BDS will Wing it in Motown from time to time

Just passing on a little bit of site news. I’ve been asked to join the team at Winging it in Motown for the upcoming season. I’ll be covering prospects, what else? Obviously if you read this blog you know that’s my favorite thing to write about. But I really only do rankings, just three times a season. It’s not enough to satisfy my nerdy prospect needs. I threw around some ideas for a weekly feature over here, so when the opportunity to join the WIM team and basically do the same thing arose, I jumped all over that.

WIM was one of the first Wings’ blogs I ever read, even before the WTF Holland days, so I’m really honored to get an opportunity to blog over there. They’re part of SB Nation, which is essential reading if you’re into sports at all because they’ve got over 215 blogs, not one covering a duplicate team. James Mirtle heads the hockey section, and I’ve long considered his From the Rink blog to be essential reading. Needless to say, I’m thrilled that I get to be a part of the best blogging community in the business.

But fear not, I’m not shutting down Babcock’s Death Stare or anything like that. In fact, this probably means I’ll be blogging more than ever, especially when you look at the archives on the left you’ll see that I disappeared the past two years while I was in school, but I’m not letting that happen this year. I actually have multiple readers now, so I’m determined not to disappoint.

My prospects feature will run every Friday over at WIM. I’ll link to a few of them from here, but most likely not every week. I intend to zero in on three or four prospects a week, whoever’s performing well, or maybe some who aren’t. The idea is to get people who might want to start following prospects, but don’t feel like wading through my six different versions of my 20-page rankings an opportunity to start following and really learn what these players can do and where they come from. I figure with 39 prospects, taking 3-4 a week over the course of a season probably won’t get too dry, right? But I’m always open to suggestions and feedback, quite honestly I’m sure I will change the format a few times. I’ll also handle the occasional Game Thread or Game Review over there, only a few for now. I still intend to do reviews over here as well, but as I get going with school I won’t have time to do one after every game like I did in the playoffs and pre-season, so some will be here, some will be there.

I’m joined by Michael from The Production Line and Drew from Nightmare on Helm Street. Michael will head up a weekly feature called By the Numbers that promises an uncomfortable amount of number crunching and Drew will post a daily Quick Hits feature, giving his take on the Red Wings press clippings of the day. And as always, Christy and Casey aka MrNorrisTrophy will head up the crew and keep the place looking classy.

Needless to say, if you don’t read Winging it in Motown.. you’d better start!

–

Oh.. I also wanted to talk business! The Wings close out the pre-season tomorrow against Farjestad at 1 PM. The game will be streamed on NHL.com, so be sure to check that out. All the other NHL teams in Europe have taken on club teams already. St. Louis beat Linkopings (SEL), Chicago beat one Swiss club (Davos, 9-2), but lost to another (Zurich, 2-1), and Florida lost to Tappara (SM-Liiga) in a shootout. But that’s okay. Nobody beats the Finns in shootouts.

Agent: Johan Ryno to AIK

Tap on the pads to Matte at Hockey in Swenglish for bringing this story to my attention.

It appears as though I was wrong in thinking Detroit could get Ryno to stay in Grand Rapids, because according to this Aftonbladet article, he’s basically already gone.

Here’s what my Firefox add-on made of the translation:

Lent from the Red Wings to AIK
Ryno returning to Sweden
Johan Ryno, 23, chose to be on loan from the Detroit Red Wings – again.

He continues season of AIK.

- “Johan knows that he is a way to go to the NHL,” said agent Peter Wallen.

AIK get a nice reinforcement for the continuation of the Allsvenskan.

Detroit’s Johan Ryno choose to be loaned to AIK .

- “He can play on Wednesday if he goes into the team,” says Peter Wallen.

Ryno belonged to Detroit in three years, but chose not to play a full season with Detroit or farms team Grand Rapids. He has requested to be loaned to Sweden and now has two seasons in succession belonged to AIK.

Matte tells me that the quote in bold means that he has a ways to go before he gets to the NHL, and not that he has a way to get to the NHL. But I’m sure a few Ryno-bashers will choose to ignore that.

The Ryno saga — is this the chilling end?

Ryno was a true Hakan find — drafted out of the third-tier Swedish league Division-1, a men’s league, opposed to the Swedish Junior league where most 18-year-old Swedes reside. Hakan has never been shy about dipping into it, because it’s not a well-scouted league. That’s where he found Jonathan Ericsson, and most recently, Jesper Samuelsson. Ryno moved to the second-tier Swedish Allsvenskan, the league he’s in now, and posted pretty good numbers his first year. This led to quite the bidding war in the SEL for his services, with Frolunda winning. Ryno saw almost no ice time there on a veteran lineup, no points in 14 games. He ended up being loaned to the Allsvenskan again and transferred to Timra before the season ended. He put up 11 points in 25 games in a league where it’s very hard for a young player to see the ice at all, let alone a raw player two year’s removed from third-tier.

This was enough, and Detroit signed him following the season. He came to camp extremely lanky, as probably one of the worst skaters I’ve ever seen. He led a surge of Detroit prospects into Grand Rapids, putting up 7 points in 12 games. This was a bunch more than anyone else — Ericsson ended up leading Detroit prospects with 34 points, no one was scoring like Ryno as the season started. He had some family issued rumored around his girlfriend, and he went back to Sweden. He rejoined Timra in the SEL, but his spot in the lineup had been filled so he was relegated to the fourth line.

For the second year under his contract, Detroit allowed him to stay in AIK, back in SWE-2 where he was promised more ice time and special teams time. He broke his leg in the fourth game of the season, missing about four months. He scored well when he came back, but missing those four months were just devastating for his development.

They said last season he’d be in Grand Rapids this season, but a few strange news articles suggested he might not. I was thinking the Wings would have a good idea of what he was doing, and they wouldn’t be playing him in all of these exhibition games if he was going back to Sweden. It looks right now like that’s not the case — I’d say his agent has a pretty good idea of where his client is going to play.

I hope it’s clear to Ryno he’s unlikely going to get another contract. If he really has these aspirations he needs to stay in Grand Rapids, and as Keith said in the comments the other day, go through the motions and buy into the system like everyone else. Detroit’s not going to keep wasting a contract on their reserve list on somebody who disobeys their wishes. Supposedly, they’re still really high on Ryno, but I don’t know if they’re high enough (ha!) to keep this guy around any longer.

Ryno looked like an entirely different player this pre-season than he did two years ago — I was really hoping he’d stick around. He has absurdly good hands and pretty good vision on the ice, and he’s an infinitely “cleaner” skater, much better suited to scoot around the ice with his long strides. He is a little more aggressive than he used to be, but he needs to get stronger and meaner. You get that more in North America than Sweden. I’m sure when this story gets out there, there will be a lot of “good riddance,” but I’m bummed because this is a legitimate prospect who has something in his game that people complain Detroit lacks in: size. Ryno’s Swedish endeavors have left him to be a laughingstock on a lot of internet message boards — he’s a baby, he’s a prima donna, he’s useless, etc., but I’ve come to realize a lot of people have never seen him play. I watch a Swedish stream from time to time and it’s really hard to find second-tier Swedish games. But I’ve seen him, and I’ll defend him — the Wings picked a good player. He’s not a prima donna, but he just doesn’t “get” it.

The Wings have had outstanding luck that the only real arsehole they’ve ever uncovered is Sean Avery. The roster right now is a collection of all kinds of talent — first round busts, late round gems, players who were once broken, players who have been given a second chance, etc., — all of whom accept their role, wait their turn, and buy into the system. They haven’t had any young player say “man, I’m definitely an NHL player, but I’m not getting my chance here.” Ryno does not understand that unless you’re a freak superstar, you need to pay your dues in Grand Rapids before you wear the winged wheel. By all accounts, he wants to play in the NHL, and where better to play than Detroit, but he seems to think the Wings will eventually accept him if he plays enough in Sweden. There isn’t much difference between the AHL and Sweden, even tier-2 really, but he needs North American exposure before he makes the jump, not this.

Oh well. This is a stupid decision on his part, so I suppose the ripping he’s going to receive is deserved. My point is he’s a talented player, hardly a dime-a-dozen grinder that teams are able to find in bulk. Size with skill is the hardest thing to draft. Detroit found something along those lines, so “good riddance” is really something I can’t say. He’s still raw, in a year or two I can see him being a force in the SEL. Or maybe he’ll stay lanky and just stay with AIK forever, who knows? I wouldn’t be shocked if another NHL team comes calling for him within a few years, because these players are just that rare. But I understand completely why Detroit will most likely let him go next July, if this article has any merit, and I don’t blame them. It’s a shame though, but on the bright side, this almost ensures that Tomas Tatar will stay on the Griffins all season.

Farewell, Johan. At least you left us with fond memories.

Next stop: Sveeeeden

I was feeling rather lazy (also, rather homeworky) this morning so I didn’t talk about last night’s game. However, the Wings lost to Toronto for the second straight night 2-1. This afternoon, the Wings forced a decisive Game 9 beat the superstar-less Pittsburgh Penguins 4-1. And a good time was had by all.

The Toronto game was basically the Jonas Gustavsson story. The Wings got a taste of him as he played the first period of Friday’s game, but he came in Saturday for the final two periods and was nothing less than spectacular. Currently the internet-hype for him is at an all-time high, but he didn’t have too many difficult saves. Although we do now know what happens when a Rhino meets a Monster. Despite the fact that many people are fawning over how he hasn’t let up a goal in North America, I think Gustavsson showed everyone that he’s legit. There’s no doubt in my mind that Detroit played well enough to win — I think they would have if Vesa Toskala stayed in net. I don’t think it’ll be too many games before Gustavsson unseats Toskala.

This afternoon’s game against Pittsburgh was a much better effort from Detroit. They were on their heels early but Jimmy Howard played lights out all night and maybe silenced a few doubters on the way. Just a few though, because he wasn’t exactly facing a powerful lineup. What Pittsburgh did have in the lineup was a lot of sour grapes. As soon as he could, Matt Cooke had words with a surly Kris Draper, and Draper had some words of his own when he gave Fleury and unnecessary snow shower on the following shift. In the third period, the Penguins seemed more concerned with gooning it up, highlighted by Kunitz jumping on Franzen and Guerin throwing punches after the altercation was broken up. Shortly thereafter, after a weak and routine hit by Derek Meech, a cluster of Pengapes started throwing punches at a line that included noted fighters like Mattias Ritola and Kris Draper. Yes Pittsburgh, we’re all very, very impressed. All this certainly supports the theory that Pittsburgh is less enjoying their victory and more ensuring Detroit knows that they won, but I digress.

These notes will be more comprehensive, reflecting both yesterday and today’s game as well as the pre-season as a whole on some of these guys.

Chris Osgood — He played the first half of yesterday’s game and came up with his best pre-season performance. He gave up a few strange rebounds early, but only let in one goal. A blast from the point, low, but there was traffic in front.

Jimmy Howard — He was pretty strong in relief of Osgood last night, only letting up a slam dunk in front, and he was very good today. Only goal against came after a big post-to-post save that left him slightly overcommitted. Pascal Dupuis had a whole side of the net to shoot at, and he was further helped by Derek Meech who decided to stand in front and let the puck bank in off his stick instead of getting low in any attempt to block a shot. Howard stopped Jordan Staal on a breakaway and then a penalty shot, and probably stopped about five other solid chances by Staal. He looked great tonight, he made me a little more confident in him going into the season.

Logan Pyett — Played today after a bunch of games off. Looks intimidated and overmatched. I can’t see this guy ever playing in the NHL.

Andy Delmore — He’s a nightmare in his own zone, but he played decent today. He put a hook on Jordan Staal — or what looked like a clear one — but he didn’t actually tug on him. So Staal got a good shot off and then got a penalty shot anyway. I’m not saying it was a bad call, because it looked like Delmore was going to hook the hell out of him. I’m just saying if you’re Delmore, either let the guy go or tug him to the ground.

Derek Meech — Much stronger today than he has been all pre-season. Looked like someone who could maybe challenge a very struggling Brett Lebda eventually.

Jonathan Ericsson — Again, much better tonight than Friday’s quadruple minor penalty game. Made some strong defensive plays, and seems to have a very good idea of when to join the rush or jump in the zone. His shot is something amazing, I can’t believe he didn’t score more in the AHL.

Jakub Kindl — Just when you think to yourself, “man, he’s not having a great game,” you see him work his magic on the powerplay. He had a pretty long shift there today, one of his first of the pre-season, and was much more confident and in control than at any other point this pre-season. Almost invisible other than that, which is both good and bad.

Brad May — I got to thinking last night, who would I rather have, May or Maltby? I felt like May was all over the ice last night, and I was astounded to see he played only 8 minutes. I felt like Maltby played 3 minutes tonight, and I was astounded to see he played 15. I get the Maltby argument — he’s savvy, he’s got experience. I agree. I like Maltby. But I also like 4th liners to have that kind of impact when they come on the ice. If I had the choice, I’d take the guy making the most of his minutes in May. But I know May will at least start in Grand Rapids. I hope he gets a contract, I like his game.

Jason Williams — I can’t help but notice that everyone who made him out to be the worst player ever hasn’t said a word about what’s been a very impressive pre-season for him. I like him with Leino and Filppula. Today he made not one, not two, but three impressive keeps at the blueline. He got shots through traffic. His goal was luck, but still a smart play as he drove into traffic. I’ll take him over Sammy any day if he keeps this up.

Johan Ryno — Still impressed. Wasn’t great last night, but he’s shown enough where I’m intrigued. I commented here that I don’t buy Ryno’s comments, and based off the fact that Ryno is still playing a lot and the Wings seem to think he’ll report to Grand Rapids, I think he’ll show up. He’s officially down now. He’s skilled, but if he got aggressive and a little stronger he could be a force. People don’t really understand how rare this blend of skill and size is. You don’t just throw it out because you’ve heard a few comments through the grapevine. Give him a year in Grand Rapids and see how he acclimates.

Evan McGrath — I noticed both last night and tonight he came out with a lot of jump. He’s a much improved skater from where he was in the OHL. He seems to be the only guy on the Wings who’s trying to “make” the team still, even though there’s no spots available. Some of that could have to do with the fact that he was playing in Toronto last night, not too far from his home town of Oakville. Auditioning for the hometown Leafs maybe, now that he’s on waivers? Probably not, but I really think he’s a 4th line player in a pinch. I don’t know what he has to learn from another year in the AHL.

Patrick Eaves — Had a quiet pre-season, but I felt he came on in his last two games. It’s easy to notice his speed, I felt today he was around the puck a little more. He’s definitely a useful 4th line player for now, hopefully he can continue doing things with the puck.

Jan Mursak — Still not great, but I think he’s in for a much better sophomore season in Grand Rapids. Like Ritola, he looks like the type of player that does well on the Red Wings. Smart with the puck, good speed, and a surprisingly well-developed two-way game. He didn’t play a whole lot, but I noticed him a little more today.

The Wings are now down to 23 players. Bruce MacLeod tweeted that Johan Ryno, Mattias Ritola, Francis Pare, Jakub Kindl, Andy Delmore, and Evan McGrath were sent to Grand Rapids (UPDATE: Jan Mursak, Doug Janik, Jeremy Williams, Kris Newbury, and Thomas McCollum, too). Brad May was released, but only so Grand Rapids could sign him because I’m assuming you can’t send a tryout player to the minors. It looks like they’re still going to make a decision on him.

So here is the 23(ish) man roster headed to Sweden.

Forwards (13): Abdelkader, Bertuzzi, Cleary, Datsyuk, Draper, Eaves, Filppula, Franzen, Holmstrom, Leino, Maltby, Williams, Zetterberg.

Defensemen (7) : Ericsson, Kronwall, Lebda, Lidstrom, Meech, Rafalski, Stuart.

Goalies (3): Howard, Larsson, Osgood.

Injured: Axelsson, Emmerton, Fournier, Helm, Lilja

Obviously, Axelsson and Emmerton are going to the AHL when they’re healthy, and Fournier’s going to the QMJHL. You just can’t send down injured players.

Larsson will go down no matter what when Detroit gets back, he’s Grand Rapids’ starter (though McCollum narrowed the gap this pre-season). Also, I heard that the NHL is letting teams take 24 players to Europe just in case. I’m not sure who Detroit intends to have along as the reserve. Zetterberg and Bertuzzi are definitely a little banged up. Meech can slide up front, but I wonder why they sent a guy like Ritola down when they could bring him to Sweden without the cap. Maybe something’s in the works, I’m not sure. Lastly, with all these slight injuries, I wonder if Abdelkader will ever even be sent down. This just has the makings of a season of injuries. Not a bunch of guys at one time, but consistently at least one or two injuries all season. Abdelkader definitely staked out an NHL job with his impressive pre-season.

Wings trim roster to 33, Ryno might bolt

This news was before last night’s game but I wanted to keep it separate. The Wings cut a few more players, waiving five. They’ve announced it, it seems, but most of these guys are playing today so it looks like all demotions will go into effect after the weekend.

Here are the cuts, according to Khan:

Jeremy Williams (waived)
Kris Newbury (waived)
Andy Delmore (waived)
Doug Janik (waived)
Evan McGrath (waived)
Brad May (will tryout with Griffins before Detroit makes a decision)
Cory Emmerton
Johan Ryno
Logan Pyett
Jordan Pearce (could end up in ECHL, but won’t for now because Detroit’s bringing Larsson to Sweden)

No surprises. There have been a few big names (relatively speaking) on the waiver wire already but nobody’s been claimed. Detroit’s got five guys now and any of them could be claimed. Janik was claimed on waivers twice last season. Delmore was claimed the first time Detroit had him, but he’s older now. Newbury cleared a few times last year. McGrath and Williams are each on their first time going through waivers. McGrath has long been considered to be a good prospect buried in a deep system. Does someone take a chance? Unlikely, he’s a risk, but with so many teams still looking at a handful of guys for only a few roster spots, you could see a bottom feeder team who have no clear front runners for a 4th line job take a chance on a former 100-point junior player like McGrath or a big time shot in Jeremy Williams.

The bigger news coming out of this, is that AIK’s General Manager says he expects Ryno will report to AIK. Translated article:

Ryno en route to reinforce AIK

There will be no games for the Detroit Red Wings. Johan Ryno has been sent to farms team Grand Rapids and is on its way to reinforce AIK in the hunt for a place in Kvalserien.

- It’s likely that he plays with us, “says sports manager Anders Gozzi to HockeyExpressen.se.

Johan Ryno is on the final year of his three-year contract with the Super Club Detroit. He played and trained with AIK in the preseason, but went over to North America to make a new attempt to take a seat on the NHL team. Detroit now says that Johan Ryno is one of the players from training camp that will not fit and therefore sent to farms team the Grand Rapids Griffins of the AHL.

Johan Ryno is registered by AIK and under swehockey.se jersey number 16 waiting for him. “will be even better ‘ – We have talked several times in the last week. We’ll see what happens. But it’s likely that he comes home to us again, “says Anders Gozzi, general manager of AIK.

He continues: – Johan has played with us during the preseason and he enjoys great at AIK, and it is a reason that he wants to come back. And that means we get a more skilled hockey players on the team and we will be even better.

Detroit is coming to Sweden next week and the trip is goalie Daniel Larsson, as a third goaltender behind Chris Osgood and Jimmy Howard. Larsson will not be included in the official legislative arrangements. When Detroit returns to the United States will be playing in Grand Rapids Daniel Larsson.

Other than the great phrasing of “Super Club Detroit,” this is a very disappointing article. I’ve seen enough out of Ryno where I think he could make a difference for Grand Rapids. He’s a decent enough skater. An NHL future after that just depends on how he evolves his game on the North American ice surface. In the last year of a three-year deal, all but 12 games of which have been spent in Sweden, there’s no way Detroit would keep him in the fold. They said earlier this summer they expect he’ll play in Grand Rapids, but Ryno himself raised doubts about that before camp. He said he would “think about it” if he was sent down.

True or not — who knows? Ryno is in the lineup tonight, I don’t think Detroit would even bother if they knew right now that he’s going to Sweden. But it could happen after this weekend, we’ll see.

Swede vs. Swede

Hey look, Detroit tried to play a 20 minute game and win again.

A pretty sloppy game overall. For entertainment value, it’s fun when Detroit does something like this. But this is the kind of thing that killed them last season, and something you’d think they would work on. Obviously, third period comebacks happen, and you want that to happen if Detroit goes down 3-0 early in the game. I just don’t find the stat that Detroit led the league with 21 come from behind victories last season to be impressive. They just come out flat too often. Granted, this is the pre-season. As Ken Holland said when he was in the booth for part of the second, the veterans really get tired of the pre-season. I’d hope that’s part of it, more than the idea that they just haven’t learned and this is going to happen again all season long.

So that’s basically the story of this one. Johan Franzen being an uncontrollable beast was promising, but the way that Detroit got run over in the first two periods by a bunch of rookies is not good. However, all credit goes to Toronto because they’ve got some downright scary young talent right now. I’ve seen a handful of Leafs pre-season games and Viktor Stahlberg is a guy who’s been impressive, but I was still on the fence to whether or not I think he should be in the NHL. After yesterday.. yes, Stahlberg should be in the NHL. Not just because he scored two goals, because neither were that impressive. The first was a strong shot, but Osgood really should have had that. The second goal was more impressive for the way he hounded Lebda behind the net. I have no idea where Lebda thought he was going, and why he thought it would be a good idea to try to shake someone who’s all over you instead of just clearing it, but still big props to Stahlberg. Kadri should probably stick too, but it sounds like he might get sent back.

Quick thoughts on a few guys. Anyone who I don’t mention was about the same. Bad in the first two periods, good in the third.

Chris Osgood — Not a strong enough effort tonight. If he’s not taking the pre-season seriously he should start. The Stahlberg goal and Kadri goal should have never gone in. He needs to be better because I’m still nervous on Howard.

Jonathan Ericsson — 8 PIM, I don’t think I need to point out how many mistakes he made tonight. He hasn’t had the best pre-season. He did the same thing last year, I suppose, so maybe it’s nothing to worry about. But last year he had the guarantee that no matter how good he was he wasn’t making the team. I suppose this year, he’s in the situation that no matter how bad he is, he’s making the team. I hope so, for his sake, because he hasn’t done much to secure a big spot in the lineup.

Niklas Kronwall — Better today than any other game in the pre-season. He needs to jump up in the play all season, he seemed to do that a lot yesterday and he got a goal out of it today.

Brett Lebda — It’s official, I miss Lilja.

Brad May — Very strong for a guy without a home a week ago. Didn’t play a whole lot, but he was one of the only guys on the team that made an impression with every second he was on the ice. It sounds like he’ll go to Grand Rapids on his tryout and then Detroit will make a decision. 46 contracts, the potential loss of a Griffin (more on that later), I say burn one on him. He even impressed in his post-first period interview. Great character guy. I’d prefer young guys for most callups, but I wouldn’t mind giving May a few games and then a playoff recall.

Todd Bertuzzi — Looked a lot better to me, missed the end of the game as a precautionary measure. I’ll never understand why other fans complain about a guy being pulled as a precaution. Bertuzzi’s injury-prone, they’re not going to risk a tender feeling groin for a pre-season game against the Leafs. Why complain? I don’t want him in there, I want him in the lineup for the season.

Detroit’s in Toronto tonight, with a much weaker lineup. Osgood gets the start, but Howard’s coming in eventually according to Ansar Khan. This one’s on CBC at 7 PM, so it should be easy to find a stream if you’re not in the Metro Detroit area.

Ville Leino – Valtteri Filppula – Patrick Eaves
Mattias Ritola – Justin Abdelkader – Jason Williams
Johan Ryno – Evan McGrath – Kirk Maltby
Brad May – Kris Newbury – Jan Mursak

Niklas Kronwall – Brad Stuart
Brett Lebda – Jakub Kindl
Derek Meech – Andy Delmore

Chris Osgood
Jimmy Howard

Good cuts and bad cuts

A little late on the update tonight, but it’s been a long day and I’m trying to sort out my weekend. So by now this is old news.. but whatever, deal with it, I need to smile and write about how happy this news makes me.

For starters, Dan Cloutier has officially been cut. Sigh. What a bullet we dodged there, eh? I feel like I’ve gotten to know Dan quite well over the past few weeks. I’m very impressed with the things he had to say about Detroit and I feel a significantly less amount of hatred toward him than I did several weeks ago. But needless to say, I still didn’t see him as a useful acquisition and Detroit did the right thing in letting him go. I will admit, for the 30 minutes he was wearing the Red Wings uniform he did okay. Eight saves, not including two saves by the iron, but no goals against. Whatever. Hopefully he scared Jimmy Howard into a competent season. As a prospects geek, I just didn’t think it was a good idea.

Continuing off that same article, according to Ansar Khan, Detroit’s looking at a slightly smaller roster as they’ve finally made another round of cuts. Nothing too terribly shocking, I suppose. Travis Ehrhardt, Sergei Kolosov, Sebastien Piche, Jamie Tardif, and Tomas Tatar have been sent to Grand Rapids. Additionally, Griffins-contracted John Vigilante and former Griffin (but contract possibility) Francis Lemieux were released from their Red Wing tryouts and assigned to Grand Rapids.

I guess the only big name in there is Tatar. I would have liked to see him get another game, but I suppose it’s not a big deal that he doesn’t. I’m just not sure what these guys do in Grand Rapids for a week since the Griffins don’t actually play pre-season games. Tatar definitely looked good enough in Detroit to earn a roster spot in Grand Rapids. But most of his future will depend on guys like Vigilante and Lemieux. Neither of them have tremendous futures, but both of them are established AHL veterans who can make immediate impacts. Both of them could force Tatar off the top two lines, which would result in a likely move to the Plymouth Whalers. Tatar can play nine professional (NHL and/or AHL) games without burning a year off his contract, meaning they could send him to Plymouth, he wouldn’t count towards the roster limit, and he’d come back next year with three years on his contract. Of course, they could send him to Plymouth at any time, but it would waste a contract year for him.

We’ll see what happens on that front. I intend to see as many home games as I can while Tatar is a Griffin. I saw the skill he has, he’s a game breaker. I just want to see how far away he is, because I’m pretty certain he jumped ahead in his development about three years with the insane camp he had. The Hockey News predicted him at NHL ready in 2014-15, but there’s a very distinct possibility he’s among the Wings top 5 NHL ready prospects right now.

Travis Ehrhardt could also be sent back to the WHL if needed. That’s unlikely though. Grand Rapids has 7 defensemen slated for action, and it seems either Ehrhardt or Piche will spend some time in Toledo. Neither saw pre-season action so who knows what’ll happen. Kolosov finally played against Philly on Tuesday but I missed that game and heard nothing about him. But I do root for him to get called up if, heaven forbid, we needed someone besides Kindl to come up over Janik and Delmore.

On the docket now is a back-to-back with Toronto. Here’s tomorrow’s lineup:

Johan Franzen – Pavel Datsyuk – Tomas Holmstrom
Todd Bertuzzi – Valtteri Filppula – Dan Cleary
Kris Draper – Justin Abdelkader – Mattias Ritola
Brad May – Kris Newbury – Francis Pare

Nicklas Lidstrom – Brian Rafalski
Niklas Kronwall – Brad Stuart
Brett Lebda – Jonathan Ericsson

Chris Osgood – Jimmy Howard

No idea if Osgood gets the full game or not, but that’s our top six going into the year, so there’s no excuse for either goalie to have a poor showing.  Penalty kill should ideally be a lot better too, even though we’ll be missing Zetterberg, Helm, Maltby, and other mainstays on the line. May will be interesting to watch as well, Babcock said today that it was his idea to invite May so maybe he really likes him. He’s definitely got a good shot to win a contract if that’s the case. Also, Ritola and Pare will be very interesting to watch as this is the best lineup the Wings have iced so far. Both of them are close to NHL ready, maybe they’ll move up the charts a bit if they don’t look too out of place.

The game is on FSN+ (corrected) so most of you should be able to watch it. Anyone looking for a stream should check out MyP2P or ATDHE as usual.

A sad day for Brad May?

Coming straight out of left field today, in continuation with what seems to be the pre-season of hilariously strange tryouts, I’ve learned via Bruce MacLeod this morning that Brad May has been signed to a tryout.

The reason for the terrible pun in the headline is because Brad May appears to be auditioning with the Griffins, but he’s played 1,001 NHL games without one in the AHL. Granted, he hasn’t been a regular for some time, but he gathered shockingly mostly positive reviews from his most recent stop with Toronto. It might be worth having him in the organization for when Brian Burke inevitably calls him up. Burke had May in Vancouver on two stints, then traded for him in Anaheim and brought him with when he went to Toronto this past season. It’s only a matter of time until he comes calling again.

From what I’ve seen, May isn’t a great fighter, but he’ll do it. If the pre-season has been any indication with how easily a lot of the Wings prospects have been pushed around physically, I’d say having someone to drop the gloves is necessary. I think Doug Janik will do it, but by all accounts May is a great guy and a big locker room presence. I think a guy like May would really help out the Griffins.

And honestly, I could see the Wings burning a contract on him. They’re at 46 or 47 depending on what they do with Tomas Tatar, because plays sent back to junior don’t count towards the cap. The Wings definitely liked having Aaron Downey around, but it just sucked for Downey (who was recently cut by Phoenix) to have to waste away the end of his career in the AHL. May’s kind of in the same boat, but I figure with the extra contracts on hand they might take a shot on a class act. Obviously they would keep him in the AHL, but it might not be a bad idea for them to keep a fighter on payroll the way they did with Downey, to be used whenever they see fit. And I think Brad May is definitely a guy worth having around for the playoff run. UPDATE: Bruce just put the kibosh on this idea via Twitter. May will not be offered a contract before the Wings go to Sweden. He’ll tryout for the Griffins instead. I’m not sure if that means they’re not offering him a contract period, but they might if he plays well for the Griffins, or if it’s just Griffins or nothing. But it doesn’t sound like he has much of an NHL future in Detroit.

Who knows though — May is a long way past his days as anything more than a fighter. But his presence would definitely be appreciated on a Griffins team that just looks small and skilled. Only problem is finding room, because as I’ve noted.. Including Abdelkader, Detroit has 12 contracted forwards slated for Grand Rapids. They’ve also got Tatar in the mix, and Grand Rapids has signed John Vigilante, who looks in the pre-season like a guy who will be in the lineup more often than not. It’s a crowded lineup, tough to say where he ends up.

Cloutier wears funny gear, gets a shutout

Ha HA! Look how BIG that puck is !!

Rangers 4, Red Wings 2

The triumphant NHL return of Dan Cloutier was soured ever so slightly this evening because Daniel Larsson is a sieve. I never thought I’d write that.

Also, that’s not true. Detroit really mailed it in in the first period en route to being outshot 18-4. Hopefully they decided they wanted to make Larsson look good and then turn it on in the 3rd so Cloutier only saw the difficult shots.

Unfortunately, they forgot to help Larsson at all, and the quality of shots that Cloutier saw actually made him look good.

Penalty kill was the story in the 1st, as Detroit took six straight minor penalties leading into the second period. Most were really questionable calls, but not all. Either way, these penalties weren’t the cause of all the Ranger offense, the penalty kill felt the need to clear the puck softly up the middle. None of the goals really fell entirely on Larsson’s shoulders, and in fact, after the 3rd goal he actually straightened out and made a few nice saves.

Early in the game, on the Rangers’ first or second shot, Detroit caught a big break. Ericsson was legally tying up Aaron Voros’ stick and both were battling for the puck. For some reason, the ref decided to call a phantom hook on Ericsson. Ericsson touched the puck briefly, but Voros took it right back and fired a shot that Larsson should have had right over his glove. But the play died when Ericsson touched it. Even the Rangers’ broadcasters didn’t think Ericsson committed a penalty, so Larsson got let off the hook on the only goal that he should have actually had.

On that note, in both of these games against New York I’ve noticed they’ve had a hell of a time containing all the big forwards on the Rangers, Voros, Brian Boyle, Donald Brashear, etc. Those guys just dominated on the cycle for two full games. I’m not sure if this is something to be concerned about. Am I concerned when the line of Cory Emmerton, Francis Pare, and Tomas Tatar get hemmed in their own zone? No. Even if those guys make the NHL, that’s not a likely line combination just because they’re all small. But am I concerned when it’s Kronwall and Stuart? Yes. Guys like Voros and Boyle don’t really have the skill to rag the puck the way they did. As our physical defensemen, it should be easier for them to get positioning, put them into the boards, and get a takeaway. Anyway.

But soon after Larsson took the first of two minor goaltending penalties Detroit racked up, where he was standing up and a Ranger tripped over his stick, Brad Stuart pulled a Derek Meech and softly lofted the puck up the middle to a waiting Vaclav Prospal who wired a shot high over Larsson’s glove. Larsson was set and probably should have had it, but It was a well-placed shot and that Stuart turnover was worse than his Game 7 turnover.

Minutes later, with Tatar in the box this time, Marian Gaborik decided that the Rangers needed another goal so he made it so. That’s pretty much all there is to it. He ran around the Wings zone for what seemed like days, with Stuart chasing after him, then centered a wicked backhand pass past a snoozing Kronwall onto Enver Lisin’s stick. Ideally, Kronwall knows that Lisin is coming, but not many guys can make that strong and accurate of a pass on their backhand. No chance for Larsson.

Before they could even announce that goal, Andy Delmore decided to flip a week pass over to Jakub Kindl, who was unable to generate the cognitive process needed to just get the puck the hell away from Andy Delmore and out of the zone. The puck was centered to Ryan Callahan, and Larsson committed early as Callahan fought off Delmore and stuffed a shot past Larsson. I thought he was really too far off to the side of the net, but Callahan made a great move in tight, it’s a tough call.

So this all happened.. And there was 9:30 left in the first. Yikes. But Larsson was actually solid the rest of the first. He seemed to let up some bad rebounds early, but he was fine after he realized he’ll be getting no help from Delmore this season.

Anyway, notes time!

Dan Cloutier — Didn’t let in a goal, but only saw 8 shots. He had Kronwall deflect a puck up off the post, saw a point shot ring off the crossbar, and had a wrister from the blueline trickle between his legs, but he was alright. No weak goals, but nothing special.

Jakub Kindl — Talented and just fun to watch skate, but man, this guy needs to get angry or something. He’s got a big problem with softly tapping the puck behind his own net when he’s in danger. Sometimes his partner will be there, and they get wrecked because they can’t handle this pass or it just goes directly to a Ranger. I’d say he did this three times tonight. Just get angry and when you’re in danger rip it off the boards hard so at the very least, you give it away at the blueline instead of behind the net to a guy who’s uncovered.

Andy Delmore — If it came down to it, I’d take Doug Janik over him as a callup. I’d like to see Kindl or Kolosov (who is mysteriously not playing in the pre-season) over either, but Delmore is a mess defensively. You’d think after so many years of doing the same thing, you might do it right.. But the Any Elmore jokes are, sadly, accurate.

Derek Meech — Quickly playing himself out of the lineup. He looked great in 2007-08 when Detroit was missing all of those defensemen and Meech was playing 27 minutes a night. What happened? His confidence looks shot. As average as Kindl’s looked this pre-season, he’s blowing Meech right out of the water.

Niklas Kronwall — Not making me feel comfortable as the go to guy in the post-Lidstrom era. Still makes poor defensive decisions on a pretty regular basis. But somehow, he looks great when he’s the #3 guy.

Ville Leino — He’s looked outstanding to me this pre-season. There’s a certain star quality in some of the smart, subtle plays he makes. I saw the same thing in Franzen for years, but I never thought we’d see the player he is today. Does that mean Leino is gonna score 70 points right now? No, but good things are coming. He looks a lot quicker, he’s been backchecking hard, and he seems to always make the right play with the puck. I think he’s got a ways to grow, but he is looking like a very good top six forward two years down the line if he doesn’t get too cute with the puck like he did a few times tonight and doesn’t sleep his way through the second half of the season the way he did in Grand Rapids last year.

Pavel Datsyuk — He’s gonna get another Hart nomination this season. Count on it.

Tomas Holmstrom — I’m no longer worried about him. He claims to be healthy, and it shows on the ice. Not on the scoresheet yet, but he’s looked much better than he did in the playoffs. I’ve considered bumping him down to the 3rd or 4th line, like I think a lot of fans have, but I think he’s still good for 20 on the top line and powerplay.

Kris Newbury — I can’t see this guy ever wearing the Wings’ jersey. A lot of “those” people who just claim the Wings’ need toughness loved this signing and have tossed around the idea of him as the 13th forward (before we signed all those other guys). But he’s just.. bad. He’s not a great skater, he’s not really a factor on the forecheck, not a whole lot of offensive touch.. What’s the point? The Wings don’t have a whole lot of NHL ready forwards in GR right now, but I can think of a lot I’d rather see up than Newbury. Not winning me over so far, but he is only playing about 8 minutes a night.

Tomas Tatar — Didn’t play much today, but he had one awesome shift in the second period. He had a few takeaways, made a few quick, clever moves, and had two really good scoring chances. He had a shot blocked and missed on the other, but still, he’s just one of those guys that finds those places on the ice. I think he may have played himself onto Grand Rapids, I really think he’s just a difference-maker.

Johan Ryno — Very impressive. He’s much quicker than he was two years ago, and he’s coming off a broken leg. He’s got the skill. There’s definitely something there. I really hope he stays in Grand Rapids because I think he could put up some very solid numbers. I don’t think I saw him at all in the 1st period because of all the penalty killing, but he eventually took Ritola’s place on the line with Leino and Filppula and really looked good. He was out on the ice in the last minute of the game for a reason. He looked very confident, a far cry from the player I saw two pre-seasons ago lumbering around the ice and falling down when people skated too close to him.

Detroit plays Philly tomorrow. That game will be seen on Comcast in Philadelphia, so it should be webcast over at the same place as tonight’s. I, however, will be in class, and I’ve already poured over my syllabus 100 times looking for any reason I can to skip, but it looks like I need to attend. So most likely, no pre-game or post-game reactions.

Groin injuries spread like wildfire

Tonight’s lineup for the re-match against the NY Rangers, which is supposed to feature a debuting Marian Gaborik who is not at 100%, was a slight let down. Not only is Henrik Zetterberg sitting again for a groin injury, but apparently, Todd Bertuzzi, Jason Williams, and Dan Cleary are all sitting tonight with groin injuries. What the hell? Chris McCosky of the Freep offers this nugget which I think it’s supposed to be comforting, but it makes me want to burst into tears:

Those three players, plus forward Jason Williams, have mild groin injuries and did not travel. Zetterberg’s injury, by far, is the worst. Bertuzzi and Williams skated Monday morning, Cleary did not.

With an already weakened lineup, Babcock is taking this opportunity to make a funny joke by telling Dan Cloutier he’s going to play tonight. Oh wait, that’s happening.

Johan Franzen – Pavel Datsyuk – Tomas Holmstrom
Ville Leino – Valtteri Filppula – Mattias Ritola
Johan Ryno – Cory Emmerton – Kirk Maltby
Kris Newbury – Justin Abdelkader – Tomas Tatar

Niklas Kronwall – Brad Stuart
Derek Meech – Jonathan Ericsson
Jakub Kindl – Andy Delmore

Daniel Larsson – Dan Cloutier

Larsson’s first taste of televised pre-season action this year. He’s a real treat to watch and if you haven’t I suggest you get on that. I’ll be watching Leino, Emmerton, Ryno, and Tatar very closely as well. The game’s at 7 PM and will be shown on the Canadian NHL Network, and it will be streamed at MyP2P. One of those streams requires SopCast, which is exceptional quality, but the other is great quality for a stream as well.

Ryan Miller’d

Any hopes of going perfect throughout the pre-season and the regular season went out the window today as Detroit dropped their pre-season record to 2-1 with a 3-1 loss to Buffalo. Oh well, they’ll complete the regular season part of that deal.

Honestly? Not too displeased with the team’s play. I was more displeased with last night’s win than today’s loss. But admittedly, with college football on and the big Mayweather/Marquez “fight,” which started something like three days late, my attention wasn’t 100% on the game tonight. But from what I saw, Detroit played much tighter and cleaner defensively, and the offense (mostly, the Datsyuk line) seemed to generate enough chances to win, but Ryan Miller played like he was playing in a must win to get Buffalo into the playoffs. To cap things off, Jimmy Howard was, as usual, solid but not spectacular, making some big saves and having little chance on both goals. What are you gonna do?

My goal this year is to be able to write less about each game so I can find time to do updates about each game and not just weekly semi-novels like I did last year. But for the pre-season, I’m watching more players on an individual basis so this might be longer. But this year I plan on running through players in note form so it won’t take as long to write. Any complaints? Suck it. Sorry, I didn’t mean that. I’m normally very polite.

Jimmy Howard — Good I thought, but as I said, not spectacular. I think people doubt him too much unfairly. But at the same time, all my eggs were once in his basket to be Detroit’s savior and I’m doubting that more and more. Detroit has had the luxury of above average backup goalies for a number of years and I fear that streak may end with Howard. He will be okay, and he won’t cost us too many games, but he’s not going to win too many on his own either. He did in Grand Rapids, but thus far, not in regular season or pre-season action, he’s not been able to show this ability. We’ll see. Still rooting for him.

Pavel Datsyuk — It’s silly how good he was tonight. Mickey Redmond made multiple mentions of how veterans take training camp off. But Datsyuk looks like a guy who just plays the same way regardless of the game situation because he just loves to play. His assist was just stupidly good, every other player in the league (including Franzen, who tried that earlier) shoots that puck. You’d think eventually Datsyuk will run out of sick things to do, but he hasn’t yet. He tried the flip move over the net, it looked like this time instead of trying to get it (like he did against Anaheim) it may have been a pass, but it was also damn close to hitting Miller in the back of the head and potentially rolling down his back into the net. Interesting to see how much he’ll try that, I’m not necessarily opposed to it.

Johan Franzen — I think I’m more comfortable with him on Datsyuk’s line. Hossa is a player that needs a lot of space. Franzen just gets open and waits, and shoots whenever possible. I’m not at all suggesting he’s better than Hossa, and I don’t think he’ll score 40, but I think with Datsyuk he’s a great fit. I’m ready for them to stay together all season.

Nick Lidstrom — Ridiculously perfect. You can’t even go into detail and bring up specific instances because it seemed like he just did the right thing all game.

Jonathan Ericsson — Less than perfect. Complacent, even. Few bad giveaways, missed a lot of his passes. But it happens. He’s ready for the NHL, but he’s still raw. If he can get quicker on his decisions with the puck and learn to move it out of his zone a little quicker, he’ll make that jump to a legitimate top 4, maybe top 2 defenseman. But if today (and his playoff performance) is any indication, he’ll have some ups and downs.

Jakub Kindl — More noticeable tonight than last night. But he doesn’t yet scream NHL ready like a few of Detroit’s prospect forwards to (Abdelkader is, Ritola and Emmerton are close). Waiting for him to take that next step, hopefully it happens in Grand Rapids this season.

Jeremy Williams — Impressed me a lot more than Kris Newbury did. Thought he was more involved offensively and honestly, more physical too. He’s the top veteran callup in my mind, but still not overly impressive. I would be surprised if he was the first overall callup over Emmerton or Ritola.

Francis Pare — Ken Daniels said it, the puck just follows this guy around. Doesn’t do anything extremely well, but you notice him when he’s on the ice. A very interesting player who I can’t quite figure out. I think he gets an NHL tryout in the next two years, but I just don’t know what he could make of an NHL career. Not useful enough to be a 4th line player, but not quite skilled enough to be a good top nine forward.

Tomas Tatar — Really impressed me. Another player who was always around the puck, and definitely showed on a few shifts that he has a very high skill level. Seemed to always be in a good spot for a rebound even if he didn’t get many glorious chances. Previously I only saw him play in the WJC (and I re-watched a few of his games targeting him once Detroit had drafted him) and he looked very good, but today confirmed to me that I think he can play in the AHL. Still on the fence as to what my preference is, though.

Patrick Eaves — He wasn’t extremely impressive, but he looks like he belongs. Probably wasn’t as fast as advertised. I did like him on the penalty kill, he seems to be a smart player who does work hard, but I’d like to see him in a higher gear more often. Not a bad first impression, though.

Justin Abdelkader — Not nearly as good as yesterday. He seemed to be much hungrier and much more involved, but he was also on a better line with a lot better minutes. Oh well. I still think he’s an NHL player.

John Vigilante — Much better than I expected he’d be. He’s a player I watched a ton as he was an OHL star with Plymouth. He’s going to play a very big part for Grand Rapids this season. I don’t think he has much NHL promise, but he works hard and he’s a smart player. Wouldn’t be the worst fourth liner in the world in a few years if he can prove that he can bring that same effort from game to game.

Logan Pyett — Pretty bad tonight, looked lost. I had high hopes for him coming out of junior but I don’t expect he’ll establish himself as the force that he needs to be in Grand Rapids. Took a bad penalty and had a really hard time against players of all sizes.

See you all Monday at 7 for a Rangers re-match. Game is on the Canadian NHL Network. It should be easy to find a stream, so check this place out around game time and I’ll have a link for it.