At 8pm, we’ll toast and Roast NHL All-Star, Brett Hull! In addition to airing locally on @BallySportsDET, anyone can tune in via livestream on our website.
The Roast may be tonight, but you can still bid on all items for the auction until tomorrow at 12:00 pm! Make sure to tune in to the Celebrity Roast of Brett Hull on @BallySportsDET tonight at 8 pm or livestream on our website: https://t.co/FIsVN6BkMJpic.twitter.com/m5OcQuXCqa— Jamie Daniels Foundation (@JDanielsFund) November 22, 2021
The Red Wings are getting outstanding results from their top players and young guns. Having to choose between Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider in the Calder Trophy race should have some voters concerned already.
Continued; concerned? Shit, man, I’m grateful as grateful can be for Raymond and Seider performing so very well. I’ll worry about “Who deserves the Calder more” around game 75, and we just passed game 20.
The Dominator. Hasek has one of those impeccable nicknames, right up there with “The Great One” for Wayne Gretzky, “The Rocket” for Maurice Richard, and “Mr. Hockey” for Gordie Howe.
What’s been lost in time is that it took a few tries before the hockey world landed on “The Dominator.” Former Blackhawks coach Mike Keenan called him “Dr. Dom” for a bit in Chicago. Broadcasters loved labelling him “Gumby.” And, briefly in the early ’90s, he was known as “The Count.”
Yes, “The Count.” Like Count Dracula.
“We’re going on a road trip, and we’re getting on the plane, and he had an overcoat. He did not put his arms through the overcoat. He buttoned the very top and, (like) back in medieval times, it looked like a cape,” said Mitch Korn, Hasek’s former goalie coach with the Sabres. “And one of the guys nicknamed him The Count.”
“He did not like that,” Korn added. “And it hung around until he got good. And when he got good, it disappeared in a hurry, replaced by The Dominator.”
That anecdote describes Hasek to a tee.
Continued; give it a listen! Dominik Hasek was as complicated a human being as he was plain old strange, so he was and is a fascinating man of many interests…He’s just always been a little…different.
Dynamic duo of rookies:It has been 20 years since teammates finished 1-2 in Calder Trophy balloting (Dany Heatley and Ilya Kovalchuk of the Atlanta Thrashers). It could happen this season with Lucas Raymond (team-leading 19 points) and Moritz Seider (13 points), who rank 1-2 in the rookie scoring race. Raymond, the fourth overall pick in 2020, has fit in seamlessly on the top line with Larkin and Tyler Bertuzzi due to his passing ability, dangerous shot, and hockey sense. Seider, the sixth selection in 2019, has been their best and most consistent defenseman, playing all situations and logging more than 22 minutes a game.
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Captain regains form: Larkin’s first season as captain was disappointing (nine goals and 23 points in 44 games). He has equaled that goal total in just 16 games and is averaging a point a game (16 points) despite some unusual circumstances. He was suspended for one game (punching Tampa Bay’s Mathieu Joseph in retaliation for a hit from behind), missed three games due to a family emergency, and was forced to sit out the third period in Dallas last Tuesday because of what turned out to a false positive COVID-19 test.
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Power play not potent enough: Sure, it was the preseason, but the Red Wings showed positive signs on the power play under new assistant coach Alex Tanguay. And while they have improved slightly, from 11.4 percent last season to 15.8 percent currently, it’s still not good enough. Despite having more depth and options with the additions of Raymond, Seider, Nick Leddy and Pius Suter and a healthy Bertuzzi, some of the same issues persist. They’re not getting enough shots on net and have been one shot and done too often.
2. Lucas Raymond: Raymond is a great example of a coach who puts a rookie in the best opportunity to succeed. How many times do we see a head coach bring a rookie in slowly, putting him on the fourth line to average seven minutes a night and forcing the rookie to “earn” his spot? Then the rookie doesn’t produce and it takes years before they are given a real shot. Despite the great preseason Raymond had, there was still talk he was going to be sent down to start the season. Instead, he was rewarded and made the team. He was immediately put on the top line and top power-play unit, where he continues to stay. His points-per-game may slow up a little, but as long as he is given the opportunity, he could flirt with 70 points.
Continued; Raymond might not hit 70 points, but if he stays healthy, he’s proven to be a consistent contributor.
Luke at him: Lucas Raymond picked up his 12th assist of the season on Larkin’s goal Saturday. The rookie’s performance really is remarkable for his consistency. He has points in 12 games, and 19 after 20 games. That’s only two behind Steve Yzerman’s pace in his rookie year of 1983-84.
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Bert backs off: Tyler Bertuzzi’s early scoring pace — 14 points over his first 10 games — was not sustainable, but his overall play has dropped. He has two points during his past seven games, has been prone to turnovers and hasn’t played with the grit that makes him so effective. For the Wings to rebound, they need Bertuzzi back on his ‘A’ game.
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Power outage: The Wings have one power play goal in their past seven games, during which they’ve had roughly 21 minutes total with an extra skater. They had two power plays in the second period Saturday but weren’t able to build on their 1-0 lead. It’s been an issue for several seasons, but this season there are enough skilled players to form two units. Coaches have moved players around on the units, but this is another area where the Wings need to gain some confidence.
Playoffs? The Wings are right in the middle of the pack in their division; they entered Sunday at No. 4 in the Atlantic, a couple points out of a playoff spot (though it’s skewed somewhat by the disparity in games played). But they’re only a bit below .500, which is pretty good, all in all. They’re certainly more fun to watch than the previous couple seasons’ version of the franchise. They need to use this mini-break to recharge and get back to being a team that out-hustles its opponent regularly.
Brett Hull was known for his shot and his boisterous personality, and his tenure with the Detroit Red Wings made him a natural to be in the spotlight for the third annual Jamie Daniels Foundation roast.
The reason behind the celebrity roast, which will be telecast at 8 p.m. Monday on Bally Sports Detroit, is the tragedy of substance use disorder, a disease that continues to devastate society. The roast raises money for the cause, with a focus on prevention and recovery.
Hull follows Scotty Bowman and Mickey Redmond in the spotlight.
“He’s a natural,” Ken Daniels said. “We told him it’s more of a tribute. I mean, nobody really gets roasted, though many of the stories on there are pretty damn good with Brett. We have Brian Burke and Garth Butcher and Kelly Chase, his uncle Dennis and Ken Hitchcock. There are many stories. Mike Modano is in there.”
Ken Daniels and Lisa Daniels-Goldman are still hard at work helping to de-stigmatize the diagnosis and treatment of substance use disorder:
It’s enjoyable, but also emotionally draining for Daniels, the Wings’ play-by-play announcer. He and Lisa Daniels-Goldman established the foundation in 2018, two years after their son, Jamie, died from an overdose at 23 after ingesting a synthetic opioid.
“We show families who have lost a loved one to SUD,” Daniels said. “In the 12 months that ended in April, over 100,000 people died from opioids.
“This is about continuing the conversation. In three years, we’ve raised close to $1.2 million, which is pretty remarkable.”
My blog lives a sort of double existence as I have a “Twitter audience,” which is 9,000 strong, and a blog audience which is not quite as big. I find it interesting that the two groups of TMR followers can be discussing two completely different things.
Now there are a dozen reasons why this goal didn’t have to count as the gamer, from the lazy Michael Rasmussen icing that cost the Wings the game-tying goal from Ryan Dzingel at 13:31 of the 3rd to the Red Wings’ lack of killer instinct in the 3rd period, where the Wings went from out-shooting Arizona 16-6 in the 2nd period to being out-shot 13-10…
But Red Wings captain was pretty pissed off after the game, mostly with Jakub Chychrun being allowed to whack the puck out of Alex Nedeljkovic’s glove, as he told Bally Sports Detroit:
Ultimately, two penalties were committed on the play: Chychrun hacked the puck out of Nedeljkovic’s glove, and, when Phil Kessel pitchforked Nedeljkovic in his crease, Kessel prevented Nedeljkovic from getting back from the lip of his crease into said crease to stop Clayton Keller from scoring.
But the goal counted after an NHL “war room” review, and that’s an indictment of two things:
The NHL, for no longer protecting goaltenders;
And the Red Wings, for not possessing the killer instinct to score that necessary 2-0 or 2-1 goal that would have provided Detroit with a 3rd period cushion.
One way or another, the game is over, and the Coyotes won it. That’s the biggest issue to be rectified–the result–and the process by which one rectifies that is by what the Red Wings can do–move forward as they come home, practice, and prepare for a two-game week by sharpening their all-round games.
Detroit needs to both score goals and surrender fewer goals against, and both issues were on full display last night. That’s the Red Wings’ problem to solve, through practice and playing better vs. St. Louis on Wednesday and Buffalo on Saturday.
The last month has been pretty hard in the Malik household, and in full disclosure, I’m about to share some information that may seem irrelevant to me trying to do my job, so if you’re not into this sort of thing, you may want to scroll on.
But I have found that sharing “what’s going on” seems to help people, although I’m not looking for pity or even sympathy here, just understanding, so we’re gonna get into the reasons why TMR has been “banged-up” of late.
