Game-day notebook round-up: Larkin got a false positive test, is okay to rejoin team; Staal is out

The Red Wings’ beat writers shared the news that Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin “false positive” tested for COVID during the Red Wings-Stars game on Tuesday, so Larkin will rejoin the team tonight in Vegas.

MLive’s Ansar Khan has more…

“Disbelief, frustration and then the possibility that I had COVID and trying to get out of there and not infect anyone, although I’d played two periods,” Larkin said. “I thought a lot about the guys and not having a bigger situation come out of it. Just an unfortunate situation and I really felt like we were coming on. I wasn’t really able to watch the third there.”

Coach Jeff Blashill noted how quickly COVID can spread through a team.

“It’s frustrating, but at the end of the day everybody is probably going through different things that can be frustrating with COVID,” Blashill said. “That’s just the reality of it. You got to deal with it.”

Vaccinated players and team personnel are required to be tested every 72 hours, but in a situation like this, they were all tested again after the Dallas game. Tyler Bertuzzi, the NHL’s lone unvaccinated player, is tested daily.

The Red Wings were tested earlier in the day Tuesday, but results weren’t available until later that evening.

“We’re at the mercy of the home team,” Blashill said. “Most of the teams in the league have the ability to get those turned around quickly (30 minutes, he said). Dallas doesn’t have that. I think they’re working towards that.”

As does the Free Press’s Helene St. James…

Continue reading Game-day notebook round-up: Larkin got a false positive test, is okay to rejoin team; Staal is out

Prospect round-up: Kivemaki 1A in Liiga; Wallinder’s 1A bests Soderblom’s goal in Rogle-Frolunda showdown

Of Red Wings prospect-related note in Europe today:

In the Finnish Liiga, Otto Kivenmaki had an assist, finishing even in 14:22 played as the Lahti Pelicans won 5-3 over SaiPa;

Eemil Viro finished at +1 in 18:26 played as TPS Turku won 5-2 over Assat Pori;

In the SHL, Albert Johansson finished even with 1 shot on goal in 17:44 played as Farjestads BK lost 3-2 to Malmo;

William Wallinder had an assist, finishing at +1 in 8:29 played as Rogle BK won 4-3 over Frolunda HC.

Theodor Niederbach finished even with 1 shot in 12:44 played for Frolunda, Elmer Soderblom had a goal on 3 shots, finishing at +1 in 15:50 played, and Rakapuckar’s Henrik Lehman reports that Simon Edvinsson was injured at the World Junior Championship’s Four Nations Cup and had to sit out the game:

Update: And in North America, Oscar Plandowski finished even in the Charlottetown Islanders’ 7-3 win over Moncton.

In the OHL, Pasquale Zito finished at -3 with 3 shots and a 7-for-15 faceoff record in the Windsor Spitfires’ 7-4 loss to Erie.

Vegas has the COVID blues, too, won’t hold morning skate today

According to Field Level Media’s preview of tonight’s Red Wings-Vegas Golden Knights game (10 PM EST on Bally Sports Detroit/ATT Sportsnet West/Sportsnet East/Sportsnet Ontario/Sportsnet Pacific/97.1 FM), the Vegas Golden Knights, who stand at 9-7-and-0 after Tuesday’s 4-2 loss to Carolina, have COVID issues:

Despite having to deal with a never-ending rash of injuries and illnesses, Vegas Golden Knights coach Peter DeBoer remains upbeat heading into Thursday night’s game against the Detroit Red Wings in Las Vegas.

The Golden Knights found out before Tuesday’s 4-2 home loss to Carolina that forward Jonathan Marchessault, who leads the team with nine goals, had entered COVID protocol joining forward William Carrier who was placed there on Monday.

The Golden Knights, who are 8-3 in their last 11 games, were already without key players like left wing Max Pacioretty (fractured left foot), center William Karlsson (broken foot), center Nolan Patrick (upper body), and defensemen Zach Whitecloud (hand surgery) and Alec Martinez (facial laceration).

Defenseman Shea Theodore left Tuesday’s loss after losing an edge and crashing into the end boards and Evgenii Dadonov also left with a facial laceration after getting hit in the face with a stick. The team added forward Michael Amadio to COVID protocol on Wednesday and also canceled its planned media availability.

Vegas is also without center Jack Eichel, obtained in a trade with Buffalo on Nov. 4, until the end of the February after he underwent artificial disc replacement surgery in his neck on Nov. 12.

“You’ve got to look for a silver lining,” DeBoer said after Tuesday’s loss. “Hopefully the silver lining is we’ll deal with it now and maybe we’ll get a little luck in the injury front down the stretch and at the important time of the year. That’s all you can hope for.”

“I don’t think anybody’s going to feel sorry for the Vegas Golden Knights in this league,” added forward Mark Stone, who recently returned from a right knee injury that sidelined him 12 games. “The success we’ve had in four years, nobody’s feeling sorry for us, so we’ve got to find ways to generate points, generate wins.”

NHL.com’s Danny Webster reported the following yesterday…

The Las Vegas Review-Journal’s David Schoen asked NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly about the Golden Knights’ COVID issues as well:

Continue reading Vegas has the COVID blues, too, won’t hold morning skate today

Prospect catch-up post: Larsson wins in Allsvenskan; LDN 1A in J20; Pickard stops 46 shots in Grand Rapids’ AHL loss

Of prospect-related note from Wednesday, in both Europe and North America:

In the Swedish Allsvenskan, Filip Larsson stopped 28 of 29 shots as HV71 Jonkoping won 2-1 over AIK Stockholm;

Jesper Eliasson was the back-up in Almtuna IS’s 5-3 win over Troja-Ljungby;

In the Swedish J20 league, Liam Dower Nilsson had an assist, finishing at +2 with 2 shots on goal in Frolunda HC’s 5-2 win over Rogle BK;

And in the AHL, the Grand Rapids Griffins dropped a 2-1 OT decision to the Chicago Wolves in their annual schoolday matinee game. Calvin Pickard stopped 46 shots in the loss, as the Griffins website’s recap notes:

Continue reading Prospect catch-up post: Larsson wins in Allsvenskan; LDN 1A in J20; Pickard stops 46 shots in Grand Rapids’ AHL loss

Catch-up post: Pius Suter on ‘The Word on Woodward,’ and off-day notebooks

Of Red Wings-related note from Maintenance Day Wednesday:

  1. Pius Suter gave an 18-minute interview to DetroitRedWings.com’s Daniella Bruce and Art Regner in a The Word on Woodward special:

2. Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen posted a list of ways in which the Red Wings can improve their team…

Continue reading Catch-up post: Pius Suter on ‘The Word on Woodward,’ and off-day notebooks

HSJ in the morning: Larkin or no Larkin, the Red Wings must improve defensively

The Free Press’s Helene St. James posted a subscriber-only column which discusses the ways in which the Red Wings must shore up their defensive games to snap their 2-game road losing streak:

[Wings coach Jeff] Blashill was more expansive on what the Wings (8-8-2) need to do to get themselves back above .500.

“We’ve got to get better defensively,” he said. “That’s just the reality of it. We’re a pretty good team when we have the puck. We’re a pretty good team when we’re hounding. We’re a pretty good team when we’re playing offense.

“We’re not a good enough team defensively right now and I spoke of that the other night. It’s not because guys don’t want to, but we’ve got to get better defensively. We have to. So that’s, to me, the No. 1 priority. I think we do a pretty good job when we’re on the attack. We do a pretty good job in the O-zone, stuff like that. We just have to get better defensively.”

Blashill described Monday’s 5-3 loss to the Blue Jackets as a slap in the face, one he deemed the Wings were due for because they had been winning despite not being playing tight defensively. But the deficiencies were on display in the 5-2 loss at Dallas, too.

“It’s definitely something we’re going to need to continue to work on as the season goes on and try to get better at it each night,” defenseman Danny DeKeyser said. “For us, it’s going to be a process of trying to get better every night in the D-zone and try to bear down when we get chances.”

Continued (paywall)

Sometimes you have to take a ‘maintenance day’

I did not plan on spending Wednesday asleep, but I knew that the Red Wings were not practicing in Vegas, and that there would be no update on Dylan Larkin until Thursday’s “morning” skate ahead of a late-night game in Vegas (10 PM EST start on Bally Sports Detroit/ATT Sportsnet Rocky Mountain/Sportsnet East/Sportsnet Ontario/Sportsnet Pacific)…

So when I was unable to get up, even to take care of Aunt Annie, I indulged and allowed myself to rest. I have been feeling under the weather (non-COVID-related, as they say in the NHL these days), so I let myself rest.

I apologize for the lapse in coverage, but some days you feel sick, and I have learned that if I take half-a-day off, it allows me to get back to work a lot quicker than it does if I try to push through. Throughout this 11-games-in-17-nights stretch, I’ve been sick, and I’ve been battling through as much as I possibly can to deliver as much content as I possibly can, so this “maintenance day” sort of happened.

But I’m glad that it did.