Red Wings Tweet out roster for Red vs. White Game 1 (first scrimmage)

The Red Wings have posted their rosters for today’s Red vs. White Game 1, which begins today at 10:20 AM EST:

HSJ: Wings gearing up for competitive scrimmages

The Detroit Red Wings’ training camp participants will engage in their first of three scheduled scrimmages later this morning (DetroitRedWings.com will probably stream the scrimmage, starting at 10:20 AM), with scrimmages set to follow on Friday and Sunday.

Given that this year’s team won’t have any exhibition games leading up to their season-opener on the 14th vs. Carolina, Wings coach Jeff Blashill told the Free Press’s Helene St. James that the emphasis of the scrimmages will be on hammering home game-ready play:

“These scrimmages will be nothing like normal scrimmages in training camp,” coach Jeff Blashill said. “This is going to be as real as it gets without playing against another team.”

There won’t be any exhibition games before the Wings open a 56-game slate on Jan. 14, so these three scrimmages will serve as the best chance to impress the coaching staff.

“We’ll use it as a good evaluation,” Blashill said. “Guys understand that — whether you’re trying out for penalty killing spots, for power play spots, for spots on the team. They understand what’s at stake.”

Camp started with 40 players split into two groups, of which the Red team was made up of the front runners to be in the lineup on opening night. Darren Helm has been unfit to practice — with either an injury or illness — the past two days, so his spot on the fourth line will go to someone else.

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Quick note: WJC final set between U.S., Canada; Viro’s Finns to play Russia for bronze on Tuesday

Red Wings prospect Eemil Viro had a solid, if unspectacular night playing heads-up, never-chase-the-puck defense for Team Finland at the World Junior Championship, but the Finns lost 4-3 to Team USA in the second semifinal of the night in Edmonton.

Viro himself finished even with no shots or penalties in 18:45 played.

As such, Viro’s Finns will battle Russia for the bronze medal at 5:30 PM EST Tuesday on TSN and the NHL Network; the Americans and Canadians (who took out Russia 5-0) will tangle for gold at 9:30 PM EST Tuesday night on TSN and the NHL Network.

A bit o’ fantasy hockey advice from NHL.com: Don’t sleep on Zadina, Hronek

NHL.com posted a set of “fantasy hockey sleeper” picks for each and every one of the NHL’s 31 teams earlier today, and I haven’t seen much of Filip Zadina or Filip Hronek playing in North America yet, but the Wings’ press corps isn’t the only group of people intrigued by what “The Filips” might be bringing back from Czech Extraliga play:

Detroit Red Wings: Forward Filip Zadina (LW/RW; undrafted on average in fantasy) scored 15 points (eight goals, seven assists), including four goals and seven points on the power play, in 28 games last season. Zadina could capture a spot on Detroit’s top power-play unit, which would bring exposure to valuable fantasy forwards Dylan Larkin, Anthony Mantha and Tyler Bertuzzi, and another deep fantasy sleeper in defenseman Filip Hronek. Zadina is an intriguing late-round selection in deep and keeper leagues and should be monitored on the waiver wire in standard formats. — Rob Reese

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While BCHL remains on pause, Kienan Draper’s headed to the USHL’s Omaha Lancers

The Vancouver Province’s Steve Ewen reports that Red Wings prospect Kienan Draper, who had been playing for the BCHL’s Chilliwack Chiefs, has departed the Canadian amateur hockey league for its U.S. counterpart, the USHL:

The B.C. Hockey League sits idle, the rival U.S. Hockey League continues its regular season, and players are noticing.

Forwards Ayrton Martino and Kienan Draper became the latest players to jump from this province’s Junior A loop to its American counterpart when the Omaha Lancers announced that they had signed on with their club after leaving the Chilliwack Chiefs.

Martino, 18, is a Toronto native who was pegged as a potential second- or third-round pick in next summer’s NHL Draft in the NHL Central Scouting’s season-opening, players-to-watch list. Draper, 18, is the son of former Detroit Red Wings centre Kris Draper and the Royal Oak, Mich., native was a seventh-round pick by the Wings in last summer’s draft.

Martino and Draper were both in the Lancers’ lineup Sunday against the host Des Moines (Iowa) Buccaneers at Wells Fargo Arena. It was the 16th regular-season game of the season for the Lancers.

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A different kind of Q and A with Jeff Blashill

Things you don’t expect on a Monday night in January: Michigan Golf Journal’s Tom Lang engaging in a Q and A with Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill:

Q: In addition to the swinging motion, do you see similarities between golf and hockey?

A: “I was a goalie, so I don’t come by the swinging of it as naturally.  But the players I’ve played golf with can all really, really hit the ball a long way. It probably has a lot to do with how you turn your body and their hip strength.  

“But the other side of it to me relates to any sport and most parts of life, and that’s the mental challenge. I don’t know if there’s a better mental challenge in sports than golf. Even in team situations, you’re alone out there a lot of times and you have to grind through situations. You have to handle the successes when you’re playing well and handle the frustration that certainly happens to all of us.” 

Q: When training camp takes place in Traverse City each summer, there’s intense competition for players getting their shot at the NHL.  How much of that competitive spirit transfers over to the golf course on their downtime? 

A: “We do have some downtime at training camp, and one of the reasons we go to Traverse City is to be able to do things away from the ice too. The players tend to play golf in their downtime. The competitive nature that transfers from one sport to the next is important.  

“For a lot of us that don’t get to compete on a daily basis, golf becomes that competition, so when you get older and you’re out of organized sports, golf can fill that void… and even competing for fun you can be playing for some type of side bet, or for pride. I’ve certainly seen that at times, whether it’s in training camp or different matches with my friends or between players. But I think it’s all important.” 

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Press release: Griffins announce their return to play

This comes from the Grand Rapids Griffins:

GRIFFINS TO RETURN TO PLAY IN FEBRUARY

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – The Grand Rapids Griffins are among 28 American Hockey League teams that will participate in the 2020-21 season when it gets underway on Feb. 5, as announced by the AHL on Monday. Further details, including schedule formats and playoffs, are still to be determined.

“The Griffins organization is thrilled to have our players return to the ice in February, marking nearly 11 months since our team last played at Van Andel Arena on March 11, 2020,” said Griffins president Tim Gortsema. “Throughout this process, our organization has worked closely with our member teams in the AHL as well as with the Detroit Red Wings to determine how we can best return to playing hockey in a safe manner for our players, staff and fans. The Red Wings organization has been terrific in working with us to help absorb some travel and arena expenses, which helps to make this return a reality.” (Click here for Gortsema video interview.)

While the Griffins remain hopeful for the potential to host fans at Van Andel Arena at some point, it is anticipated that the season will begin without fans in attendance. Griffins fans are encouraged to watch the games on AHLTV, tune in on Newsradio WOOD 106.9 FM/1300 AM, and follow the team’s social media channels. Important information for Griffins season ticket members is available at griffinshockey.com.

Continue reading Press release: Griffins announce their return to play

A bit more from Griffins president Tim Gortsema regarding the AHL’s 2020-2021 season

Grand Rapids Griffins president Tim Gortsema adds a few more nuggets of wisdom regarding the AHL’s 2020-2021 season as the Griffins will experience it in a conversation with the Grand Rapids Press’s Steve Kaminski:

The Griffins, who are the Detroit Red Wings affiliate, will compete in the Central Division with Chicago, Cleveland, Iowa, Rockford and Texas. Gortsema said the season schedule is expected to be hammered out in the days to come, with the regular season concluding May 16.

“Today was about approving who’s in and who’s out for the hockey season,” Gortsema said. “Starting as early as tomorrow, the league will begin the process of distributing a schedule grid, which is for each team and who you play and how many games. I think what you will see a lot of this year is that the play will be largely divisional with the goal of keeping teams close geographically in terms of opponents and who they play. We don’t know how many games we will play until we get the grid tomorrow, but we are thinking it will be between 30 to 34 games total.”

It remains to be seen how many fans will be permitted in attendance. Gortsema reported that the current Michigan Department of Health and Human Services allow for 20 percent of an arena’s fixed seating capacity up to 250 spectators.

“In our case, that is almost nothing in an 11,000-seat facility,” Gortsema said. “It’s to be determined whether that gets relaxed or not. Hockey is such a terrific sport and a better sport in person. You can see the speed and the size and the skill level so much better in person than a TV or any kind of broadcast. We are optimistic of getting fans back into the arena, and the sooner we can do so, the better.”

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A different kind of sprint

DetroitRedWings.com’s Josh Berenter filed a training camp notebook in which he discusses the fact that the 2020-2021 season will be unlike any that the Wings have encountered before…at the NHL level, anyway:

[Coach Jeff] Blashill said he’ll have to adjust his coaching style this season to prepare for back-to-back games against each opponent, as matchups become more of a chess game, similar to what he experienced as a college coach at Western Michigan University in 2010-11.

“It becomes a little less about pure pre-scouts and more about adjustments. That will be similar to the playoffs, it’s similar to the American League and honestly, really similar to college,” Blashill said. “It’s been awhile since I coached college, but that’s exactly what it is, you go at each other lots back to back, you’re trying to make adjustments for that second game. It’ll definitely be different, maybe a little bit more of a chess game.”

New Red Wings defenseman Troy Stecher also has college hockey experience, having played at the University of North Dakota for three seasons, and Stecher agreed that the new schedule format will be similar to the collegiate level.

“Every weekend in college, you played a team on Friday and Saturday at your home venue or their home venue,” Stecher said. “I think we can kind of bring that style into our locker room, where if you lose one game, it’s not the end of the world. You just got to find a way to rebound the next game. You never want to get swept in a series.

“It’s going to be a sprint. We’ve got to come out of the gate strong. It’s going to be exciting. I think it’s going to be good for the game of hockey in general.”

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