Prospect round-up: Liam Dower Nilsson scores, Bicker plays 16:44 in European action

Of Red Wings prospect-related note in Europe today:

In the DEL, Kevin Bicker finished at -1 with 1 shot in 16:44 played as the Frankfurt Lowen lost 7-1 to the Pinguins Bremerhaven;

In the Swedish Allsvenskan, Maximilian Kilpinen finished with 7:26 played in Ostersunds IK’s 3-0 loss to Almtuna IS;

And Liam Dower Nilsson scored a goal, finishing at +2 with 4 shots in 14:01 played as IF Bjorkloven won 7-2 over the Nybro Vikings.

Red Wings-Devils quick take: growing pains doom Detroit in a 5-4 loss to New Jersey

The Detroit Red Wings faced a stiff test in battling the 15-8-and-2 New Jersey Devils on Friday afternoon.

The Red Wings hoped to make hay while the sun still shined upon its 4-of-5-games home stand, and the Devils and Sunday’s opponent, the 11-7-and-3 Vancouver Canucks, would provide the most difficult opponents (at least in theory).

On Friday afternoon, Cam Talbot gave up 5 goals on 31 shots against in his 500th game…

And the Red Wings learned a costly lesson, giving up 3 power play goals in 3 power plays against, scoring only 1 power play goal in 4 PP’s for, and surrendering a 2-0 lead in the 1st period, then a 3-2 lead in the 2nd period, all en route to a 5-4 loss to the Devils.

The Red Wings cannot lose the special teams battle any more–we know that–and they were far too passive in the 2nd, period, where the Wings were out-shot 17-6.

Ultimately, bad special teams play and passive play killed Detroit in this very long, winding game, and the Wings will have to salvage the home stand with a win against the difficult Canucks on Sunday.

Continue reading Red Wings-Devils quick take: growing pains doom Detroit in a 5-4 loss to New Jersey

Tweets of note: Fun with 500

Red Wings goaltender Cam Talbot is playing in his 500th career game today, and the Red Wings are having some fun with it:

Red Wings-Devils game-day previews and updates

Of Red Wings-related note just before the 3 PM game against New Jersey:

  1. The Devils posted a clip of coach Sheldon Keefe speaking with the media, as well as a “Devils Minute“;
  2. Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen posted this slate of pre-game notes…

Coach Derek Lalonde’s players will have their hands full when playing the New Jersey Devils at 3 p.m. (FanDuel Sports Network). The Devils are 7-3 in their last 10 and boast a 9-4 road record. Note: Lucas Raymond has scored in each of his past four games. If he scores today, his goal streak would be the longest by a Detroit player since he had a five-game stretch in 2023-24. The 4 Nations Face-Off hopeful has also scored the winning goal in consecutive games and can become the 10th player in franchise history to do so in three straight contests. The last to achieve the feat was Johan Franzen in 2007-08.

3. DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills also posted a game preview:

Continue reading Red Wings-Devils game-day previews and updates

Press release: Griffins swap Gylander, Alexander with Toledo

Per the Grand Rapids Griffins:

GYLANDER REASSIGNED TO GRAND RAPIDS, ALEXANDER REASSIGNED TO TOLEDO

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – The Detroit Red Wings on Friday reassigned goaltender Carter Gylander to the Grand Rapids Griffins from the ECHL’s Toledo Walleye. In addition, the Red Wings reassigned goaltender Gage Alexander to Toledo from Grand Rapids.

Gylander made his AHL debut on Oct. 27 at Lehigh Valley, earning a 4-3 shootout victory behind 33 saves and three stops in the shootout. He made his professional debut with Toledo on Oct. 20 at Bloomington, recording 38 saves in a 4-2 victory. Throughout his first eight games with the Walleye, the 23-year-old has a 5-1-2 ledger with a 2.35 goals-against average and a .913 save percentage. Gylander served as a senior at Colgate University last year and produced a 14-14-4 record with a 2.93 goals-against average and a .901 save percentage. Throughout his four-year collegiate career from 2020-24, the Beaumont, Alberta, native logged a 46-46-13 ledger with a 2.69 GAA and a .907 save percentage in 106 outings. Gylander was selected with the 191st overall pick by the Red Wings in the 2019 NHL Entry Draft.

Last season, Alexander appeared in 19 outings with the Tulsa Oilers (ECHL) and showed a 5-8-1 record with one shutout to go along with a 3.76 goals-against average and a .887 save percentage. Alexander competed in 16 AHL games with the San Diego Gulls during the 2022-23 campaign and logged a 5-7-3 ledger with a 3.59 goals-against average and a .887 save percentage. Throughout his three-year pro career, the Okotoks, Alberta, native has an 11-19-4 mark with two shutouts to go along with a 3.67 goals-against average. Prior to turning pro, Alexander spent four seasons in the WHL from 2019-23 and totaled a 33-16-6 record with a 2.81 GAA and a .902 save percentage. Alexander was selected with the 148th overall pick by Anaheim in the 2021 NHL Entry Draft and, this past offseason, was acquired by Detroit from the Ducks in exchange for Robby Fabbri and a conditional 2025 fourth-round pick.

Black Friday Fundraising

The blog is back at work, and that means that fundraising is back as well. As I try to get back on my feet after missing a month with that stupid flu bug, we’re in some financial difficulty, so I’m hoping that you’ll be willing to lend a hand here on Black Friday/Small Business Saturday/Cyber Monday.

This part of the job is not fun, but it’s necessary, so:

The Malik Report needs your support to function. You receive quite a bit of information “for free,” but providing that information is not done for free. As such, we would like to ask that you kindly contribute to our monthly expenses.

If you’re willing to lend a hand, we have a PayPal option at https://paypal.me/TheMalikReport; there’s Venmo at https://venmo.com/george-malik-2; if you’re into the, “I don’t want to use any of those pages” option, here’s always the Giftly option by using my email, rtxg@yahoo.com, at https://www.giftly.com…

And in the banking options, you can contact me via email if you want to send me a paper check, or “Zelle” me via my email, rtxg@yahoo.com.

It’s my pleasure to provide you with as much information as I can give, but this is also a job, and it requires money, time, energy and effort (a.k.a. work). If you are willing or able to support this endeavor, it is greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your time.

Tweets of note from ‘Red Wings Prospects’

Red Wings Prospects on Twitter offers two pieces of prospect-related news today:

  1. First, Red Wings prospect Dmitri Buchelnikov will be attending the KHL’s All-Star Game…

2. And it appears that Red Wings prospect Michael Brandsegg-Nygard will be playing at the World Junior Championship, though not at the level that you might think, per Norran’s Robin Lindgren:

Battling the weight of not-so-great expectations

Sigh. It’s time for some power rankings and pre-trade-deadline discussions ([sarcasm] because, of course, it only takes 20 or so games to determine who’s selling come March [/sarcasm]).

This morning, Athletic is enjoying its long tradition of critiquing the middling Red Wings over the course of Dom Luszczyszyn and Sean Gentille’s power rankings, though the gents do give the Wings’ top defensive pair some due praise for the first time…ever?

20. Detroit Red Wings, 10-10-2

Last week: 21
Sean’s ranking: 20
Dom’s ranking: 19

At long last, Moritz Seider has a competent partner and the Red Wings have a terrific top pair. Simon Edvinsson has lived up to the hype so far and has been better than advertised for Detroit. The team’s top pair is getting buried in difficult minutes as usual, but Edvinsson’s presence has allowed Seider’s pair to not just survive those minutes, but dominate them. In 279 minutes together the pair has earned 58 percent of the expected goals while outscoring teams 10-5. Defensively, they’ve felt impenetrable. Edvinsson is the missing piece and, lucky for the Red Wings, is on an entry-level deal for this season and the next one. What he’s delivering at that price is exceptional.

Now about the rest of the defense…

And the affable Max Bultman’s been asked to already task the Red Wings with “selling” at the trade deadline…

Continue reading Battling the weight of not-so-great expectations

Red Wings getting ‘er going

The Free Press’s Helene St. James posted a short article discussing the Red Wings’ attempts to turn the ship around over the past 5 games:

“I think we’re getting back to our game, the way we’re supposed to play,” Raymond said after scoring in overtime Wednesday. “Goaltending has been a huge part of that. I just think we found our game – we play with more pace, play on the same page and are getting results off of that.”

The Wings beat the Flames, 2-1, when Raymond converted on a power play with 1:25 left in the extra period. It was a deserved pair of points: Alex DeBrincat had converted on a power play in the first period, and the Wings were minutes from a shutout when a fourth trip to the penalty box proved too much. But all in all, it was a performance upon which to build.

“We were on top of our game,” coach Derek Lalonde said. “It was a good game.”

Since that trip to California earlier this month, when the Wings gave up 15 goals in three losses, they’ve surrendered only six goals the last four games. They’ve scored nine goals in that span, with Raymond responsible for four of them; the guy the Wings desperately need to start finding the net is Vladimir Tarasenko, whose eight-goal pace is a paltry return on his $4.75 million salary. But, considering how badly things went in California, the goals-against is something to value.

“The stretch of late, three of four, we’ve taken points in four of five, it’s been about keeping it out of our net,” Lalonde said. “We’ve given up six goals and it just gives us an opportunity. Good buy-in from our guys. It’s a really good win. We’ll have a nice day on Thanksgiving and try to keep it going on Friday.”

Continued (paywall)

Raymond’s finding the back of the net again

MLive’s Ansar Khan discusses Lucas Raymond’s resurgent scoring of late, noting that Raymond’s been able to score 4 goals over the course of the last 4 games, making up for a difficult start to the 2024-2025 regular season:

Raymond suddenly has six goals for the season, after scoring just once in the first 15 games.

“I felt like it was a matter of time because of the caliber of player, how he’s elevated his game into last year and even this year,” coach Derek Lalonde said. “So, good sign and not surprised.”

When Raymond wasn’t scoring, he was facilitating. He had 13 assists in the first 15 games. He leads the team with 22 points in 22 games.

“Obviously, it’s always fun to score,” Raymond said. “Everyone wants to score. I’m no different. But at the same time, it’s just about doing the right things and good things happen. And I think that’s kind of my mentality. Goals go up and down, whatever, but I think if you stick to doing the right things and playing your game the right way, I think good things happen.”

In his past 40 games, including the final 18 last season, Raymond has 20 goals and 23 assists.

Continued (paywall)