The Malik Report

There are hundreds and hundreds of readers of this little blog, and hundreds and hundreds of you probably disagree with something that I say on a daily basis.

We’ve had our disagreements throughout the course of this blog, and I have yet to receive a note from a reader–or, specifically speaking, readers who help financially support the blog–that has asked me to only write things they agree with, or to steer clear of topics where they know that we might have dissent.

Instead, I receive the occasional, “And sometimes I disagree with your opinion, but I respect our differences” or even an, “Sometimes you drive me crazy, but I support the blog.”

That’s normal and healthy. I didn’t start this blog–or restart it multiple times–to simply write what I knew my readers were going to agree with.

And as we start a new NHL season with some new controversies, be they Dylan Larkin’s injury, Tyler Bertuzzi’s vaccination status, or Filip Zadina’s “midget” remark, I’m not going to tailor my observations toward what I estimate to be the most popular response.

That’s not how blogs work, and, specifically speaking, that’s not how this blog works. There aren’t any commercials on this blog, and you’re free to enjoy it (and maybe sometimes be infuriated by it) without any paywalls or ads. I want to continue on that path for as long as I possibly can, because that’s exactly the kind of place on the internet I believe is lacking in the hockey world.

But a place without any disagreement is no fun. A place without disagreement isn’t realistic. And when it comes to a subjectively-viewed game and the analysis thereof, in terms of both on-ice and off-ice issues, we’re simply not going to agree all the time, especially when the off-ice issues surround differences of opinion that we’re both passionate about.

I’m not asking you to agree with me. And, hell, I’m not asking you to give me the respect that providing a product mostly for free should merit. I’m asking you to understand that I’m going to continue to have my opinions, and that I’m going to “go there” when the easier route is to just shut up and report the news without any analysis.

That’s not the Malik Report (and we don’t capitalize the “The” here). If you don’t enjoy occasionally reading things that you’re going to disagree with, dear Gord, man, there are hundreds of Wings blogs out there. Disagree politely, or go find another blog that bends like a pretzel to avoid discussing any sort of controversial topic in a caring manner.

In the interim, I value your readership, your time, your opinions and your health, and I hope you have a wonderful Sunday, and that you survive and thrive in the work week ahead.

Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff discusses the Red Wings’ status as being far below the salary cap’s upper limit this season, noting that a rebuilding team is less likely to bump up to what is currently a flat cap in the NHL:

“I certainly would say that cap space has a definite value in the game today,” [coach Jeff] Blashill said. “Obviously, you’ve seen it used for trades and things like that. But it also has value where you don’t want to be in the position where you have to make roster decisions based on our cap.”

According to Puckpedia.com, the Red Wings have $12,464,443 in available cap space. Only two teams – the Columbus Blue Jackets and Buffalo Sabres – show more.

“And that means we don’t necessarily need to keep somebody up based on our cap like some teams do at times,” Blashill explained. “We certainly never need to play short like some teams have been forced to do and maybe sign players that we wouldn’t sign otherwise.

“I think there’s definitely an advantage to having cap flexibility. I think it’s been an interesting observation over the last five years or so, how important cap space has become to some teams, how valuable it has been at times.”

NHL salary numbers show 15 teams, including the Maple Leafs, with no cap space whatsoever. Another four teams show less than $1 million in available space. The Avalanche are among this latter group. There are also eight NHL clubs operating with less than a full 23-player contingent due to cap constraints.

Continued

The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan filed his off-day notebook this afternoon, noting that the Red Wings’ players and coach feel that the team is responding well to the threats posed by the nasty hits that have plagued the first two games of the regular season:

“You’ve seen it pretty early that we’re pretty tight in the room,” defenseman Marc Staal said. “You do something to one of us, it affects all of us and we’re all going to jump in and stick up for each other.”

In the third period of Saturday’s 3-1 victory over the Vancouver Canucks, Zadina was hit hard by Conor Garland, leaving Zadina face down on the ice. The Wings quickly rushed in, and for the remainder of the game, made life miserable on several shifts for Garland. Scrums against other Canucks developed.

“It was good to see (Saturday),” Staal said “We’ll continue to play that way.”

The tight team feeling is one of the best things coach Jeff Blashill has seen through preseason and early season play. Blashill believes the camaraderie will benefit the Wings in the long term.

“When you really care about each other and see something happen to one of your teammates, you get over emotional,” Blashill said. “I’d rather have that than have guys that don’t like each other. We got a whole bunch of guys that care about each other.”

Continued (paywall)

Of prospect-related note in Europe on Sunday:

In the Swedish Allsvenskan, Gustav Berglund finished at -2 with 2 shots, and Albin Grewe finished at -3 with 1 shot in Mora IK’s 5-4 loss to Tingsryds IF.

Well, via Abel to Yzerman, we’re yet again digging into Tyler Bertuzzi’s controversial decision to be one of four NHL players to not be vaccinated against COVID-19. According to the Vancouver Province’s Patrick Johnston, it’s an uncomfortable process for Bertuzzi, and a costly process for the Red Wings and the NHLPA:

The NHL’s COVID-19 protocol this season, agreed to by the players’ association, places a heavy burden on unvaccinated players.

But the vaccinated part of the team also has to deal with those burdens. Things like potential masking in dressing rooms if they aren’t able to maintain six-feet distancing from the unvaccinated player.

Social distancing measures being put in place on planes and busses. It’s surely annoying for the vaccinated players to have to deal with these extra bits.

The unvaccinated player themselves can’t leave the team hotel on the road. They have to take a PCR test every day. Costs borne by the team to deal with the unvaccinated player are counted 50 per cent against the players’ share of revenues.

The rules were designed to make things uncomfortable for unvaccinated players … but somehow four guys are still shrugging their shoulders and the teams are somehow going along with it.

If Tyler Bertuzzi and Mackenzie Blackwood weren’t so important to their teams, it seems likely they’d have been handled like Zac Rinaldo. Or even like Travis Hamonic.

Continued; I’m a little tired of controversy after a couple weeks’ worth of covering Bertuzzi, the Larkin suspension, and now Zadina’s “short” choice of words.

But until your sneeze stops at your nose, and your cough stops at your mouth, vaccination is a “personal decision” that affects others, and hockey players are spitting, bleeding, sweating, hydrating, working out etc. in close proximity.

Obviously, Bertuzzi’s immense popularity in the locker room, combined with his utter importance to the team, mean that he’s being well-tolerated, and the truth of the matter is of course that there are people from all belief systems who play hockey, so we all have to deal with each other…

But I come from a family of people who have immune issues, so I can’t help but feel that selfish is as selfish does. And if Bertuzzi–who is a member of the Red Wings’ family, on and off the ice, to the fan base as well as his teammates–is made uncomfortable by being swabbed every day and made to deal with extra protocols, so be it.

NHL.com’s fantasy hockey staff posted a list of players for fantasy hockey poolies to pick up off the waiver wire today, and two of their picks happen to be Red Wings players who’ve had excellent 2021-2022 season starts:

Tyler Bertuzzi, LW/RW, DET: The Detroit Red Wings forward scored four goals, one on the power play, in their season-opening loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning. Bertuzzi had an assist in their win against the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday, giving him five points and six SOG in two games. He is skating on their top line with valuable center Dylan Larkin and is worth adding in most leagues, especially those counting hits (three) and blocks (three).

…

Moritz Seider, DET: The Red Wings rookie defenseman has scored points in each of his first two games, totaling three assists, one on the power play, and is covering categories with one block, one SOG and three hits. Seider is averaging 21:38 of ice time and is skating on an underrated defense pairing with veteran Nick Leddy. He could get an even larger fantasy boost if he sees time on their top power play, but Seider is worth adding in deeper leagues and monitoring in all formats.

Continued; the Red Wings play four times this upcoming week, on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, so their 4-games-in-6-nights slate should afford many opportunities to employ both players (though next Saturday’s game is in Canada).

The Grand Rapids Griffins’ media team posted their in-arena video paying tribute to their captain, defenseman Brian Lashoff, who played in his 500th AHL game on Friday night:

Lashoff is a tremendously professional captain for the Griffins, and GrandRapidsGriffins.com’s Mark Newman posted a tremendous profile of the 31-year-old on Friday:

Continue reading Griffins post in-arena tribute video to Brian Lashoff hitting 500-game mark, plus a fine Lashoff interview

Red Wings prospect Simon Edvinsson spoke with Hockeysverige.se’s Leo Buttafuoco Ohlsson this morning regarding scoring his first SHL goal in yesterday’s 4-1 Frolunda win over Linkopings HC yesterday. What follows is roughly translated from Swedish:

The Great talent pays tribute to his teammate after his first goal: “He’s sick”

Until yesterday, Simon Edvinsson hadn’t scored his first SHL goal. When Frolunda played Linkoping, the great talent was able to find the back of the net.

“He took me after practice and said, ‘Now you can do this to set up the goal,'” says Simon Edvinsson about his mentor, Christian Folin.

Simon Edvinsson made his debut in the SHL last season, but, after 10 games with Frolunda’s men’s team, he was loaned to Vasteras of the Swedish Allsvenskan. In the Allsvenskan, he came in and made an impression immediately, and was noted for scoring a goal in the playoffs.

In the SHL, on the other hand, there had been no goal scored, and he had that in mind since the start of the season. When Frolunda defeated Linkopings HC at Saab Aren, the long-awaited goal finally came. “It was really nice, actually. I have had some opportunities to score goals, so it was crazy good to put it in there,” he says to Hockeysverige.se.

Continue reading Roughly translated: Simon Edvinsson talks about his first SHL goal with Hockeysverige.se

There’s no doubt that the Red Wings’ 3-1 victory over the Vancouver Canucks pivoted upon this moment during last night’s game:

After Conor Garland inadvertently hit Filip Zadina in the face with his back/elbow while trying to protect himself, the Red Wings took issue with the Canucks’ liberties taken with the Red Wings’ players. As Helene St. James and Ansar Khan told us this morning, the Wings were quite happy with their borderline uncontrolled but emotional response to the Canucks’ physical play.

We also know that at least somebody on Sportsnet took issue with the fact that Zadina called Garland a “midget” after the game, suggesting that the NHL might want to get involved in some supplementary discipline. This morning, Sportsnet’s Vancouver correspondent, Iain MacIntyre, suggests that the Red Wings’ play after the Garland hit was plain stupid:

Continue reading Regarding calling out the Red Wings’ for ‘cuckoo’ play

The Detroit Red Wings’ 3-1 victory over the Vancouver Canucks had a decidedly scrappy tone, with the teams engaging in a significant number of post-whistle scrums and other extracurricular activities.

This morning, the Free Press’s Helene St. James discusses the Wings’ willingness to play mean and nasty hockey in order to earn victories…

The Detroit Red Wings’ first two games of the season have been marked by scrums and battles, an aspect they see as crucial to sending a message to foes that they will pay for taking cheap shots.

“We care about each other,” alternate captain Marc Staal said. “It’s reactionary — when you see one of your teammates get hurt, we are going to stick up for each other. We’re going to compete hard and if it gets chippy and scrummy, that’s just the way it’s going to be, if teams are got to liberties with us like that.

“You’re seeing pretty early that we’re pretty tight in the room. You do something to one of us and it affects all of us and we’re all going to jump and stick up for each other. We’ll continue to play that way. You’re going to win more times than not if you get that kind of intensity.”

And MLive’s Ansar Khan also wrote a similar column this morning, noting coach Jeff Blashill’s take on his team’s surprisingly scrappy behavior:

“There’s always a balance between looking after each other and keeping your emotional control,” Blashill said. “We were certainly teetering on the edge there for a little bit. I understand why. When you see your teammate get hit in the head like that, it’s a pretty natural response. We got to care about each other, and we got to find ways to make sure we’re sticking up for each other. You got to do that within the context of winning the hockey game. When I had conversations with guys on the bench saying, ‘Listen, we got to concentrate on winning the game,’ they were good about it, and I thought we did a better job as that period went along to make sure we did that.”

Zadina, whose power-play goal at 6:42 of the second period snapped a 1-1 tie and proved to be the game-winner on a night when Thomas Greiss turned in a stellar 40-saves performance, was helped off the ice and taken to the dressing room but returned to finish the game.

“When you really care about each other and you see something happen to one of your teammates you get even at times over-emotional,” Blashill said. “I’d rather have that than have guys that don’t like each other. We got a whole bunch of guys that care about each other. We want to be a unit that comes every single day and fights together and wins together. I mean fighting to find ways to win hockey games. I think we’ve done a good job over two games so far in terms of competitiveness.”