James van Riemsdyk has provided the spark the depth needed as Red Wings have found scoring touch

James van Riemsdyk has provided the spark the depth needed as Red Wings have found scoring touch

Today on Lockdown Red Wings, Detroit’s scoring depth has finally started to show off what’s changed lately. You’re Locked on Red Wings, your daily podcast on the Detroit Red Wings, part of the Locked On Network, your team every day. Welcome back to the Locked On Red Wings podcast. We are your hosts, Brian Fischer and Scotty Bentley, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. And you can find us wherever you get your podcasts. Uh today, Scotty, obviously the topic of conversation, as referenced a second ago in the Cold Open, is the fact that the Red Wings have been scoring more goals lately, and that was a hot topic of conversation between you and I and the rest of the greater fan base about the fact that early on in the season, despite all the chance generation generations the Red Wings got, they really weren’t finding the back of the net. Well, that seems to have pretty consistently turned around in the last 14 games. Uh, so we will talk about that as well as what’s leading to that and is it sustainable before we talk about the Calgary Flames as the Red Wings play the first half of a back-to back um on Wednesday against that team. So before we can get to any of that, I got to let you guys know today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. If you want to be right in the middle of the action this season, visit fanuel.com and place your live NFL bets all season long. All right, Scotty. You know, one of the things it was it was Mike Kelly, who is with the NHL network and FanDuel Sports Network. You see him on the broadcast all the time. He he quote retweeted a graphic that they had talked about a month ago when the Red Wings are like 22nd in actual goal generation despite being very high up in expected goals and about how that other shoe is going to drop eventually. So, it made me look into exactly how good the Red Wings were and that the the statistics that he was quoting were 22nd in goals per game and now they’re 12th in goals per game. I broke it up between the first 16 games of the season and last 14 games, the most frequent 14 games of the season because that 14 games ago is when you scored a lot of goals against the Anaheim Ducks. And so it was kind of the the kickoff point for the Detroit Red Wings this season on their scoring depth really getting going. It was the six-3 win and then the 13 games that followed it just continued that trend of scoring at least three goals. And you can see it if you’re watching on the show sheet. The Red Wings have scored three plus goals in 11 of the last 14 games, which is a be much better clip than we had seen previous the previous 16 games to that when they were struggling to score one maybe two goals pretty consistently. I mean the three games prior to that six-3 victory were a 5-1 loss, 4-1 loss, one- nothing loss. So on top of that, in that span, the first 16 games of the season, Scotty, the Detroit Red Wings were 27th in goals four with 44 goals. They were 26th in goals for share. So that’s goals four and over goals against at 46% and they were 10th in expected goals share, 52%. So again, that goes back to that idea that we were talking about earlier in the season where the Red Wings were generating a ton of shot attempts and getting opportunities, but they weren’t finding the back of the net. With their expected goals rate being so high, we knew that at some point that the scoring would come along and start finding the back of the net. Well, in the last 14 games, again, starting with that 63 win over the Ducks, the Red Wings are third in the NHL at all strengths in goals four with 49. They’re 13th in goals for share at exactly 50%. 49 goals for over 49 goals against at all strengths. That’s that’s 13th in the NHL. So right around middle of the pack and then sixth still in expected goals percentage at 54%. So, while their goals have gotten they’re they’re now third in the league in goals four, their expected goal share has actually gone from 10th to sixth in that span over the last 14 most recent 14 games. So, obviously a huge jump for the Detroit Red Wings. They’re scoring way more consistently. My question for you is what has what has changed? I don’t think anything. I I I really think the only thing that has changed is the opportunities that weren’t finding the back of the net now are I like this is something that I mean as you just kind of illustrated there they had been getting opportunities well before this stretch. I I think that now the question is what is more realistic to expect going forward what we have seen over the last 10 games or what we saw when they were getting opportunities and not able to put the puck in the back of the net. it. I I think that it is always more beneficial to at least be getting the opportunities even if you don’t, you know, fulfill them. It’s still better to to at least put yourself in a position to have those opportunities than opposed to to obviously not. So, you’d like to think that they have the ability to um maybe not like this exact level, but like a a decent level of production. I I think really I know it’s, you know, kind of like a copout, but I I think it’s just the like the depth players are finding the back of the net and they weren’t before. Like that that’s that that’s really the only glaring difference and that’s a a good thing. And now you need to to be able to rely on said depth players going forward to uh to continue this level of production as a team. Yeah. And I mean it’s a few things. One of them is that that big thing we always talked about when they weren’t scoring is the regression to the mean. The Red Wings at some point were going to score more goals. We knew it was going to happen because for them to play 82 games with the shot volume they were getting, shot attempt volume they were getting, to not score goals for 82 games, just it was not the rarest of rare exceptions would have had to have occurred for the Red Wings to not find the back of the net playing the way they were for as long as they were. Um, so there was regression to the meme mean in that 14ame span that I was just quoting in which the Red Wings have really found the back of the net. Their team shooting percentage has jumped from almost dead last in the league where it was previously in the previous 16 game sample size to now eighth in the league at 11 and a half%. So they have they’re shoot that’s just what it comes down to. The pucks are finding the back of the net. And I think what you said there is, you know, you talk about the biggest reason it’s the depth scores. Obviously all season long, Dylan Larkin, Lucas Raymond, Alex Debrink, EMTT Finny started off super hot. Obviously cooled off pretty quickly there after, you know, 10 game stretch where he was unbelievable. But other guys stepped up. Morris Cider has really really stepped his game up. He’s on pace for 62 63 points now. He’s one of those guys who’s absolutely stepped his game up. Um, but the Ford Lions have really found their groove lately. They found they’ve really started to gel and we talked about it on yesterday’s episode, but I don’t think any one player has provided a spark to the depth scoring more so than James Van Remdike who we’ve talked so much about, right? Fourgamel long goal streak, which is the longest in his career, and he’s scored goals in six of the last seven games. He has been absolutely unreal for the Detroit Red Wings. A huge boost for their depth scoring, but he’s far from alone, Scotty. I mean, you look at other guys on this roster. JT Comper in the last seven games has five points, a goal and four assists. Andrew Cop in the last three games has four points, two goals, and two assists. Michael Rasmusen in the last six point six games has four points, two goals, and two assists. Axel Sandine Pelica has four points in the last three games. like and and that’s obviously a lot of those sample sizes I just gave you are much much shorter than the 16 games prior to that. A lot of those 16 games prior to that where they were fighting the back of the net was still because of the top end players getting rewarded more often than not. On top of that, you had Ben Sherro and Simon Edson and more excited from the back end really heating up offensively. But now in this last few games on this fivegame point streak, it’s been the bottom six more often than not that’s been scoring goals or Andrew Cop in this instance who’s jumped up to play second line center. Like the guys that weren’t going before have finally gotten going and that’s even true on the defensive side of things too as I just mentioned. So you know what changed? It’s your depth finally found lines that they gel with. You have James Van Remdsteike, Michael Rasmusen and JT Confer line that plays has played very well the last few games. Uh, and you have Nate Danielson, Michael Casper, and insert winger here, Elmer Soderblam freently, who have played super well, too. Andrew Cops been greatest to see. So, it’s like it’s a little bit of everything. It’s pucks finally finding the back of the net as you knew they would. They were playing too well for them not to. finding lines that players gel with and then also just the the depth forwards that weren’t in your top six finally being able to contribute and having their play reflected on the score sheet. I agree. And and again like the the big conversation point then you know after how we did get here is are we going to stay here and or or is it going to revert back to Dbrinkit Larkin and you know nobody else can score. So, um I I think that that’s kind of the the question now. But again, you you can’t score if you don’t give yourself good opportunities to do so. And and they’ve done that whether they’ve put the puck in the back of the net or not, which bodess well. And yeah, and that question you just posed is a really good one. I think that’s a great place to lead off with in segment two. So stay tuned to Lockdown Red Wings. The holidays are amazing, but they can also get overwhelming fast. Travel, gifts, parties, year-end expenses, it’s really easy to lose track of your money this time of year. And that’s exactly why Monarch has become such a gamecher for me. If you want to keep your finances under control this holiday season, you need to be using Monarch. 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Join the Everyday Club today and get Locked On Red Wings with no interruptions, membersonly, Discord access, and more. All for just $5 a month or $50 a year. Just go to lockedonpodcast.com/ everyydayer club to join the Everydayer Club and unlock all access. You can also find the link in the show notes. Scotty, segment 2 Lockdown Red Wings podcast. As you just mentioned before, you know, the big question here is the offense is finally clicking. The expected goals has turned into real goals now. They’re one of the top three teams in goal scorers it in all situations the last 14 games. The question as you posed it, is it sustainable? Yeah, I mean it’s it’s a it’s a loaded question. And I I think I think that their true scoring level is higher than what we were seeing for uh I mean almost a month there. I I genuinely believe that and I think that they have given themselves or or they consistently give themselves too many opportunities throughout the course of a game for it to be as poor as it was, you know, at one point a few weeks ago. I in the same breath I am not fully convinced that it has it is as high as it’s been for the last almost 10 games. I I I still have enough question marks when it comes to the true goalcoring production outside of the top say four goal scorers on the on the wings um to to make me just be like, “Oh, well, they’re going to get a lot of opportunities, so surely they’ll take advantage of all those for, you know, the rest of the year.” Um, I I still have my my reservations about that, but I I I do think that it is sustainable to be at a higher level than they were at at one point. Does that make sense? You raised up a good point, Scotty. I I think you what you said there is true that they are scoring really well right now. they might not be this good forever because I mean taking out of the account right three plus goals in 11 of the last 14 they’ve scored four plus in I think last four games that they’re probably not going to continue to score at this clip all season long but I do think that the scoring uptick is sustainable overall might not be as high as we’ve seen it but I think they’re going to be consistently a pretty good team at scoring goals even if they lack the high-end finishers because they just produce a lot of shot attempts they get a lot of shot attempts. They get a lot of pucks on net and over time you’re going to wear down a goalender. You know, I took the even strength or the all strength out of it when it back to five on five because obviously when you’re looking at the goals four numbers, the power play is going to be a huge contributor to the Red Wings goalcoring powers. They have a very good power play. So looking just raw at the five on five numbers, you know, across the season at five on five, um they still rank 12th in expected goal share and their goals for is 16th. In that 14 game span, their expected goal shares 13th. So actually a spot below that. They’ve dipped just ever so slightly in expected goals, but their goals four is seventh in the league. So they’re scoring slightly above their station right now, probably just just a smidge. But I think that I mean this is basically where they’ve lived all season long in the top 10 to top 15 and now they’re getting rewarded for it. Before they weren’t. I I think that this is a lot closer scoring production-wise what we’re going to see out of the Red Wings all season long with the depth going cuz that’s the thing is again all season long up until this point the Red Wings were not getting depth scoring. It was among it was on to three or four players to provide the offense now all four lines are contributing and and some of the defenseman as well. I think that that is going to continue. Obviously, your top six is going to give you the bulk majority of your offense, and they should. But you depend on your third and fourth line to chip in a goal here or there, and that’s what they’ve been doing. And they’ve been playing that way all season long. They just weren’t getting rewarded. And the numbers, as I just pointed out, still support the theory that they should play pretty consistently like this for most of the season. Now, obviously, there are es and flows throughout an entire season. Larkin will get cold. Raymond will get cold. You have moments like this where JVR is ungodly hot. Like some players are going to cool off, other players are going to be hot. You’re going to have stretches where the Red Wings can’t score any goals. You’re going to have stretches like right now where they’re scoring four plus goals a game, but throughout the course of the season when game 82 is played. I think that they’re probably going to be a top half of the league in goals scored. Now, goals allowed will be the other problem, but we’re not talking about that today. You need John Gibson, maybe not to be 39, save John Gibson like he was against Vancouver, but you need him to be better than he has been and hopefully almost as good as he was. Same with Cam Talbot. And while I’m talking about John Gibson, fun fact, while John Gibson has been statistically one of the worst goalies in the league, he last night put up the best performance by a goalie in the NHL all season long by goal saved above expected. So crazy. Isn’t that just wild? And like that’s what you’re talking about. You’re like, man, I really hope this is a confidence booster cuz obviously good. John Gibson is so good. But it’s just almost almost funny that the he’s I think sixth worst in the NHL at goal saved above expected across the season, but then he puts up the best performance out of any goalie so far this season. So yeah, I mean the biggest thing for them to to they they can continue to score goals, but if they can’t stop the puck, they’re not going to go anywhere. So that’s why that game by John Gibson was so reassuring. Yeah. Well, and and I mean like we we kind of beat it to death yesterday. It’s one of those situations where even if you are a hot goalie really fixes all, right? Like even if the the goal scoring comes and goes, whatever, etc., etc., if they can get solid production from net because not only if if Gibson is is the bellcow and is really good going forward then that makes Talbot better as well right and and so I I think that that ripple effect probably is the biggest impact on what the team is going forward even more so than anything we’ve talked about today 100%. Scotty, uh, let’s head to another break. When we return, we’ll preview the game against the Calgary Flames. So stay tuned to that and lock down Red Wings. NFL Sundays move fast. One big play and suddenly everything feels different. That’s what makes live betting with FanDuel so exciting. You’re not just watching the game, you’re reacting to it in real time. With FanDuel, you can place live bets as the action unfolds. Every drive, every momentum swing, every highlight moment. Live betting is the best when the game sh starts to shift, a receiver gets hot, a defense tightens up or the momentum flips after a turnover or two turnovers if you’re Jaylen Herz. Uh, FanDuel lets you jump into the moment. Live spreads and money lines adjust instantly. Player props update as guys heat up. You can bet next touchdown scores, drive results, totals, and more. It keeps you locked into every snap, every drive, every possibility. So, if you want to be right in the middle of the action this season, visit fanuel.com and place your NFL live bets all season long. FanDuel, the game moves fast and so can you. All right, Scotty. The Detroit Red Wings play, this is going to sound familiar, one of the league’s worst teams in the NHL tonight. Uh, that’s going to be the Calgary Flames. And they are having a really, really rough start to the season. I I don’t know if the start of the season is even accurate anymore as we’re like 30% of the way through this thing at this point, but thus far in the season they’re 12 15 and four, sixth place in the Pacific Division. Like the Canucks, they’re one of the few teams in the NHL uh that are below a 500 points percentage so far. They are getting scoring from Nazam Kadri, at least assists uh and assists from Rosmus Anderson, but they don’t have a single guy on their roster who has over 10 goals so far. So really when they do score they’re Yeah. So when they do score they’re spreading the puck around a little bit but they just don’t score a lot of goals. They’re one of the worst teams in the league at five on five. It’s scoring uh scoring goals. Their expected goal share is a little bit better. Actually their expected goal share at five on five is excellent. It’s eighth. So they’re a team that maybe you’re looking at as breaking out kind of similar to the Detroit Red Wings at some point. Hopefully not against the Detroit Red Wings. And their shot attempt share at five on five across the season is 12th. So, they get a lot of shot attempts on net. They get some good high danger shot attempts, but they’re just not scoring. Sounds very familiar to those Red Wings we were just talking about not that long ago. What it comes down to, Scotty, in the NHL is it doesn’t matter who you play. The NHL more so than any other sport is in any given day type of sport. The Red Wings lost to the Nashville Predators like a week and a half ago. So, they might be bad, but this could be the game they pop off. So, you can’t take them for granted. Yeah, of course. And and this isn’t a team that I mean, as you mentioned, has like zero talent on it, right? Like they they certainly have guys that have produced in the past at a minimum. Um I I I think the biggest thing is you just want to play I guess this is like a super boring comment, but like you just want to play sound like simple hockey. Stay out of the the penalty box. Um Calgary’s penalty kill is actually one of the few decent things they have going for them. Um on the flip side of that, they kind of need to be because they have the most pimps in the entire NHL. So like maybe that’s an area that you can take advantage of, right? You win the special teams, you win the game against Calgary most of the time. Their defense isn’t horrible. Their offense is uh they they as you mentioned, they barely score any goals. their their goals against over the course of a season is in like the top half, you know, middle of the pack of the league. It’s not completely awful. So, another game in which if you can put up a few goals early, you should be good. Um, but you know, as we’ve seen plenty of times, that’s easier said than done. It sounds like you just called the Calgary Flames penalty kill merchants, right? That’s a thing. Yeah. So, uh, goalending wise, Dustin Wolf, who they just signed to a massive extension, is having an okay year. It’s hard to with the save percentages across the league dropping every single year, it’s hard to gauge what is a bad save percentage now. 8.97 for Dustin Wolf across 24 games played would be bad 5 years ago. But with the save percentage hovering around 900 this season, it’s like slightly below average. But their backup Devin Culie 11 games played a 920 save percentage. So I’m really curious which goalender the Red Wings will see in tomorrow’s game or tonight’s game by the time people are listening to this. But yeah, I mean it comes down to the fact this is a team that generates a lot of opportunities, struggles to score, has a very good penalty kill, but not a good power play because they struggle to score. So place don’t make stupid mistakes. Hope your goalie your goalending in this one shows up and is is sound and you should be able to. should is the operative word because again as I just said any day in the NHL any team can be beaten. I mean so Gibson’s hot, right? Like three he’s played backtoback win games where he’s gotten the win. Three goals against in the first game and then uh a shut out the best performance we’ve seen from a goalie all season long in the NHL on uh Sunday, Monday rather. But you play Edmonson the very next night in Edmonton and you’re going to want on the second half of a backto back. You know what? No. I’m throwing Gibson out there against the Flames. And you want to know why? Because the guy the kids are going to be their legs are going to probably be pretty dead on the second half of that backto back. And so you give yourself Gibson who at this very moment is probably your best opportunity to win in net against Calgary. Secure the winning road trip and then just hope for the best against Edmonton because Edmonton’s redot. So maybe just take the take the best opportunity to win against Calgary and then just hope the team can grind one out against Edmonson. Yeah, I’m completely with you. I’m I’m not messing around with I’m just like I’m not, you know, overthinking that or or screwing around with momentum or anything like that. I’m throwing Gibson immediately back out there. I don’t care I if they played the Hershey Bears like I’m throwing I’m throwing him back out there and uh and just keeping them hot, you know. Well, and think of this too. If you do Gibson tomorrow, I mean, that’s another extra day of rest for Talbot. We know how good Talbot can be when he’s well rested. Yeah. I think didn’t hasn’t he played for both of these teams, too? It’s going to it’s going to be another homecoming, so to speak, for Cam Talbot. Every team he plays against as a homecoming. Minnesota, New York, LA, Calgary. NHL. I know he’s when I do a Pakoku and I am stuck on a player. He’s a good one. Cam Talbot. Cam Talbbit. Mike Cinger. Y Cinger is the the big one for sure. Cory Perry is Cory Perry. Yeah, that’s I was just gonna say that’s another decent one. Uh yeah, that’s where I’m I’m landing on that one. And finally, before we wrap this up, you know, we talked a lot about depth scoring today, and I meant to bring it up in segment two, but it slipped my mind. So, we’ll wrap back around to it real quickly here. Michael Bransard with the Grand Rapids G Griffins has 14 points in 16 games. He’s found his scoring touch down in Grand Rapids. So, you know, I wonder how long, and I know he’s one game away at the NHL level from burning a year on his ELC, and I know that Steve Eiserman is probably keeping that in mind, but if the Red Wings go on another scoring slump and he’s tearing it up down there, I mean, I think with an injury in general, he might be the next man up. He’s playing so well. And he he didn’t play poorly with Detroit. Like, defensively, he was phenomenal. He he played the heavy body. He just wasn’t at the NHL pace yet and he so he was already so close. I He’s kind of found his groove. He’s he’s got his swagger back down there in Grand Rapids. So, I think I got my swagger back. All time clip. And I’m I know that nobody talks about this element, but Charlie Lton being the one to interview him was the best thing. Charlie Charlie Langdon is an absolute gem. That’s an alltime clip. It is. It makes me so happy that that’s like here like that. Deal at Fordfield. Like just the best. There were probably that clip’s probably older than people who listen to this podcast. That clip’s getting up there. That’s unfortunate because I remember when it first happened and everybody at school was doing the I got my swagger back. Great clip. Uh Scotty, do you have any final thoughts this episode? We do ball. We back with a game recap tomorrow. Thank goodness this one’s a little bit earlier. I think it’s an 8:30 start, so it won’t be a 1 a.m. recording for us. Stay tuned for that. Same time, same place. It’s your team every day.

James van Riemsdyk is on a career-long 4-game goal streak, and has scored in 6 of the last 7. He is Detroit’s hottest scorer, but he isn’t alone. Detroit has scored 3+ goals in 11/14 games and ranks 3rd in total goals for in the last 14 games. Is it sustainable? Previewing the Calgary Flames. #LGRW

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