McLELLAN LIGHTS A FIRE & RED WINGS BOUNCE BACK – Winged Wheel Podcast – Oct. 12th, 2025

McLELLAN LIGHTS A FIRE & RED WINGS BOUNCE BACK – Winged Wheel Podcast – Oct. 12th, 2025

[Music] Welcome to the Wing Wheel Podcast, the number one source for news, analysis, and discussion on the Detroit Red Wings, the NHL, and all things hockey. Here are your hosts, Ryan Hannah, Brad Krisco, and Evan Lopsinger. [Music] I’m always so happy, Evan, when you jump in with something on the show that’s like you’re pushing a topic or a conversation cuz one, people love it and they think that you don’t do it enough. And that’s just you. And I’m always like, “Yes, Evan’s in it. You can tell he’s in his bag right now. He’s feeling it. New dad energy, new dad bump.” I don’t want you to do that anymore. That’s done. No problem. Yeah, because last episode in the season preview, I don’t know what, you got a a gust of adrenaline and you were like, “Oh, can we do a hot take, too?” And then you’re like, “But it has to be a really hot take.” So, I’m sitting here. Yeah. Yours is looking hotter every day that passes. The pressure and I’m like, “Oh, man. I want to I want to give this a good one. Evan’s pushing this. I like how do I go off the board here a little bit? I don’t want to do the obvious.” And I come out with John Gibson over 920 save percentage. And that’s your fault. I’m pitting that on you. It’s getting hotter by the minute. What’ you say in the live stream? He’s going to need to score a couple goals to get to 920. He absolutely is. Yeah, you you trapped me there. It’ll be incredible seeing a Detroit Red Wings goalie win the heart with the the comeback performance of like third in the Rocket Rashard race and, you know, a 919 save percentage. Yes. This is what I get. It’s hilarious though. Well, I can’t even remember your two hot takes cuz I’m just blinded with shame from mine going down game one. Luckily, the Red Wings came back with the win the second game. So, this isn’t an immediate miserable episode. I was a post away from my hot take getting a good head start, but Axel Sandine Pelica was just Yeah, he did come close, didn’t he? He came very close. In any case, this was I think that performance last night really it kind of took the little bit of good we saw in game one and then it was like, hey, no, that’s real. And that just changed the entire tune for today’s show. So, what you’re saying is the moral of the story, we should do nine preseason games. Don’t do that. No, thank you. Don’t do that. Welcome to the Wingo podcast, folks. Here to talk to you about all things Detroit Red Wings hockey. This season has kicked off the world of the NHL and lots more. I’m one of your hosts, Ryan Hannah. I’m Brad Krisco. And I’m Evan. This episode of the Winding Wheel podcast is presented by Greenlight Lending. Red Lights are meant for lighting the lamp at the rank, not your home ownership goals. Head to go greenlight lending.com today for creative mortgage solutions with flexible closing cost options. Licensed only in Michigan, NMLS 267-6683, an equal housing opportunity lender and proud sponsor of the Winged Wheel Podcast. On this episode, we’re recapping real Red Wings games, not preseason games. Two of them played, one was terrible, one was great. We’ll be covering both the ins and outs, the storylines, who came out of the first game, who came into the second game, milestones that were hit, Mlen’s messages, all of that, lots more. We’ll be taking a look at how the kids have done through the first three games, what roster moves we might be looking forward to ahead, and more as Steve Eisman’s team begins to take shape. Before all that, Wingville podcast night at the LCA Saturday, November 15th. It’s approaching quickly. wingpodcast.com/redwings to get your tickets. Every ticket is discounted and not only gets you into the Red Wings vers Sabres game. It also gives you access to the pregame live recording of the Windheel podcast at Little Caesars Arena featuring not just us but also Ken Daniels, lead announcer of the Detroit Red Wings, Rob Ray, and other special guests. You also get a special Wing Wheel podcast and Detroit Red Wings co-branded blanket. It’s Centennial themed. So, it has our 10th anniversary logo and the Red Wings Centennial logo on it. It’s a sweet design. All of that and lots more merch, giveaways, meet and greet, etc. So, again, wingwheelpodcast.com/red Wings. All right. Home opener. Had the energy, man. We We started doing our live stream of the games, which in the new studio is something that we’re planning to do more. So, that was our first one of the season. People were pumped up. It was an important game. Detroit got the first goal of the game. It was there and then it got bad kind of fast. We’ll get into the details of the game, but overall summary of what happened. For the first at least half of the game, the Red Wings were comfortably the better team, but they had a few pretty catastrophic brain farts. And as is tradition, not that you want to pin it all on the goalie, but some of those ones where you don’t blame the goalie, but you’re like, “Sure would have been nice if he got that one.” Those ones end up in the back of the net and all of a sudden a one- nothing lead and you’re down 34-1 pretty quickly in a game where you probably should be up. Yeah, Detroit looked good. Like you saw offensive zone control there. You saw the puck moving well. They looked a bit rusty, but the same way I think most NHL teams look rusty, especially a team with, you know, three rookies and a bunch of turnover that the Red Wings had. And I I I noticed the kinds of things that inspired the confidence that you wouldn’t have had in a lot of the Red Wings played last season. Like they didn’t look like they were fighting the game. They looked like they were controlling the flow. And then, yeah, Brad, you’re right. It was it was just it started with just individual moments of of lapses. The unfortunate thing it’s like it was everyone on the ice got beat. Like you think of that first goal where it was Zack Buluk got in with a a rush behind everyone and it was Johansson played it poorly. Hamnick played it terribly. They got in behind Rasmusen. Like there’s no one on the ice who really did the right thing there. Any one of those three could have easily prevented that goal. Johansson was flatfooted. Hamik was about five feet too wide from where a defenseman should sit there. and Rasmmanson just I don’t know if he didn’t see him or didn’t feel like backtracking. We’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. Assume he didn’t see him and just got blown by and then by the time he picked up the puck it was too late. And then Kappan’s goal, it looked like a split-second decision by Johansson on whether to pivot backwards or not just made it an oddman rush going the other way. And the Red Wings got beat. It was like 6 minutes of ice time for each of Johansson and Hamnick, that bottom pair. And they were a dash three. They were minus three. And it was like a pretty tough looking minus three in their first 6 minutes of ice time, which was all in one period. Yeah. Not good. Not good. And promptly split up those two. It Johansson actually moved up to the top pair with Cider and Shroat down with Hamick. And they basically were just trying to play catch-up the rest of the game. But it it never really came back to them. I think there were moments where the Red Wings looked like they might try to do a bit more, but Montreal made it four and then 5-1 in the second period and then things looked a bit familiar where it just looked. Yeah. Yeah. Like the the energy had been sapped not just out of the arena, but the team like they they knew the game had gotten away from them. Talbot came in for for Gibson, but there was just nothing to be done for the game at that point. It wasn’t just, you know, Hamnik and Johansson at that point. Everyone started to have a bad game from then onwards. Like there were players who were playing well, I think, who then just things petered off and it was it was a bad look for the team, I think, overall. And they were rightfully booed off the ice. Yeah, they got booed off the ice. They got ripped by their coach in the postgame presser, which if that’s what he’s saying publicly, they must have gotten a speech at the end of that game that they didn’t like. And yeah, we’re going to get into some of the quotes in a bit. It’s just it felt familiar. I think that was the worst part about that game because obviously everybody had all this optimism. All the rookies I should point out in that game as bad as it was, the three rookies were not the problem. No, they were fine to good and just Yeah, the mistakes are the mistakes. It’s early in the season and as much as we’d love to dump on Hamik and we will. I was going to say, are you It was You can always anticipate some early season brain farts. It’s going to happen. Every team does it. So be it. The part that rattled me more than the mistakes was the just once it hit 4-1, the team’s like, “All right, well, we’re done here for the night. Let’s just ride this one out.” And then nothing happened for the final 30 minutes of the game or however long it was. It was just Montreal, too. Like nothing was happening. That was final shots were 3117. Yeah, like the third period was borderline unwatchable. Nothing happened. Well, the good news is it went fast. Yeah, we should talk the one goal that came and it was the first goal of the game the Red Wings scored. Dylan Lin scored on the power play as a Patrick Kane pass that believe was intended for Alex to Brinket and Larkin ripped it and he was pumped up. He could see his family was in the the crowd. his daughter, first time his daughter saw him play and he scored and it was the first, you know, game of the season and everyone’s wearing the Centennial kits and those those sweaters and that entire the gloves and everything with the brown accents, the leather. It was just a cool atmosphere. So, you understand why he was pumped and then, you know, the rest of it. A lot of similarities to last home opener against Boston. Red Wings score early, the the Guju was just off the roof and then scored and scored and scored. And in this case, Montreal scored and scored and scored and life just got sucked out of the building. And then the Boobirds came. It happened in both the past two home openers, there’s now been Boobirds by the home fans. And there was also Eric Gustoson’s first game. And this was Travis Hamick’s first game. And the verdict is out by fans after one game on both those guys. So it was startling the similarities between uh the past two home openers. I still remember that message that you sent in the group chat like Gusson’s awful like this is un unplayable. It was worse in person. Mlen’s comments as Brad alluded to after that game. You know, no coach is going to look at that performance and say, “Oh, you know, they were actually, you know what, that actually happened a lot with the previous coaching staff.” But for the most part, coaches aren’t going to look at that performance and say, “Yeah, that was great.” But I really one loved and two was pleasantly surprised by how far Todd McCloone took it when he talked about them. Some of the quotes he said the players will say and they probably already said to you we can fix this when it’s time. Some of them have been doing it for years. It’s time. So he’s not only saying hey you’re at a runway like you’ve been making this excuse forever. He also called them out further and said, “They’ve probably already tried to sell you this excuse.” That is the rookies are like, “Oh, okay. This isn’t me then. We’re good here.” Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool. And then in the practice, Mlullen said to he he mentioned three or four of the like forever Red Wings. These guys have only ever played for the Wings, which is like Lurin, Cider, Raymond, and Rasm, I think, would qualify for this. He said, “Are we tired of this yet?” like he was going at them in practice and he said he’s like I’m not saying it’s their fault but for a team to to break out of this and not get into this whole losing atmosphere and you know not playing structured hockey and however you want to summarize the the losingness for the Red Wings over the past however many years they have to be they have to be led and he needs those longtime Red Wings to lead by example. So, for him to say like, “It’s time. You’ve been doing it for years. It’s time.” And and really pushing on the Red Wings leadership. Like, that’s Mlullen making a few statements. One, doesn’t matter whose fault it is. The best players have to be the ones to pull this team out of it, hold their peers accountable, lead by example, and two, he does not have an appetite this year for [ __ ] Like, he’s he came in last year, it was a season in transition, he didn’t have a lot of time, and and guys got some leeway. Not anymore. Not anymore. Well, it’s good because, you know, it often gets forgotten by most people, especially since Saturn and Raymond got it. Those A’s aren’t decorative. There’s a job that comes with that. Mhm. And that is him directly pushing them to be the leaders that he wants them to be. Same with Lurin. He’s lumped in, too. And I don’t think there’s anything we can say negative about their performance over the two games. cuz I don’t think those guys were problems at any point in either of the two games other than maybe contributing to the listlessness of the third period of the home opener. But I think it was a challenge to their leadership and a straight up threat to the rest of them like the Rasmusins of the world and the Barrens and the the guys who have been here for a while and just aren’t figuring it out. He he specifically called out veterans. They had three guys making their NHL debut. Nope. It’s you guys. It’s not them. It’s you. You’re the problem. And we’ve seen them replace spots already. And Sorblum had a tough game. Bang. Out of the lineup next game. Like he’s not afraid to do this stuff. And he’s putting everybody on notice. And not that everybody had a bounceback game against Toronto, but for the most part looked like message received. Yeah. And it’s good. And that’s what you want to see. Again, you don’t want to see that home opener, but if you’re going out against a team of Toronto’s quality the next game, you damn well better be awake and you can’t repeat that same garbage. And again, a couple brain farts by a couple players who still aren’t up to speed, but they had a game. So, early signs point to message received. So, we’ll see what the long-term outlook looks like on that one. And I think what’s notable here is it’s not like the Red Wings were just completely dominated as the better team in Montreal in game one. Like they Detroit was the better team. They should have been the better team. They show that they could be the better team. Montreal scored five on 17 shots. Like that was bad goalending and just some really terrible defensive plays and then nothing to to fight back after. So it it just spiraled. But that frustration is no. Like you can’t make the personnel excuse. this team was good enough to win that game. And like we’ve said how many times on this show, it is one thing to have good players, but it’s another thing to have a good team and know how to win. And that’s why you see the the near dynasties in the NHL. They hang on to their winning culture and their winning ways well after they lose some of their key players because it’s just ingrained in them. And that is, you know, tangible in terms of how they practice and the systems they run and their their skills on the ice and bettering each other. but also some of that’s intangible in just like the the chemistry and the atmosphere and how they carry themselves as professionals on and off the ice. Those are the kinds of things that the Red Wings are lacking. And it’s it’s not unique to Detroit. I think most NHL teams don’t have that at the highest level to to state the obvious. But if the Red Wings have winning ambitions, okay, they’re starting to get the good players. They really really are. We can see that. But you have to have the winning ways now. Yeah. the if the Wings lose to Montreal in the home opener, it’s not the end of the world. The season’s super long, but it’s the way in which they lose that I think is frustrating. It’s Yeah, they were the better team on paper and they lost the game. Well, that happens, but it was the fact that there was no willingness or sense of urgency to get back in that game and and try to send a message to Montreal early. even if they didn’t come back all the way, you you want to send some sort of message and to just lay down and die is not going to be the way. And Todd Mlullen made that pretty obvious. I I don’t mean to compare everything to the Panthers like we always do, but they are the gold standard in the league. If the Florida Panthers are ever down 5-1 in a game with 15 minutes left, I think 99.9% of Angel players will tell you you have that big of a hill to climb with that much time left in the game. probably not winning the game no matter how good you play. Even the best teams know that they’ll still tryless to play, but whatever. How many near suspensions do you think the Panthers would have in that scenario? Knowing them, zero. But not for a lack of trying. Exactly. The want to be miserable to your opponent and send a message would be very strong. Man, you think the Montreal Canadians even needed their helmets for the last 15 minutes of that game? Yeah, there was there’s no there was just there was not only was there no push back on the scoreboard, there was no push back in the sense that there was no pushing. Like again to just straight up call out the fourth line on this one, you’ve got a fourth line of three guys well over 6 feet tall. One of them’s 6’8. One of them is what 6′ five or however tall Ras is. Nonfactors on the scoreboard, non-factors in the play. And then you would think for guys who are aware their job is on the line with how this team’s going right now. You would hope there’d be some hits, some shoving, just anything to show you care. Nothing. Nothing. What was I think I saw a stat Michael Rasmmanson for his size has like two hits in two games this year and he’s on the fourth line. I mean, what is even the point at that point? And again, these three guys are not the only guys who were having this issue that game, but those are the three guys. You’re on the fourth line. You know, your jobs at stake, otherwise you’d be higher in the lineup. Do something. And yeah, the leadership group was right to be called out for not challenging the guys that push back. The depth vets were right to be called out for not doing anything and they got the result they deserved despite how well they played the first half of that game. Next game, unsurprisingly, Hamick came out of the roster. Jacob Bernard Docker came in and Johansson was paired with him on the third pairing and a little bit of a spoiler that went phenomenally better. Well, the bar was subterranean so but it was a really good result by eye and number test. But the Red Wings played the Leafs. Gustoson was officially assigned to the AHL. He had already cleared waiverss, but they hadn’t sent him down. JVR was activated, but he wasn’t quite ready yet. So, they gave Barren Sodblum spot as Brad mentioned. So, Hamick and and Sodblum are the two guys that got the boot from the lineup for game two. And Detroit takes on the Leafs at home. And I got to tell you, similar feelings where it’s like the Detroit’s not playing terribly, but the Leafs go up two nothing in the first period. And it was who was it Yarn Croc and then Wah Wah had the tip in. The Yarn Croc goal was looked like a mis coverage and and just being in the wrong place by Cider. Then Sherro couldn’t, you know, get the guy in front. That’s cuz he started behind the net and then Matthews hit the crossbar right after. And when Matthews hit that crossbar, I went, “Oh my god, it’s happening again.” and like they are piling it on. But credit to the Red Wings, like you said, Brad, it seems like message received for at least that game. They started pushing back and they they showed their ability to control the game and and work as, you know, a fiveman unit on the ice. Even before the second period, it took until the second for Marco Casper to score. Just picked his spot. Patrick Kane and Alex Dbrinket assisting. And then the floodgates really opened, I think, for the Red Wings. Lucas Raymond scored from Dylan Larkin and Emtt Finny who got his first career point. It was a a good effort all around by that line, but Raymond cleaned up the puck in front of the net. EMTT Finny gets his first career point in his second career game, which is always great to see. And then the Red Wings score their third goal. Patrick Kane, I mean, he’s on the hunt for 500. That was 493 for him. And you know, the Dbrinket Kane connection is alive and well, but oh my god, that pass from Alex Debrink. Him and Patrick Kane are the only two that saw that lane. Everyone else was wondering how for Toronto should not leave Patrick Kane that open. No, but for Alex to Brinka to find the seam and just thread it through three guys was chef’s kiss. I don’t think he saw that late. I don’t think he looked at it. He just felt it in his in his loins. He saw binary like Neo. Yeah, that was an unbelievable play. And Alex Dbrinket, who should have about 45 goals through two games this season, he’s just really leaning into my point from the last episode of he’s underrated as a playmaker. Three assists this game overall. Detroit goes up 3-2. Max Doi ties it 3-3 in third and then it just was over after that because Lucas Raymond scored on the power play. A feed from Kane. Simon Edmonson with an empty netter. Andrew Cop with an empty netter. So Detroit wins 6-3. And were they perfect? No. I I think some of the warts that existed in game one existed in game two, but they weren’t like 30 minute topic on an episode after doing a postmortem warts. They were, hey, there’s three rookies on this team. Hey, there’s a lot of turnover on this team. Hey, this is still relatively a new coach. Very normal growing pains for the start of a season. Detroit looked like a good hockey team in that game. Well, they dominated that game again. couple brain farts and at least two goals where do I want to blame the goalie for them? No. But in that category of it would be really nice if one of those ever got stopped. Outside of that, like the shots weren’t even close. 3523. So that’s the second game where Detroit has vastly outshot their opponents. Yeah. And the first three minutes of the game, they were the Red Wings had multiple great scoring chances right out of the gate before that fluky goal against the Red Wings fourth line goes in. And then it’s, you know, just a good tip from the point on the second goal. Those happen. You can’t ever get really upset about that. And again, it’s like, okay, great start. Here we go again. But again, message received. They came out flying. They kept the foot on the gas. The Leafs have really had the wings number over the last call it decade. But there was a feeling in the second period once Casper scored and the way the game was going, it’s like I actually think they’re going to come back. I feel like this is actually going to go their way. Casper’s goal felt like the first of many. Yeah, it was like, you know, I made the joke on Twitter, it feels like the Red Wings have a finishing problem, which was followed by an amazing threat of puns below it. But jokes aside, they had one goal on 46 shots to that point in the season. Like that’s not good, but also that’s not sustainable. The dam’s going to break eventually. And yeah, then just bang bang 32 like that. Red’s going to the third period and you’re like they could run away with this thing before again a puck that Talbot you would hope would save gets through and it’s 3-3 but I think Stlars was the reason it wasn’t 6-3 by the end% he was a thousand% he was and then still never got that feeling like oh no here we go just cuz the Red Wings just kept taking it to them and they got that power play and I was like they’re going to like you had that feeling like they’re going to score here this is the puck’s going in the net on this power play however much time left in the third period and as good as the power play was last year didn’t get that feeling a whole heck of a lot. I’ll tell you that the people who I usually hear from during games who are really down on the Red Wings, whether they’re, you know, Red Wings world affiliated or national media, and because this was the Maple Leafs, it was hockey night in Canada. It was a Saturday night. There was a lot of eyes on this game. I got more than one message from more than one very downer person who said, “Oh, this actually looks like a good hockey team.” Like, not just like a good game. Someone said this looks like a a legitimate team who will make noise. And again, it’s it’s one game and they’re one and one. Like it’s not nothing is signed and sealed yet. But yeah, I fully agree like the way the Red Wings played that game, it was with not just the intensity and the emotion and the passion that we’ve been calling for, but it’s this is like the the fruit of all of the the prospects and the development that’s that’s gone on over the last decade plus has come together. And this offense looks like, you know, three lines at least are really, really good out there and can match up with most other lines in the league. And the pairings worked for the most part really, really well out there. Edmonson and Sandine Pelica look great overall. Their underlyings are near the top of the league. Only a few games in for most teams, but like they’ve they’ve been dominating the control of play when they’re on the ice. And you know, that’s no small feat. And again, it’s not the biggest indicator of anything, but what was it last year? 10, 15, 20 games before the Red Wings outshot their opponent. Like, it was a becoming a meme of just the Red Wings were losing the shot battle every single night. It was a long stretch there where they didn’t two for two this year by pretty considerable margins. Like, that alone is a whole different reality from how last season started. I think that’s a carryover from when Mlullen came in. There’s just a lot of volume, but still it it’s the quality is there. It was just aggression. That’s what changed. I think the second line, the the Casper, Debrinket, Kane line was pretty lethal the entire game and it it came in such like varying ways. Like it it can come off the rush, it can come off the cycle. Like Casper and Debrink are just relentless in the offensive zone. And if that can just give Patrick Kane some time to find a soft area, that line just creates A+ scoring chances. I actually thought the third line of comp for MBN was excellent in that game. the number of times that they were out there, whether the momentum was swinging for the wings or vice versa, like Toronto was having some momentum, that line went out there, found offensive zone time, kept the puck in Toronto’s zone, you know, maybe didn’t have some high quality chances, but I I thought that line was excellent. Yeah, they even in the first game when things were going well, I thought they were really good. I thought, you know, Andrew Cup in the first game when a lot of things were going poorly, he was still one of the better Red Wings. And then, like you said, MBN continued. I think a lot of what was positive for him in the preseason. And now you’re talking about three lines. And not that Finny was bad, but I think he was very much finding his way in the first game and and still a bit in the second. Stallers robbed him on a a one-time, I’ll call it, out front where I thought for sure that that was in the back of the net. So very well could have had his first goal last game. Yeah. And now like I said, three lines there where you’re rolling them and you’re confident. Fourth line needs work. Fourth line is where I think guys are either going to retain or lose their jobs. And hopefully we find out something solid soon. Well, Mer had a hat-tick the other night in Grand Rapids. So yeah, the messages continue to pile up. When Nate I I tweeted this, but when Nate Danielson is back and he’s up to speed, I want him in that bottom six center roll immediately. Like you can roll that line 13 to 15 minutes a game, no problem. Yeah. Right now, you can’t play them five minutes or else they’re going to give up a goal. Like is not a center. He’s just not a center. No, he’s been atrocious this season. Barren and Soderblum haven’t been doing anything as the quote unquote offensive catalyst on those lines. like the top nine for the most part outside of the second half of the Montreal game. You can be very very very happy with that line. It’s the fourth line. So if you’re ever going to have a problem on a line, that’s the line you want to have the problem. But I don’t want to say they’re unplayable after two games. That’s a bit harsh. But man, it’s trending that way. What a good news story that is. You have one line that’s really the problem right now. That is like five fewer lines than we usually have a problem with with the Red Wings. Like this is like I’m not even kidding. This is genuinely good. So that game and one change on defense and all of a sudden we had three pairings that were usable. It’s unbelievable. And like that’s before Steve Visman goes out and makes a blockbuster trade for a top four left defenseman. Jake Sanderson shoots left, doesn’t he? We just got the wrong one from Ottawa. Oh, okay. Yeah, we’ll just we’ll we’ll go grab Jake Sanderson. I go back to the Well, yeah, he’ll be really cheap for sure. How much did you guys speaking of left shot defenseman? How much did you guys love Simon Edmonson? He kind of came alive that second game was really mixing it up with Matthew Ny hit him with the Bye-bye. Gave him a scoreboard at the end of the game and him and McMahon went at it. Like I saw more juice and more fire from Edmonson in the second game. I like that. And there’s a rematch on Monday at at 2 p.m. So that’ll be good. The only problem is the Leafs are dressing someone for their NHL debut. So the Red Wings are automatically down a goal. Oh yeah, that always happens, doesn’t it? Yeah. Yeah, you can. That’s how I felt when that kid with his first playoff atbat in his career came up for the Mariners to tie the game and I was like, “Oh, great.” You just knew that was so Red Wings coded against the Tigers. Raymond 100 career goals already with two on the night. Kanan de Brinket, like I mentioned, three points each. Just a much much better result. Now, the Red Wings look forward to the Leafs again on Monday, 2:00 p.m. Eastern. I believe that game is going to be an Amazon Prime game. And then 7:00 p.m. Eastern, Detroit has the Florida Panthers back in Detroit. Tough start to the month. We’re going to be back with you on Thursday. You should hear the show by Thursday afternoon or evening. So, one and one. All in all, you’ll take it. and the the Red Wings have some, you know, things to work on, but still really really positive signs so far. We’re going to take a quick break, but more after a word from our sponsors back after this. [Applause] [Music] Three main ingredients go into our early morning offseason episodes. Sarcasm, a healthy dose of blind optimism for a deep playoff run next season, and really good coffee. And that’s where we have to give a shout out to Coffee Cult. We started drinking it after one too many late night editing sessions and it honestly ruined other coffee for us. You can actually taste the difference. Seriously, they use specialty grade Arabica beans, work directly with farmers, and they roast everything after you order. So, you’re not getting stale beans that have been sitting around. It’s roasted fresh and it shows. The dark roast, which is Evan’s personal favorite, is smooth, fullbodied, and has notes of caramel and chocolate without that burnt aftertaste. 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Featured products include compounded drug products which the FDA does not approve or verify for safety, effectiveness or quality. Prescription required. See website for full details, restrictions and important safety information. [Applause] Welcome back. the kids, Branzagard, Sandy and Pelica, Finny, their first two games of their NHL careers and obviously it’s been exciting for Finny got his first career point and Sandy and Pelica has had a lot of looks actually and Brans Nigard as Evan mentioned you know he’s had his really strong moments on that third line. What are your takes on how they’ve they’ve done through 120 minutes here? Oh, if we go one by one, ASP to me has probably looked like the best of the bunch right onto the second pair with Edmonson not being eased in at all. You know, put one off the post against Toronto. There were moments I’ve noticed deep in his own zone where he did get a little too casual with the puck. Obviously, NHL pace of a forche, a little different than what he’s used to. So those moments were expected and that was really only in the Montreal game. I think he was his pace was much better against Toronto. He’s looked comfortable defending. He’s looked comfortable with the puck on a stick. Still getting shifts on the penalty kill. Mhm. Which is not a small thing for a rookie sub6oot defenseman to be killing penalties immediately in the NHL. Now, part of that’s probably Todd looking at last year’s penalty kill and go. Anybody but those guys. And yeah, he he’s looked really good. MBN had a few good looks against Toronto. Just misfired on a couple actually, which is rare for him, but that will work itself out. He’s looked good on the forche. He’s looked capable with the puck on his stick. Again, he’s getting in the right spots, getting his looks. Finn’s done well. You can tell he’s struggling to keep up with Larkin and Raymond, but that no matter who they put there, they were going to look like they were struggling to keep up with those two a little bit. I think as Finny gets more confident, he might start making some more plays. Like he’s tried some stuff. I’ll give him credit, but you can also tell there’s plays he gets a puck on his stick and he he feels like he needs to rush it when that’s not always the best play in certain scenarios. But again, he’s a rookie, so that’s that’s to be expected. The Wings have had their strengths and weaknesses over the two games and I don’t think at any point have any of these three guys fallen into the weakness category. Yeah, I I think I agree with you in terms of ASP having the strongest result. I’ll start with Finny. Just some small moments. I think as he is the puck carrier into the zone or trying to make a play happen, I think Mloone the coaching staff would have looked for something different for him just in terms of being responsible with the puck and understanding how the play can turn around on you. Those were the kinds of things that they were probably feeding him in terms of messaging to work on his game. But like you’ve been saying, Brad, you’re a rookie in the NHL. You’re not going to get everything right right off the hop. And yeah, nothing has looked terrible. I will say like it’s definitely if you if you want to call one of them a work in progress more than the others, I think it’s Finny on the top line, but it’s the top line with Lurin and Raymond. It’s not looked bad by any means, and I still think that’s the best option right now is to continue to to work at that. MBN. Yeah, that that’s his game and I’m I really like him having the comfortability of of, you know, settling into an NHL role in that third line. I’m really confident that he can hold that for a good portion of the season, if not all. But ASP to me, even with the the warts in the defensive game at certain points or, you know, certain missteps or whatever it is, one, it’s it’s less than what the Red Wings typically have at that spot in the roster. two, very understandable for a young guy coming into the league how ASP has done. And three, kid learns fast. You let him make mistakes and you give him the freedom to do that and he rewards you. And we’ve seen that. He looks like an NHL right now. I’m not going to go so far as to say he’s guaranteed to play all 82, but he has completely blown past expectations at every stage so far here. And even after two games, I’m like, “Yeah, he looks like he belongs on that second pair with Simon Edmonson. That’s crazy. The second pair is the best defensive pair they have. Yeah. The the way him and Evansson play together is like a match made in heaven. They both love that sort of like rover like get involved, be creative, make plays. Uh that pair is is really good. Obviously ASP is going to start getting more attention from other teams and they’re going to start exploiting his inexperience in the NHL, but man has he looked super good so far. I think for me, like you said, the one who needs the most coaching, the most Yeah, I’ll say the most coaching right now is Finny. And it’s not his fault. Like you’re going to stand out when your linemates are Dylan Larkin and Lucas Raymond for better or for worse. And you can certainly tell it’s a little unrefined. He needs some time, needs some learning, some coaching, but I don’t think he’s been bad at all. When when he can get in there and and sort of be the honey badger on that line and and try and help Lurin and Raymond set up plays, I I think he’s been more than adequate. MBN has been excellent. I I thought I would like to see him play with a little bit more pace, but the way that line’s played so far with with Cop and Confer, it’s you couldn’t have asked for much more. Maybe a maybe a goal, but I I think he’s been excellent so far in that third line role. Yes. Nothing so far has indicated to me that there’s again just two games. It’s so early to be making proclamations in any direction, positive or negative, but so far they’ve continued to justify their earned roster spots, and I’m looking forward to seeing how they they can go from here. And the same good news that we talked about previously is still there. Like like Evan mentioned, Carter Maer, Grand Rapids season opener hat-tick against Texas. Nate Danielson acquitted himself well enough, I think, in the preseason to have made this team. And the Red Wings depth is still leaving openings for Nate Danielson to be on this team as of right now. So if he gets healthy and and shakes off the rest, I think there’s a roster spot for him. If he earns it and no one blocks him out, the the holes on this roster are slowly, I think, going to be filled. And Johansson has to be said, his bounceback game being paired with Bernard Docker on that bottom pair. You can’t pin everything on Hamnick. Like Johansson also had a bad game game one. It was unlike him. Like he’s a really he’s a great skater. I think Mlullen describes him as cerebral like excellent skating and he put himself out of position with his skating in game one. It was it was just seemed like well one he was flipped back to his natural side but a side he hadn’t been playing for the past year the left and two he went from Edmonson to Hamik as a partner. So that must have been jarring but still on him but he bounced back being paired with Bernard Docker on that bottom pair. It was a really good result. I think Bernard Docker overall like nothing world beating, but I liked what I saw through one game. He had a very low party to clear. He looks like prime Eric Carlson in comparison to Travis Hamick. Well, Travis Hamick looked like prime Eric Carlson in some ways on defense. I don’t even No, Eric Carlson was never that bad on defense and you could have given him a left-handed stick. And I agree with you. Eric Carlson’s bad at defense. He’s not that bad at defense. Unreal stash game to both of them, though. That is a great point. Yeah, I I think like overall you’re seeing the personnel of this roster fill out and the questions now are getting so slim. There’s two big ones on the roster and we hammer this relentlessly. Top four lefty. So you can, you know, either move Edson up aside or get someone else with cider up there that’s not Ben Shrot. No disrespect to Ben Shrot. He does great just by keeping things afloat. He’s overplayed for his position. and then that top line left wing whether EMTT Finny grows into that role or if it’s MBN in the future whoever but the the margins are getting slimmer. The Red Wings are getting more solid lines, pairings, rotations out there. Cam Talba starting game three. So, we’ll see how him and Gibson settle in. But all in all, despite how funny it was, how bad the first game went after the optimism of the season preview, I still think that the optimism and the hope is justified. There’s less places for people to hide now. Yeah. As the roster starts to take shape in a more favorable manner, the I don’t want to say dead weight cuz I think that’s really inconsiderate, but the people who will not be part of the solution are having a much more difficult time to hide amongst other players. I think Todd Mlone’s like one blow away from just saying dead weight himself. So, you’re fine. Okay, fair enough. It’s becoming very obvious the when the rookies came in, it kind of pushed players in or out of the lineup. It’s made the the cardio merchants stand out significantly and people can now feel like like Albert Johansson. Maybe we try him on the first pairing. Oh, maybe we move up the lineup. Maybe maybe we move maybe Nate Danielson comes on the fourth line. It there’s no place to hide for some of these guys anymore. It’s also not even just like oh you want to filter out the veterans who have been here and have done nothing but it’ll also encourage guys like Sodblum and Bergrren for example like hey what are you to this team? That’s a great question. What are you as a player? Are you going to stick on this roster? Are you going to change and grow in the way this team needs you to? And you don’t have infinite runway like guys have had and to a degree they have had in the past. Like there’s a kid right there who wants your spot. If JVR comes in on Monday, which is when he’s expected to make his debut and JVR is a good sensible fit in the Red Wings depth, that’s already bad news bears for bad news bear. Bad news bear. Yeah, that’s actually again I don’t do the puns. I do the notes and some sensible talking, not much. And then you guys do the puns. So, thank you. But those guys have to have a for Baragrin I like how many more we talked about. How many messages do you need? This guy’s on, you know, the last page of the Lord of the Rings trilogy in terms of messages, the story or the There’s also the uh part at the end. Sure. Doesn’t matter. Okay. It’s just like you’re watching younger players come in who just make you redundant in the lineup. And if JVR has a good game, that’s incredibly bad for for Baragin. Good for the Red Wings. And I I I feel bad for Soderblum because you see flashes of of high-end skill, but if that’s not going to take place, like God gave you a 6’8 frame, there’s two maybe three people in this room who wish they had those sort of dimensions. Like if you don’t have the mentality to go out there and blow some people up, like I just I’m having a tough time seeing where you fit in the lineup. And again, it’s one game each. Neither of them were impressive at best. It’s still just one game. Lots can turn around. We’ve seen really good from both of those players. But the good news is whether they peter out or they stick, it’s like you said, Evan, I think that was a perfect way to put it. It’s good for the Red Wings cuz it means someone will have earned a spot. This isn’t, you know, the days of old where those top three lines are capable. The fourth line, I just need the give a [ __ ] to be a little bit more. And I don’t even care who it is. just just crank it up and make it so that your line’s difficult to play against. I think my my biggest like old hockey man yells at cloud opinion is if you’re a big player in the NHL and you have a roster spot in your big player and but you you never really grew up as that kind of player. You like to be the skill guy. You like to score. You like to be a little bit more of a finesse guy. If you haven’t made that work in the NHL, and this is what you were mentioning, Evan, if you haven’t made that work in the NHL, I think you should get your shot to. I think you every nobody should just be cast into whatever like archetype or or player mold that they look like. But if you if you’re not that guy at the pro level and you have the frame, it is your duty given by the hockey gods to go and be a big physical body. You don’t have to be like murder Bambi Matt Rempy, but it’d be nice if you threw your weight around. There’s there’s 5’6 Lane Hudson head faking behind his own net. Just go and throw him into the 15th row. Punish him. Make him feel even worse about not having a contract extension. Not making Team USA. Make Montreal believe that they might have Shane Gossip Bear and not Eric Carlson on their hands. You know, like go out there and make some noise if you’re going to be that big because all you hear is like size draft. All you hear is, “Oh well, he’s a big body.” And I’m like where doing what? He tries to deep drive the net. Dude, throw a punch at the other coach. I don’t care what you do, just use the body. That’s and like this is just feels like it’s attacking only Sodor Blom and Rasmusen, but those are the two big bodies on this team where it’s like if you run out of things to do offensively, that’s a great way to hang on to your spot in the roster cuz this roster still does need the snarl and the physicality. Just saying. I got a fun idea and it ties with a story I actually have from yesterday. Listen, I feel short on my best days, okay? I’m vertically challenged and this is not a secret. Ma had a game in Brford yesterday and right before her game, the Brford Titans were playing the Airs Centennials, Junior B Hockey and the Goge. As we were waiting for Mika’s room to open, I was standing right next to a player on Brford that I’m convinced the Red Wings need to draft. His name is Alexander Carmonov. This man, 17 years old, by the way, is 7 feet tall. What? 7 feet tall in one human being. That’s on feet. He I He still had his skates on when I was standing next to him. He’s hitting his head off the sprinkler system when he walks through the arena. I felt like I was at Ripley’s, believe it or not. Like, I was like, there’s no possible way. Like the the height difference between me and him was the same as me and Ma and she’s nine. Oh my god. The Red Wings need to draft him. And by the way, he took four penalties that game. Perfect. Good man. Perfect. Just so all the big guys on the Red Wings feel small so they feel like they have something to prove. You know what? If you’re Oh, not so big now. Are you Mr. 6’6? If you’re Carmonov’s representation, just make sure he gets drafted by a team with a private jet that can handle him because he might hit his head off the ceiling of the PJ while he’s sitting down. He just lays in the aisle. Oh, anyways. Okay, other quick notes. We mentioned Mer’s hot start in Grand Rapids. We should mention none other than Dominic Shai named as the 19th captain of the Grand Rapids Griffins. And in terms of deserving players in hockey of a captaincy, Dominic Shine is at the top of the list. So it was a a you know big obvious gimme, but such a great thing to see that the Griffin’s organization and and Shine did there. That was that was a nice note and looking forward I think to to Shine leading hopefully another successful Grand Rapids season. NHL news, what was it? Thursday 14 games, Friday zero games. Saturday, 16 games. Sunday tonight, one game. Dumbest league. And I think on Saturday, like half of those games all started at the same time. There was some justification of like, oh well, having so many teams play Thursday and then everyone on Saturday meant Friday was tough. It’s like, yeah, I get that. You’re going to get the excitement of the new season. You’re going to have nobody play on Friday when there isn’t NFL football. when they’re It’s Canadian Thanksgiving weekend. One baseball game, but it was at 2 o’clock, Brad. Like, we can’t we can’t get in the way of the MLB. Did you guys see Jumping away here, did you guys see Tyler Myers practically lift Conor McDavid up by the nuts with his stick with that cup check? Yes, he got a fine, Ryan. So, like, did he get a fine? Yes. You know, let bygones be bygones. Maximum allowable. The maximum allowable fine should be McDavid should be allowed to do a full two-hand windup on what I don’t actually care what part of it. Maybe not his face. It’s just so And you guys will have heard me complain about this before. There’s so many things in hockey where it’s like, yeah, I mean, why wouldn’t you do it more? What’s 2500 bucks when you’re getting paid millions of dollars? We can solve multiple problems at once here. Hockeyy’s afraid of tripping over baseball. Let’s bring baseball to hockey. You cup check a guy instead of a fine. You have to stand at home plate and you’re not allowed to protect yourself and the guy you cup check gets to throw from the pitcher mount and what it hits it hits. Uh I’ve seen I’ve seen non baseball athletes try to throw a baseball. It’s not pretty a lot of the time. Okay, let’s go halfway from the the mountain. Connor couldn’t retaliate because he took a teamfriendly deal. So like that $2,500 fine would really eat into his bank account. That’s right. Oh, I just there’s like it’s going to sound stupid. I’d rather see like a sucker punch or like a gloved punch or something like just something that happens in the heat of the moment that’s just you deciding you want to injure another like as a grown man. Yeah. How do you do that? Yeah. Manto man like just despicable action. Yeah. Just I did a lot of as a defenseman I did a lot of dirty things. I did the the stick across the spine, chopped the ankles, trip a guy behind the net, stuff I’m not proud of. Like, but you know, in the the heat of a hockey game, sure. I just I I was never I’m not trying to make myself to be virtuous, but I I don’t know. I felt like that was a line that you didn’t cross, and you just see it so much in the NHL. Dumb. Anyways, all right. We are going to take another quick break here. When we’re back, the final segment on this episode of the Wing Wheel podcast. Back after this. [Music] We’re going to overtime. Overtime is brought to you by our Patreon supporters. patreon.com/wainedwheelodcast. If you want to support the show, you get access to benefits like our bonus overtime episodes which record right after these main ones. We let loose, we have fun, you get thoughts with Evan, for better or worse. And you also get access to all of our previous bonus content, evergreen episodes that we’ve recorded. Lots more coming that way as well. You also get access to our Patreon exclusive Discord. and you’re automatically entered into all of our giveaways. We give away two tickets to every Detroit Red Wings home game in season directly to our Patreon supporters. The sign up form for the 2025 2026 season for patrons is live on Patreon. So again, patreon.com/wingedwheelodcast. Let’s take some questions from our patrons. The real K. Brown says, “In honor of the Tigers, may they rest in peace. What’s the longest or most tense hockey game each of you can remember watching live?” Oh, it’s game three of O2, right? Game three of the O2 Cup finals. Larry onoff triple O2 winner. Game five 08 cup finals. That was Yeah, you know what? That’s tense cuz like the Tigers, that one ended in heartbreak. Yeah, that one was tough. That one was tough. Yeah, Larry was a really good one as well. I don’t know why I remember it, but the se the whole freaking series, it was a sweep for the Red Wings. But 97 against the Ducks. Three of the four games went to overtime and two of them went to multiple overtimes. No sweep has ever taken more years off my life than that one. That’s one of the forever could have gone the other way. One shot decided each game. Yeah, obviously you think the better team won, but still. I mean, it was only one overtime, but let me tell you, 2010 Olympic gold medal game, I think a lot of people took some years off their lives on that one. The that Tigers game, man. Oh god. It’s like both teams, I think, felt like this. It’s like you’re throwing this way, you’re throwing this away, you’re throwing this away, but every single time you got to 15, you got to 15th inning, man. Oh my god, historic performance from Scubble. God, that was just gut-wrenching. uh was I’ve I’ve you know it’s been a long time since the Red Wings have played games of consequence cuz there have been some games over the past few years where that feeling has come back of just like the intensity of like oh my god not only am I covering this team but like this actually means something and then the heartbreak after I did the oh it’s been 45 minutes after I turn the TV off I’m sitting in the dark in my living room on the couch after that Tigers game. Been a while since I’ve done that one. All right, moving on here. Mottown Cider says, “Assuming for fun that Kane stays on the team until he’s 40, how long do you think it will take for MBN to get ahead of him on the right wing depth chart or do Bachelnikov or Keithan have a chance to leap ahead since they are scoring wingers and MBN is such a good grinder? Thanks and I appreciated the live stream.” My hot take is he’s going to end up on the left side next to Larkin and Raymond. Yeah, we I think we talked about that on the live stream. You think he could work as a an off-wing winger there? Yep. Be worth trying at some point for sure. Kaneman again, two games, but it does look like he is playing right now at the level he was playing at the peak of last season. Oh, he’s he’s got it. That line is so perfectly constructed. Hockey is important says, “Question for my three-year-old. Why don’t the Red Wings have a mascot at their games? Sagenov Spirit have two, Sammy and Bert.” Well, Hockeyy’s important. Your three-year-old is very smart because why don’t the Red Wings trot out Al the Octopus? It’s in my backyard. Oh, that’s right. The giant. Is he Is it heavy? Guy can’t lift it, so I would assume so. I don’t know that that means much anymore. It’s been a while since you’ve seen a gym. No. We maintain on this podcast. This is a a religious point for us. Full-size alley octopus with the tentacles and everything, but don’t make it compact so we can go up and down the aisles. I want it knocking kids beers out of people’s hands. Popcorn. It needs to be obnoxious, like gritty. Yes. Yes. And you can’t do gritty. Buoy is already like a gritty knockoff. You can’t do it a third time. And Buoie sucks. There’s only one Gritty. Buoie kind of freaks me out. Did you see Buoie almost got eaten by a bear in the offseason? That actually real thing. No, that legit was an insane video. Yeah. And it was one of the players. They were literally fly fishing for some skit and a literal Was it Was it a grizzly or was it just like I don’t know. But either way, I can imagine it wasn’t a grizzly otherwise. It wasn’t like the bear was there. It charged them. Hilarious. That bear looked at Buoie and went, “I have no idea what that is, but I have to kill it.” Yeah. And honestly, that’s a pretty good final strike first. Cheesy Spoon72 says, “Planning on heading to the Griffin’s home opener Friday. Who are the players I should be on the lookout for?” Well, I mean, all the players you were really excited about are on the Red Wings right now. Mer Kosa, Maser, Winderer, Lombardi. Lombardi. Any guy who you think Austin Watson’s always good for a good time. Oh yeah, I think this you’re due for a scrap at the home opener of an AHL game. You have to be, right? Yeah. Yeah. Rasmson and Petri on a two and0 breakaway says, “Is Edmonson and ASP already the second best pair we’ve had over the lifespan of this podcast?” I don’t think yet performance-wise, but I don’t know that I’m going to have that same answer like 30 games in. Is the first best Edinson Insider? Yeah, but they wouldn’t have been a second pair. Oh, are they the best second pair we’ve had? No. Yeah, I think Edison Johansson last year was performing a bit better, but in terms uh not like this two game stretch. They didn’t have a twoame stretch like this, I don’t think. I think they they dude their expected goals percentage is like over 80 like it’s otherworldly. Let’s see how it’s not it’s not going to hold up at that level, but like Yeah, it’s gonna go to 90. Exactly. Yeah. Tatai of Jersey Hav says Ma’s hat-tick is going to turn a lot of heads for who’s next up, but keep an eye on Lombardi too. Early days in the AHL and he’s showing a lot of the mental pace that you guys mentioned last week. Set up Watson on a beautiful feed against the Stars last night. Don’t discount him. It’s It’s really just the size that’s working against Lombardi because everything else is there. If you swapped him for Ras right now, I would argue the team’s better off for it. Once again, the bar is extremely low. I’m aware, which is ironic. We just talked about, you know, being hard to play against. Like, you want someone to go beat somebody up, you throw Austin Watson in there, I’d be completely okay. I thought you were advocating for Lombardi to go throw down there for a second. You want someone to beat somebody up, Amadeas Lombardi in there. He’ll go out there and beat someone up. Matthew N is looking for a beatd down. I think Amadeus Lombardi is ready for it. We could have another. Remember when debring tried fighting Yosi and was laughing at him and then Yosi fought Debring and he wasn’t laughing anymore. Yeah. Yeah. Let’s do that but with Lombardi. The Elcato says, “You clearly have a core group ready to rock Shira is a detriment on the top pair. Who could the wings trade for to fix the second pair and get Ed to side or side?” That’s the thing. Like guys who are noted as on the trade block who shoot left. There’s not a lot left-handed. That’s the only one. It’s It’s only Quinn Hughes. And at that point, I’m not sure you have very many Red Wings left. I knew this was Philip Zadina’s fault. Yeah, it all just does come back. Maybe that’s where we screwed up cuz he shot left. Maybe we just need to convert him to defense. He couldn’t have been much worse as a goal scorer, so he might as well have tried something else. Am I like, okay, Antonio Hansen looks great for the Red Wings in their prospect system. That’s a right shot. There’s a lot there. And like I get it, you have other defenseman who will fill out the depth and could push things up and like Boo and Winder depending on how they they pan out. But but like legitimately if this Johansson JBD thing goes well like it looked like last night and they can keep extending JBD for nothing, they only have one hole to fill on defense of like true consequence. But unfortunately, much like forwards, it’s on the top pair. Or you know there if there’s a configuration of those top four of Cider, Edmonson, ASP, and Mystery Player, that’s exactly where we’re at. Where it could be, but it could be Edmonsons and Cider. So it’s not top pair, it’s even second pair, but they they fit well with ASP. They just have to fit well with him, you know, like it they don’t have to necessarily be an everyday number three, number four guy. just great teams in this league have defenseman in their top four who would be absolute third pair seventh defenseman kind of guys on worst teams but they just fit in really well in those systems easier said than done but it’s just hard there’s no obvious answer right now the solution could come within I think you’re going to start to see some parts of the pipeline restocked in upcoming drafts but that’s not immediate I’d be curious to see which teams kind of fall through the floor this year and and what their rosters look like if they could be picked over. I know this is the boring answer because we say it every year, but there’s no lefty on the trade market. All the bigname penning free agents are signing. That points to Red Wings probably keeping their first round pick. You you in a perfect world, you pick best player available, but I think circumstance sometimes dictates otherwise. The Red Wings don’t have anything in the system right now that could even be an option for top four lefty. Screw it. Draft one. Yeah, just look at lefty and pick one. Yeah. Who’s going to be there at pick like 18 or whatever the Red’s going to Exactly. Just best case scenario. All right, folks. We’re going to wrap up this episode of the Wing Wheel podcast. Thank you so very much for tuning in. We’re going to be back with you on Thursday. So again, we have the Leafs game Monday and then the Panthers game Wednesday night. So, we’re going to be back with you. We’ll be recording bright and early on Thursday, so hopefully you hear the show by Thursday afternoon. I appreciate all of you tuning in. Wing Wheel Podcast night at the LCA Saturday, November 15th, wingpodcast.com/redadwings. 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The Detroit Red Wings season is underway and it has already been a bit of a rollercoaster…

Tune in as we open by discussing Todd McLellan’s squad’s 5-1 loss to Lane Hutson and the Montreal Canadiens in their home opener, including Dylan Larkin opening scoring from Patrick Kane and Moritz Seider, Johansson and Hamonic’s awful game, John Gibson getting pulled, how Sandin-Pellikka, Brandsegg-Nygard, and Finnie fared, Todd McLellan’s message to Dylan Larkin, Lucas Raymond, Moritz Seider, Michael Rasmussen, and the rest of the Detroit Red Wings to wake them up, and more as the Centennial jersey debut finished in Hockeytown boos.

After that, the Detroit Red Wings’ huge turnaround against Matthews and the Toronto Maple Leafs: Patrick Kane and Alex DeBrincat lighting it up, Lucas Raymond scoring goal #100, Emmitt Finnie’s 1st NHL point, Simon Edvinsson mixing it up, & lots more.

Next, we assess how the kids are doing and whether ASP, MBN, and Finnie will hold onto their spots, and how Nate Danielson, Carter Mazur, Amadeus Lombardi, and other young guns may factor in pushing players like Berggren, Soderblom, Rasmussen, & others.

Also, Jacob Bernard-Docker’s play next to Albert Johansson, Detroit’s big players playing small, & NHL news with Tyler Myers sticking Connor McDavid & more NHL scheduling woes, & lots more before we take your questions and comments in our Overtime segment – enjoy!

Intro: 00:00

Home Opener Recap & McLellan’s Message: 4:10

TOR Game Recap: 18:45

ASP, MBN, Finnie Performances: 33:30

Johansson & JBD Perform, & Red Wings At Risk: 39:50

Overtime: 52:20

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