This is the end, my friends. Game 82 of 82.
There’s not much stage-setting to be done here, we all know the deal. This game is so revolting that sometime in the last 10 days the TNT execs pulled the plug on airing it, and are picking up Buffalo vs. Dallas instead. In a different world, this could be a win-and-in scenario for the Red Wings, but they read the tea leaves early and bailed.
Beyond that, they’re passing up the opportunity to spend an entire broadcast talking about the Florida Panthers, something they love doing. It’s a real Men in Black II situation. Florida Panthers: old and busted. Buffalo Sabres: new hotness.
It’s a blessing in disguise for Red Wings fans who would have been watching the local broadcast anyway. If I can make a recommendation, it’s to give some love to the radio broadcast for at least a period (it’s easy to sync your TV up with the radio app). It’s Paul Woods’ final game in the broadcast booth, concluding a 40-year run on radio that followed his eight-year playing career.
I crossed paths with Paul in my stint with the Red Wings, and he’s as good a person as you’ll find in the game. He keeps a low profile, not getting out there besides the game broadcasts. I remember being a kid in the ’90s and tuning into the radio broadcast when games lasted past my bedtime, keeping the volume as low as I could, and loving how the game came alive through Ken and Paul’s call. It was a treat to get to know him, and to find that he’s as low-maintenance and humble as they come.
He’s a true hockey lifer. I found a lot of people in the profession who are around hockey so much that small talk tends to be about other topics, which is perfectly healthy. But it’s inspiring to be around people who live and breathe it, and Paul does. He’s watching games every night, and he has a handle on the entire league. And his opinions are his own, and not just generalities or what the listener wants to hear.
I learned a lot from how he sees the game. He has some idiosyncrasies on the air, but I never found that it took away from the message. And I’m tellin’ ya, I met a lot of young, aspiring broadcasters, and good luck to them, but they’re all trying to sound the same, no real character or life behind the call. The Red Wings have been blessed with TV and radio broadcasters who are authentically themselves, and the product is better for it. Best of luck to Paul on a well-earned retirement and a half-century dedicated to the Red Wings.
The only other topic worth delving into for tonight’s game is the utter shock, dismay and disgust that I’ve seen in some circles that Detroit called up Michael Brandsegg-Nygard and only played him 11 minutes on Monday. I have a couple points on that:
One… this isn’t a video game. He doesn’t gain more experience points from playing 15 minutes instead of 11. He’s being rewarded for being the best prospect on the Griffins of late with an opportunity to play against a top team (and whatever Florida is), before focusing on a long AHL playoff run he can use as a springboard into 2026-27. If he doesn’t score 20 goals next year, it’s not because he got five fewer shifts in a low-stakes mid-April game.
I understand how the fanbase is over most of this team, and I’m right there, too. There are some pending UFAs who we assume are on the way out, but there is an ugly elephant in the room, which some are conveniently ignoring. It helps Detroit to win this game. Currently, they can finish as high as 13th in the NHL, but a loss combined with the right results from out-of-town results could see them fall behind a few more lottery teams.
With that unprotected first-round pick in St. Louis’ pocket, Detroit needs lower odds of winning, which, let’s face it, they are absolutely going to because that’s how things have been rolling, so just prepare for it now. Teams can only move up 10 spots, so it could be the difference between handing over a top-five pick or something later in the top 10. I’ll hear out your arguments on which players actually give the Red Wings the best chance to win, but giving a goalie his first start, letting multiple kids make their NHL debuts, assembling lines that have never played together… is not generally a recipe for success. Just get it over with and let the Griffins’ playoff run serve as the audition for next year.
I’ll walk that back slightly to call the team on one line of bullshit, however. When asked Monday if they planned to call up more players, Todd McLellan said they couldn’t, citing the four call-up maximum — you get four call-ups after the deadline, anything else has to be “emergency conditions,” meaning you won’t have enough healthy skaters if they don’t play.
The Red Wings have used the four on ASP, MBN, Mazur, and Shine. So he’s not lying, but, c’mon. Teams are openly making a mockery of this rule, with Carolina taking the opportunity to make a bit out of it with daily tweets like:
Take it from my fantasy hockey team’s championship series, star players are dropping like flies right now. Multiple teams have rested 5-6 players at once and filled out the lineup with emergency recalls. All of these players have been perfectly fine after their one evening of rest. Truly, this is the one trick that doctors hate!
This is a whole lot about nothing, but I think the Griffins — what with the continuous record-setting and all — deserve better than that, as there are some good soldiers worthy of a game, even beyond the prospects fans are clamoring for. We keep hearing that “everyone is banged up,” and while you shouldn’t sit Larkin and Raymond if you’d like to win, I’m confident they muster up the right “conditions” on a few others who may not be long for this roster.
If they truly wanted to give Cossa a look, just point to the three times Gibson has needed to leave a game due to injury and say he has a lingering issue. If anyone in the bottom six has blocked a shot in the last week, they clearly have a contusion and can’t go. Maybe some of the guys went to blow off some steam in Fort Lauderdale and have come down with “food poisoning” that’s going to keep them out.
The NHL is clearly not investigating this rule, which is in place to prevent tanking. Given that Detroit does not benefit from tanking this season, I think they’d have a long leash here. Because, uh, look at Florida’s lineup below. I don’t doubt you get banged up when you have three short summers in a row. Wilmer Skoog? Marek Alscher? These are not real guys (both are totally scoring tonight, btw).
They have 12 (!) regulars out, most of whom — of all the rotten luck — suffered their ailments just after the Panthers’ playoff hopes became mathematically inconvenient. What curious timing! I refuse to believe there isn’t at least one hangnail in there. They are openly tanking and violating the spirit of this rule, and the NHL is choosing to look the other way. Much bigger fish to fry as far as the Red Wings are concerned but… they could get Amadeus Lombardi to Sunrise tonight if they really wanted to.
How to Watch
Time: 7:00 p.m. EDT
TV: FanDuel Sports Network
Radio: WWJ Newsradio 950
Red Wings Projected Lineup
Finnie – Larkin – Raymond
DeBrincat – Copp – Kane
Mazur – Compher – Perron
van Riemsdyk – Kasper – Brandsegg-Nygard
Edvinsson – Seider
Chiarot – Faulk
Johansson – Sandin-Pellikka
Gibson
Talbot
Panthers Projected Lineup
Verhaeghe – Bennett – Tkachuk
Samoskevich – Luostarinen – Greer
Foote – Gregor – Boqvist
Reinhardt – Kunin – Hinostroza
Bjornfot – Benning
Sebrango – Alscher
Hovorka – Jansson
Tarasov
Bobrovsky
