Sharks’ Morning Skate Tweets of note: San Jose loses Couture, Pederson to COVID protocols

Updated at 12:03 PM: Not good news for the San Jose Sharks, who play our Detroit Red Wings this evening (7:30 PM EST start on Bally Sports Detroit/NBCS California/97.1 FM):

We have recalled #SJSharks Adin Hill and Scott Reedy from the @sjbarracuda and Logan Couture and Lane Pederson have been placed in the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol.

In addition, Alexei Melnichuk has been reassigned to the Barracuda.https://t.co/uwVOl8GbqZ— San Jose Sharks (@SanJoseSharks) January 4, 2022

Update: Also:

#SJSharks Bob Boughner says he hasn’t finalized his lineup for tonight, including his defense pairs.— Curtis Pashelka (@CurtisPashelka) January 4, 2022

Boughner says Logan Couture tested positive but does not have symptoms.— Curtis Pashelka (@CurtisPashelka) January 4, 2022

? vs. ? pic.twitter.com/1xN0WTznxQ— San Jose Sharks (@SanJoseSharks) January 4, 2022

Sharks coach Bob Boughner said Couture and Pederson will remain in Detroit and quarantine for now. He said it’s possible they will drive to Philadelphia and fly home with the team on Sunday if they are out of protocol by then.— Corey Masisak (@cmasisak22) January 4, 2022

Looks that way, based on the AM skate (Boughner also said he would likely play yesterday). https://t.co/efLXon8KEX— Corey Masisak (@cmasisak22) January 4, 2022

Boughner says that he hasn’t decided on defensive pairings, but scratching Vlasic seems possible https://t.co/X0k4KijY9o— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) January 4, 2022

Boughner said the lines are still TBD, but did say that Hertl will “probably” center Dahlen and Meier with Bonino moving up to the second line.

Vlasic and Gadjovich are still on the ice at LCA with Ryan Merkley, Nick Merkley and Zach Sawchenko. https://t.co/Xi41ynM6Wy— Corey Masisak (@cmasisak22) January 4, 2022

Red Wings-Sharks post-morning skate Tweets and videos: trade chatter and Blashill’s media availability

Updated at 1:13 PM: Okay, we didn’t get any information of Red Wings-related note out of the morning skate ahead of tonight’s game between the San Jose Sharks and Detroit Red Wings, who haven’t played in just over two years (the teams play tonight at 7:30 PM EST on Bally Sports Detroit/NBCS California/97.1 FM)…

But I tried to set y’all up with some familiarization regarding the Sharks, whose 17-15-and-1 record resembles Detroit’s 15-15-and-3 record, as does their smarting pride after they lost 8-5 to Pittsburgh on Sunday, just as Detroit lost 5-2 to Boston.

Of all honesty, the most interesting part of the Twitter timeline during the Red Wings’ morning skate was the Boston Globe’s Kevin Dupont suggesting that the Red Wings might have some interest in disgruntled Boston forward Jake DeBrusk, who’s asked for a trade. DeBrusk didn’t take part in the B’s morning skate today, and it turned out that he was placed in COVID protocol, but the theory is worth sticking in our back pocket and noting for later this season.

So here’s Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill’s media availability from today’s morning skate:

Update: First morning skate Tweet at 11:33 AM:

Morning prep.

?: https://t.co/a1ZFiGyALB pic.twitter.com/h63KPo8F0l— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) January 4, 2022

Update #2: Here’s Sharks coach Bob Boughner’s pre-game media availability:

Red Wings-Sharks morning skate Tweets and articles: Getting up to speed on the Sharks, the Wings, and…Jake DeBrusk?

The Detroit Red Wings host the San Jose Sharks tonight (7:30 PM EST start on Bally Sports Detroit/NBCS California/97.1 FM).

The Sharks are in a very different place in the standings (6th in the Pacific Division), but they’re 17-15-and-1 record is quite similar to Detroit’s 15-15-and-3 record. The Sharks have won 2 of their past 3 games, but they are smarting from an 8-5 loss to the Penguins this past Sunday.

Detroit is, of course, 0-and-2 in its post-holiday break games, and is looking to rebound after Sunday’s 5-2 loss to Boston while trying to salvage its sinking power play (31st in the league). I think we could all agree that putting Lucas Raymond in the “bumper” position seems a little strange, and Joe Veleno substituting for Filip Zadina makes more sense, but the PP needs to restore its motion to really get going again. When guys are standing around, they’re too easily defended.

The Wings have also lost 6 of their past 8 games, so late December and early January have not been kind to the 5th-place team in the Atlantic Division standings.

According to MLive’s Tyler Kuehl, this is the first meeting between these teams since New Year’s Eve of 2019, so if you’re a little rusty as to who the Sharks are, that’s okay.

Yesterday, the Mercury News’s Curtis Pashelka reported that the Sharks are planning on shaking up their defense after Sunday’s loss, so we’ll probably find out more about the Sharks’ lineup during their morning skate today.

The Red Wings and their beat writers have been a little delinquent in terms of posting morning skate stuff during game days, so our one Tweet of note is a video of Moritz Seider doing his puck-bouncing trick during warm-ups:

Game Day vs. San Jose. #LGRW

?: 7:30pm ET
?: @BallySportsDET
?: @971theticketxyt
?: @UWMLife pic.twitter.com/zv95qW7GXa— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) January 4, 2022

Ken Kal did say “hello” at the end of the morning skate…

Tonight’s roster for the stat guru’s out there in the twitterverse! Note there will be scratches. pic.twitter.com/oKh2Q7nWNc— Ken Kal (@KenKalDRW) January 4, 2022

In fact, our friends from San Jose said, “Good morning!” before we got anything out of the morning skate from the beat writers…

Stop #2 on the road!

?: Detroit, MI
?: 4:30 p.m. PT
?: NBCSCA
?: Sharks Audio Network
#️⃣: #SJSharks pic.twitter.com/YCizMIVwxv— San Jose Sharks (@SanJoseSharks) January 4, 2022

You may also take this suggestion from the Boston Globe’s Kevin Dupont for what you will, in noting that the Bruins held Jake DeBrusk out of their morning skate:

DeBrusk not skating this morn – after finally showing some pop in his game over the weekend.

Foligno to LW w/ Coyle, Steen.— Kevin Paul Dupont (@GlobeKPD) January 4, 2022

DET with the cap room and need for DeBrusk.

Bruins played there Sunday. First-hand look for the DRW.— Kevin Paul Dupont (@GlobeKPD) January 4, 2022

I’d have no problem with that kind of move as long as the cost was reasonable.

DET not alone in terms of cap space/need re: DeBrusk.

BUF/ANA also have been recent BOS trade partners. But DET could be better fit right now.

Have to think large portion of Rask’s cap hit would be in DeBrusk’s $3.675.

ALL speculation here. https://t.co/LFPdw73PjU— Kevin Paul Dupont (@GlobeKPD) January 4, 2022

Update: Rut roh:

#NHLBruins place Jake DeBrusk and three staff members in @NHL COVID-19 protocol: https://t.co/gJSjVHVBDT— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) January 4, 2022

The Score’s Calder Trophy power rankings: Fighting the Zegras hype machine

The Score’s Sean O’Leary posted a set of Calder Trophy power rankings today, and his listing of Trevor Zegras ahead of Moritz Seider or Lucas Raymond is a reminder that Zegras’ “wow” pass, combined with his advanced metrics, has a hype train rolling that the Red Wings’ dynamic rookie duo (and Alex Nedeljkovic) have to keep pace with going forward:

3. Moritz Seider, Red Wings: Seider continues to log huge minutes and put up points, but his underlying numbers took a massive hit over the past month with a miserable 38.38% expected goals rate across 11 games. The rearguard managed a 54.86% actual goals clip in that same span to minimize the damage, but Seider will have to pump his numbers back up if he wants to take home some hardware at season’s end.

All that said, it’s typical for young defensemen to endure highs and lows while figuring out the league. Seider still ranks third in rookie scoring this season and possesses all the tools to become Detroit’s No. 1 blue-line option for years to come.

…

2. Lucas Raymond, Red Wings: For the first time this year, Raymond‘s fallen off the top of the podium. The Detroit dynamo still leads all rookies in scoring, but his points-per-game clip dropped last month. He’s also seen his underlying statistics drastically plummet as well.

Since our last installment, Raymond managed only one goal and fired just 14 shots on net. He may have hit a rookie wall, but it still wasn’t an easy decision to drop him a spot. He’s neck-and-neck with our top candidate in many statistics this season, and he’s by no means out of the Calder race.

Continued; there’s no doubt that Raymond has a wall to break through right now, but I expect him to do so over the next 5-10 games. He’s learned fast, and he’s going to learn to adapt to being “double covered.”

As for Seider, his lateral mobility, edge work and backwards skating are just sublime, and I think they’re separating him from the pack in terms of his ability to shift and pivot to make plays happen.

Duff notes the Rasmussen line’s offensive issues

Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff took note of the Red Wings third line’s dry spell of late:

[Filip] Zadina and [Michael] Rasmussen each has accounted for one goal over the past 13 games they’ve played. [Adam] Erne was a revelation last season when he scored a team-leading goals. It earned him a new contract with the club. This season, though, he’s gone back to his inability to find the net. Erne shows one goal over his past 23 games.

“They’re just not playing good enough as individuals,” Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said. “They gotta play better as individuals.

“I think if they play to the level they’re capable of, I think they grind teams and they can do those things. But they’re making mistakes defensively and they just haven’t played well enough. Some of that is it’s only Earns’ second or third day back (from COVID-19 protocol), so he’s gotta get his feet back under him a little bit.

“I think the key to us as a hockey team is everybody playing their best hockey.”

Continued

Bultman on Lucas Raymond, power play ‘bumper’

The Athletic’s Max Bultman discusses Lucas Raymond’s new-found role as a “bumper” on the Red Wings’ power play as the team attempts to break a lengthy slump that’s found the PP unit drop to 31st in the NHL:

Detroit’s power play is once again in dire straits this season, converting at 14.4 percent — which, as of Monday, was 31st in the league. That number is a marginal improvement on last season’s man-advantage misery for the Red Wings, but it’s still noticeably behind the league median (currently around 19 percent). For that reason, it certainly makes sense for Detroit to try some new alignments. But putting one of the team’s most creative playmakers right in the middle of the opposing penalty kill (where time and space can be hard to come by) was nonetheless a significant shake-up — and one that merits a closer look.

First, it’s important to know what the Red Wings feel their recipe for success is on the power play. In Detroit coach Jeff Blashill’s mind, those key pillars are quick puck movement and having bodies around the net.

That’s all simple enough: Passing the puck around quickly can force defenses to scramble, and also potentially force goalies to move within the crease, as opposed to squaring up a shot the whole way. Meanwhile, having players around the net means a better chance at getting to the puck in the most dangerous area of the ice, especially on rebounds.

From that standpoint, the player in the bumper plays a prime role in both of those objectives. It’s a key, nearby outlet for every other spot on the power play, and Raymond is smart enough to handle that responsibility, whether it means moving the puck quickly to one of the other four spots, or shooting from his dangerous station in the slot.

Continued (paywall)

Roughly translated: Simon Edvinsson discusses the WJC’s cancellation

Red Wings prospect and Frolunda HC defenseman Simon Edvinsson makes two appearances in the Swedish press today:

  1. Ahead of Frolunda’s Champions Hockey League playoff game vs. Rogle BK, Edvinsson spoke with SVT.se for a 2-minute Swedish language interview that isn’t geo-blocked;
  2. And Edvinsson spoke about the cancellation of the World Junior Championship with GT.se’s Stefan Nilsson. Here’s a rough translation of that article:
Continue reading Roughly translated: Simon Edvinsson discusses the WJC’s cancellation

HSJ in the morning: Blashill says Wings must crank up physicality as games become more tightly contested

The Free Press’s Helene St. James filed her morning article today, discussing the Red Wings’ need to step up physically as their schedule gets tougher:

They’ve lost two in a row — at home, no less, where they’re 11-5-2 — and have one last chance to set a better tone at Little Caesars Arena on Tuesday against the San Jose Sharks before heading out for a week on the road, where the Wings are 4-10-1. It’s getting close to the midpoint of the season, and that means one thing in the NHL.

“It only gets harder as the year goes along and we have to show that we’re a team that belongs in the win column as the games get harder and harder,” coach Jeff Blashill said Monday. “It’s individual players playing at a high level, and making plays at key moments.”

Defenseman Nick Leddy was at practice, which cleared the COVID-19 protocol list.

The Wings have scored two goals their last two games. They were pushed around by the Washington Capitals on New Year’s Eve in a 3-1 loss, and bullied Sunday by the Boston Bruins in a 5-1 loss. When teams get physical — and that doesn’t mean fighting, it means players are checking and grinding and making room for themselves at the net — the Wings’ response has been to take it, not give it back. 

“That’s just a decision that we’re going to match physicality,” Blashill said. “We are going to make the opponent pay a price when they have the puck. There’s been times we’ve passed up some checks. Not all, but some. Throughout the lineup, we just have to make sure that we’re making the opponent pay a hard price.”

Continued (paywall) with discussion of Joe Veleno’s spot on the power play.