The Detroit Red Wings and Buffalo Sabres held their morning skates today without Dylan Larkin, who remains absent due to a personal reason. Coach Jeff Blashill addressed Larkin’s absence ahead of tonight’s game vs. Buffalo (7 PM EDT on Bally Sports Detroit/MSG-B/97.1 FM), and MLive’s Ansar Khan addressed Larkin’s absence as well in his pre-game notebook…

“Dylan’s an engine for us. Tyler’s an engine. They’re two of our best players,” coach Jeff Blashill said after the morning skate. “But the degree to which you miss guys always depends on the degree to which the guys who are in those spots, how good they play. If we get an effort tonight where the 12 forwards that are dressed are playing their ‘A’ game, I think you don’t feel the loss nearly as much. I think if we get an effort tonight where the 12 forwards are playing their ‘C’ game, you’re going to wish maybe that you have Dylan in the lineup. That’s the reality. We’re going to have 20 dressed good enough to win.”

Blashill has not disclosed the nature of Larkin’s absence but said he remains on the active 23-man roster.

Pius Suter (one goal, one assist in 11 games) is expected to center the top line with Bertuzzi (six goals, nine points) and Lucas Raymond (five goals, 10 points).

The Red Wings have scored only one goal in the past two games and have registered just 26 shots on goal over the past five periods. Blashill said they passed up too many shooting opportunities in Thursday’s 5-1 loss at Boston.

As did the Free Press’s Helene St. James…

Continue reading Pre-game notebooks: Larkin-less Wings need to find their ‘A Game’ →

The Red Wings and Sabres held morning skates ahead of tonight’s game (7 PM EDT on Bally Sports Detroit/MSG-B/97.1 FM). Buffalo’s starting goalies are in flux, with Craig Anderson absent (Dustin Tokarski or Aaron Dell will start), and Dylan Larkin is still not with the team.

After the Wings’ optional skate, coach Jeff Blashill spoke with the media:

Also: ugh:

Stupid Stat of the Day: All-time the Red Wings have a .231 winning percentage in the fourth game of a four-game road trip after having lost the first three games of the trip. pic.twitter.com/mL7H3ExYRK— DetroitHockey.Net (@detroithockey96) November 6, 2021

The Detroit Red Wings hope to snap a 4-game winless streak (0-3-and-1) against the Buffalo Sabres this evening (7 PM EDT start on Bally Sports Detroit/MSG-B/97.1 FM), but the Sabres have a very good record against the Wings of late.

Buffalo took to the ice for its morning skate at the KeyBank Center having recalled goaltender Aaron Dell from the Rochester Americans, which probably means that Dustin Tokarski will start vs. the Wings, per NHL.com’s Heather Graham:

Sabres’ morning skate in session. No Olofsson or Craig Anderson. Goalies on the ice are Dustin Tokarski and Aaron Dell, who was called up from Rochester this morning. pic.twitter.com/vgcBag6teq— Heather Engel (@engelheather) November 6, 2021

The Buffalo News’s Lance Lysowski checked in…

Continue reading Red Wings-Sabres morning skate Tweets and articles: Sabres call up Aaron Dell; Larkin still absent →

The Red Wings will be releasing episode 4 of “The Winged Wheel” on Monday:

Last night, I posted a fairly good Red Wings-Sabres preview ahead of tonight’s game between the two Atlantic Division rivals in Buffalo (7 PM EDT on Bally Sports Detroit/MSG-B/97.1 FM). This morning, BuffaloSabres.com’s Chris Ryndak offers a set of stats regarding tonight’s game which remind us that each and every one of the Wings’ 11 games to be played over the course of 17 nights are “trap games”:

This is the first of four meetings between the Sabres and Red Wings this season.

Last meeting: Buffalo defeated Detroit 3-2 in Buffalo on Feb. 11, 2020.

Next meeting: Saturday, Nov. 27, 2021 in Detroit.

The Sabres are 7-1-2 in their last 10 games against the Red Wings; 4-3-3 at home.

This is the 146th game all-time between Buffalo and Detroit; Buffalo has a 66-59-20 series record.

The Sabres are 39-20-12 at home against the Red Wings all-time. 

Ryndak continues, offering more game preview details and the particulars of tonight’s tribute to Val James, the first African American player to play in the NHL.

After tonight’s game, the Red Wings, who are 0-3-and-1 in their past 4 games, will head home to meet the Vegas Golden Knights on Sunday evening (6 PM EST on Bally Sports Detroit/ATT Sportsnet Rocky Mountain/97.1 FM). 5-5-and-0 Vegas will spend their Saturday night in Montreal, facing the 3-and-9 Canadiens.

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

In the ECHL, Kaden Fulcher served as the back-up as the Toledo Walleye won a 6-4 decision over the Kalamazoo K-Wings on Friday in Kalmazoo. The Toledo Blade’s Mark Monroe reports that the Walleye will play their first home game in 615 days on Saturday;

In the QMJHL, Jan Bednar stopped 24 of 26 shots in the Acadie-Bathurst Titan’s 3-1 loss to Halifax, which scored its 3rd goal into an empty net;

Oscar Plandowski finished at -1 with 2 shots in the Charlottetown Islanders’ 3-2 loss to Sherbrooke;

In the WHL, Somewhat shockingly, Sebastian Cossa had an off night, giving up 6 goals on 25 shots in the Edmonton Oil Kings’ 6-5 loss to Red Deer;

Cross Hanas had 3 assists, finishing at +3 with 2 shots in the Portland Winterhawks’ 5-4 shootout win over Kelowna. Hanas was named the game’s second star;

And Alex Cotton didn’t play in the Vancouver Giants’ 3-1 win over Prince George;

In the BCHL, Kienan Draper finished even in the Chilliwack Chiefs’ 5-0 win over Powell River;

And in NCAA Hockey, Carter Gylander stopped 15 of 18 shots in the Colgate Raiders’ 3-2 loss to Dartmouth;

Kyle Aucoin finished even with 2 shots in the Harvard Crimson’s 3-2 win over Cornell;

Chase Bradley had an assist, finishing at +1 with 1 shot in the University of Connecticut Huskies’ 4-3 win over Maine;

Red Savage finished even in the Miami of Ohio Redhawks’ 4-3 win over the University of Nebraska-Omaha;

Sam Stange finished even with 2 shots and a 2-for-3 faceoff record in the University of Wisconsin Badgers’ 4-3 win over Minnesota;

Robert Mastrosimone scored 2 goals, finishing at -1 with 4 shots, and Ethan Phillips finished even with 1 shot in the Boston University Terriers’ 5-3 loss to Northern Michigan University:

Jack Adams scored his first goal of the season, finishing at +1 with 1 shot in the University of Notre Dame Fighting Irish’s 4-1 win over Holy Cross:

And Cooper Moore finished at +1 in the University of North Dakota Fighting Hawks’ 3-1 win over the University of Denver.

For Denver: Antti Tuomisto finished even with 1 shot;

Shai Buium finished at -1 with 2 shots;

And Carter Mazur finished at -1 with 3 shots.

The Grand Rapids Griffins had a good night on Friday, earning their first road win over the course of a 6-5 overtime win over the Iowa Wild.

Taro Hirose had a goal and two assists; Riley Barber, Turner Elson and Hayden Verbeek all had a goal and an assist; Jonatan Berggren had the OT winner, and Calvin Pickard stopped 28 shots in the win.

Here’s the Griffins website’s recap:

Continue reading Recap: Griffins win 6-5 in overtime over Iowa →

The Detroit Red Wings continue their stretch of 11 games to be played over the course of 17 nights with Saturday’s game against the Buffalo Sabres (7 PM EDT on Bally Sports Detroit/MSG-B/97.1 FM).

The Wings are also amidst a set of 3 games to be played over the course of 4 nights; they’ll be returning to Detroit on Sunday to host the Vegas Golden Knights as well.

The 4-5-and-2 Red Wings have lost 4 straight games (0-3-and-1), and are coming off a 5-1 loss to Boston on Thursday; Buffalo stands at 4-5-and-1 after dropping a 5-2 decision to the Seattle Kraken on Thursday, and Buffalo flew back across the country on Friday after losing 3 of their 4 West Coast road games.

Most of the focus in Buffalo involved Thursday morning’s Jack Eichel trade with Vegas, and its ramifications for the Sabres, but Buffalo is 1-and-3 over its past four games, and they’ll be looking to turn things around as well.

Field Level Media sets up Saturday’s game, from the Sabres’ side of the ice, as follows:

Continue reading Red Wings-Sabres set-up: Buffalo hopes to regroup vs. desperate Wings →

Per the WHL:

The Vancouver Giants have acquired Detroit Red Wings prospect, defenceman Alex Cotton from the Lethbridge Hurricanes. In exchange, the Hurricanes receive sending the WHL rights to 2005-born defenceman Hunter McInnes, as well as second, fifth and sixth-round selections in the 2022 WHL Prospects Draft, and a fourth round selection in the 2023 WHL Prospects Draft.

The trade was announced by both Clubs Friday afternoon.

“It’s always hard to trade key members of your team, especially someone like Alex who has been a big part of our organization for many years but being able to acquire a 16-year-old prospect and four additional draft picks made this a very enticing move for where we are at,” said Hurricanes general manager Peter Anholt.

“We want to thank Alex for all of his contributions over his time with the Hurricanes and wish him all the best in his future,” added Anholt.

Cotton, 20, was selected by the Hurricanes in the fifth round (99th overall) of the 2016 WHL Draft. The Red Wings prospect skated in 154 career regular season games with Lethbridge totaling 110 points (33G-77A) along with 100 penalty minutes. Cotton, who hails from Langley, B.C., led all WHL defencemen in scoring during the 2019-20 season with 20 goals and 67 points.

The Grand Rapids Griffins posted a video preview of tonight’s free-on-AHL.tv game vs. the Iowa Wild (8 PM EDT start):