In Red Wings Land

Paywall – The key questions facing the Red Wings after their winless Western Canada trip – The Athletic
As Florida Georgia Line’s “Simple” played in the background Friday night, Jeff Blashill stepped into another losing press scrum and delivered a set of answers that, relative to the previous two games, were indeed pretty simple.

If you have a subscription to The Athletic, you likely already know that Max does a great job covering the team. This article is no exception.

Detroit Red Wings wonder how to make power play more potent
“The only other thing I’d say is, we haven’t had very many of them. It is really hard to get a confident rhythm going if you don’t score on the few that you have. So we need to draw more penalties as well.”

Detroit didn’t get a lot of power plays last year either. This appears to be a consistent issue.

Around the NHL

In today’s NHL, skating is king. And Dawn Braid is a kingmaker. | Sportsnet
Okposo coasts through the fluorescent lights towards the far half of the rink, where pucks lay strewn about amid a thin layer of snow. A sheet of plywood stands in for one pane of the practice rink’s glass. He turns back towards the zones he’s been spinning through for the past half hour, resetting before another rep. With nearly 800 big-league games and a handful of 20-goal campaigns under his belt, Okposo is hardly new to getting from A to B on the ice. But it’s what’s playing out in the interim that has his brow furrowed beneath the brim of his navy Bauer helmet.

This is a really cool look at something we don’t often get insight into.

Bonus article

A crowdfunding initiative to promote diversity at the Columbus Analytics Conference | Hockey Graphs
I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to attend the last three years of the RIT Sports Analytics Conference. The first year I went, I was nervous to meet people whose work I admired. I was afraid that nobody would want to talk to this new person that few people knew and who was just starting to learn about the field.

I could not have been more wrong.

I wanted to do something to help increase the diversity of people who are able to attend hockey analytics conferences. I decided that I would donate a ticket to someone from an underrepresented community, but then I figured “why not try to do something more?”

So, this idea was born. Please share this with anyone who could take advantage of it.