In Red Wings Land

New Red Wings coach Lalonde left lasting impression on players, staff in Toledo - Toledo Blade

Former Toledo forward Kyle Bonis recalled some of the unique motivational tactics Lalonde brought in, including an old lunch pail that would be rewarded post-game to the grittiest player.

“It was an old rusty bucket, and it showed that success and winning were not always fancy and pretty,” Bonis said. “It was blue collar. To anybody outside the locker room, it meant nothing, but to us it meant everything.”

The whole post is a fun read.  I was already excited about Lalonde, but I’ll take as much of this stuff as I can get.

Around the League

As the dust settles from the Panthers-Flames blockbuster, I’m told Jonathan Huberdeau isn’t particularly happy with how everything played out.

There were some early, informal extension talks, but Huby’s camp was waiting for an offer that never came. The next call was the trade.

— David Dwork (@DavidDwork) July 23, 2022

This one is tough because I don’t know what “early, informal extension talks” really means here. It’s possible that those talks led the Panthers to believe they were pretty far apart and to make the decision to get away from Huberdeau when they had a chance. I don’t blame them for doing that any more than I blame Tkachuk for putting the Flames in a position to have to trade him. Still, if Huberdeau feels raw about how things went, I’m not happy about that.

We just need Kadri and Klingberg to sign somewhere so we can talk about something else.