Expressen’s Albin Julin and Adam Johansson spoke with several former NHL players regarding Robin Lehner’s accusations that former NHL teams handed out prescription medication on demand, and Nicklas Lidstrom addresses his situation with the Red Wings.
What follows is the pertinent part of Julin and Johansson’s article, roughly translated from Swedish:
Continue reading Roughly translated: Nicklas Lidstrom speaks with Expressen regarding the use of painkillers in the NHLRed Wings prospect Albin Grewe, who’s all of 20 years of age, has bounced around over the past couple of seasons, and Aftonbladet’s Mattias Karlsson reports this morning that Grewe will play for Mora IK of the Swedish Allsvenskan after being released by Ilves Tampere yesterday.
Mora’s website reports that Grewe’s signed a two-year contract with the team.
The Free Press’s Tyler J. Davis posted a mini Red Wings-Blue Jackets game preview ahead of tonight’s match-up (7 PM EDT start), and he confirms that tonight’s game will not air on TV anywhere.
Tonight’s game is a radio-only affair in both the Red Wings and Blue Jackets’ marketplaces, with 97.1 the Ticket and Columbus’ 97.1 The Fan being the only places broadcasting the game.
Here’s Davis’ game preview:
Game notes: The Wings meet the Blue Jackets in a rematch of Saturday’s exhibtion. Detroit won that one convincingly, 5-1, behind two goals from Dylan Larkin. Larkin is unlikely to play Wednesday, but Lucas Raymond may. Raymond, the Wings’ 2020 first-round pick, leads the team with six points in just three preseason games.
The Wings have two more exhibitions following Wednesday’s contest. Fans will get one final look at potential starters in a Thursday night home meeting with the Pittsburgh Penguins. Detroit closes the preseason on the road vs. the Buffalo Sabres before the Oct. 14 season opener vs. the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Thursday’s game airs on Bally Sports Detroit, but I’m not sure whether the Sabres’ website will stream Saturday’s game or not. In any case, for tonight, at least, we’ll have to leave the goals to our imaginations, which seems a little silly in 2021.
Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff explains how, 89 years ago today, the Detroit Red Wings were officially born:
Detroit’s NHL team was born as the Cougars and became the Falcons but it wasn’t until the team was christened the Red Wings that the franchise truly arrived in the NHL.
It was on October 5, 1932 that the announcement was made that henceforth, Detroit’s NHL team would be known as the Red Wings.
“Detroit Falcons became the Detroit Red Wings in the National Hockey League and John Ross Roach of New York Rangers became the regular goaltender for the Motor City troupe as the new hockey interests started housecleaning and remodeling for the 1932-33 season,” Windsor’s Border Cities Star reported of the October 5, decision to rename the team.
ESPN’s Victoria Matiash, Sean Allen, Arda Ocal and Greg Wysyhnski engaged in a roundtable discussion, making fantasy hockey picks, and Allen believes that Moritz Seider should be a breakout rookie for the Red Wings:
Sean:Moritz Seider, D, Detroit Red Wings. Everything is lined up to give Seider the best chance at success this season. He has pro experience in North America already, having skated in the AHL back in 2019-20. In Nick Leddy, the Red Wings brought Seider an experienced defense partner that has had success being a two-way force in the game for many years. Seider has natural offense to his game and the Red Wings have a desperate need of it being generated from the blue line.
Continued; here’s hoping.
MLive’s Ansar Khan filed a notebook article discussing Tyler Bertuzzi’s tentative preseason status, Robby Fabbri’s play, and Moritz Seider’s status as having played an up-and-down game last night, alongside defensive partner Nick Leddy:
Moritz Seider scored one of the team’s four power-play goals in Monday’s 6-4 loss to Chicago, blasting in a one-timer on a pass from Filip Zadina. Seider also had an assist, but he struggled at times defensively, posting a minus-3 rating.
“I thought Mo had moments of really good and Mo had moments where he’s got to be way better, probably same for (Nick Leddy, his defense partner),” Blashill said. “They looked like they were a real good pair and then they had moments where they created some trouble for themselves when they didn’t need to.”
Blashill said Seider needs to move the puck quicker.
“Take what’s given, not panic by any stretch,” Blashill said. “He’s got such great poise and he’s so strong that at times he wants to hold onto it and draw people to him, but if you don’t need to, you don’t need to. We got to be a team that moves it up the ice quick.
“But he certainly has some good moments, too. He’s going to be a good player and our job is to help him become the best player he can become. I told him I don’t want him to be a solid player in the NHL, I want him to be a really good player in the NHL, and for that I’m going to make sure that I’m on him and we’re pushing him to be the very best.”
Continued; Moritz is human, after all. He’s going to have rough games at times as he adjusts to NHL-level play.
Of prospect-related note in Europe:
In the Champions Hockey League, Simon Edvinsson finished even with 3 shots in 20:17 played, Theodor Niederbach finished even with a 66% faceoff win percentage in 9:17 played, and Elmer Soderblom finished even with 2 shots in 9:46 played as Frolunda HC won 3-2 over IFK Helsinki;
Eemil Viro finished even with 1 shot in 14:34 played as TPS Turku won 3-1 over the Vaxjo Lakers;
And William Wallinder played as the 7th defenseman, finishing at -1 in 9:57 played during Rogle BK’s 3-2 win over Sonderjyske Vojens.
DetroitRedWings.com’s Ethan Sears has broken down the battle for forward spots on the Red Wings’ roster heading into tomorrow’s game vs. the Columbus Blue Jackets (7 PM EDT start, no TV?/97.1 the Ticket), offering this post-Lucas Raymond-discussion take on the state of the forward corps:
Really, [Raymond’s status is] one of just a few questions swirling around what the 23-man squad will look like when the puck drops on Oct. 14 against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Starting with Wednesday night’s affair against the Columbus Blue Jackets (7:00 p.m.), the Red Wings have just three preseason games left to find the answers.
Coming out of training camp, we had a pretty good idea of how the defense would shape up. Blashill said during camp that he planned to carry eight defensemen. Nick Leddy, Moritz Seider, Danny DeKeyser, Filip Hronek, Troy Stecher, Marc Staal, Gustav Lindstrom and Jordan Oesterle were the obvious players to fill those spots at the time, and nothing has happened to change that. Alex Nedeljkovic and Thomas Greiss were always going to be the two goaltenders on the roster barring injury.
That leaves 13 forwards – which is where things get complicated.
Blashill said before Monday night’s game that he wants the Red Wings to be “fairly close” to their Opening Night roster by Saturday’s preseason finale against the Buffalo Sabres. In a perfect world, things would have more clarity, but because of Jakub Vrana‘s shoulder surgery – which will keep him out for the season’s first four months – and Tyler Bertuzzi‘s ongoing recovery from back surgery, the Red Wings have questions as to what their top line will look like.
“Ultimately he’s gotta be ready for game 1 against Tampa,” Blashill said of Bertuzzi, later adding that he’s been cleared. “And there’s a lot of different ways you can get ready.”
The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan filed a three-subject notebook article today, discussing the Red Wings’ power play, the play of one Lucas Raymond and the play of Robby Fabbri. We’ll tackle the first topic:
No one can deny the Red Wings’ power play has been looking good in these warm-up games, and has been productive.
Assistant coach Alex Tanguay was hired in the offseason to replace Dan Bylsma and oversee the unit, and so far is getting results that would have been unheard of the last several seasons.
All four of the Wings’ goals in Monday’s 6-4 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks were scored on the power play. The Wings are 8-for-19 on the power play during the exhibition season. Basically, being patient and moving the puck quickly are the main points Tanguay has attempted to preach.
“Certainly our puck movement’s been good,” coach Jeff Blashill said after Monday’s game. “We’ve moved it quick. That’s been a big piece of what Alex has been trying to get them to do is just take what’s given and move it quick. Then eventually, you’ll find a seam. But don’t force pucks; take what’s given.”
Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen has penned an article discussing the items of note that aren’t going superbly this exhibition season, and two of the five topics he covers are particularly intriguing to me:
Nedeljkovic Off to a Leaky Start: It’s preseason. The games don’t matter. Players are more in preparation mode than a competitive mode. Coach Jeff Blashill said he’s not concerned about Nedeljkovic because he works hard. He sweats the details.
But Nedeljkovic hasn’t looked like the goalie who posted a 1.90 goals-against average with a .932 save percentage. He looks leaky.
He has surrendered six goals on 42 shots. That’s an .842 save percentage. That’s not .932. It’s not even .900. The season starts in eight days. You would expect Nedeljkovic to look more buttoned up in his next start.
Givani Smith Needs to Rise Up: Does anyone remember Givani Smith making one memorable play in his three preseason games? He has a big opportunity this season. He is out of options. The Red Wings want him on the team because they need a physical presence. He has the blend of toughness and skill that earns you a place on the third line.
But he really hasn’t done anything this preseason to distinguish himself. As much as the Red Wings want him to make it, he still needs to earn it.
Continued; I’m not particularly worried about Nedeljkovic, but I don’t think that he’s going to have an easy time adjusting to Detroit’s style of play and defensive scheme…
And Smith just hasn’t been very good. He’s an ideal power forward/instigator when he’s on top of his game, but he hasn’t been even very good most of the time, and I’m afraid that he may be waived and sent to Grand Rapids if he clears as a result.
