Red Wings-Penguins wrap-up: Wings strike out in their home opener

The Detroit Red Wings’ 6-3 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday night was problematic more for how it transpired as to the fact that it happened.

It was the kind of loss where everything that went badly for the Red Wings during the 2023-2024 season went bad for the team all over again, with no apparent signs of improvement or even effort made by the players, coaches or management to address the mistake-prone goaltending, leaky defense, over-reliance upon the top two lines to bail out mistakes made by the rest of the lineup, or, well, the inability of the rest of the lineup to deliver wins, should the team’s top-flight performers have “off nights”…

On a night where just about everybody had an “off night.”

This one was frustrating, innervating, and sometimes just plain scary, because it appeared like the Red Wings haven’t improved an ounce, and that the 2024-2025 Red Wings are going to spend all season long chasing the same ghosts out of their attic, so to speak.

For the Penguins, everything went right, from rookie goaltender Joel Blomqvist (29 saves) on out, as Pittsburgh Hockey Now’s Dan Kingerski noted:

Continue reading Red Wings-Penguins wrap-up: Wings strike out in their home opener

Red Wings-Penguins quick take: Wings out-played heavily in opening loss to Pittsburgh

The Detroit Red Wings opened their 2024-2025 season against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday night at Little Caesars Arena, opening up a difficult stretch of 3 games to be played over the course of 5 nights.

Pittsburgh came into tonight’s game on the rebound from a 6-0 loss to the New York Rangers in Pittsburgh’s home opener, so the Penguins came into tonight’s game with a spoiler’s mentality.

Bluntly, Thursday’s game was a bit of a mess.

Despite the Red Wings facing a rookie goaltender making his first NHL start, at times they made Joel Blomqvist look like a brick wall at times…

While Ville Husso was pulled after giving up 3 goals on 7 2nd period shots and 4 on 14 overall, mostly because the defense in front of him was so poor, as Detroit turned a 1-1 after-the-1st-period tie into a 4-2 after-the-2nd deficit (thanks to 3 Penguins goals in 2:53)…

And, ultimately, a stupid penalty assessed to Simon Edvinsson afforded the Penguins an early-3rd-period power play to put the game away, and put it away, Erik Karlsson and then Kevin Hayes did (with an Alex DeBrincat power play goal sandwiched in between the 5-2 and 6-3 goals against).

Pittsburgh won 6-3, Detroit lost Jeff Petry to an upper-body injury, the Tigers also lost, and the combination of Detroit getting its ass handed to it and Detroit getting its ass handed to it in two sports had people pissy and angry.

Detroit must rebound against Steven Stamkos’ Nashville Predators on Saturday and the mighty New York Rangers on Monday.

Uphill, as always.

Continue reading Red Wings-Penguins quick take: Wings out-played heavily in opening loss to Pittsburgh

Press release: Red Wings assign Shai Buium to Grand Rapids

Good news for the Griffins here:

RED WINGS ACTIVATE SHAI BUIUM FROM INJURED NON-ROSTER; ASSIGN HIM TO GRAND RAPIDS

  … 2021 Second-Round Pick Won Two National Championships at University of Denver …

DETROIT – The Detroit Red Wings today activated defenseman Shai Buium from injured non-roster and assigned him to the American Hockey League’s Grand Rapids Griffins.

Buium, 21, made his professional debut with the Griffins on April 19 against the Iowa Wild. The 6-foot-3, 213-pound defenseman signed a three-year, entry-level contract with the Red Wings on April 17 after playing three seasons at the University of Denver, helping the Pioneers capture two NCAA Division I national championships. As a junior, Buium earned NCHC Second All-Star Team honors after recording 36 points (7-29-36), a plus-33 rating and 14 penalty minutes in 43 games. He logged 21 points (4-17-21), a plus-eight rating and 18 penalty minutes in 38 games as a sophomore in 2022-23. Selected by the Red Wings in the second round (36th overall) of the 2021 NHL Entry Draft, Buium was selected to the NCHC All-Rookie Team after tallying 18 points (3-15-18), a plus-20 rating and 12 penalty minutes in 39 games as a freshman in 2021-22, winning a national title along with Red Wings prospects Carter Mazur (70th overall/2021) and Antti Tuomisto (35th overall/2019). In total, Buium compiled 75 points (14-61-75), a plus-61 rating and 44 penalty minutes in 120 games with the Pioneers.

Prior to his collegiate career, Buium played in parts of two seasons with the Sioux City Musketeers of the United States Hockey League from 2019-21. Buium was selected to the USHL’s Second All-Rookie Team in 2020-21 after collecting 26 points (4-22-26), a plus-16 rating and 27 penalty minutes in 50 regular-season games, in addition to three points (1-2-3) in four postseason contests. The San Diego, Calif., native also competed at Shattuck St. Mary’s Prep in 2020-21, registering 13 points (2-11-13) and two penalty minutes in 17 appearances. Buium posted 88 points (21-67-88) and 32 penalty minutes in 100 games with Shattuck St. Mary’s under-16 squad from 2018-20.

Red Wings ready to embrace a difficult October schedule

As the Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan notes this evening, the Detroit Red Wings’ schedule this month is a bit of a bear, and the Red Wings say that they’re ready to jump into the water, man-eating Lake Sturgeon* included:

After facing Pittsburgh in Thursday’s season opener, the Wings have two games each with Nashville and the New York Rangers in the span of a week. Then there are games at the New York Islanders and Buffalo, with home games against New Jersey, Edmonton and Winnipeg.

In all, it’s 10 games against some of the best teams in the NHL. Only Buffalo isn’t considered a sure-fire bet to make the playoffs, yet the Sabres possess enough young talent to make a serious run toward a postseason spot. And Pittsburgh, though aging and having missed the playoffs the last two seasons, definitely poses a significant challenge.

“Everyone has those types of stretches in their schedule” Wings coach Derek Lalonde said. “We have it at the start.”

The Wings are hoping history repeats itself in some regard. They started 3-0-2 in Lalonde’s first year behind the bench and got off to a 5-1-0 start last season. Lalonde placed a heavy emphasis on difficult practices this past month in training camp and the preseason to get this Wings team ready for the start of the schedule.

“The last two years we got off to great starts,” captain Dylan Larkin said. “We’ve had great camps and it’s led into October. We’re excited to get back to Little Caesars Arena and play in front of our fans.”

Continued (paywall);

*for what it’s worth, my father liked to terrify me by insisting that there were “man-eating Lake Sturgeon” in North Manistique Lake, which is no deeper than 8 feet.

Tuesday-Wednesday catch-up post of doom

I apologize for the lack of content on Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday: Aunt Annie and I both contracted a very bad flu bug, and both of us spent both days in bed due to nasty fatigue, body aches, fever and chills and the usual flu-related symptoms.

I’m still sick, honestly, but I can sit up, and Tylenol Cold helps me feel at least somewhat human, so here we are.

As a result of my illness, I was unable to cover the vast majority of the Red Wings season previews, and we have an extra hour before the Red Wings play tonight, so:

Detroit Red Wings: The Red Wings successfully waived and then sent Austin Watson to Grand Rapids for the present moment;

MLive: Ansar Khan wrote a season preview article which discussed the Red Wings’ desire to make the playoffs this season;

Khan discussed the Red Wings’ three-goaltender system;

Khan offered a take as to how the Red Wings can overcome both the goals-for they lost during free agency and the goals against which they suffered last season by committing to team defense;

Khan reported that the Red Wings’ power play is still being tweaked;

He confirmed that Austin Watson was sent to Grand Rapids, and that tonight’s game starts at 8 PM, not 7 PM;

And Tyler Kuehl wrote a Grand Rapids Griffins season preview;

Detroit Free Press: The Free Press’s Helene St. James discussed the Red Wings’ in-flux power play units;

Continue reading Tuesday-Wednesday catch-up post of doom

Prospect round-up: Buchelnikov scores, ASP 1G+1A in Sweden

Of Red Wings prospect-related note today:

In the KHL, Dmitri Buchelnikov scored a goal on 2 shots, finishing even with 2 hits in 15:44 played as Vityaz Moscow Region won 3-2 in overtime over HC Sochi, as illustrated by Red Wings Prospects on Twitter:

In the SHL, Noah Dower Nilsson didn’t play due to illness in Frolunda HC’s 5-4 win over Farjestads BK;

There’s no news as to why Anton Johansson sat out Leksands IF’s 3-2 victory over Brynas IF;

And Axel Sandin Pellikka registered a goal and an assist, finishing even with 1 shot in 22:22 played as Skelleftea AIK won 3-1 over Rogle BK. Both IceHockeyGifs and Red Wings Prospects caught the action:

Continue reading Prospect round-up: Buchelnikov scores, ASP 1G+1A in Sweden

Tweet of note: Cossa’s mask, ‘Seabass’ not included

Grand Rapids Griffins equipment manager Brad “Dogg” Thompson and Griffins goaltender Sebastian Cossa share the design of Cossa’s mask:

WTOL 11 has a story about Toledo Walleye goaltender Gage Alexander’s mask as well.