Morning news: Regarding the Wings’ competitiveness, Zadina in the AHL, a Ben Simon interview and a Blue Jackets game preview

Of Red Wings-related note this morning:

1. MLive’s Ansar Khan wrote an article discussing five season-opening questions surrounding this year’s Wings team, including what I’ll call an underrated topic:

Will they be harder to play against? Several players said this was the most grueling training camp they’ve experienced as coach Jeff Blashill emphasized skating and competing.

The theme was “Sixty Minutes of Hell,” which Blashill borrowed from former Arkansas basketball coach Nolan Richardson, who coined the expression “Forty Minutes of Hell” in the early 1990s.

They hope to compensate for a lack of talent by outworking opponents and being harder to play against. They want to play more north-south, forecheck more aggressively, force more turnovers and spend more time in the offensive zone.

Khan continues, and I would suggest that the Wings’ collective “compete level” may very transcend any personnel questions…
2. 97.1 The Ticket’s Pat Caputo expresses discontent with the Red Wings’ decision to send Filip Zadina to Grand Rapids for the start of the 2018-19 season, in both text and video form:

Continue reading Morning news: Regarding the Wings’ competitiveness, Zadina in the AHL, a Ben Simon interview and a Blue Jackets game preview →

Filip Zadina, Ben Simon talk to Fox 17 about Zadina’s AHL start

Fox 17’s Jason Hutton spoke with Red Wings prospect and Grand Rapids Griffins forward Filip Zadina, and his coach, Ben Simon, regarding Zadina’s status as a Griffin:

 

Prospect round-up: SHL underway; JvP on the move(?) and Filip Larsson injured

Of prospect-related note:

In the SHL, Jonatan Berggren took 1 shot and finished at +1 in 10:02 of ice time in Skelleftea AIK’s 2-1 win over the Vaxjo Lakers;

In a battle of Wings prospects, Malte Setkov finished at -1 in 10:08 of ice time as his Malmo Redhawks lost 2-1 to the Frolunda Indians, whose Gustav Lindstrom finished even in 21:40 of ice time;

And in the…Dansk Metal League, it turns out that Joren van Pottelberghe has been loaned to the Rungsted Seier Capitals from HC Davos of the Swiss NLA League (and it looks like Davos is going with its current goalies, Gilles Senn and Anders Lindback, so expect a move of some permanence soon)…

And JvP stopped 12 of 14 shots as Rungsted Seier won 7-2 over the Odense Bulldogs. The information regarding JvP’s loaning comes from both EliteProspects and Red Wings Prospects on Twitter, who notes that the Dansk Metal League’s website is…rustic. If not ancient.

If you missed it, there’s bad news regarding Filip Larsson from the University of Denver Pioneers:

Denver Pioneers men’s hockey freshman goalie Filip Larsson is out indefinitely with a lower-body injury, Richard and Kitzia Goodman Head Coach David Carle announced on Monday.

Larsson, a Detroit Red Wings prospect, recorded a league-leading 1.65 goals against average and .941 save percentage for the Tri-City Storm of the United States Hockey League (USHL) during the 2017-2018 season. The Stockholm, Sweden native was named 2018 USHL Goaltender of the Year, named to the 2018 All-USHL First Team and won a silver medal with Sweden at the 2018 World Junior Championship.

Krupa on aggressiveness in rebuilding

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The Detroit News’s Gregg Krupa weighs in on the Red Wings’ rebuilding process this evening, suggesting that the Wings should be more aggressive in giving younger players greater roles on the team. Krupa notes that the Wings do have some youth moving up the roster, but he feels that it’s not quite enough:

Five new guys, is a radical departure. But, the Wings did dispatch their promising 2018 first round pick, sixth overall, 18-year-old Filip Zadina, to Grand Rapids.

The roster has been in flux since Mike Babcock described it that way as early as 2012-13. Regardless, the players and coaches say the will strive for the playoffs.

The true purpose of the season, however, is plainly development.

The approach should be: If the development is good enough, the playoffs may come. But given the status of the roster, do not expect them.

If that is how the season trends, the Red Wings should provide more playing time for prospects and consider any diminished performance advantageous for the lottery.

Krupa continues, and I have two points of polite disagreement with his take:

  1. Contractually, it’s really damn hard for Wings GM Ken Holland to dissolve the bonds he’s made with older players…
  2. And it serves no purpose to teach “the kids” that losing-through-learning is an acceptable means of playing a professional sport, so…
  3. I’m expecting the Wings to lose a lot of close games again this year because their talent level is iffy, but I do hope that they are competitive and play with pride and attention to detail, even if finishing in the draft lottery is once again the “better” option.

Articles from Wings practice: On the captaincy, the in-flux blueline and multimedia of note

Updated at 7:02 PM: The Red Wings’ practice was quite busy today as the team clarified the statuses of Niklas Kronwall (out for Thursday’s opener vs. Columbus), Jonathan Ericsson (probably out) and Trevor Daley (probably playing) before announcing the team’s 23-man roster (Luke Witkowski, Filip Hronek and Joe Hicketts were assigned to Grand Rapids; Michael Rasmussen, Christoffer Ehn and Dennis Cholowski made the team, at least for now), and speaking with the media regarding several topics.

In her first post-practice article, the Free Press’s Helene St. James suggested that the Wings will go with three alternate captains this season, with Frans Nielsen and Dylan Larkin as the logical candidates for the third “A”…

Continue reading Articles from Wings practice: On the captaincy, the in-flux blueline and multimedia of note →

Regarding Alden Hirschfeld’s retirement to join the Walleye’s coaching staff

The Toledo Blade’s Mark Monroe spoke with Toledo Walleye coach Dan Watson and former Walleye captain Alden Hirschfeld regarding Hirschfeld’s retirement as he joins the Walleye’s coaching staff:

Watson said it wasn’t an easy decision for Hirschfeld to retire, but it was an easy decision to hire him.

“I love for him to get his feet wet here,” Watson said. “He’s going to make our staff better and the players better. He’s going to challenge us mentally. He’s going to bring fresh ideas having just ended his playing career.”

Hirschfeld, who said he had always considered moving behind the bench after his playing career ended and even took a coaching class at Miami, believes Watson and Delmore are prefect mentors.

“I’m super excited for the future,” he said. “I’ve had an unbelievable career. My family has always supported me. I thank them all for giving me the love that has not only made me a better hockey player but a better person. I thank the fans and the community as well. I’m excited and motivated to continue my career in hockey and to move into coaching.”

Continued

Post-practice videos from the Wings: Nielsen, Rasmussen, Larkin and Blashill

The Red Wings posted four Twitter-based videos from their post-Tuesday practice media availability. Frans Nielsen, Michael Rasmussen, Dylan Larkin and coach Jeff Blashill spoke with the media:

Red Wings announce 23-man roster: Witkowski, Hronek, Hicketts assigned to GR

The Detroit Red Wings have announced their 23-man roster to start the 2018-19 season:


Here’s the press release:

Detroit sets roster at 22
Red Wings to open regular season on Thursday versus Columbus

DETROIT – The Detroit Red Wings today assigned right wing Luke Witkowski and defensemen Joe Hicketts and Filip Hronek to the American Hockey League’s Grand Rapids Griffins. The moves reduce the Red Wings active roster to 22 players: 13 forwards, seven defensemen and two goaltenders. The Red Wings will open the 2018-19 regular season on Thursday when they host the Columbus Blue Jackets at 7:30 p.m. at Little Caesars Arena (FOX Sports Detroit/97.1 The Ticket).

Quoth the beat writers (and me):

Continue reading Red Wings announce 23-man roster: Witkowski, Hronek, Hicketts assigned to GR →

One more Tweet post: Captaincy situation no clearer, per Riger, Kulfan

Well, this answers nothing:

I guess we’ll have to wait ’till opening night.

HSJ is sticking to her guns:

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