Of Red Wings-related note this afternoon:
2. DetroitRedWings.com’s Dana Wakiji posted a “by the numbers” examination of Dennis Cholowski’s 2017-18 season and the early 2018-19 campaign as well:
The Red Wings have announced that they’re unveiling a marketing slogan called “The New Fabric of Hockeytown” today:
Welcome to The New Fabric of Hockeytown
New perks and benefits announced for 2018-19 season, including Little Caesars Arena open houses, reduced ticket pricing packages, food and beverage discounts, road game promotions, special pre-game entertainment and much more
DETROIT – The Detroit Red Wings today introduced several new initiatives for the 2018-19 season that celebrate the incredible fans and unmatched passion of Hockeytown. The organization also unveiled a refreshed Hockeytown logo in a design inspired by the iconic Red Wings’ jersey that has united fans for generations.
“What defines Hockeytown is the shared sense of undying passion our fans have for our game, our team, and our city,” said Chris Granger, Group President, Sports & Entertainment, Ilitch Holdings, Inc. “We’re excited to introduce several new programs for the upcoming season that will amplify the game-day experience at Little Caesars Arena and appeal to the Hockeytown community.”
Several new and exciting initiatives will be introduced for the upcoming Red Wings season:
Continue reading Red Wings unveil ‘New Fabric of Hockeytown’
The Athletic’s Max Bultman weighs in with an article discussing the Red Wings prospects’ struggles against the Columbus Blue Jackets last night:
Detroit made the championship by going 2-1 in pool play, with many of their top young players contributing heavily. Dennis Cholowski looked strong logging a ton of minutes and playing both power play and penalty kill. Michael Rasmussen was his usual self, battling and producing at the net front. Joe Veleno notched a two-goal game Monday. And [Filip] Zadina continued to show flashes of what makes him such a coveted prospect, scoring in the team’s first game and collecting assists and scoring chances in the rest.
Those are Detroit’s first-round picks for the last three years (they had two this year), so that’s exactly who you want to see leading the way.
More interesting than all of that, though, was how hard Zadina took Tuesday’s loss, especially when it came to his personal performance. In the immediate aftermath of the game, after he’d been asked about his visit to the locker room, he had this to say:
“I probably should (have stayed) in the room because I didn’t help the team. It was a horrible game.”
And then later: “I probably could play better and help the team to win the championship. I haven’t scored three games in a row. It’s probably a little bit my fault.”
Continued (paywall)…
During last night’s prospect tournament championship game, Red Wings announcer Ken Kal interviewed Wings director of amateur scouting Tyler Wright…
NHL.com’s Adam Kimelman penned a lengthy column discussing the ways in which the 8 Eastern Conference teams that didn’t make the playoffs can do so this time around. Here’s what Kimelman has to say about the Red Wings:
Why they could get in: A rich crop of prospects, led by [Filip] Zadina and 6-foot-6, 221-pound center Michael Rasmussen, has the Red Wings feeling good about the future. But their present looks good as well, even if Zetterberg isn’t available. Forward Dylan Larkin is an elite playmaker, and forward Anthony Mantha scored a Red Wings-high 24 goals last season at age 23. Forward Gustav Nyquist is a three-time 20-goal scorer and Andreas Athanasiou, who could slide to center in Zetterberg’s absence, is among the fastest skaters in the NHL. Jimmy Howard was solid in goal and the addition of Jonathan Bernier further strengthens the position. The Red Wings play a smart style, can score, and could push for one of the wild card spots in the conference.
The Hockey News’s Ryan Kennedy penned a “prospect need to know” article highlighting the best prospects of the teams that participated in the Red Wings’ prospect tournament:
Filip Zadina: High-end puck touches and off-the-charts creativity/offensive IQ. The sixth overall pick in 2018 showed off a lot of elite skill and played the point on the power play. Showed off nice chemistry with Michael Rasmussen. He’ll get a chance to jump straight to the NHL this fall.
Vili Saarijarvi: The Finnish defenseman can really turn on the jets when he’s rushing the puck up the ice. Has an active stick on ‘D’, but still loses battles due to his size. Spent some time in the ECHL last year, but look for him to play a bigger role in AHL Grand Rapids this season.
Joe Veleno: Does everything at a high pace and will take a hit in order to make a play. The 2018 first-rounder was promoted to the top line for Game 2, joining Zadina and Michael Rasmussen and pushing the pace. He’ll go back to a strong Drummondville squad in the QMJHL.
Michael Rasmussen: Has a quick shot and looked faster than before. Played on the top line with Zadina and was very effective. The Red Wings also experimented with putting Rasmussen on the wing in Game 2 and there’s the possibility that the big two-way center starts his NHL career there, just like Dylan Larkin did in Detroit.
The Detroit Red Wings’ prospects had a difficult game in their championship match-up vs. the Columbus Blue Jackets. The prospects really came apart in a 3rd period they led 3-2, surrendering 5 goals en route to a 7-3 loss.
It was a disappointing finish to a solid prospect tournament, a tournament in which the Wings went 2-and-2, rebounding from a tough loss to Minnesota with strong performances against Dallas and New York.
As someone who has partisan feelings for the team I cover, this one was really hard to cover, and this is going to be a hard couple of hours trying to evaluate the Wings prospects’ performances.
The ugly plus-minuses of Dennis Cholowski, Michael Rasmussen and Joe Veleno don’t reflect their prospect tournament performances–they reflect one really horrific period–and I’m not about to consign Filip Zadina (who is fine after getting smoked in the head cutting across the blueline, yielding little more than a slight wrist sprain) to the scrap-heap because he found himself in over his head trying to play Major Junior hockey against professional competition, nor am I going to bash Kaden Fulcher for one shitty game–but they had hiccups in a championship game.
Here’s MLive’s Ansar Khan’s concise recap of the game…
Continue reading Impressions from the Red Wings’ 7-3 loss to Columbus at the prospect tournament ’18
The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan penned a story about Evgeny Svechnikov, who spent some of his weekend in Traverse City, watching his brother Andrei play for the Carolina Hurricanes in the prospect tournament. Svechnikov hopes to make the Wings’ roster on a full-time basis after playing 14 games with the Wings last year:
“There’s more expectation,” Svechnikov said after an informal workout at Little Caesars Arena. “(But) I had, last year, a lot of expectations for myself.”
Svechnikov has the size at 6-foot-3, 212 pounds, and has shown a knack for playing in tight areas, using his strength and instincts. But his struggles defensively, lack of top-end speed, and self-doubt have held him back in the brief NHL auditions.
“I want to show I can play really good defensively and be strong in the zone, cycle the puck and make less mistakes,” Svechnikov said.
Svechnikov did a lot of power skating work in the summer and worked out extensively with younger brother Andrei, who was picked No. 2 overall in June’s draft by Carolina.
“I did a lot of skating, a lot of running,” Svechnikov said. “It was lot of long of runs. It was hard, really hard. I did it for two months, three days a week.”
Red Wings forwards Dylan Larkin, Tyler Bertuzzi and Anthony Mantha visisted Goodrich, Michigan to lend a charitable hand to Oaktree Elementary School on Tuesday, as noted by MLive’s Kaitlynn Sullivan…
Detroit Red Wings players visited Oaktree Elementary School on Tuesday, Sept. 11, to see students and make a donation to the Playworks Program. The $3,500 donation will go toward Playworks’ nation-wide initiative to help children stay active during recess through constructive play and exercise.
“The donation is going to Playworks to continue their work so other schools can have the same opportunity to improve how recess is done for other kids and hit on more than just the academics, but leadership, group collaboration, those important things that we learn on the playground and are important for the rest of our lives,” said Jasan Bryan, principal of Oaktree Elementary School.
Continue reading Larkin, Bertuzzi, Mantha ‘go to school’ as part of Wings’ community tour
As the Wings and national media pondered what exactly to make of Steve Yzerman’s decision to step down as the Tampa Bay Lightning’s GM, ostensibly to spend more time with his family in Metro Detroit, I gravitated toward the video Sportsnet posted of the Lightning’s announcement, preferring to listen and pay attention for myself:
