The Malik Report

The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan filed a Sunday-afternoon notebook in which he discusses the Red Wings’ need to bounce back from their rough 3-game winless streak with a strong pre-Christmas showing over the next 5 games:

“You look at our most recent struggles,” Larkin said. “We had a couple of practice days, came out and won five in a row. We need to get back to work at home and hopefully get some guys back and see what can happen.”

Coach Jeff Blashill said after Friday’s loss that forward Tyler Bertuzzi (out five games on COVID-19 protocol) would be ready to play against the Islanders. The status of Marc Staal (COVID protocol), who has missed three games, remains uncertain.

The Wings need improvement on the defensive end, where they have allowed 18 goals in the last three losses. Detroit has sunk to 27th in the NHL with a 3.43 goals-against average.

“We’re going to get back to work and get better, especially in our D-zone coverage,” Blashill said. “We can’t give up the number of chances we gave up. We did create chances, our guys stayed with it in a tough environment (in Denver), and I’m happy for that. But we have to grow here. We got to get back, take a breath and be ready for a big game on Tuesday.”

Ramping up defensively and managing the puck better are two areas Blashill targeted after the loss to the Avalanche. 

“I’ve talked about it a lot — when you’re on the road you have to be great defensively and you have to manage the puck great to win,” Blashill said. “I don’t think even at home we’ve been great defensively or managed the puck well enough.  Sometimes you have to keep getting slapped in the face to continue to realize it, especially the puck management part of it. You can get away with it at times at home because momentum is totally different. If we want to win more on the road and we want to win later in the season, and we want to win against great teams, we have to keep working to be better defensively. We have to keep working to manage the puck.”

Continued; the Wings play 3 games at home and 2 on the road before Christmas, and their schedule is relatively spread out over the next couple of weeks, so they should have ample practice time with which to help remedy their defensive issues.

Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen posted a Sunday column discussing the potential impacts of the Red Wings’ 2021 first-round draft picks, Simon Edvinsson and Sebastian Cossa. Both will be playing in the World Junior Championship in Edmonton, and Edvinsson has apparently impressed in more ways than one while playing over 20 minutes a night for Frolunda HC:

“(Edvinsson is) a natural leader who is noticeable in the locker room,” said a Swedish source. “He acts like a mini-coach on the bench, always yelling instructions at his team mates on the ice, often sitting on the board, not on the bench.”

Edvinsson is expected to be a key player for Sweden’s National Junior team later this month. He has 12 points in 24 games as a puck-moving defenseman for Frolunda in the Swedish. At 18, he played 21 minutes, 46 seconds in Frolunda’s last game.

Since Yzerman took over, the Red Wings’ are tight-lipped about their future plans, but there is talk around the league about the possibility that Edvinsson will be given a shot to play in the NHL next season. Edvinsson and Seider are about the same size — 6-foot-4, 205 pounds. But Edvinsson is more of a risk-taker. He does make more mistakes than NHL coaches like. But he’s figuring out what he should and shouldn’t do.

Continued

Of Red Wings-related prospect note in North America on Sunday:

In the BCHL, Kienan Draper didn’t register a point in the Chilliwack Chiefs’ 4-1 win over Langley;

And Red Savage didn’t play in the Miami of Ohio Redhawks’ 7-4 win over Mercyhurst as Savage is heading to Plymouth, MI for the U.S. World Junior Evaluation camp.

MLive’s Ansar Khan answered reader questions in a mailbag feature this morning:

Q: I keep reading how Bertuzzi is the league’s only unvaccinated player, and it is causing him to miss games. What are you hearing about what pressures he is getting from the team (management or players) about this? If I was (Steve) Yzerman/(Chris) Ilitch, I would be quite upset that he is hurting the team over this. – Ron

A: Publicly, Yzerman, coach Jeff Blashill and captain Dylan Larkin, Bertuzzi’s close friend, support his decision. Blashill and the players genuinely like Bertuzzi, so I don’t know if he is getting pressure behind the scenes to get vaccinated.

Ultimately, Yzerman will decide if Bertuzzi has a future in the organization, and the general manager has shown he is aggressive and not hesitant to make bold moves.

Is Yzerman prepared to go through another season with one of his best players ineligible to play anywhere from eight to 11 games (depending on the schedule), assuming Canada continues to deny entry to the unvaccinated? It is probably easier to accept on a declining team entering a rebuild, not on a club making strides and aiming for the playoffs, as the Red Wings surely will be next season, if not this year.

My guess is Yzerman wants no part of that. Bertuzzi’s contract ($4.75 million cap hit) expires after 2022-23, when he’s due to become an unrestricted free agent. I doubt that Yzerman will want to re-sign him and will look to move him well before that, maybe in the offseason, maybe even at the trade deadline.

Continued, with Khan explaining that Bertuzzi’s trade value is reduced due to his vaccination status;

I’ve always assumed that he’s probably going to get moved because he’s older (27) and is so hot-and-cold more than anything else. Bertuzzi is an integral instigating type of player that can really “stir the drink” on a winning team, but his vaccination status…

That breaks a lot of unwritten rules regarding “taking one for the team,” as Darren McCarty suggested earlier this season.

The Free Press’s Helene St. James posted a subscriber-only article this morning which discusses the “state of the Red Wings” as the Wings limp home winless in 3 games, in which they gave up 5, 6 and 7 goals, respectively:

“If we want to win more on the road and we want to win later in the season, and we want to win against great teams, we have to keep working to be better defensively and we have to keep working to manage the puck,” [coach Jeff] Blashill said.

“We’re going to get back to work and get better, especially in our D-zone coverage, because we can’t give up nearly the number of chances we gave up. But we did create lots of chances, and I’m happy for that. But we’ve got to grow here. We’ve got to get back, take a breath, and then get ready for a big game on Tuesday.”

The Wings (13-12-3) are 9-3-2 at LCA. Their five-game winning streak featured four home games sandwiched around a victorious outing in Boston. The absence of fans last season certainly emphasized their importance, but again, the Wings aren’t going to succeed anywhere if they don’t establish a defensive identity. Unlike the Avalanche, averaging with a league-leading 4.38 goals per game, the Wings don’t have the offensive power to mask defensive lapses.

“Without a doubt, when you’re on the road, you have to be great defensively and manage the puck great,” Blashill said. “I don’t think, even at home, we’ve been great defensively and managed the puck well enough. So if we want to be a team that can win both at home and on the road, we have to do that better. It’s a lesson that our guys are learning. Sometimes you have to keep kind of getting slapped in the face to continue to realize especially the puck management part of it. You get away with it at times at home because momentum is totally different.

“I think our team understands that we can be a really, really good team. We have to get back to work and I think our guys have a self-belief, and that belief has been earned through the work they’ve put in, and now we just have to get back and play a really good game on Tuesday.”

Continued (paywall)

Of Red Wings prospect-related note in North America on Saturday night:

In the ECHL, Kaden Fulcher stopped 16 of 19 shots as the Toledo Walleye lost 3-2 to the Iowa Heartlanders on Saturday night;

In the QMJHL, Oscar Plandowski finished at -1 in his return to the lineup from suspension as the Charlottetown Islanders won 5-3 over the Saint John Sea Dogs;

Jan Bednar was the back-up in the Acadie-Bathurst Titan’s 5-1 win over Val-d’Or;

In the OHL, Pasquale Zito scored a goal, finishing at +1 with 2 shots, an 0-for-5 faceoff record and a major penalty for boarding in the Windsor Spitfires’ 2-1 win over Kitchener;

In the WHL, the Sebastian Cossa-less Edmonton Oil Kings lost 5-2 to Winnipeg;

Cross Hanas had a goal and an assist, finishing at +4 with 4 shots in the Portland Winterhawks’ 7-4 win over Spokane;

Alex Cotton finished at -1 with 7 shots in the Vancouver Giants’ 5-2 loss to Victoria;

In the BCHL, Kienan Draper scored a goal in the Chilliwack Chiefs’ 4-1 loss to Cowichan Valley;

And in NCAA Hockey, Cooper Moore finished at +2 with 4 shots in the University of North Dakota Fighting Hawks’ 4-1 win over Colorado College;

Sam Stange finished at -1 with 1 shot in the University of Wisconsin Badgers’ 5-4 loss to Penn State;

Jack Adams finished even in the University of Notre Dame Fighting Irish’s 1-0 loss to Michigan State;

Ryan O’Reilly scored a goal and added an assist, finishing at +2 with 4 shots in the Arizona State University Sun Devils’ 4-1 win over Clarkson;

And in the University of Denver Pioneers’ 6-2 loss to Minnesota-Duluth:

Carter Mazur scored a goal and added an assist, finishing at +1 with 2 shots;

Shai Buium finished at -1;

And Antti Tuomisto finished even with 3 shots.

The Grand Rapids Griffins hoped to even up their record in Winnipeg after dropping a 4-2 decision to the Manitoba Moose on Friday…

But things did not go according to plan on Saturday night, with the Griffins surrendering a 2-0 lead before Riley Barber scored, only to witness the Moose score one more time before Turner Elson made a 3-2 loss look a little more respectable.

As a result, the Griffins dropped two straight games in Manitoba’s capital city, and they head home to host the Toronto Marlies for two games next weekend.

The Griffins’ website posted a recap of Saturday night’s game:

GRAND RAPIDS GRIFFINS 2 at Manitoba Moose 3

Dec. 11, 2021

WINNIPEG, Manitoba – Turner Elson’s late third period goal wasn’t enough for the Grand Rapids Griffins as they fell 3-2 to the Manitoba Moose on Saturday during their final game at Canada Life Centre this season.

The Griffins were swept in the road series against the Moose with a 0-3-0-1 record. Despite the loss, the Griffins’ defense held Manitoba to just 22 shots, which tied for the fewest attempts allowed this season. Elson bagged a two-point night (1-1—2) and extended his goal streak to three games, which is tied with Jonatan Berggren and Kyle Criscuolo for the longest on the team this campaign.

Continue reading Recap: Griffins can’t complete rally vs. Manitoba, drop 2nd straight in Winnipeg

Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen reports something that creeps me out today:

The Detroit Red Wings are among a handful of NHL teams scouting Evander Kane as he makes his season debut with the San Jose Barracuda.

Hockey Now’s Sheng Peng confirmed that Red Wings, Boston Bruins, Nashville Predators, Toronto Maple Leafs and Dallas Stars are on the press box list.

The Sharks are exploding trade options for Evander Kane. He was suspended 21 games by the NHL for presenting a fake vaccination card. He’s in the AHL to get his game back in shape. Kane’s off-ice behavior was the subject of multiple media reports in the offseason. As a result, some of Kane’s Sharks’ teammates didn’t want him back on the team.

I don’t care about Kane’s bankruptcy, bitter divorce proceedings, or his stupid decision to fake a vaccination card. I don’t care about the rumors of gambling issues or any other of the long list’s worth of character issues that have followed the 30-year-old forward around.

I care about the fact that it wasn’t just the players in Winnipeg that couldn’t stand him (and he was treated really unfairly there); I know that the people of Winnipeg hated the guy, and it takes a lot for the people of Winnipeg to really disown a player. Kane was utterly disliked in Winnipeg, and that’s as terrible a stamp on his status as anything else…

That, and ESPN’s Emily Kaplan reported this about Kane a couple of days ago:

I’m told there’s already a decent amount of interest in Kane, and right now, the interested teams are looking for a third-party team to act as “broker” to help retain some of his salary ($7 million). San Jose is willing to retain some salary, but if it gets even lower — imagine Kane, who has averaged 28 goals per season over his 12-year career, at a $1.75 million cap hit — the list of interested teams grows even longer. However, it’s going to take a team that believes it has a strong locker room culture to bring Kane in.

Kane, I’m told, is interested in playing for a contender and has a ton of agency given he has a three-team trade list. The best-case scenario for Kane is getting bought out by the Sharks and being able to choose his next destination, but I don’t think the Sharks have broached buyout talks with him yet. Those discussions would likely happen this summer.

Any other team that’s a contender can take him. Hell, the Ak Bars Kazan can take him. But I don’t want Evander Kane on the Red Wings.

Send him to Toronto.

Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen posted a list of “5 concerns” regarding the Red Wings’ most recent 3-game losing streak as part of a subscriber-only article, and among them are the following:

No Defensive Improvement: In these three losses, the Red Wings gave up 17 goals. The Red Wings now rank 27th in the league with a goals-against-average of 3.43 goals per game. They have given up five or more goals 10 times in 28 games. Detroit is at the bottom with teams such as Arizona, Buffalo and Ottawa. That’s not the company they want to keep.

With Marc Staal on the COVID-19 list and Gustav Lindstrom on the injury list, the Red Wings’ poor depth on defense has been further exposed.

No defenseman escaped with better than a -3 plus-minus over those three games. Moritz Seider and Danny Dekeyser were both -5 over the first two losses before going +1 in the Colorado game. Dan Renouf was -5 on the two-game road trip. Nick Leddy and Filip both ended up -3 in the three games and that came in the game against the Avs. Jordan Oesterle was -4 in the three loses.

The Red Wings need another seasoned defenseman and I’m told Steve Yzerman has been looking for that player in the trade market.

Continued (paywall); another defenseman wouldn’t hurt at this point, and the Wings have the cap space to add someone who isn’t a good fit somewhere else. I’m not sure that the reinforcement route is the way I’d go–I believe in “sink or swim” to some extent when it comes to this year’s team–but if the GM feels that adding to the roster is best, we’ll see what happens.

The Grand Rapids Griffins play the Manitoba Moose for the second consecutive night in Winnipeg on Saturday (8 PM EST start), and the Griffins posted a game-day preview video ahead of tonight’s match-up: