Red Wings Rumblings
The Detroit Red Wings are on a heater again!
For a second time under Todd McLellan, the Wings have put together a seven-game win streak. They swept their four-game road trip out west. Detroit scored four goals last night and took the game against Seattle to a shootout, resulting in a 5-4 win against the Kraken. I’ll admit that I didn’t catch the whole game — kinda tough to do on a Tuesday night with a 10:00 PM start. I’m not the only one, probably… So no worries, we’ve got the highlights:
I want to stress that this was not an “easy” road trip. They never are in Western Canada. You play a lot of hockey in a different time zone(s), and fatigue set in quickly. You could tell they were tired in Calgary and Vancouver, yet they came out on top and wiped the floor clean. That’s thanks to talent, depth, and of course, good coaching. The Wings will be rewarded now with just one game (Saturday against Tampa) until February 22. That’s a big deal, folks! Detroit is still sitting in the first wild card spot, and now are breathing down Ottawa’s neck for the third spot in the Atlantic Division.
In other news, we learned yesterday that Chris Ilitch and his wife have filed for divorce. This has raised some questions as to what it would mean for the financials of both the Red Wings and Tigers. The belief is that the Ilitch family will be on high guard when it comes to both of their highly-valuable sports franchises. I’m not too worried about it. If it were to impact any team, I think it would be the Tigers given the MLB salary landscape. I’m no expert, though. We’ll just have to wait and see.
The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler released his top NHL prospect pools. Detroit comes in at number five, led by Axel Sandin-Pellikka, Michael Brandsegg-Nygard and Marco Kasper. Nate Danielson and Sebastian Cossa also made the top-five in Detroit’s system, according to Wheeler. The plan of draft and develop with veteran players acting as the stopgap seems to be a strategy that is starting to pay dividends for this franchise. With ASP set to make his move to North America next season (and I would expect the same for MBN), we have a lot to look forward to as fans. Trust the process.
Finally, in some NHL news, Alexander Ovechkin is now 17 goals away from breaking Wayne Gretzky’s record. I have a good feeling that “the great 8” can do it this season, but even if he can’t, it’s certainly going to happen next year. I don’t think we truly understand how incredible of an accomplishment this will be, especially in this era of pro hockey. Ovechkin is bound to go down as the greatest goal-scorer the sport has ever seen… If he hasn’t already.
Enjoy the downtime, folks. LGRW!
