The Malik Report

The Detroit Red Wings and Columbus Blue Jackets held morning skates ahead of tonight’s game between the two teams (7 PM on Bally Sports Detroit Plus/Bally Sports Ohio/97.1 FM), and Adam Boqvist is returning to the lineup for Columbus, but Patrik Laine and Max Domi remain sidelined; for the Red Wings, Joe Veleno will slot into the 4th line center’s spot.

After the morning skate, Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill spoke with the media in Columbus:

Jeff Blashill said Mitchell Stephens will miss some time and his going to see a specialist tomorrow. Not sure when he’ll have an exact timeline. #LGRW @DetroitRedWings— Daniella Bruce (@daniellabruce_) November 15, 2021

Wonky internet this morning at NWA….Veleno was skating with Rowney/Gagner. And one tweak on power play, Zadina and Fabbri switching units. Everything else status quo #RedWings— Ted Kulfan (@tkulfan) November 15, 2021

For what it’s worth, NHL.com’s also hyping tonight’s game in article form:

Raymond, Seider exciting to watch for Red Wings: How about those Detroit Red Wings? Things are looking up after five straight seasons out of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. It’s early, but the Red Wings have won four of five (4-1-0) and are in the thick of the Atlantic Division race entering their game at the Columbus Blue Jackets on Monday (7 p.m. ET; BSOH, BSDET+, ESPN+, NHL LIVE). There have been plenty of good storylines, but none more exciting than forward Lucas Raymond and defenseman Moritz Seider, two key parts of Detroit’s present and future. Raymond, the No. 4 pick in the 2020 NHL Draft, leads NHL rookies with 15 points (six goals, nine assists) in 16 games. Seider, the No. 6 pick in the 2019 NHL Draft, is second with 12 points (two goals, 10 assists). — Nicholas J. Cotsonika, columnist

Bjorkstrand leads resurgence in Columbus: I love the resurgence of the Red Wings with their young stars and hope for the future. But I’m equally intrigued by the Blue Jackets, who are performing better than expected so far this season, even coming off two consecutive losses. They’ve been led by forward Oliver Bjorkstrand, who has scored 15 points (five goals, 10 assists) in 12 games, including six (two goals, four assists) in a five-game point streak. Add him to defenseman Zach Werenski, who is fourth in the NHL averaging 26:12 in ice time per game, and goalie Elvis Merzlikins, who is 5-2-0 with a 2.42 goals-against average and .929 save percentage, and there’s something interesting building in Columbus. — Amalie Benjamin, staff writer

Fun fact (from DetroitHockey.net’s Clark Rasmussen):

Stupid Stat of the Day: The Red Wings have earned at least one standings point in 78% of their games played in Columbus and broadcast on Fox/Bally Sports Detroit Plus. pic.twitter.com/1ZoEhgkTho— DetroitHockey.Net (@detroithockey96) November 15, 2021

Lots of eyes will be on tonight’s game as it’s only one of two to be played in the NHL this evening…

The @NYIslanders and @TBLightning are set to face off tonight for the first time since the 2021 #StanleyCup Semifinals!

Who are you taking? pic.twitter.com/QvnCsf1YNj— NHL (@NHL) November 15, 2021

And tomorrow, the Red Wings will play in Dallas on ESPN+ only (at 8:30 PM EST).

The Red Wings play an ugly 4-games-in-6-nights schedule this week, but TSN’s Stefan Pejic notes that the amount of goals that the Red Wings’ opponents are giving up (in Columbus, Dallas, Vegas and Arizona) equal an opportunity to pick up some productive fantasy hockey players:

Detroit Red Wings: The Red Wings have overachieved versus fantasy expectations early on this year, and, fortunately for us, they have a very favourable schedule in Week 6.

Detroit will play Columbus, Dallas, Vegas, and Arizona – all four teams are in the bottom half in goals allowed per game – while Arizona is the worst in the league, giving up 3.93 goals per game.

Detroit has played well lately, winning four of five while scoring 3.2 goals per game during that stretch. Most of their team is on the waiver wire in a good portion of fantasy hockey leagues, so now might be the time to take a stab.

Who should you pick up from the Wings?

D, Moritz Seider, Detroit Red Wings (57 per cent rostered, up 9 per cent): Moritz Seider has quickly made a name for himself in the NHL, and most fantasy leagues are paying attention, but he’s still available in 43 per cent of leagues. The 20-year-old rookie is currently ranked seventh among defencemen with 12 points in 16 games while playing more than 22 minutes per game. He quarterbacks the top power-play unit and already has five power-play points, good for 10^th most among all defencemen. The 2019 sixth-overall pick is the leading candidate for the Calder Trophy and should be owned in all but the shallowest of fantasy leagues.

The 8-6-and-2 Detroit Red Wings kick off a challenging set of 4 road games in 4 different cities to be played over the course of 6 nights this week with a game against the 7-5-and-0 Columbus Blue Jackets this evening (7 PM EST start on Bally Sports Detroit Plus/Bally Sports Ohio/97.1 FM).

Columbus has lost 2 straight games for the first time this season, and they’re hoping that a short memory and a great record against Detroit of late will snap their losing streak;

The Red Wings, who recalled Joe Veleno from Grand Rapids this morning, hope to steady a shaky 3-4-and-0 road record as they prepare to play in Columbus (again, Columbus is 7-5-and-0) tonight and in Dallas (5-6-and-2) tomorrow.

The Wings will head from Columbus to Dallas after tonight’s game; they then play in Las Vegas on Thursday and Arizona on Saturday.

Our friends from Columbus hit the ice at Nationwide Arena first, just before 10:30 AM, and they’re going to be wearing their “Cannon Jerseys” tonight. Elvis Merzlikins will be wearing the following monstrosity pads this evening (Per ColumbusBlueJackets.com’s Jeff Svoboda):

Third jersey day #CBJ pic.twitter.com/FqBlxQz9aS— Jeff Svoboda (@JacketsInsider) November 15, 2021

This is a bit of a surprise as Max Domi was in COVID protocol this past weekend…

Max Domi on the ice for #CBJ morning skate.— Jeff Svoboda (@JacketsInsider) November 15, 2021

And here are the Blue Jackets’ morning skate lines:

Continue reading Red Wings-Blue Jackets morning skate Tweets: Merzlikins and his ugly pads vs. Greiss in goal(?); Veleno on 4th line

Red Wings winger Givani Smith hasn’t had a very good start to his 2021-2022 campaign, and Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen discusses the literally impactful forward’s lack of an impact made upon the Red Wings’ roster:

Smith’s game isn’t together. He’s been a disappointment on a team that has started to show encouraging signs, even if it is still in the early stages, of maturing into a competitive team.

The reason Smith is a disappointment is that he is capable of making himself an important piece of the Red Wings’ puzzle. The Red Wings need his strength, physical play. They need his protection. They need his work around the net.

He has the potential to be a valuable third line player who is miserable to play against and can score 12 to 14 goals per season. You win with players who perform like that. Scouts have told me for the last couple of years that no one liked to play against him in the American League. He can be an intimidating force.

“Unfortunately for him, early in the season he took a penalty a game,” Blashill said last week. “It culminated in the first Montreal game. He took a penalty and I ended up sitting him. I think it had been five straight games with a penalty. What that does is take away … you don’t want to go to the box, don’t want to take a penalty, and he’s maybe playing a little more careful. Obviously, Givani can’t do that either, so he’s got to find a balance of being able to play really hard, get underneath other guys’ skins without taking penalties. ”

Smith, 23, has played just over five minutes in each of his last two games against Edmonton and Washington. He’s averaging about eight minutes per game in the 12 games he played. Today, he’s playing on a line with Joe Veleno and Sam Gagner.

Continued; if Smith was still waiver-exempt, the Red Wings would just send him down for a conditioning stint, but they can’t do that due to Smith’s pro experience, and that means that big #48 has to figure things out on his own…

From the Red Wings on Twitter:

UPDATE: The Detroit #RedWings today recalled center Joe Veleno from the AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins.

Additionally, center Mitchell Stephens has been placed on IR retroactive to Nov. 13. pic.twitter.com/Pc9Fdz3KFG— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) November 15, 2021

With the Detroit Red Wings scheduled to battle the Columbus Blue Jackets in the first game of a 4-games-in-6-nights road trip this week, we’ll take a look at a pair of stories from opposite ends of the team spectrum this morning.

The Columbus Dispatch’s Brian Hedger and Bailey Johnson spoke with several members of the Blue Jackets about Columbus’ desire to snap a 2-game losing streak after dropping a 5-2 decision to the New York Rangers on Saturday:

Moving onto the next game, quickly, is a key lesson for NHL players. 

It’s especially pertinent for goalies, whose position assigns them a good deal of credit for wins and blame for losses. Combine that with a busy 82-game schedule and there’s little time to savor or lament results. 

“This is the thing, what I’ve learned in this league, is that here you can’t even enjoy the wins and you can’t even (endure) the sadness,” said Blue Jackets goalie Elvis Merzlikins, who allowed five goals Saturday in a 5-3 loss to the New York Rangers at Nationwide Arena. “You can’t have sadness. In a couple hours, you already have the next game. You have to focus on the new game.” 

That’s Monday for the Blue Jackets (7-5-0), who will host the Detroit Red Wings in the finale of a four-game homestand. They’re 1-2-0 in the first three games after taking back-to-back losses over the weekend to the Washington Capitals and Rangers. 

“Obviously, we’ve got to learn from it, watch some video on things we can clean up,” defenseman Zach Werenski said. “All the good things we’ve done, we’ve got to keep doing that. There’s no need to panic.” 

The Free Press’s Helene St. James offers the Red Wings’ perspective as Detroit will wrap up a nasty stretch of 11 games played over the course of 17 nights this week, with St. James noting that the Red Wings are back on track after having a team meeting in Buffalo on November 6th:

“We sat in Buffalo and we talked on the ice in practice,” coach Jeff Blashill said. “We talked about the week prior — I mean literally, if you had rewound the clock a week from then, we had a ton of confidence and all of a sudden we had not much confidence.”

The restoration began when Tyler Bertuzzi scored twice in the third period Nov. 6 against the Sabres, and Moritz Seider scored in overtime. The Wings came home and beat Vegas and Edmonton, lost to Washington, and won in overtime Saturday against Montreal.

“That third period in Buffalo was huge, how good Tyler played there,” Blashill said. “And we’ve picked up steam from there. I think part of it is, as I’ve said before, we have more guys with ability to make some plays to make a difference in the game, and that’s important. There are a lot of things we need to get better at and we’re going to keep working, but we don’t get enough practice time right now just because we’re trying to conserve energy because of how much we’re playing, but we’ll do our best to get better through film.”

The Wings (8-6-2) play at Dallas on Tuesday, at Vegas on Thursday, and at Arizona  on Saturday. That wraps up a stretch of 14 games in 25 days, including three sets of back-to-backs. They’re 3-4 on the road, but two of those losses were in Canada, where Bertuzzi was not available because of his unvaccinated status.

Continued (paywall); however you slice up the schedule, the Red Wings’ first three weeks of November have been and will be tremendously difficult, so the Wings are going to be looking forward to next week, when they only play the Friday before and Saturday after American Thanksgiving.

The Athletic’s Max Bultman and Daniel Nugent-Bowman spoke with several of current and former Red Wings executives regarding Ken Holland’s building of his “Harvard of Hockey’s” worth of front office talent with the Detroit Red Wings, and a certain GM who doesn’t talk to the media that often was willing to discuss his former mentor:

Yzerman decided he wanted to get into the team-building business. And he was prepared to pay his dues — riding in the car with Nill, Holland and Martin to games, driving to Grand Rapids or Ontario.

“I asked him a thousand questions,” Yzerman said. “… Prior to going into management, we all have all the answers to everything, and we have the solution to everything. And then I got to sit there firsthand and say ‘Hey, why don’t we do this? Or why don’t we do (that)?’ And he would explain the reasons — and some of them were very obvious — which I wouldn’t look at as a player.”

Just as he had done with Nill and Martin, Holland wanted to help these former players — even with a whole host of responsibilities already on his plate.

“Looking back, as a manager, sometimes you just want to focus on your team, whether it’s going really good or really bad, or it’s the trade deadline,” Yzerman said. “And he never, ever, was too busy to spend time with us.”

The end result has been an executive tree that now stretches across the league, made up of people from all different backgrounds, but who all took something away from working with him.

“I learned an incredible amount from him,” Yzerman said. “And I really appreciate how generous he was with his time and including me in everything that he was doing. I learned a lot. It was invaluable for me.”

Continued (paywall)

Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff suggests that the Red Wings should recall Chase Pearson from the Grand Rapids Griffins after Pearson’s strong start in the AHL:

When you get right down to it, the guy who is making the most sense to be the recall is Chase Pearson. Prior to acquiring [Mitchell] Stephens from the Tampa Bay Lightning, Pearson was the guy the Wings were penciling in as the team’s No. 4 center. It’s the role the team is projecting him to fill as an NHLer.

Certainly, Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill liked some elements of Pearson’s game in training camp.

“He’s a big body,” Blashill said. “He knows how to use his body. He’s got pretty good defensive instincts.”

The 6-foot-2, 200-pounder is showing 3-6-9 numbers through 11 AHL games. Pearson is also 24. His window to make something happen is smaller than many of the other prospects in GR.

Pearson will be a restricted free agent next season. Shouldn’t the Wings at least get a peek at him in the NHL before offering him a new deal? And opportunity to do that is knocking right now.

Continued; given Pearson’s age and production level in the AHL, I’d argue that he’s NHL-ready anyway, maybe over Carter Rowney or Givani Smith, but what do I know.

ESPN’s Kristen Shilton and Greg Wyshynski posted a column discussing the “bests” and “worsts” of the first month of the 2021-2022 season, with the Red Wings earning a collective nod for their strong start:

Most pleasant surprise (team): Detroit Red Wings Nine years removed from their last playoff series win and five years removed from their last playoff appearance, the once mighty Red Wings are deep into a rebuild that’s suddenly paying dividends. The arrival of top prospects — winger Lucas Raymond and defenseman Moritz Seider — was like a jolt of adrenaline for the franchise. Raymond, 19, meshed immediately on a line with leading scorer Tyler Bertuzzi and Dylan Larkin, who has waited a long time to experience competitive relevance again. — Wyshynski

Continued (Paywall)

The Detroit Red Wings face a particularly nasty end to their stretch of 11 games to be played over the course of 17 nights this week. Tonight’s game against the Columbus Blue Jackets (7 PM EST start on Bally Sports Detroit Plus/Bally Sports Ohio/97.1 FM) is the first of 2 games to be played over the course of 2 nights, 3 games to be played over the course of 4 nights, and 4 to be played over the course of 6 evenings.

Long story long, the next four games will be a ton of hockey to be played over the course of a very short period of time, and the 4 games will be played in 4 different locales as well.

This road trip should serve as a big test for the 8-6-and-2 Red Wings, who have proven to be excellent at home, but shaky at times on the road.

Monday’s opponent, the Columbus Blue jackets, are no slouch. Columbus stands at 7-and-5. They’re currently on a 2-game losing streak, having most recently dropped a 5-3 decision to the New York Rangers on Saturday, but the Blue Jackets always play well against Detroit.

Neither team practiced on Sunday, and both teams have injuries (Patrik Laine, Adam Boqvist and Max Domi are out for Columbus, and Kevin Stenlund was injured during Saturday’s game; Mitchell Stephens is out for Detroit), so we won’t know either team’s lineup until closer to game time, but we can go back and examine the teams’ previous games to discern what trends we might be seeing in Monday’s game.

For Columbus, the Blue Jackets haven’t lost 2 straight games until this past Friday and Saturday, so avoiding a 3-game losing streak is imperative as they wrap up a 4-game home stand. Columbus lost 5-3 to the Rangers in no small part due to giving up 3 goals in 63 seconds, as the Associated Press’s recap of Saturday’s game noted:

Continue reading Red Wings-Blue Jackets set-up: Wings open 4-game road trip vs. winless-in-2 Blue Jackets