In Red Wings Land
Red Wings skip practice, hold team meeting after ugliest game of season | Brendan Savage, MLive
I cannot say that I am surprised the Wings would skip practice following their worst showing of the season to get their heads right. Losing four games in a row, capped off by an ugly affair like we saw on Sunday night, sounds like a good time to pump the brakes and evaluate where you’re at.
From the article:
“I talked, I showed video of lots of things that aren’t good enough in the areas that we got to be way better,” Blashill said. “It wasn’t a discussion meeting. It wasn’t a Kumbaya. It was a ‘this is not good enough, these are the areas it’s not good enough, we got to be better.’
“Now, there’s only so much talk to go around. I handled the talk today. There will be another time for them to talk. But today was my time to talk and I handled that. Now we gotta respond.”
Here’s hoping the Wings respond. I don’t mind if they lose (in fact I’d be pretty alright with both Svechnikov brothers on the team next year to be honest with you), but to lose in such an embarrassing way on home-ice to another bottom-feeder team is unacceptable.
Around the NHL
Initial 10-game deadline looms for players on entry-level deals | Adam Kimelman, NHL.com
A nice round-up of some of the top prospects from the past two drafts who are currently in the big leagues and are fast-approaching that magic tenth game. For those unfamiliar with how entry-level contracts work in this scenario, here’s the second paragraph from the article:
A player on an entry-level contract can skate in nine games before teams must decide whether to send him to the American Hockey League or junior hockey and delay the start of their contract to the following season. Teams still can send a player down after his 10th game, but it would use up the first season of his contract regardless of how many more NHL games he played.
So, if you haven’t had the time to catch-up with some of the bigger names that have come through the draft over the last two seasons, take a look.
