Khan scouts Taro Hirose

MLive’s Ansar Khan issues a 2019-2020 season outlook for Taro Hirose this morning. Khan suggests that Hirose will crack the Red Wings’ crowded forward lineup while looking to improve upon a strong 10-game stint with the Wings in 2018-2019:

The Red Wings signed the free agent Hirose in March, after Michigan State finished its season, and he made an immediate impact with his playmaking ability and hockey sense. It gives him the inside track to earn a job in training camp over a group of other young forwards that includes former first-round picks Filip Zadina, Joe Veleno and Evgeny Svechnikov.

Hirose could start on the second line, with Andreas Athanasiou and either Frans Nielsen or Valtteri Filppula at center.

He planned on spending most of the off-season in metro Detroit, training and working on his game. He is focused on better puck management – he committed too many turnovers in the last few games – and being shiftier on the ice. He’s not going to outmuscle anyone at his size, so he needs be quick with his first couple of steps to gain separation.

Continued

A timely reminder about the Jamie Daniels Foundation’s Celebrity Roast of Mickey Redmond

Crain’s Detroit Business posted the summary of a radio program called, “Caring For Kids” (hold on, I have a point here), and Ken Daniels and Lisa Daniels-Goldman were two of the participants in the program. This part is important in terms of a) where the Jamie Daniels Foundation is going and b) the Celebrity Roast of Mickey Redmond, which takes place this upcoming Saturday at the MotorCity Casino:

Burns: Where do you want the foundation to be in two years?

Daniels: Digging a hole in the ground where we’ll build the recovery center.

Jamie was in a safe place until he was patient brokered and wound up in a place that wasn’t safe. Our goal is to build—with the help of Michigan State Housing Development, our foundation and some great people—a long-term, safe sober living place. It’s a place that’s going to have job placement and all meetings on site. Addicts need direction every day. That’s my vision: to build a recovery home so others don’t have to go through what Jamie went through.

Burns: Tell us about the inaugural Jamie Daniels Foundation Celebrity Roast.

Daniels-Goldman: We’re roasting Mickey Redmond. He obviously has very strong shoulders, but I’m not sure if he knows what he’s in for.

Along with the roast we have an online silent auction that you can register for and start bidding on now. The roast is on Saturday, September 7 at Motor City Casino Soundboard. It includes a live auction too.

Visit Jamiedanielsfoundation.org for tickets and to register for the silent auction.

Fundraising update

I’ve got some good news and some bad news…

The good news is that the Bluehost and Jetpack bills came in way under what they usually are, so the total was closer to $400 than $700.

The bad news is that I’ve got $400 in my Paypal account, and between the drive up and the fact that I’ll be paying for half of the hotel bill (between $800 and $900) when I arrive, things are shaky there.

I understand that there may be some fundraising fatigue, but if you can lend a hand at https://paypal.me/TheMalikReport, I would be tremendously grateful.

The small amounts help get me up the road just as much as the big ones do, and right now I need your help to get up to TC and file my reports.

Thanks for your time and your readership.

THN’s Larkin talks Osgood in the Hall and exclusivity

The Hockey News’s Matt Larkin answers a reader question regarding the Hockey Hall of Fame candidacies of Curtis Joseph, Chris Osgood and Daniel Alfredsson in part with a staid answer regarding Osgood’s case for the Hall of Fame…

Osgood has the weakest case of the three. He was a dependable caretaker goaltender on a collection of powerhouse Detroit Red Wing teams that were peppered with Hall of Famers. He didn’t receive a single Vezina vote in 13 of his 17 seasons. It’s fair to call him underrated, as he posted some outstanding numbers during his best years with Detroit, but it was also the equivalent of piling up home runs during the steroid era. Many goalies had ridiculous numbers during the Dead Puck years, so Osgood’s stats stand out less when you juxtapose them with those of his peers. He was a good goalie but, even at his best, he was closer to top-10 in the league than top-five.

(For better or worse, Osgood won 3 Stanley Cups, too)

And I honestly disagree far more vehemently with Larkin regarding this point than I do regarding his take on Osgood’s career:

If I had my way, I’m not sure I’d put any of these guys in the Hall. I think the Hockey Hall of Fame is too lenient and should be reserved for players who were considered among the most dominant at their positions for half a decade or more. That’s why I prefer seeing a shooting-star career like Eric Lindros’ earn Hall recognition than someone who was merely “quite good for a long time.”

I’m fine with the Hockey Hall of Fame being for both “shooting stars” and players who were “really good for a long time.” As far as I’m concerned, the company is too exclusive for its own good, and the Selection Committee has, in my opinion, done a shitty job of honoring international pioneers, women players who were stalwarts at their position but didn’t win awards over extended careers.

The Hockey Hall of Fame is supposed to be a Hall of fame, and it’s too often an exclusive wing thereof. I’d love to see more players added, not fewer players.

Calumet Colosseum’s Kraft Hockeyville win means more than hosting an NHL preseason game

UPMatters.com’s Peter Curi spoke with the spokesman for the Calumet Colosseum, which won this year’s Kraft Hockeyville USA competition.

The small arena in the Keweenaw Peninsula earned a $150,000 prize from Kraft, affording the rink extensive renovations. The rink will also host an exhibition game between the Red Wings and St. Louis Blues on September 26th:

“Well short term, the community is going to get national coverage like the community has never seen before,” said John Carroll, Spokesman, Calumet Colosseum. “Long term winning an award like this, with the kind of improvements we’re making here in the building, in the future when teams come up here from downstate to play us, they’re going to enjoy the benefits of all of the work we have put into the building,” said Carroll. “The new ice plants, sound system, heaters, and everything that goes along with that. It’ll be an incredible facility.”

The prize money will not cover all the Colosseum’s expenses. So they need your help.

“We’re making a lot of improvements to the building and it’s more than a hundred and fifty thousand dollars ($150,000), it’s more than what we won from Kraft, and that’s why we’re doing the fundraising, that’s why we have the merchandise and that’s why we’re selling the raffle tickets and the prize is a fifteen-thousand dollar ($15,000) gift certificate for John Deere products and the winner can pick up whatever they want. But all the money that we raise from the merchandise, all the money we raise from the raffle tickets, all of that goes right back to the Colosseum,” said Carroll.

Continued; here’s UPMatters.com’s video report:

Continue reading Calumet Colosseum’s Kraft Hockeyville win means more than hosting an NHL preseason game

Wakiji recaps Red Wings night at Comerica Park

DetroitRedWings.com’s Dana Wakiji recaps Red Wings Night at last night’s Detroit Tigers game, and she notes that Dylan Larkin is not unaware of the “perks of the job”:

Wings alternate captain and Michigan native Dylan Larkin was there to throw out the first pitch before the Tigers took on the Central Division-leading Minnesota Twins.

Before that, Larkin had the chance to meet Tigers manager Ron Gardenhire, the former Twins manager, in his office.

Even though it was his second time doing so, it was still a special thing for Larkin to be able to take the mound at a place he visited as a kid.

“For myself to be out there and throwing a pitch at Comerica Park before an MLB game is pretty surreal,” Larkin said. “It’s just another cool perk of being here and playing in Detroit. The sports teams, we’re all united and we have a great sense of unity and pride of representing our city and it’s just cool for myself and my family to come out here and enjoy this.”

Continued, and here”s Larkin’s first pitch:

Three things: On prospect tournament rosters, Magnus Paajarvi and Kraft Hockeyville done well

Of various levels of Red Wings-related note this evening:

  1. Six of the eight teams taking part in next week’s prospect tournament have already released their rosters for the tournament, and, as usual, The Left Wing Lock’s Sarah Lindenau is on top of the latest developments and top prospects representing each team. She’s posted rosters for the New York Rangers, Chicago Blackhawks, Minnesota Wild, St. Louis Blues, Columbus Blue Jackets and Toronto Maple Leafs. The Dallas Stars also released their prospect tournament roster today.

2. This one comes via a Twitter heads-up from Winging It in Motown’s Kyle McIlmurray, and then Expressen’s Johan Svensson, a.k.a. Mr. Madhawk: Henrik Zetterberg’s former agent, Gunnar Svensson, is also the father of Magnus Paajarvi-Svensson, and Gunnar Tweeted this today:

Translated into English, that’s, “My son Magnus has received some invitations from the Red Wings. Will these become concrete?”

Long Mr. Madhawk story short, Paajarvi is a 28-year-old free agent who was picked 10th overall in 2009 by the Edmonton Oilers. He’s played for the Oilers, Blues and Senators (last season), but he’s never panned out as a scorer at the NHL level, posting a career-high 34 points in 2010-2011.

He’s skating with the SHL’s Malmo Redhawks presently, and after posting 19 points in the NHL last season, he might earn a pro try-out with some team looking for a little depth. Whether that’s the Red Wings remains to be seen.

3. Finally, in tangentially-Red Wings-related news, Marquette’s TV 6 reports that every full-time figure skater and hockey player who participated in the Calumet Coliseum’s youth programs will get tickets to the Red Wings-St. Louis Blues preseason game scheduled for September 26th at the Kraft Hockeyville USA-winning Calumet Colosseum.

It’s good to know that the extremely limited tickets to the tiny venue’s preseason game are going to the right people.

Via A2Y: Streaming?

Paul Kukla of Abel to Yzerman noted this Tweet from Ken Kal earlier today, and it’s encouraging given that the Red Wings have been streaming prospect tournament games over the last couple of seasons:

Fundraising continues

I’ve raised approximately $600 toward server fees and the cost of the hotel stay for Traverse City, which is fantastic, but having no savings due to mom’s illness + paying for dry cleaning, the oil change and the server = the server fees have pretty much wiped me out.

I need your help to get me up to Traverse City, so I’m asking that you please lend a hand if you are able. I’ll take anything from a couple-hundred-dollar donation down to a couple of bucks as it all paves the road to Traverse City, where I’ll be heading for two full weeks to cover the Red Wings’ prospect tournament and main training camp.

The hotel costs about $1,800, and add gas and groceries and I’m looking to raise over $2,000 for the trip.

I’m working with Paypal at https://paypal.me/TheMalikReport to raise funds, but I’ll happily add services if necessary to facilitate making your part of the equation easier. Email me at rtxg@yahoo.com if you want to send a check or send $ through an alternate source.

Thank you for your readership, your time and your support. We’ve got about a week to raise at least half the hotel $, and I believe that we can do it!