Quick Hits: The Battles Brewing Edition

Winging It In Motown

Red Wings’ difficult roster decisions like assembling jigsaw puzzle – MLive

Lalonde appears to be leaning toward having Dylan Larkin with Tyler Bertuzzi and Lucas Raymond as the top line and Andrew Copp with David Perron and Jakub Vrana on the second line. That would leave centers Pius Suter and Michael Rasmussen and wingers Dominik Kubalik, Filip Zadina, Adam Erne and Oskar Sundqvist vying for third-line spots.

If Veleno, who is waiver-exempt, makes the team it’ll likely be as the fourth-line center. Smith also would slot onto the fourth line or possibly as the 13th forward.

Overall a decent read for the state-of-the-races going on, but what strikes me in this piece is that Ansar at no point appears to ask Lalonde about who is making the ultimate call on guys being in GR versus Detroit and doesn’t seem terribly interested in even bringing up that we’ve been conditioned for years to accept this as a GM decision rather than a coach decision.

There’s a hint about Yzerman only wanting Edvinsson up if Lalonde is willing to give him the time, I guess; but that’s the kind of thing I’d like asked more directly.

Somebody far nerdier than I am could go over the schedule and figure out the last possible date for there to be more than one undefeated team and I’d guess it’s sometime in 2023 based on the east/west breakdown.

NHL Power Rankings: Optimism abounds, but Avalanche rightly start on top – Sportsnet

23. Buffalo Sabres I spent a couple days in Buffalo earlier this week and it is not hard to get the sense this is a team of young guys who like each other and want to grow together in Western New York. How far they can go this year remains to be seen, but there is undeniable reason for optimism in Buffalo.

24. Ottawa Senators The fact Cam Talbot is out more than a month is a tough blow for this a squad, which has known all summer that the challenge will be keeping pucks out of its own net.

25. Detroit Red Wings Their off-season tack left no doubt the Wings are trying to push this rebuild forward. The thing is, they could improve from 74 to 84 points and still be sixth in the Atlantic Division.

Love love love the battle out of the Atlantic’s basement brewing here.

Hey I figure it’s worth its own subheading by now:

Hockey Canada losing their funding helps answer that bad-faith “will the lights stay on?” question that Andrea Skinner posed rhetorically during the disastrous zoom meeting earlier in the week. I’m glad that it’s not just pulling those dollars, but redirecting them to actually help.

Hard to believe the organization that kept funneling money into secret funds that would help them solve legal issues might also have some issues with funds being skimmed improperly, huh?

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