Red Wings-Maple Leafs morning skate Tweets and discussion: Toronto dresses its regulars tonight; Wings hold ‘late skate’

Updated at 11:39 AM: The 3-2-and-2 Detroit Red Wings will wrap up their exhibition season this evening, playing against the Toronto Maple Leafs in Hogtown (7 PM EDT start on DetroitRedWings.com/TSN4/ESPN+).

The Red Wings will start Ville Husso this evening (per coach Derek Lalonde), but they’re also going to bring a gaggle of AHL-level players to Toronto, hoping to avenge both Detroit’s 4-3 OT loss to Ottawa on Friday and Detroit’s 2-0 loss to Toronto on Thursday night. Toronto’s going to be dressing a star-studded lineup tonight, so the game will be an uphill climb for the Wings’ young talent.

You might notice that this will be a 3rd game played in 3 nights for the Red Wings, who are wrapping up their 8-game-in-11-night exhibition slate this evening. That’s a lot of games played over a short period of time.

If I may be honest, despite my status as a Wings partisan and as someone who hates it when the cursed Maple Leafs beat the Red Wings, I’ll be relatively happy with any result as long as the Wings don’t suffer any injuries other than sore bodies and mental fatigue from the compressed schedule.

Continue reading Red Wings-Maple Leafs morning skate Tweets and discussion: Toronto dresses its regulars tonight; Wings hold ‘late skate’

Tweet of note: Maple Leafs release roster for tonight’s game vs. the Red Wings

The Toronto Maple Leafs released their roster for tonight’s exhibition finale against the Detroit Red Wings (7 PM EDT start on DetroitRedWings.com/TSN5/ESPN+):

Tweet of note: Red Wings will stream tonight’s game vs. Toronto

Tonight’s exhibition finale against the Toronto Maple Leafs will air on TSN4 in Canada, and ESPN+ in the United States, but if you live in Michigan, you’ll be able to watch the game on DetroitRedWings.com:

Morning Khan: Marco Kasper’s almost ready to make the Wings’ roster

Marco Kasper scored two goals during the Red Wings’ 4-3 OT loss to the Ottawa Senators last night, and if you’ve watched Kasper play this preseason, you know that he’s transformed from a raw rookie to a player who is very close to making the Red Wings’ NHL roster.

This morning, MLive’s Ansar Khan discusses Kasper’s journey over the past year:

“Just trying to get out there and work really hard to do the best you can,” Kasper said. “That’s what I’ve tried to do. I think that’s what everybody has tried to do. “Obviously, it’s always fun to score. Just trying to help the team win. And I think it’s always good to score for me, for everybody, for a team, just to get two quick goals. And now we got to work on keeping the lead, not losing games like that.”

Kasper’s added weight and got stronger in the offseason. It’s made a difference.

“I think just the confidence managing his game, puck play,” Lalonde said. “You guys saw last year; he looked like a deer in the headlights. He was turning pucks all over the place, opening himself up for hits. It’s a credit for him how much he’s developed in the year. Probably a credit to the guys in Grand Rapids. He had a really good camp and he’s an exciting player for us.”

Despite his strong camp, Kasper likely will start the season with the Griffins since the Red Wings have 12 waiver-exempt forwards ahead of him on the depth chart and injuries. He’ll get an opportunity to continue playing a big role in all situations and figures to be among the first recalls.

“Can use him in every situation,” Lalonde said. “Obviously, he wasn’t on the power play today, but I trust him on the penalty kill. Trust him in some face-offs.”

Continued; if you know the history of the 20-year-old Innsbruck native, you probably know by now that Kasper’s father, Peter, was a professional hockey player with EC-KAC of the Austrian league, and that Kasper inherited his father’s meticulous sense of preparedness and desire to self-improve.

Kasper may never be a 60-point scorer, but, like Nate Danielson and Carter Mazur, he looks like a player who has matured and gained mental and physical strength over the course of the summer, and as such, Kasper’s game is mature and well-rounded for his age. He’s also got a gritty edge to his game, and he doesn’t shy away from scrums or stopping at the front of the net to engage in battles for pucks.

Ultimately, Kasper’s going to serve the Red Wings very, very well as a second-line center in the future, and there’s no doubt that he and the aforementioned Danielson and Mazur will all be called up at some point this upcoming season because he’s “ready to go.”

Video: Max Plante appears on the ‘Bulldog Insider’ podcast

Red Wings prospect and University of Minnesota-Duluth forward Max Plante is playing with his brother, Zam, on the Bulldogs this upcoming season, and the Duluth News-Tribune’s Bulldog Insider podcast featured the two recently in an episode discussing the brothers as the main topic:

After two years apart, brothers Zam and Max Plante are back home in the Twin Ports, and roommates again. The Hermantown natives both moved away in 2022 to play hockey elsewhere following a win for the Hawks in the Minnesota Class A state championship game. Zam Plante went to Chicago, and later Fargo, to play in the United States Hockey League while younger brother, Max, moved to Plymouth, Michigan, to play for the USA Hockey National Team Development Program.

Prospect round-up: Captain Finnie scores 2 for Kamloops; Augustine stops 24 of 25 in MSU OT win

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

In the OHL, Landon Miller served as the back-up in the Soo Greyhounds’ 4-2 win over the Guelph Storm;

In the WHL, Kamloops Blazers captain Emmitt Finnie scored 2 goals on 9 shots and went 8-for-15 on faceoffs as Kamloops lost 8-6 to the Vancouver Giants;

In the USHL, Rudy Guimond was the back-up in the Cedar Rapids Roughriders’ 4-2 win over the Youngstown Phantoms;

And in NCAA Hockey, Trey Augustine stopped 24 of 25 shots and Red Savage finished at -1 with 3 shots and a 4-for-9 faceoff record as the Michigan State University Spartans won 2-1 in overtime over Lake Superior State;

Kienan Draper finished even with an 8-and-4 faceoff record as the University of Michigan Wolverines lost 5-2 to Minnesota State.

Red Wings-Senators wrap-up: shaking out the demons

The Red Wings’ 4-3 overtime collapse to the Ottawa Senators on Friday did not count toward anything other than a 3-2-and-2 preseason record for a Red Wings team that will head to Toronto to wrap up an astonishing stretch of 8 games played over the course of 11 nights on Saturday (7 PM on ESPN+/TSN4).

Long story long, blowing 2-0 and 3-1 leads and surrendering a very ugly overtime goal don’t count for much. The Senators’ B Team getting away with trying to push around and out-work the Red Wings’ A- team doesn’t count.

Austin Watson taking a set of penalties that ended up placing the Red Wings on the penalty kill for 7 minutes doesn’t really matter…To anybody but coach Lalonde, anyway:

But this one stung, at least for those of us for whom the Senators have become a heated and sometimes hated rival. The Sens are the young punks of the Atlantic Division, and they seem to have an uncanny ability to vex and wreck the Red Wings.

The Senators’ press corps didn’t travel to Detroit, so the Senators’ website, the Hockey News’s Steve Warne and the Ottawa Sun’s Tim Baines provide recaps from the Sens’ side of things, and I’d argue that Baines’ recap offers the real bottom line here:

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