On the 27th anniversary of the original Michigan goal by Mike Legg.

NEW YORK (March 24, 2023) – The National Hockey League today issued the following statement regarding Arizona Coyotes’ minority owner Andrew Barroway:

“The National Hockey League is aware of the arrest of Arizona Coyotes’ minority owner Andrew Barroway. Pending further information, he has been suspended indefinitely.”

via the Aspen Daily News,

from Ansar Khan of Mlive,

Alex Nedeljkovic cut his hair and shaved his mustache, looking much different sitting in front of his stall in the Detroit Red Wings dressing room after practice Friday.

He hopes he will look different on the ice, too, Saturday in Philadelphia (1 p.m., Bally Sports Detroit) when he makes his first start for the Red Wings in 3½ months.

Different at least from how he started the season in Detroit, but similar to how he played in Grand Rapids, where he gained some rhythm and confidence.

“I’ve felt really good, especially these last 2½-3 weeks,” Nedeljkovic said. “I felt like I’ve kind of gotten back to myself, gotten back to what’s worked for me in the past and what’s made me successful.”

Nedeljkovic is back because Ville Husso is out with a lower-body injury. He will make his first NHL start since Dec. 8 because Magnus Hellberg was not sharp Thursday, when Nedeljkovic replaced him midway through the second period of a 4-3 loss to St. Louis.

“It’s unfortunate that Huss is dealing with something. You never want to see anybody get hurt,” Nedeljkovic said. “But that’s the job. I’m just thankful for another opportunity.”

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Below watch Ned after today's practice along with coach Lalonde.

Ansar Khan tweet,

practice prior to playing in Philly tomorrow at 1 on ⁦@BallySportsDET⁩
Seven D, including Edvinsson and Lindstrom, skating. Zadina not skating among the forwards, Erne is. Hellberg and Nedeljkovic in the nets. Husso still out.

from Eric Francis of Sportsnet

Passed by the Nashville Predators, ghosted by the Winnipeg Jets and humbled by the Golden Knights.

Three clubs got the best of the Calgary Flames on Thursday, leaving only one group of lads who have themselves to blame.

In a season full of gut punches, this one may very well be the blow the Calgary Flames aren’t capable of getting up from.

Sure feels that way right now.

Their heads were bowed as they left the ice, their eyes fixed straight ahead as they tried their best to explain a devastating, 3-2 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights.

The players suggested the most troubling part of the loss was coming out flat – devoid of desperation to open a game of this magnitude.

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from Ted Kulfan of the Detroit News,

"I loved our start but really disappointed how we handled the goals against," coach Derek Lalonde said. "It's a reality of where we're at, and instead of feeling sorry for ourselves for the next four or five minutes after the goals scored, go play the game right.

"I hated the way we handled it and how we just lost momentum and energy every time a goal went in. That game was there for the taking and we let it get away from us."...

Simon Edvinsson scored his first NHL goal, and Jake Walman and Alex Chiasson scored the Wings' (31-31-9) goals.

"We were off to a good start and the bench felt energized, but it's a tough league to let go," Chiasson said. "You give an inch there and the next thing you know, they grab momentum and we found ourselves chasing the game a little bit.

"It's a good lesson for our group. We came back in the third (period) and found a way to get back in there but we have to find a way to play 60 minutes. The league is too good to let down and let other teams come back in these types of games."

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Below we have Edvinsson, Chiasson and Lalonde discussing the game.

* The Hurricanes are officially headed back to the Stanley Cup Playoffs by virtue of the Panthers’ regulation loss Thursday.

* The League-leading Bruins defeated the Canadiens to reach 55 wins and 115 points with 11 games remaining this season.

* The Devils can join the Bruins and Hurricanes as the third team to clinch a berth in the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs when they square off with the Sabres on Friday.

The Wings came out strong, scoring two goals in the first 1 1/2 minutes of the game. The Blues added a goal to make it 2-1 after 20 minutes of play.

In period two, the Blues scored three times, the Wings did not score. 4-2 Blues after the second period.

Detroit scored with just over two minutes to go to make it 4-3 (Detroit goalie pulled) but could not get the equalizer. Blues win 4-3.

Team Stats

Below watch a few BSD videos and the Detroit goals.

from George Richards of Florida Hockey Now.

Florida Panthers veterans Eric and Marc Staal did not come out for warmups with their team on Thursday night in protest of the team’s Pride Night.

The two brothers cited religious differences in making their decision....

In a joint statement, the Staal brothers said they “carry no judgement” on “how people live their lives.”

From the statement: “After many thoughts, prayers and discussions we have chosen not to wear a pride jersey tonight.

“We carry no judgement on how people choose to live their lives, and believe that all people should be welcome in all aspects of the game of hockey.

“Having said that, we feel that by us wearing a pride jersey it goes against our Christian beliefs.

“We hope you can respect this statement, we will not be speaking any further on this matter and would like to continue to focus on the game and helping the Florida Panthers win the Stanley Cup.

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Hello and welcome to all. The Wings face off against the Blues tonight so I’m expecting a boring kinda game. The win the other night helped to slightly boost the morale of Wings fans, which is way better than what the alternative outcome would have done. Also, it’s getting nicer outside so watching is as always, optional. The countdown begins shortly to end the season as there are eleven games remaining after tonight’s tilt.

Hellberg gets the start tonight as Husso is dealing with a “lower body” something or other. Nedeljkovic is up from GR for backup duties.

It’s the Blues vs the Wings. The puck will drop sometime around 7:00 PM and will be broadcast on Bally Sports Detroit and the Red Wings Radio Network (97.1 The Ticket in Detroit). Also available on NHLPP/ESPN+ and BSMW.

It’s a Live Blog!

The world watched as Shohei Ohtani struck out Mike Trout to push Japan to the World Baseball Classic title, but it was also a grim reminder to hockey fans who have been starved from best-on-best play since 2016. Does the NHL have any plans to bring back the World Cup, or Olympic participation? What have been the hurdles to make it possible? TSN Hockey Insiders Darren Dreger and Pierre LeBrun discuss this and more.

Watch at TSN

All from Connor McDavid.

from Matt Larkin of The Daily Faceoff,

When the Wings wheezed to the end of their 25-year streak in 2016-17, I argued at the time that no team was further away from the Stanley Cup. The only thing worse than being a terrible NHL club is to be a mediocre one that won’t admit it’s mediocre, because it dooms you to keeping the team on life support and finishing in the mushy middle. Even once the Wings started missing the playoffs, they had enough veterans on immovable contracts to stick around and keep them from being too bad. They didn’t even secure a top-five draft slot until 2020, when they snagged Lucas Raymond. It marked Detroit’s first top-five pick in 30 years.

The Wings of the past decade serve as a cautionary tale. They couldn’t let go of the idea that they were contenders and, by choosing quick solutions, they hurt themselves in the long run. They’re about to miss the playoffs a seventh consecutive year, and they’re hardly a lock to avoid an eighth straight miss next season. They traded one streak for another.

So what am I getting at, picking on the Wings?

I want to highlight the team I believe to be the furthest in the NHL from a Stanley Cup today. Have a look at the active playoff streak leaderboard. The Pittsburgh Penguins are hanging by a thread, clinging to the hope of crawling into the postseason as an Eastern Conference Wildcard seed and extending their streak to 17 years. They kept the band together last summer, re-signing thirtysomething franchise legends Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang to keep the championship dream going with captain Sidney Crosby still playing elite hockey.

But look at the circumstances surrounding this team and you’ll find alarming similarities to the Wings as the end of their streak. These Pens enjoyed a decade and a half of incredible success, punctuated by three Stanley Cups, but they haven’t won a playoff series in six years, bowing out in Round 1 every season since their consecutive championships in 2016 and 2017. Because of their continued success, they haven’t owned a top-five draft pick in 17 years. They are perceived to have one of the very worst prospect crops in the NHL. Their “upgrades” at the 2023 Trade Deadline were Mikael Granlund and the since-injured Nick Bonino and Dmitry Kulikov.

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Six minutes to watch.

via Ansar Khan tweets,

Hellberg in starter’s net for #RedWings prior to hosting Blues

lines at the skate:
Suter-Larkin-Raymond
Erne-Copp-Perron
Kubalik-Veleno-Zadina
Berggren-Czarnik-Chiasson
Luff
The seven D, including Edvinsson, are rotating.

power play units:
1. Chiasson (net front), Larkin (bumper), Perron-Raymond (flanks), Seider (point).
2. Copp (net front), Zadina (bumper), Berggren-Kubalik (flanks), Walman (point).

DETROIT – The Detroit Red Wings today recalled goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic from the American Hockey League’s Grand Rapids Griffins under emergency conditions.

from Iain MacIntyre of Sportsnet,

The first thing Adam Foote noticed about Filip Hronek were his hands. Foote knew the defenceman could skate and was competitive, but it was the hands.

“Hronek comes out in practice the first day and I was chuckling,” Foote, the assistant coach in charge of Vancouver Canuck defencemen, said after Wednesday’s practice. “I knew his compete (level), but when I saw him with his hands always in front of him and how smooth he was with the puck ... I loved it because the other D are, like, looking at him.

“I think he's going to bring that element of making big plays. And he competes and he's fast and he's smart. I think he's a big piece for us.”

He better be after Canucks general manager Patrik Allvin sent a mid-first-round pick and early-second to the Detroit Red Wings three weeks ago for the 25-year-old, right-shot, top-four defenceman.

Injured the night before the trade, Hronek is expected to make his Canucks debut Thursday at home against the San Jose Sharks. And he could start on a super-pairing with star blue-liner Quinn Hughes, who has lacked a legitimate top-pairing partner since Chris Tanev was allowed to leave Vancouver in free agency three years ago.

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Jack Michaels with the call.

Interview with McDavid near the end of the video.

* The NHL witnessed the fastest player to reach 60 goals in a season in 27 years when Connor McDavid reached the mark via an overtime winner.

* Sidney Crosby hit the 30-goal mark for the 11th time in his career to tie franchise legend Mario Lemieux atop a Penguins all-time list and achieve an NHL first in the process.

* A number of storylines are on the board during a 12-game Thursday, including the Bruins, who are in a position to clinch the Atlantic, and the Wild, who can overtake first in the Central.

from Mark Lazerus of The Athletic,

The Blackhawks will become the third NHL team to decline to wear Pride jerseys during Pride Night, citing security concerns for their three players of Russian heritage, team sources confirmed to The Athletic.

Two Blackhawks sources stressed that the decision was made by team management and security officials, not by the players, but it’s another body blow to the Hockey is For Everyone movement that the NHL proudly touts, but all too frequently fails to back up.

A Russian law passed in December criminalized so-called LGBTQ+ “propaganda.” Since then, the Minnesota Wild and the New York Rangers opted out of wearing Pride-themed jerseys during warmups — typically, the jerseys have rainbow coloring and are auctioned off for charity.

Now the Blackhawks will join them, contradicting earlier statements from alternate captain Connor Murphy and team CEO Danny Wirtz.

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from Daniel Kaplan of The Athletic,

NHL star Evander Kane said in judicial papers filed last week that he wagered sometimes as often as 50 times a day, which is in large part why he filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy with liabilities topping $26 million.

Kane’s post-trial brief, in the lawsuit brought by his biggest creditor, Centennial Bank, laid out the player’s family background and tried to explain how that played a part in his spiraling debt in spite of overall career earnings that have reached $76 million.

“Kane was raised on the east side of Vancouver, which at the time was a lower-class area of the city,” the post-trial brief reads. “His mother Sheri was a stay-at-home mother when Kane and his sisters were growing up because they could not afford daycare.”

“Kane was drafted by his first team when he was seventeen years old, and he began playing professional hockey straight out of high school at the age of eighteen,” his lawyers wrote in the post-trial brief, which the judge requested after the trial, which took place on Jan. 23 and 25. “He has never taken any college or college-level courses, nor any courses or training about accounting, money management, or business development (and the NHL does not provide any financial education to its players). Although Kane became a highly compensated athlete in his fourteen-year career, he was raised in a working-class family that never owned a home, struggled financially, and lived month-to-month.”

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from Kevin Allen of Detroit Hockey Now,

Simon Edvinsson will earn another day of NHL money to give the Detroit Red Wings more time to assess the health of their regular defensemen.

Edvinsson is in Detroit as an emergency call-up because the Red Wings didn’t have six healthy defensemen. If all of Detroit’s defensemen are ready to play the Thursday rematch against the St. Louis Blues, Edvinsson must be returned to the Grand Rapids Griffins.

“Still on the emergency,” Detroit coach Derek Lalonde said. “We’re banged up, it’s that time of year. We’re down to every available body. I think tomorrow if the other six are potentially healthy, the six on the roster, I think then we’d have to make a decision of what we’re going to do with him. Right now, he could possibly be in. ”

Or, the Red Wings could choose to extend his stay by changing Edvinsson’s status to a regular recall from their minor league affiliate.Edvinsson was injured in a loss to the Florida Panthers Monday. He didn’t play Tuesday in St. Louis, but did participate in an optional practice Wednesday in Detroit.

“He was working on it but you could tell he had some discomfort still working on some edges,” Lalonde said. “I’m sure he could play but I don’t know if we – even last night, both him and Lindy were probably. They both were not 100%. But we were forced to play one of them. I don’t think we wanted to do that to Simon, playing him at not 100%.”

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Below watch Derek Lalonde after today's optional practice.