitoba 36-31 for the game, including 20-8 in the first period.

Alumni news: Wings’ Alumni to raise funds for Ted Lindsay Foundation on April 29th; Alumni-Toledo Police video; McCarty the comedian

Of Red Wings Alumni-related note today:

1. WDIV’s Von Lozon reports that the Wings’ Alumni team will be playing a charity game in Fraser to benefit the Ted Lindsay Foundation:

Members of UAW-Ford and former members of the Detroit Red Wings will take the ice in hopes of raising money to benefit a great cause.

The charity hockey game takes place at 2 p.m. Sunday, April 29 at Fraser Hockey Land — 34400 Utica Road in Fraser. One-hundred percent of proceeds go towards the Ted Lindsay Foundation for Autism, an organization created in 2001 by former Red Wing Ted Lindsay, and John Czarnecki, who is the father of a son with autism. The foundation has raised more than $3 million since being founded, according to its website.

Former Red Wings expected to play include Kris Draper, Kirk Maltby, Joe Kocur, Darren McCarty and more.

A 30-minute autograph session will take place before the game begins. The “Spike” Monster Truck will also be on display and concessions will be open.

Continued (with an embedded video of John Ogrodnick and UAW representative Angelo Sacino discussing the event)…

2. The Red Wings’ alums took on the Toledo Police on Saturday, per WTOL 11:

News, Weather, Sports, Toledo, OH
3. And this note from the County Times is real:

Red Wings legend Darren McCarty and his favorite Michigan comedians will keep the crowd laughing on Friday, April 27 in The Mezz located at Louie’s Sports Tavern and Polar Palace.

Audience members must prepare themselves as McCarty takes off the gloves and shares a night of stories and laughs. The show also features a Q& A and wraps with a Meet and Greet with McCarty in Louie’s Sports Tavern.

Also appearing on stage is local comedian Dustin Cole.

Tickets are $20 in advance and $25 at the door. The show beings at 8 p.m.

For tickets or details, call 810-358-7024.

The Mezz is at 3301 Davison Rd., Lapeer.