Podcast: Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill talks about practices with ‘Glass and Out’

Aaron Wilbur, the founder of The Coaches’ Site, has launched a podcast called “Glass and Out,” and his latest podcast involves Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill:

For episode #155, we’re changing things up and revisiting one of our favourite presentations from this year’s Virtual Hockey Summit. Detroit Red Wings head coach Jeff Blashill shared valuable tips for planning and executing a successful practice.

During the conversation, Blashill gets into the preparation and attention to detail that professional coaches need to invest into making a great practice, a great practice. While the drills you select for a practice certainly matter, he explains that it’s how you organize them within the structure of your practice, how you communicate the habits and details you want your players to pull out of each drill, and as a staff, how each coach plays a role in teaching and managing the flow of practice.

It’s clear the improvement and evolution of his approach has been rooted in being open minded and curious, in terms of what other coaches are doing, taking the time to watch how practices operate in other sports, and looking at how other industries educate their people and operate more efficiently.

Don’t miss out on this must-listen for any coach looking to improve their practice habits!

Detroit News’s ‘Octopulse’ podcast profiles Shane Wright

The Detroit News’s Mark Falkner and Ted Kulfan spoke with top draft prospect Shane Wright in their latest “Octopulse” podcast…

And Falkner penned a subscriber-only article noting that the Red Wings’ fast start all but takes them out of the Shane Wright sweepstakes:

Continue reading Detroit News’s ‘Octopulse’ podcast profiles Shane Wright

The Athletic’s Wheeler handicaps WJC rosters: eight Wings prospects make his projected rosters

For what it’s worth, The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler assembled a set of World Junior Championship rosters, and he made predictions as to how his selected teams would perform at the WJC in Edmonton.

Wheeler expects the Red Wings’ representation at the WJC to look like this:

Canada: Donovan Sebrango (defense, Grand Rapids Griffins, AHL);

Sebastian Cossa (goaltender, Edmonton Oil Kings, WHL);

USA: Red Savage (center, Miami of Ohio Redhawks, NCAA)

Sweden: William Wallinder (defense, Rogle BK, SHL);

Simon Edvinsson (defense, Frolunda HC, SHL);

Theodor Niederbach (center, Frolunda HC, SHL);

Liam Dower Nilsson (center, Frolunda HC, SHL);

Finland: Eemil Viro (defense, TPS Turku, Liiga).

Tweet of note: When Yzerman passed his idol

On this day in NHL history, per the NHL’s PR Twitter account, Red Wings captain Steve Yzerman passed his idol, Bryan Trottier, on the NHL’s all-time scoring list:

THIS DATE IN 1998: Steve Yzerman collects a goal and an assist to record his 1,426th career point, surpassing Bryan Trottier (1,425) for 10th place on the NHL’s all-time points list. #NHLStats pic.twitter.com/5O61xNVaZd— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) November 11, 2021

Ken Daniels appears on 97.1 the Ticket’s ‘Stoney and Janssen with Heather’ show

Red Wings play-by-play announcer Ken Daniels appeared on the Stoney and Janssen with Heather” show this morning on 97.1 the Ticket, addressing the Celebrity Roast of Brett Hull (click for auction items), the mission of his Jamie Daniels Foundation and the Red Wings’ strong start:

Khan’s game-day notebook: Wings wary of Ovechkin

Washington Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin is looking to pass Brett Hull’s 741 goals on the all-time goal-scoring list tonight vs. the Detroit Red Wings (7:30 PM EST start on Bally Sports Detroit/NBC Sports Washington/97.1 FM). This morning, Red Wings head coach Jeff Blashill discussed the challenges of defending one of the league’s best all-time goal-scorers, as noted by MLive’s Ansar Khan:

“It’s been cool to watch him play for the number of years I’ve been on an NHL bench,” Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said. “I remember when I was an assistant my first year in the NHL, I could not believe how big he was. He’s way bigger when you see him on the ice at ice level than you realize on TV. He’s a huge, huge, strong person. He still plays with the same passion that he did back then, and that’s probably now 10-11 years ago, and probably the same passion that he did when he came into the league.

“But yet he’s gotten better over time without a doubt. He can shoot the puck from anywhere and it’s a scoring chance. You can be on him, and he’ll find a way to get it off. They’re different, him and (Edmonton’s) Connor McDavid. Connor McDavid, you have to be aware of his speed. You have to really start defending him in the O-zone. Where I think with Alex, it’s more once you enter your own zone you have to know where he’s at on the ice all of the time. You can’t give him a millisecond or otherwise he’s getting his shot off and every shot has a chance to go in.”

Washington is missing three key forwards due to injuries – Nicklas Backstrom, T.J. Oshie and former Red Wing Anthony Mantha, who last week underwent shoulder surgery.

It is one of the reasons the Capitals’ typically strong power play has been average at best so far (8 for 46, 18.6 percent). The Red Wings were shorthanded only twice against Edmonton’s league-leading power play on Tuesday, killing both penalties.

Continued (with news on Troy Stecher’s injury)

Battling through and fundraising on a Thursday

I wanted to let you know that I’ve been battling through a bad “bug” of the non-COVID variety over the last two weeks, something that’s really dragging my energy level down and causing a lot of congestion…

But I’m doing my damnedest to fight through it and provide as much content as I’m physically able to do on a given day.

I can only say that, if the Wings weren’t playing 11 games over the course of 17 nights, I’d be taking more “maintenance days” myself, but sometimes one must battle through feeling like crap.

So the timing isn’t great for this, but I need to attempt to raise funds to pay the bills and save up for that damn cell phone that Sprint is forcing me to buy by the end of December as my S7 will turn into a brick on New Year’s Day. That, and I’m continuing to try and help AA pay off the outstanding tax bill on the condo so that we can stay here.

I know that it’s not exciting to be asked to help defer non-hockey expenses, and if I could get these items paid for on my own dime, I would, but this is how I earn “my dime.”

If you’re willing to lend a hand, you can use PayPal at https://paypal.me/TheMalikReport, Venmo at https://venmo.com/george-malik-2, Giftly by using my email, rtxg@yahoo.com, at https://www.giftly.com. And you can contact me via email if you want to send me a paper check.

Thank you for reading and thank you for your time.

Post-Red Wings-Capitals morning skate videos: coach Blashill, plus Capitals morning skate updates

Updated with Caps morning skate Tweets at 11:45 AM: After today’s morning skate ahead of tonight’s game vs. Washington (7:30 PM on Bally Sports Detroit/NBC Sports Washington/97.1 FM), Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill informed us that Filip Hronek, Marc Staal and Lucas Raymond would be “game-time decisions.”

Here’s a video of Blashill speaking with the media from the Red Wings’ YouTube channel:

Update: FYI’s from the Capitals’ morning skate:

Zach Fucale will get the start in net tonight in Detroit, per Head Coach Laviolette. pic.twitter.com/Sn49RynB9s— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) November 11, 2021

Capitals are holding an optional skate this morning ahead of their game vs Detroit. Well-attended. All three goalies on the ice. Puck drop at 7:30pm. pic.twitter.com/NS69vFcf9O— Samantha Pell (@SamanthaJPell) November 11, 2021

Fucale is set to be the fifth #ALLCAPS player to make his NHL debut this season (joining Lapierre, Leason, Protas, AJF).— Sammi Silber (@sammi_silber) November 11, 2021

Zach Fucale will start in net for the Capitals, per Laviolette. Ilya Samsonov will backup.

Vitek Vanecek is taking a maintenance day.— Samantha Pell (@SamanthaJPell) November 11, 2021

Khan: Stecher out a couple of weeks, ‘surgery is an option’

Not great news from coach Blashill after the Red Wings-Capitals morning skate:

#RedWings Blashill said Troy Stecher will take the next couple of weeks to see how his injury heals. After that surgery is an option. Status of Raymond, Hronek, Staal for tonight vs. Capitals determined game time.— Ansar Khan (@AnsarKhanMLive) November 11, 2021

Coach updated us on Stecher’s upper body injury. Said he has a few different options, but first he’s going to see how his injury heals over the next couple weeks #LGRW @DetroitRedWings— Carley Johnston (@carleykjohnston) November 11, 2021

Post-morning skate Tweets of note: Hronek, Staal and Raymond are ‘game-time decisions’

The Detroit Red Wings held an optional morning skate ahead of tonight’s game vs. the Washington Capitals (7:30 PM on Bally Sports Detroit/NBC Sports Washington/97.1 FM), and Lucas Raymond made an appearance at the Wings’ skate. Thomas Greiss will also start tonight, though it’s unclear against whom he’ll play.

The Caps are also holding an optional skate this morning, and as their lineup is also in flux due to injuries, we may not know what either team looks like lineup-wise until just before game time.

These are the players that both teams brought to LCA…

Tonight’s Rosters vs Washington. pic.twitter.com/Es8SAAm1ex— Ken Kal (@KenKalDRW) November 11, 2021

So we waited for news regarding this guy, and Filip Hronek, and Marc Staal:

Raymond getting some work in this morning at @LCArena_Detroit ?#LGRW pic.twitter.com/HoJREzOhJ3— Bally Sports Detroit (@BallySportsDET) November 11, 2021

Game-time decisions:

Blashill said he’s still unsure about the status of those who missed yesterdays practice, that includes Lucas Raymond. #LGRW https://t.co/UBngW6PtaP— Daniella Bruce (@daniellabruce_) November 11, 2021

Lucas Raymond, Marc Staal and Filip Hronek all skated in morning skate, but Coach Blashill says it’s still up in the air whether or not they’ll play in tonight’s game against Washington #LGRW @DetroitRedWings— Carley Johnston (@carleykjohnston) November 11, 2021