The Malik Report

The Red Wings and Sharks will be coming off losses when the two teams meet on Tuesday at Little Caesars Arena. Detroit lost 5-1 to the Boston Bruins on Sunday, and the Sharks dropped an 8-5 decision to Pittsburgh Sunday as well.

The Associated Press has already posted a bare-bones preview of Tuesday’s game at Little Caesars Arena (7:30 PM EST start on Bally Sports Detroit/NBCS California/97.1 FM):

San Jose Sharks (17-15-1, sixth in the Pacific) vs. Detroit Red Wings (15-15-3, fifth in the Atlantic)

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BOTTOM LINE: San Jose visits Detroit looking to end its three-game road slide.

The Red Wings are 11-5-2 at home. Detroit ranks 10th in the Eastern Conference averaging 4.7 assists per game, led by Lucas Raymond with 0.6.

The Sharks have gone 8-8-0 away from home. San Jose is 16th in the Western Conference with 29.6 shots per game and is averaging 2.8 goals.

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TOP PERFORMERS: Dylan Larkin leads the Red Wings with 30 points, scoring 15 goals and registering 15 assists. Moritz Seider has one goal and six assists over the last 10 games for Detroit.

Timo Meier leads the Sharks with 21 total assists and has 34 points. Tomas Hertl has eight goals and four assists over the last 10 games for San Jose.

LAST 10 GAMES: Red Wings: 4-6-0, averaging 2.6 goals, 4.3 assists, 3.3 penalties and 7.8 penalty minutes while giving up 3.5 goals per game with an .888 save percentage.

Sharks: 4-6-0, averaging 3.1 goals, 5.6 assists, 2.8 penalties and 6.2 penalty minutes while allowing 3.5 goals per game with an .893 save percentage.

The Red Wings will play San Jose 2 times in one week; they’re scheduled to play in San Jose a week from Tuesday.

The Free Press’s Helene St. James posted her customary early-morning column today, discussing the Red Wings’ 5-1 loss to the Boston Bruins and their 3-1 loss to the Washington Capitals. As St. James notes, the Red Wings were pushed around by both the B’s and Capitals, and as Detroit’s not able to match their opponents hit-for-hit, the Wings’ power play must serve as Detroit’s enforcer:

A power play is an opportunity to punish a foe for a transgression, but the only ones feeling remorse are the Detroit Red Wings themselves. They begin the first week of a new year humbled by two losses at home, welcoming  2022 with a 5-1 loss to the Boston Bruins two days after ringing out 2021 with a 3-1 loss to the Washington Capitals. Coach Jeff Blashill noted after Sunday’s matinee at Little Caesars Arena that the Bruins, “want to bully you, that’s how they are, and I didn’t think we fought hard enough for ourselves.”

Captain Dylan Larkin put it similarly: “It was a physical game. It was a physical game against Washington, and I’ve really felt that when it’s gotten physical we’ve just been kind of been mediocre. We need to push back when it gets physical.”

The Wings were outshot 37-24 against the Bruins, and 27-20 against the Capitals. Goaltenders Thomas Greiss and Alex Nedeljkovic did what they could, but Nedeljkovic couldn’t withstand the egregious defensive blunders that led the Bruins to a three-goal third period.

Beyond being pushed around, the Wings’ big failure has been on the power play — they were 0-for-3 against Washington, and 0-for-4 against the Bruins. All four power plays against Boston came while it was either a tied or one-goal game. On one of the man advantages, the Bruins had possession for the entirety of the first minute, and the Wings never registered a shot on net.

“We didn’t execute, didn’t even get shots,” Larkin said. “They had the puck. We have to find a way to get to our spots and when the puck is on our stick, we can’t force it. We forced it way too much. We had way too many plays get broken up just by forcing it, not moving it around the outside to get our spots to get the shots.

“We didn’t have pushback. The power play would have been key to come back. That third period, we were way too passive. We pushed but we gave up chances going the other way, and we can’t do that. We have to come up with more of a team effort offensively and score on them and pin them in and make it hard on their D, and we just didn’t do that in the third period.”

Continued (paywall)

NHL.com’s Mike G. Morreale lists 6 rookies who “are capable of combining offense and physical play,” and as you might expect, one of the players listed is one Moritz Seider:

Moritz Seider, D, Detroit Red Wings: The 20-year-old, selected with the No. 6 pick in the 2019 draft, leads all rookie defensemen in assists (18) and points (21), and is first among all rookies in power-play points (eight), blocked shots (58), and average ice time (22:27) in 33 games. He’s also third among all rookies in points. Seider (6-4, 197) is second among NHL rookie defenseman with 14 takeaways, and fourth with 46 hits. In 41 games with Rogle of the Swedish Hockey League last season, he scored 28 points (seven goals, 21 assists), led the club with 91 hits and was third with 45 blocked shots.

“He’s got a definite toughness to him, physicality side to him,” Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said. “If you search the internet, you’ll see a loop of huge Niklas Kronwall-type hits he had last year in the Swedish Hockey League. I think he’s got to get stronger and thicker to do that in the National Hockey League still, but he’s got that edge to him for sure. He can punish people from a physical standpoint, so he definitely has that in him.”

Continued

Of Red Wings prospect-related note in North America on Sunday:

In the WHL, Alex Cotton finished at +1 with 2 shots in the Vancouver Giants’ 4-3 overtime win over Kelowna;

Sebastian Cossa had a rough night, giving up 5 goals on 25 shots in the Edmonton Oil Kings’ 5-2 loss to Prince Albert;

In the BCHL, Kienan Draper had an assist in the Chilliwack Chiefs’ 3-2 shootout loss to Surrey;

In NCAA Hockey, Jack Adams finished even with 4 shots in the University of Notre Dame Fighting Irish’s 5-0 win over Niagara;

Chase Bradley finished at -2 in the University of Connecticut Huskies’ 6-2 loss to Harvard;

And Ryan O’Reilly scored a goal, earning first star honors as he finished at +1 with 2 shots in the Arizona State University Sun Devils’ 3-2 win over Cornell:

comin in hot ?@oreilly_ryan /// #BeTheTradition pic.twitter.com/qh0KFrI41E

— Sun Devil Hockey (@SunDevilHockey) January 3, 2022

The Detroit Red Wings had a tremendously difficult game against the Boston Bruins, losing 5-1, and Boston now sits 1 point up on the Red Wings in the Wild Card, Atlantic Division and Eastern Conference standings, all with 5 games in hand on Detroit.

The long story long is that a lot of things went poorly for the Red Wings on Sunday, from their 0-for-4 power play, their 20 shot attempts fired into Bruins players (15) or wide of the net (5) out of a total of 44 attempts, surrendering 3 3rd period goals or plain old (and admittedly) getting pushed around by a more physical Bruins team.

The Boston Herald’s Steven Conroy told the tale of the Bruins’ win from Boston’s perspective, and to Conroy, Sunday’s story was one of a team coming together at the right time (check this off as another lesson for a young, learning Red Wings team)…

Continue reading Red Wings-Bruins wrap-up: Wings’ weekend spent learning hard lessons from Bruins, Capitals

Red Wings prospect and Frolunda HC defenseman Simon Edvinsson finally got to rejoin his SHL team for a practice on Sunday, and he spoke with Rakapuckar’s Henrik Lehman regarding a couple of topics. Here’s a rough translation thereof:

The Swedish National Junior Team arrived in Sweden late on New Year’s Eve, so Simon Edvinsson and Theodor Niederbach went straight home to Gothenburg.

“The time rhythm is shot to hell,” admitted Edvinsson, who has spent a few weeks 8 hours to the West (in terms of time zones).

However, he did not sound too worried. Practice here and now, then play hockey already on Tuesday (vs. Rogle in the Champions Hockey League), he’s calm:

“I understood I’d be jet-lagged, but it shouldn’t be a problem to play.”

What about your disappointment that the WJC was cancelled?

“It came like a bang. Not what I had imagined it would be when I went, I really did not expect it. Really tough.”

Thoughts on completing the WJC tournament later this spring?

“As long as it’s not during the season. But after that I would buy it. Of course I want to play in the WJC. I hope so, I like the idea.”

At Frolunda’s Sunday practice, as expected, the “Kungsbackarna” were reunited, i.e. Edvinsson and his usual defensive partner, Christian Folin. The two have had rare, fine chemistry right from the start of the season. If only [Frolunda HC coach] Roger Ronnberg and the others on the coaching team toasted in a madness drink on New Year’s Eve, they would have split #2 and #7.

“Back to my brother,” joked Edvinsson, 18, about Folin, 30.

The Detroit Red Wings faced a pivotal game as they hosted the Boston Bruins for a Sunday matinee at Little Caesars Arena on Sunday. The Bruins stood only 1 point behind the Wings in the Eastern Conference standings (with 5 games in hand) prior to Sunday’s game.

The Red Wings plain old laid an egg on Sunday, and lost 5-1, giving Boston a 1-point lead in the Eastern Conference standings, with 5 games still in hand.

The Wings were down 2-1 going into the 3rd period, which was great, but they gave up 3 3rd period goals, amidst a 14-shot Boston flurry, and Detroit was out-shot 37-24. The fact that the Red Wings went 0-for-4 on the power play and took 3 penalties did not help, either, nor did the fact that the Red Wings’ 24 shots were accompanied by TWENTY shots that were either blocked (15) or wide (5) of Jeremy Swayman, the winning goalie.

It was an incredibly disappointing loss for the Red Wings, who have lost their two post-COVID break games. They now host the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday, and head out West for 3 California games.

Continue reading Red Wings-Bruins quick take: Egg-laying made easy

Here’s “The Forecheck” for today’s game vs. the Boston Bruins:

The Free Press’s Helene St. James posted her customary morning column today, discussing the Red Wings’ hopes that a little more roster continuity will afford the team the ability to get on a roll:

The Detroit Red Wings have nearly everybody out of COVID-19 protocol; now they’re hoping their weeklong streak of negative tests affords a chance to build something.

They take on the Boston Bruins in a Sunday matinee at Little Caesars Arena, a chance to start off 2022 with a victory over a division rival. The Wings (15-14-3) dropped their New Year’s Eve game against the Washington Capitals, 3-1, shaking off rust after a two-week pandemic-induced layoff. It was a 1-1 game until three minutes left, and overall the Wings were encouraged that, with everyone but defenseman Nick Leddy out of quarantine (he won’t be available Sunday either), the lineup was close to what they had at the start of the season.

“Hopefully, knock on wood, we can keep this group together for a bit here and barring illness or injury, we can get kind of that chemistry, kind of get in a groove with this group,” coach Jeff Blashill said Saturday. “It’ll certainly be good to have Leds back as well, but you’re not going to have a full lineup all year. And obviously we’ve been missing one guy all season in (Jakub) Vrana. But it was good to get the group back together.”

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The Wings are emerging from a turbulent stretch that saw them shut down three days before the holiday break (wit two games postponed) and then had their first two games after the break also postponed. But the layoff meant extra practice time, and while Friday’s result disappointed, the Wings showed improvement in managing the puck.

“I’ll take that game over and over and over again,” Blashill said. “We had the chances almost exactly equal. They’ve got one of the better records in the league, they’re a team that is considered to be a team that’s going to contend for the Stanley Cup. We just have to keep playing good hockey and the more you’re in those spots, the more position you’re in to win.”

Continued

Updated at 7:55 AM: The Detroit Red Wings face a game of some importance as they host the Boston Bruins on Sunday afternoon (1 PM EST start on Bally Sports Detroit/NESN/Sportsnet/97.1 FM).

Boston stands at 15-10-and-2 after having played their 27th game on Saturday–their first since the NHL’s “pause”–in the form of a 4-3 overtime victory over the Buffalo Sabres in a Saturday matinee in Boston.

That victory places Boston exactly 1 point behind the 15-14-and-3 Red Wings in the Atlantic Division standings, with Boston still having 5 full games in hand on Detroit (27 to 32 games played), so the Red Wings would be wise to rebound from their 3-1 loss to Washington on Friday by pushing the Bruins at least 3 points in arrears instead of allowing the Bruins to take a 1-point lead in the standings.

In other words, today’s game is a serious “Swing Game” in the standings, and as our friends from Boston are coming off a game played–and, as there will be no morning skate on Sunday, we’re not going to really know what the teams’ rosters look like until they hit the ice for the game-day warm-up around 12:30 PM EST today.

That being said, examining the Bruins’ win on Saturday will help, as provided by the Associated Press’s recap of Saturday’s game…

Continue reading Red Wings-Bruins mini preview: Wings host Bruins for a ‘swing game’ in Sunday matinee