The Detroit Red Wings host the Chicago Blackhawks this evening (7:30 PM EDT on Bally Sports Detroit/NBC Sports Chicago), with the Red Wings looking to rebound from yesterday’s ugly loss to Pittsburgh as they entertain the plucky Blackhawks.

The Red Wings must not have held a morning skate today, because the Blackhawks’ press corps Tweeted out the following at 11 AM EDT:

Third week of Blackhawks training camp beginning on this gloomy Monday pic.twitter.com/KEVKcoQV2r— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) October 4, 2021

As a follow-up to this morning’s story regarding Jesper Eliasson needing a place to play, Farjestads BK has loaned Eliasson to Almtuna IS of the Swedish Allsvenskan:

Jesper Eliasson lånas ut till @Almtuna_1932 i HockeyAllsvenskan.
Vi önskar Jesper stort lycka till! #fbkse pic.twitter.com/45tTI4tdnC— Färjestad BK (@farjestad_bk) October 4, 2021

Detroit Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill spoke with the media ahead of tonight’s game against the Chicago Blackhawks (7:30 PM EDT on Bally Sports Detroit/NBC Sports Chicago):

This is an…intriguing take:

Here’s Jeff Blashill on Bertuzzi and why he hasn’t yet played this preseason: pic.twitter.com/3qMDv398fv— Max Bultman (@m_bultman) October 4, 2021

Expressen’s southern Sweden affiliate, Kvallsposten, is reporting that Frans Nielsen may be close to signing with the DEL’s Eisbaren Berlin.

Johan “Mr. Madhawk” Svensson reports that the former Red Wing, now 37, is, per Nielsen’s agent, Morten Green, being pursued by Swedish, Swiss and German teams right now, with the Swedish team of note being the Malmo Redhawks, who are close to where Nielsen and his pregnant wife live in the offseason.

According to Hockeysverige.se’s Rasmus Kagstrom, Red Wings goaltending prospect Jesper Eliasson may be on the move again.

Farjestads BK apparently just signed goaltender Dominik Furch to be their back-up behind Henrik Haukeland, and so Farejstads BK’s GM, Peter Jakobsson, told Varmlands Folkblad that he may loan Eliasson out to another team to give him some playing time.

Of prospect-related note in North America on Sunday:

In the OHL, Pasquale Zito got 5 minutes and a game misconduct for fighting early on (only 9:02 into the 1st period) in the Windsor Spitfires’ 6-2 loss to Oshawa;

In the WHL, Alex Cotton’s Lethbridge Hurricanes won 4-1 over the Calgary Hitmen;

In NCAA Hockey, Red Savage finished at -1 with a shot and a penalty taken, as well as a 9-for-17 faceoff record, in the Miami of Ohio Redhawks’ 4-3 loss to Ferris State;

And Ryan O’Reilly didn’t play in the Arizona State University Sun Devils’ 4-2 loss to UMass-Lowell.

Red Wings prospect and 2021 draft pick Sebastian Cossa split his first two games for the Edmonton Oil Kings this season, and he spoke with the Edmonton Sun’s Derek Van Diest regarding both his experiences at the Red Wings’ prospect tournament and main training camp, as well as his expectations for the upcoming season with the WHL’s Edmonton Oil Kings:

“It was really good; just being around there for two weeks, being around pros for that long, I think I took away a lot things coming into the season,” Cossa said. “Just practice habits and off-ice habits I kind of took away. Just coming here, I’m prepared to use that for the whole season and keep my body feeling better and try to have a good year.”

Cossa is expected to play the bulk of the games for the Oil Kings until they lose him to the world juniors. From there, head coach Brad Lauer might manage his minutes in preparation for an expected lengthy playoff run.

“We’re likely going to lose him for 12 games for the world juniors and right now, the way our schedule is set up, you can run with a guy for a while,” Lauer said. “There is a little bit of travel and not a lot of games, so it gives us the opportunity to run with him a little bit, but we’ll see. Everything changes day by day. We do have a start plan for him that we may stick to and we may change too, as well. But we’ll probably run with it for a little while.”

The Oil Kings travel to face the Lethbridge Hurricanes on Wednesday, Swift Current Broncos on Friday and Medicine Hat Tigers on Saturday.

Cossa is comfortable with a heavy workload, particularly after playing 19 of 23 games last season. The Oil Kings gave him practically every start so NHL scouts could get a good gauge on him.

“Last year, it was a big thing for me to be consistent and coming in this year, I want to have the same attitude,” Cossa said. “I’m just taking it day by day, game by game. Every two points is really important, so I just want to come in here every night, and just worrying about the new night regardless of how I played the game before. That’s going to help a lot.”

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The Athletic’s Max Bultman posted a set of roster projections for the Red Wings coming out of the exhibition season–given their 3-and-1 record after 4 preseason games played–and here’s what he has to say about one Lucas Raymond:

[Dylan] Larkin made specific note of Raymond’s seam passes on the power play, saying, “A couple times I was waiting for them and he didn’t, and then, sure enough, right when I was open the most, he hit me.”

So while the caveats about the level of competition apply, the impression Raymond has made through two games has still been real.

Whether it leads to a roster spot is yet to be decided. Clearly, he’s not in the projection above, and that has everything to do with our recent look at where things stood. I have a hard time going away from that kind of evidence when making these projections.

But if Raymond continues to take strides in these preseason games, he’ll make it hard on the Red Wings not to keep him.

“He’s got confidence; he’s got a swagger to his game,” Larkin said. “He’s smart. He’s a smart, headsy hockey player. He waits and waits, and then it’s right on your tape. He’s going to be a special player, I think. And I think he’s got a great attitude about the game. He loves hockey, he loves making plays like that, and I think his game is very responsible where he’s going to earn the trust of any coach he plays for.”

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As the Free Press’s Helene St. James notes this evening, new Red Wings goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic hasn’t been lights-out great–or even very good–over the course of 2 preseason games, but Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill is not worried about Nedeljkovic’s ups and downs:

Nedeljkovic, brought in via trade in the offseason, has allowed six goals on 42 shots through 67:07 of ice time. On Sunday, Jeff Carter and Danton Heinen fired shots that went in off Nedeljkovic, and Kris Letang came out of the penalty box, up the middle, and ripped a shot for a goal.

“I like Ned, I think he’s going to be real good for us,” coach Jeff Blashill said. “He works his tail off, he pays attention to detail in practice. I think he had some squeak through him that he’d like to have back, but this is what preseason is for. I certainly don’t pass a whole lot of judgment on anybody in this short a period of time. He’s played two halves. I’m fully confident he’s going to give us really good goaltending through the season.”

Nedeljkovic was a finalist for the Calder Trophy (given to the league’s top rookie) last season; he posted a 1.90 goals-against average and .932 save percentage in 23 games with the Carolina Hurricanes last season. He signed a two-year, $6 million contract with the Wings immediately after the trade.

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