In Red Wings Land
Red Wings midseason report: Thumbs up, thumbs down and what’s ahead | Detroit News
Thumbs up
►Tyler Bertuzzi: Playing primarily on a line with Dylan Larkin and Anthony Mantha, Bertuzzi has taken advantage of his opportunity. Is he the most talented player on the team? No. But few players get more out of their skill set, or can do more things to somehow put the puck in the net.
►Filip Hronek: On a better team Hronek might be playing regularly on the second or third defensive pairing and easing his way into the NHL. But with this roster, Hronek has been thrust into larger responsibilities and hasn’t been overwhelmed. He seems to love the challenge.
►The future: At this point, all Wings fans can hope for is a better future. There are some pieces the organization can build around (Hronek, Filip Zadina, Larkin, Bertuzzi, Mantha) and now it’s a matter of developing the other prospects – and accumulating more of them.
A thumbs up-style grading system is absolutely one that I can get behind and support.
World Juniors
Seider leading Team Germany at World Junior Championship | DetroitRedWings.com
“First, he is so good defensively. He has a strong stick and skates so well. Then with the breakouts, he can pass the pucks to our forwards and make some really good plays under high pressure and he just does a lot of things that are extraordinary for a player at his age. And, with the puck in the offensive zone, he’s a scoring threat, too,” Abstreiter said of Seider, who has five assists in five games.
”He’s a big time player for us and he just performs better and better and feels more confident with each game,” Abstreiter continued. “He made some big steps last season and, in the end at the world championship, you saw what he’s capable of doing on a big stage like this. The best part is he will just keep improving.”
Damn… it sure feels like Steve Yzerman hit a grand slam for the Red Wings with the Moritz Seider pick.
Around the League
NHL experts buy/sell Panthers as a top Atlantic team, Jets trading for a defenseman and more | ESPN
2. The Detroit Red Wings are the worst team we’ve seen in at least five years and won’t reach 60 points.
[…]
Filipovic: Buy. The Wings are currently on pace to finish the season with 46 points and a minus-134 goal differential. The 2016-17 Avalanche had similarly horrendous numbers, but that was largely due to catastrophically bad goaltending, as their underlying numbers weren’t actually all that terrible. This Red Wings group is the worst team we’ve seen since the Tim Murray Sabres that were actively tanking in the hopes of landing high draft picks. Hopefully for Detroit’s sake, it is rewarded with Lafreniere for its efforts.
#LoseForLafreniere
