The Malik Report

The Detroit Red Wings hope to earn their 4th straight win this evening as they host the Washington Capitals (7:30 PM EST on Bally Sports Detroit/NBC Sports Washington/97.1 FM).

Tonight is Military Appreciation night at LCA:

Military Appreciation Night! ??

? 7:30pm
? @BallySportsDET
? @971theticketxyt
? @kroger pic.twitter.com/avS5Z3HRbL— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) November 11, 2021

The Red Wings “took an optional,” but there was good news from The Athletic’s Max Bultman:

Lucas Raymond on the ice at Red Wings optional morning skate today— Max Bultman (@m_bultman) November 11, 2021

Um…

Just walked by the Capitals locker room this morning and the song blaring through the door was “Hold On” by Wilson Phillips. Interesting choice, but I’m a fan.— Daniella Bruce (@daniellabruce_) November 11, 2021

Lucas Raymond out on the ice for an optional skate this morning. #LGRW @DetroitRedWings— Daniella Bruce (@daniellabruce_) November 11, 2021

Prepping for the Caps.

Puck drops at 7:30pm. #LGRW

?: https://t.co/a1ZFiGyALB pic.twitter.com/qud0mg5MO2— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) November 11, 2021

This is no surprise:

Thomas Greiss off the ice first for the Red Wings #LGRW @DetroitRedWings— Carley Johnston (@carleykjohnston) November 11, 2021

The Capitals’ PR website also sets up tonight’s game with a preview:

Continue reading Red Wings-Capitals morning skate Tweets and articles: We have a Lucas Raymond sighting

Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff reports that former Red Wings defenseman Vladimir Konstantinov is signing autographs to help pay for his care:

Former Detroit Red Wings defenseman Vladimir Konstantinov and his family are always seeking out methods of defraying some of the costs they are encountering in dealing with his ongoing medical issues. The ex-NHL All-Star defender suffered a career-ending brain injury in a 1997 limousine accident.

Signing his name is proving to be a wonderful way to make this happen. In partnership with SportsGraphing.com, Konstantinov is putting his signature to autographed items. Firstly, these are then sold to collectors. Secondly, all of the proceeds go to Konstantinov’s Special Needs Fund. Most importantly, this fund helps to cover the cost of therapies that are not included in the standard insurance provisions from the settlement following the accident.

Red Wings and Konstantinov fans all over the world have already helped to raise over $30,000 towards his special needs trust.

The latest round of Konstantinov autograph items are now available for purchase through SportsGraphing.com, with proceeds going to the Special Needs Fund.

Continued

The Free Press’s Helene St. James sets up tonight’s Red Wings-Capitals match-up (7:30 PM on Bally Sports Detroit/NBC Sports Washington/97.1 FM) with some words of wisdom from Alex Nedeljkovic and Jeff Blashill regarding the Red Wings’ “surge“:

“For a team that’s learning how to win, I think we’re doing a good job of staying in games,” Nedeljkovic said. “There are a few games where we’ve come from behind in the third period — we found a way to win in Buffalo. We came up a little short against Florida, but we were right there. (Tuesday) was a huge game to build off for confidence. We have the lead and kind of let them back in and we found a way to win. That’s what good teams do. It’s not always going to be pretty, but they find ways to win and at the end of the day, two points is what matters.”

Beating good teams like the Oilers and Capitals builds confidence. The Wings look like a significantly better team than the previous two seasons — and they should, based on their increase in talent. Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider rank first and second, respectively, in the rookie scoring race. (Raymond did not practice Wednesday because he had a maintenance day, according to coach Jeff Blashill. Filip Hronek and Marc Staal were also off.) All in all, there’s enough depth to roll three lines capable of scoring and three solid defense pairings.

“We’ve infused some talent, so that gives you chances to make plays that can get you back in games,” Blashill said. “That’s not necessarily a learning process as much as our talent has grown and matured, and we’ve infused some. Last time we played Washington, or coming back against Florida — we stayed in the game longer.

“There’s a maturity level, when you get down by a couple goals, to not play loose, to understanding there’s still lots of time and you have to keep playing the right way.. If you get down and you start giving up tons of chances, it’s likely one of those is going in and now you’re down more goals. It doesn’t do any good. You have to make sure your game plan stays the same as when the game started.”

Continued (paywall)

Of Red Wings prospect-related note:

In Europe, in the Swedish Allsvenskan, neither Albin Grewe or Gustav Berglund took part in Mora IK’s 2-1 shootout loss to Vita Hasten;

Jesper Eliasson was the back-up in Almtuna IS’s 5-2 loss to AIK Stockholm;

In North America, in the WHL, Sebastian Cossa made up for a 4-goals-against night on Tuesday by stopping 41 of 43 shots, earning first-start honors in the Edmonton Oil Kings’ 4-2 win over Prince Albert;

And Alex Cotton had a goal and an assist, finishing at +1 with 6 shots in the Vancouver Giants’ 5-3 victory over Prince George.

The Detroit Red Wings face the Washington Capitals for the second time this season tonight (7:30 PM on Bally Sports Detroit/NBC Sports Washington/97.1 FM).

Between the fact that the 7-5-and-2 Red Wings have won 3 straight games, the fact that Alex Ovechkin happens to be tied with Brett Hull in the all-time goals race (with 741), and the fact that the 6-2-and-4 Capitals haven’t played since last Monday, when they snapped a 3-game losing streak by defeating the Buffalo Sabres 5-3…

This really feels like a “trap game” for the Red Wings, the kind of game where the Red Wings go in, looking back at their 3-2 OT win over Washington at the end of last month, and think, “Hmm, this won’t be a difficult win.”

Continue reading Red Wings-Capitals set-up: Another ‘trap game?’

Yahoo Sports’ Justin Cuthbert penned a column in which he discusses several hot topics from around the NHL, and the Red Wings’ 7-5-and-2 start is one of those topics:

The Detroit Red Wings have seven wins from their first 14 games this season, but few if any have been more impressive than their victory Tuesday night over the Edmonton Oilers. No team can have their fastball every night, however McDavid, Draisaitl, and the incredible forward group in Edmonton looked merely average in its stop at Little Caesars Arena.

Which is, to put it mildly, an accomplishment.

What we needed to see from the Wings this season was some progress after five years as the single least-successful team in the league. (Yes, behind Buffalo). And between the performance of the top line, the emergence of Moritz Seider, and other key contributions around the lineup, the Red Wings have shown that so far. 

Tyler Bertuzzi has driven some of the best results league-wide, and with Lucas Raymond and Dylan Larkin the Red Wings finally have a No. 1 that can threaten the opposition with regularity. With more goals and points than any other rookie, Raymond could be considered the Calder Trophy front-runner, but his biggest competition could be Seider, his teammate on the back end. 

Seider, who saw nine-plus minutes versus Draisaitl in the Edmonton win, continues to log major minutes against quality competition and sits just three points off the lead held by defenceman and Norris Trophy pace car, Adam Fox. 

We’re starting to see, now, what Steve Yzerman has envisioned.

Continued

Red Wings prospect Simon Edvinsson is currently working with the Swedish Junior Team at the Four Nations Cup in Angelholm, Sweden, which is the final warm-up before the World Junior Championship takes place in December.

Daily Faceoff’s Chris Peters praises Edvinsson as one of the NHL’s strongest-starting prospects:

Detroit Red Wings: Simon Edvinsson, D, Frölunda (16 GP, 1-8—9)

The maturity Edvinsson has shown throughout this season has been remarkable. He’s been among the best young players in Europe this season. In his draft year, Edvinsson was averaging under six minutes per game in the SHL. In his first full season in the top flight, the 6-foot-5 blueliner is averaging nearly 20 minutes a game, defending well and producing at a pace not seen from a U19 blueliner in the SHL in decades. He’s missed some time with injury, but has been cleared to return to play.

Continued

DW.com, a.k.a. Deutsche Welle (German World), offers a translation of a German-language profile of one Red Wings defenseman Moritz Seider, discussing Seider’s pandemic-induced season spent with Rogle BK in the SHL:

[Last September’s] when the Red Wings got a call from Sweden. They wound up sending Seider to Rogle BK of the Swedish Hockey League, which did start play as usual in September. The club, based in Angelholm in the south of the country, turned out to be a perfect fit.

“The year in Sweden was incredibly good for me,” Seider told DW. 

He gained “a lot of self-confidence” in a league regarded as one of the best in Europe. The games are “very close,” and play tends to be very much “end-to-end” making for highly exciting contests both on the ice and in the stands.

It was there that Seider, who first hit the ice as a 4-year-old in the eastern German city of Erfurt, learned that, after a bad game, the most important thing is to make sure that you “perform at your best” in the following contest. 

Not only did Seider succeed at that last season, but his club did, as well. Rogle BK had their most successful season ever, making it all the way to the finals of the playoffs, where they fell four games to one to the Vaxjo Lakers. In something of a consolation prize, Seider was named the league’s top defenseman. 

His next stop was the International Ice Hockey Federation World Championship in Latvia, where Seider helped Germany finish in a respectable fourth place on his way to being named the top defenseman at the tournament. Seider’s performances in Sweden and at the Worlds didn’t go unnoticed by Red Wings head coach Jeff Blashill.

“The fact that he got those accolades in Sweden and the World Championship gives you confidence that he can do a good job,” Blashill told DW at a recent press conference. “How good and how quickly he would become an impact player, we didn’t know.”

This past summer, Seider traveled to Detroit, determined to make the Wings as a top-four defenseman — the AHL and Europe simply weren’t options anymore. 

Continued

Sportsnet’s Mark Spector managed to pull of something almost impossible–he managed to score an interview with both Ken Holland, who gives media members his phone number and answers every call, and he managed to score an interview with Steve Yzerman, who communicates with the media on his terms. Both interviews combine for a fine profile of Ken Holland, who is going to be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame this upcoming weekend:

“I learned a lot from Kenny, even before I retired,” Yzerman corrected over the phone from Detroit. “Talking about the league, players, signings… I always talked about things with him, and the four years after I retired, we talked about contracts, how he managed situations, how he handled things. The logic behind the decisions that he had to make. It was a tremendous education. Kenny was very, very selfless. To this day I talk to him about things. He hasn’t changed a bit. He is very, very humble.”

We’ve met a lot of GMs over the years. Personable ones who will call a scribe back or sit in the seats of a practice rink and kibitz over coffee. And more private ones who keep you at a distance, seeing no value in a relationship with someone that ranks below them on hockey’s off-ice ladder.

Then there is Holland, who will take 82 pre-game suppers at the press meal, an in-arena dinner put on for scouts, media and support staff. In Edmonton, Holland keeps a table for him and his staff. But it is right there among the rest of that night’s game staff and the media. Same food, same folks, watching the same Eastern Conference games on the same TVs as everyone else.

Where you can go a season or two without ever seeing Oilers owner Daryl Katz, Holland is around every night, as approachable at home as he is on the road.

“You’d have to ask him why he always calls you back or whatever,” Yzerman said. “But I think he goes into the press room to talk hockey with other managers, scouts, media people… At the end of the day he just enjoys talking about what’s going on around the league with other teams and players. It’s why he enjoys managing — he enjoys talking to people about hockey.”

Continued; this isn’t to say that Steve Yzerman is any less personable than Holland, either. He’s just a quiet human being.

The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan noted the the Red Wings’ last three wins have involved a significant number of contributions from up and down the lineup, and Kulfan feels that the Red Wings’ second line in particular has shone of late:

A large key for the Wings will be the continued development of the Suter line. Suter, Zadina and Fabbri got off to sluggish starts before beginning to get on track, Suter scoring in Buffalo, then all three making an impact against Vegas.

Having a second consistently dangerous line along with the Larkin line would be a tremendous advantage.

“They’re a line that has offensive ability and created a lot of chances here (lately),” Blashill said. “They had some real chances (Tuesday). Suter has played excellent the last couple of games and so has Z and Fabs. They’re a line that can create a lot, and they’re starting to develop chemistry.

“We went through a stretch where the lines got mixed up a little bit (without Larkin, Bertuzzi in the lineup last week), and now we’re in a stretch where we’re hoping we can keep these lines together.  Four impactful lines in their own way.”

Continued (paywall)