In Red Wings Land

Detroit Red Wings owner supports Jeff Blashill, but coach’s fate rests with Steve Yzerman | Freep

Ilitch wouldn’t say exactly how much input he might give Yzerman on Blashill’s future. But he said he spoke with Yzerman for two hours Thursday about NHL trades and free agency and the progress of the Wings’ rebuild.

“We talked a lot about a lot of topics, some of the offers that we had received up to the trade deadline,” he said. “He shared a lot about a lot of the free agents that will be coming available in the NHL, which ones we’re interested in and started to share some of his thinking and strategy. So we talk a lot.”

I guess this is kind of a small peek at how the Red Wings operate behind the scenes. Chris Ilitch seems to be in-the-know about what the organization’s plans are right now and in the near future, but Yzerman is the one running the show.

Around the League

Andreas Athanasiou, Mike Green have both been injured since Red Wings-Oilers trades | MLive

Green, traded on Feb. 23 for a conditional draft pick in 2020 or 2021, is expected to miss 3 to 4 weeks with a sprained MCL, the team announced Friday.

That’s a bummer. I wanted to see both Mike Green and Andreas Athanasiou do well with the Oilers. However, AA was back at practice yesterday, so it doesn’t seem like anything long term for him.

If Canada, USA played gold-medal game today, what would teams look like? | Sportsnet

Kyle Connor — Dylan Larkin — Brock Boeser

Rounding out the group, a trio of young stars who can do plenty of damage on the scoreboard. Kyle Connor’s got the third-most goals among all American NHLers since the beginning of last season, while Boeser — who’s twice hovered just below the 30-goal mark — seems on the cusp of becoming one of Team USA’s marquee snipers, once his health begins cooperating. Dylan Larkin lines up as the depth pivot, coming off his best big-league campaign yet, and bringing some high-octane speed from the Americans’ bottom six.

Some love for Larkin.

Blast from the Past

The Red Wings might stink right now, but they used to be really good back in the day. We’ll always remember the legendary rivalry with the Colorado Avalanche and you can relive the magic on Monday when Little Caesars Arena turns back the clock for 90s night (there’s also a retro hat giveaway too). So dust off your old Darren McCarty or Chris Osgood jersey and grab some cheap tickets on StubHub to go see the Wings and Avs duke it out one more time.

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