from Ted Kulfan of the Detroit News,
The Wings need victories. They can't afford many more losses, at all.
"Any loss is frustrating, especially one at this time of year," defenseman Ben Chiarot said. "We know if we can string a couple games together here, we're right there (in the standings). That's our focus for the next few weeks."
What was frustrating Tuesday was the fact the Wings did plenty good enough things to likely earn a victory. They were arguably the better team at even strength. They scored a power-play goal (including the third in three straight games by recent recall Alex Chiasson). The penalty kill stopped Nashville five times....
With the playoff dream slipping away, there might be a tendency for teams to lose their hunger. But, watching the Wings largely outplay league-leading Boston in two games last weekend, and their effort against Nashville, the Wings clearly aren't the team easing up.
"They've shown that with their compete (level) and their play," Lalonde said. "Now, if that tails off, then we have a different story and maybe a different approach. But, there has been very little tail-off from our group. It's been good, really good.
"I'm just happy we are playing the right way. That stretch around the (trade) deadline where we didn't play well, we probably felt sorry for ourselves a little bit. But, we've got our group now, and we've got guys slotted correctly; we have some rhythm with our group.
"I just want (us) to play — and the right way — and for the most part, over these last four games, we have. It's a little frustrating (Tuesday) we I felt we deserved a better outcome, at least a point out of this game."
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from Tony Paul of the Detroit News,
In the short term, as Diamond looks to get creditors to agree to swap much of what they're owed in exchange for company equity, very little should change for sports fans. Diamond has promised it will be business as usual for fans of the NBA and NHL, whose seasons are winding down, and Major League Baseball, which, with Opening Day looming, has assured it's ready to step in and stream games should Diamond not be able to continue.
Long term, though, the situation appears much stickier, depending on whether Diamond actually can turn things around once its ledger is clean, and it's not beholden to massive interest payments, like the $140 million behemoth it skipped last month, signaling bankruptcy was coming.
Several Diamond entities filed for bankruptcy in federal court in Texas on Tuesday, including Diamond Sports Net Detroit, or Bally Sports Detroit, which broadcasts more than 300 Tigers, Red Wings and Pistons games a year. Diamond's total rights-fee bill to the three Detroit times never has been made public, but it almost certainly exceeds $100 million payments that are in great danger of not being disbursed, or at least being greatly reduced, as Diamond goes through this bankruptcy process. The payments are important to the teams, to be sure, but missing that money in the short term also isn't going to break the franchises, each of which are worth more than $1 billion.
There understandably are a lot of questions regarding the future of Diamond's RSNs, and not as many concrete answers but we'll attempt to answer some as best we can, despite a dearth of on-the-record commentary from the principals, including the Tigers, Red Wings, Pistons and Bally Sports Detroit, all of whom have declined to comment.
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Get 25 of their last 30 possible points and they are likely in the playoffs. Good luck with that.
Yup.
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. The Grand Rapids Griffins on Wednesday signed goaltender Jan Bednar to a two-year contract for the remainder of this season and the 2023-24 campaign. The Griffins subsequently assigned the 2020 Detroit Red Wings draft pick to the Toledo Walleye (ECHL).
Bednar was the 107th overall pick by the Red Wings in the fourth round of the 2020 NHL Entry Draft. The 6-foot-4, 201-pound netminder has appeared in 10 games for the Acadie-Bathurst Titans in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League this season, compiling a 4-5-1 record, a 4.46 goals against average and a 0.874 save percentage. In 2021-22, Bednar was named to the QMJHL Second All-Star Team when he ranked among the league leaders in GAA (2.72, 10th), save percentage (0.912, T5th), shutouts (2, T6th) and wins (28, T2nd). The 20-year-old was part of Team Czechia at the 2021-22 World Junior Championship and showed a 1-2-0 mark. Prior to coming to North America in 2021, the Karlovy, Czechia, native competed in parts of three seasons in the top professional league in his home country and notched a 7-19-0 ledger in 28 games to go along with a 3.72 GAA and a 0.893 save percentage. Bednar was named the 2019 Czech Extraliga Rookie of the Year when he amassed a 2.73 GAA and a 0.917 save percentage in 10 regular-season games.
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