Red Wings-Penguins preseason wrap-up: It wasn’t pretty, but it was an ’emotional game’ and a gritty, muck-and-grind-y win

The Detroit Red Wings won a 2-1 decision over the Pittsburgh Penguins in preseason hockey on Wednesday night. Daniel Sprong and Simon Edvinsson scored goals, and James Reimer was excellent in stopping 21 shots for the Wings, who played a gritty, grimy, greasy game against an undermanned Penguins team.

The Wings will conclude an unprecedented slate of 3 games to be played over the course of 3 preseason nights on Thursday, when they head to Toronto to play the Maple Leafs (7 PM EDT on ESPN+/TSN4).

In the interim, we’ll examine the media’s takes on Wednesday night’s win for the 4-and-2 Wings, whose preseason concludes with this weekend’s home-and-home games against the Leafs.

NHL.com posted a succinct recap of the Wings-Pens game:

Continue reading Red Wings-Penguins preseason wrap-up: It wasn’t pretty, but it was an ’emotional game’ and a gritty, muck-and-grind-y win

Red Wings-Penguins preseason quick take: Tweetcap of Detroit’s 2-1 win over the Pens

The Detroit Red Wings played their second of three exhibition games to be played over the course of three nights in Pittsburgh Wednesday, winning an ugly, mucky, grind-y 2-1 affair over the Penguins.

This game was really kind of a muck-and-grind mess, and Pittsburgh opened the scoring with a Xavier Ouellet goal at 17:38 of the 1st…

But Detroit would push back and tie the game 5:32 into the 2nd, as Daniel Sprong found the back of the net from Petry and Compher…

And with Alex Nedeljkovic seemingly hexing the Wings, Simon Edvinsson would solve things in the third period:

The 1st period began with rather pedestrian hockey for the first couple of minutes. The Penguins’ “B Team” was surprisingly tenacious on the puck, but Detroit’s top two lines and top defensive pairing were dressed, and the Wings slowly but surely generated shots on Alex Nedeljkovic, who was quite good early.

At 4:45, Simon Edvinsson was taken down by Chad Ruhwedel, and the Red Wings went to the game’s first power play.

Continue reading Red Wings-Penguins preseason quick take: Tweetcap of Detroit’s 2-1 win over the Pens

Kulfan’s notebook: Petry on ‘getting your reps in’

The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan posted a notebook article which mostly focuses on Joe Veleno’s attempt to add more offense to his game, but the most noteworthy part of Kulfan’s article is this:

Defenseman Jeff Petry momentarily slipped up when talking about Wings teammate David Perron.

The two were actually teammates before, way back in 2013 with Edmonton. Yes, a decade ago.

“I’m dating myself,” said Petry, who is 35 (so is Perron).

Petry has been through many training camps and preseasons. The one thing he finds vital to get out of them is playing some games to get comfortable on the ice with his teammates and system the team plays.

“As much as you can get done in practice, those reps against a different opponent that doesn’t necessarily know the system as well as the guys on your team, it’s good to put everything in place,” Petry said. “It’s important to get those game reps. It’s what you need to work on to get better and just work on the system differences from one team to another.

“No matter how much you skate over the summer and do things in practice, getting in those battles again and competing against somebody that is not on your team, you just can’t replicate those game reps.”

Continued; before they called getting repetition of game situations “reps,” shifts “reps,” and playing time “reps,” the idea was that you have to play to shake off rust.

As 2023-2024 power rankings kick off, it’s Yzerpanic time(?)

The Hockey News’s Jason Chen kicks off the 2023-2024 season’s power rankings with a slate of late preseason rankings, and the Red Wings sit in “prove it” territory:

22. Detroit Red Wings (35-37-10, -39. CF%: 26, xGF%: 26)

Key addition: Alex DeBrincat, and just about every middle-six forward and bottom-pairing defenseman who was available in free agency. GM Steve Yzerman is trying to spend his way out of a team that’s been stagnant, and another disappointing season and the Yzerplan is in danger of being Yzerscrapped.

Continued; that’s an Yzerignorant thing to Yzersay.

It’s not Pig Latin, either.

THN’s Stockton provides a Carter Mazur update

The Hockey News’s Sam Stockton updates us on Carter Mazur’s status as the Red Wings prospect and probable Grand Rapids Griffins forward battles back from a “lower-body injury” suffered during the prospect tournament:

“I do not expect him for camp, obviously that extends through Saturday,” [coach Derek] Lalonde said when asked for an update on Mazur’s status.  “Then I think we’ll kinda go from there.  I do foresee him getting some reps here, probably more into a week-to-week scenario, which is obviously a positive.”

“Carter was a player that we’ve envisioned getting five games, pushing for a spot, we need that push from the bottom,” Lalonde continued. “We thought we’d be sitting here hopefully making a very hard decision on Carter.  Obviously, the injury didn’t make that happen.  It’s the reality of it—get healthy.  Obviously, he’ll start in Grand Rapids now because of the time frame of it, and he’ll just need those reps and workload.  Hopefully, get back to game speed as quickly as possible.”

Despite that disappointment, Lalonde was adamant that Mazur will still have the opportunity force Detroit into a hard decision from Grand Rapids once he’s back healthy.  “We want those guys to push where they’re forcing our hand,” the second-year head coach said.  “That’s what we want out of all those guys, anyone that leaves here this weekend or whenever we make those final cuts.  We want them to make it very hard on us.”

Continued; Mazur appeared to suffer a high ankle sprain, and those can be worse than breaking one’s leg in terms of lingering injuries.

Quick profiles of Red Savage and Trey Augustine ahead of NCAA puck drop

NCAA Division I hockey gets underway this Friday, and the Lansing State Journal’s Nathaniel Bott posted a set of profiles of Michigan State University’s 2023-2024 season roster:

Red Savage, 5-11, 185, Jr., Scottsdale, Ariz. (Miami Ohio): Savage arrived at MSU this summer out of the transfer portal after two seasons at Miami and having played for the US National Team Development Program before that. He totaled 30 points in two seasons with the RedHawks. He was fourth-round pick of the Detroit Red Wings in 2021 after getting 68 points in two seasons with the USNTDP.

Trey Augustine, 6-1, 179, Fr., South Lyon (USNTDP): Augustine, who was one of the best goaltenders in USNTDP history, begins his freshman campaign as the Spartans’ clear-cut No. 1 in net. Augustine, who was committed to Michigan before flipping to MSU, posted a 2.13 goals against average and .926 save percentage while only losing one game in regulation last season. He also played a key role in helping Team USA to a gold medal at the IIHF Under-18 Men’s World Championship in May. Augustine will likely have a lot on his shoulders, but the Spartans believe his experience shows he’s ready for the moment.

Continued; Augustine chose to go to MSU because former Red Wings assistant coach Adam Nightingale is the coach.

Prospect round-up: Liam Dower Nilsson scores 2 more goals for Bjorkloven

Of Red Wings prospect-related note today:

In the Swedish Allsvenskan, Liam Dower Nilsson scored 2 goals on 3 shots, finishing at -1 in 12:39 played as IF Bjorkloven won 5-2 over Vasteras:

In the Swedish J20 league, Noah Dower Nilsson is recovering from shoulder surgery, and his Frolunda HC lost 6-1 to Malmo;

Tonight, in the OHL, Kevin Gibson’s Soo Greyhounds will host the London Knights;

And in the WHL, Nate Danielson’s Brandon Wheat Kings will host the Swift Current Broncos.