Tough matchups against Tampa & Edmonton loom | Nate Danielson practices in GR | Raymond still DTD

Tough matchups against Tampa & Edmonton loom | Nate Danielson practices in GR | Raymond still DTD

Today on Lockdown Red Wings, a tough slate for Detroit this weekend and updates on both Nate Danielson and Lucas Raymond. 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 Lockdown Red Wings podcast. We are your hosts, Brian Fischer and Scotty Bentley, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day and available wherever you get your podcasts. Scotty, we got a mixed bag of things to talk about on today’s episode. Uh we’ll give you injury updates on a couple of players here in segment one, which will then lead us into our game previews for both the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Edmonton Oilers in segment three. But before we get to any of that, I got to let you guys know today’s episode is brought to you by Game Time. Download the Game Time app, create an account, and use code locked on NHL for $20 off your first purchase. Scotty, this is and I want to preface this by saying I’m not sure if this was the first time Nate Danielson skated with the Griffins, but it was the first time that has been reported on that I had seen uh reported on by our friends over at Hockeytown West podcast. Uh Nate Danielson was on the ice with the Grand Rapids Griffins in a non-cont jersey. So, that is the first time we as Red Wings fans at least have seen Nate Danielson or at least heard of Nate Danielson on the ice since he got injured in that preseason game. And while he’s still in a non-cont jersey, which would imply that he’s still a little bit away, um him taking part in practice and drills means that he is working his way back onto the ice and then hopefully into game action. And I think the conversation here to be had with Nate Danielson is this is a player that was pretty dang close to making the opening night lineup prior to the injury taking him out and ended ending up getting usurped by MBN and EMTT Vinnie possibly. It’s also possible he would have made the team too and they would have waved somebody else. We don’t know because it didn’t happen. But the question here is is when he is healthy and assuming his his performance in Grand Rapids is what we expect it to be, you know, how long is it till he cracks the NHL lineup and in what fashion will he do so? Yeah, I think the latter is a really interesting question just because the conversation between us on this show all summer was they don’t want him to crack the team just to be, you know, a fourth liner. they don’t want him to be on this team just to have his role minimized. And I wonder if that is still the case. Um, and now I I don’t think they’re going to call him up and give him eight minutes a night. I I think that that is is probably out of the question, but I I could see a middle six roll and their second line is set. So that would leave a third line spot for him. Um, I I also think that I mean if we want to get super crazy like you can just throw him at the very top and just see kind of what happens because like not not that Finn’s been bad or anything that’s been one of the best storylines of the year but you know you potentially raise the ceiling a little bit in that regard of what you can produce from there. You also, as we talked about, maybe can, you know, move a guy like Cop or or MBN to the top and and depending on what happens with Raymond and then, you know, maybe you can like there’s a lot of mixing and matching that can happen. I I still hold on to the fact that they’re not going to call him up to give him, you know, eight or nine minutes on the fourth line, but I I do think that they’re, you know, for them to call him up and give him, you know, 12 or or 13 on the third line is is probably not out of the question at all. And honestly, as it stands right now, Casper started, right? Especially coming back from injury, I’d say, is probably even likely, right? And you know, I look at this roster right now and if this roster is humming along and they’re playing great, it’s going to be really hard for him to get that promotion from Grand Rapids, even if he’s playing well, right? We saw that with Simon Edmonson two seasons ago. Like he and he had his fair share of struggles as well, but Simon Edson was probably down in Grand Rapids longer than he needed to be. Uh, you know, especially late in the season before he finally made the lineup after the new year. But with Nate Danielson, I’m looking at this roster and I see holes. I see spots to be filled even with a full roster, right? Even with 23 players, I see players that could be placed on waiverss, moved on from, and Nate Danielson being an upgrade at the position. And like you said, it’s pretty much all throughout the top nine. I don’t want him to play on the fourth line, but right now, I think one of your biggest holes that’s not the top line left wing, even though Emtt is doing a really nice job filling in there. He’s doing a great job filling in there, but you’re still looking for at this point a long-term solution there. It’s way too early to say Finn’s that solution for sure. Um I think the other biggest hole is fourthline center and Michael Rasm and the fourth line had a much better performance in this last game against the Florida Panthers. They actually had a really really good game. But I think at this point, Michael Rasmusen has more so proved himself to be a winger and a decent depth winger at that rather than a center where he struggles in the faceoff circle and struggles in that much more flexible position that is centered. It’s way more demanded of you even in fourth line role. So if you can bring Nate Danielson in and he can play like you were saying on the third line wing or maybe even third line center, you can move a confer or a cop down to play fourth line. That’s exactly what I was going to go with that. I I think why not have Danielson be 3C and then have Coner be your 4C? That sounds wonderful. And well, one of the big arguments with having Coner and Comp on the same line is, well, you have a left-handed center and a right-handed center that can switch on and off depending on where the faceoff is. Danielson is a right-handed center and that’s a great way to ease him into the center role at the NHL level is playing with someone like Cop who’s so dang good at winning faceoffs be a great mentor to that two-way game that he’s already very strong at. So I think that Danielson with him and Cop on the third line and again two-way game so it would fit what that line’s trying to do. Of course I do I would worry about putting two rookies on the same line. I also would worry about the type of usage that that line is getting. It’s not a lot of offense with that line. It’s uh it’s mostly used as a matchup line as we’ve seen, but it’s a for me it’s a surefire way of getting him in the lineup. Of course, you would need to move on from somebody, but I mean if you wave Barrren or Soderblum and I Soderblum, I would I would really I don’t want to wave either of them because you risk losing them. And I think both players would probably pretty easily get picked up by a team that’s willing to take a flyer and a guy with a lot of skill, right? Both those guys are skilled guys. It’s just you’re betting on somebody with a higher upside. That’s where it gets a little bit harder. Why wouldn’t you just boot another defenseman? You could do that as well. You’re carrying You’re still carrying what? Seven defenseman. Mhm. There’s not eight. Well, that’s why you would want to carry keep carrying seven, right? 14 forwards. You would want to carry 15 forwards. Yeah, I guess 15 forward. It has to be a forward at this point. But that’s fair. It it makes sense. It’s just if the team looks like they need that extra boost, right? Okay. If the team’s not humming and then of course barring any injury, that’s how he would make the roster. And then of course, like you said, top line is within the realm of the possibility depending on how EMTT Finn is performing in that role. That’s how Dylan Lin started. Top line wing playing next to Henrik Zederberg. So just because he’s a center doesn’t mean he can’t play wing. And there are a couple of opportunities I think in the top nine for him once he gets healthy. And I just think that that’s it. When he’s healthy, that’s where the opportunity lies. But again, he has to earn it. There has to be he has to not just push his way onto the roster, but push somebody off the roster. Again, barring injury and injury happens, that makes it easier. But for sure, I I I think it’s also interesting the the timetable of that, right? Like he’s at a non-cont now. He’s going to want to obviously they they are going to get him back to a point where he’s a full participant in practice. Then he is going to get eased into Grand Rapids lineup and play there. And not only does he have to then prove that he is healthy and and whatnot and is fully up to speed there, you’re also then talking about him. I mean, as you just mentioned, you you have to prove that you’re healthy and you have to play well enough to to force your way onto the roster. This really to me seems like an at earliest like two months still down the road. like I I I don’t think all of those things is happening in in a couple of weeks, you know, like that that No, it’s really feels like a a slow roll out kind of thing. And and again, as we’ve said a lot with Danielson over the summer is is they don’t want him to be a yo-yo player obviously, right? like that when they call him up, they want to be sure that there is a a spot for him and that he is ready himself playw-wise and the injury adds a little bit of a wrinkle to that already kind of right fragile situation I’ll call it. So yeah, like I I don’t expect this to be resolved before, you know, December um even nonetheless, you know, over the next couple of weeks. But it it will be interesting to watch cuz I I in that same breath I I really do think we see him this year. Yeah, I 100% lock step with you. It’s probably a couple more weeks until he’s game ready for the Grand Rapids level and then you’re going to have to get him up to speed at the Grand Rapids level before, as you put it, they’re convinced he’s ready for the NHL. I think he isn’t ready for the NHL once he’s healthy, but it’s just it’s all about timing. It’s all about timing with this type of situation, but it’s great to see him back on the ice. We extrapolated and probably way too early on a lot of this conversation, but it was just excited to see him back on the ice. Kaitton with Grand Rapids. Scotty, let’s go to a break. When we return, we’ll talk about the Raymond situation and that will lead us into our Tampa Bay Lightning situ uh game preview. Stay tuned for that segment two of lockdown Red Wings. Hockey season is officially here and nothing beats being in the arena for those opening games. But let’s be real, getting tickets can be a total head headache. Between waiting in cues, surprise fees, and prices that jump right before checkout, it’s easy to get frustrated when all you want to do is cheer on your team. That’s where Game Time comes in. The app that gives fans the advantage. It’s your ultimate life hack for scoring amazing NHL tickets fast, easy, and stressfree. I myself uh scored some Detroit Red Wings Sergey Federov retirement night tickets uh through game time again was able to sift out the best price for the section that I was in thanks to the uh all-in pricing tool as well that makes sure all the prices are upfront without any hidden fees. It’s a great way those zone deals are such a game changer. You pick the section, Game Time picks the seats and save you big. So take the guesswork out of buying NHL tickets with Game Time. Download the Game Time app, create an account, and use code lockdown NHL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms do apply. That’s code lockdown NHL for $20 off. Swipe, tap, ticket, go. Scotty, segment two, lockdown Red Wings podcast. Just a quick update on Lucas Raymond. And the update is literally that he is still dayto-day. He will the update is there is no update. He will not play against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Mason Appleton still practice on that top line. Uh with him, it’s just he’ll be ready when he’s ready, but we will continue to give you the latest on Lucas Raymond as we await more word on his progress, but as of right now, he is still dayto-day. Mason Epin is still on that top line. Scotty, with that being said, the Detroit Red Wings hosting the Tampa Bay Lightning on Friday night. Tonight, by the time people are listening, it’s actually really funny. I think yesterday’s episode I said, “Oh, the Red Wings have a very tough five games to start the season. Montreal, Toronto, Toronto, Florida, Edmonton.” And I completely forgot that there’s actually six really tough games. Tampa Bay is between Florida and Edmonton. I completely forgot the Tampa Bay game and just thought that Edmonton was Friday. Edmonton is Sunday. Tampa Bay happens in between. So, we have to preview a Tampa Bay game before we can preview the Edmonton game in segment three. Uh, we know John Gibson is the starter. We’ve already gotten confirmation of that from Todd McClullen. So, it’ll be Gibson’s second start. Some a chance for him to kind of get back in the good graces of the fan base after what was a pretty difficult first game, which we admit wasn’t all on him, but he also was not part of the solution either. Scotty, Tampa Bay Lightning, even though uh they were off to kind of a tough start, 13 and one, I think, still a really good hockey team you can’t underestimate. Yeah, of course. And we talked about that a lot. leading up to this season. And we talked about that a lot in our preview um our our season preview that is maybe not a team that’s gotten off to a great start, but I mean still an incredibly talented and incredibly deep roster. I am curious as to the Red Wings style of play. I guess I’ll say like meshing up with Tampa just because Tampa is so um battle tested I I guess if you will and has gone up against teams that you know play this uh like more aggressive style plenty of times before obviously including the playoffs but just over the years and it’s a yeah it’s a really talented core still and um I don’t know I I I don’t really care about the record this early in the season like that’s still that that’s still the Tampa Lightning as far as I’m concerned. Yeah, it’s they they’ve struggled out of the gate a little bit, but you know, their opponents so far have been the Senators whom they’ve lost to looking to be again a playoff team or a playoff team. Last year, had over 90 points, although they just got their doors kicked in by the Buffalo Sabres. Uh the New Jersey Devils, who are looking to bounce back and be a playoff team yet again. and their one win comes against the Bruins who obviously are a team that you expect to be in the bottom of the division this year and then they lost in overtime to the Capitals. So, the games that they’ve lost have been against quality opponents. So, it’s not something that you want to, you know, go, “Oh, well, the Tampa Bay Lightning are cooked.” I mean, I picked them to win the division this year. And I think they’re still a very good hockey team regardless. And all the analytics back that up, too, Scotty. Right. They’re uh currently a top 12 power play. They’re I’m sorry, 12th in the PK. Red Wings sit 10th right now and their power play is fifth where the Red Wings is sixth. So kind of like with the Florida Panthers, they’re slightly above you in all special teams at the moment. Where they’re struggling is actually at five on five. If I recall correctly, they’re listed at 28th right now with shot attempt share. 44%. that is really really drastic. So they’re struggling at five on five right now. So while this is a team that’s struggling and the Red Wings have an opportunity to like continue this hot win streak, remain hot and build upon their strong start in a difficult stretch to begin the season. Again, I just keep going back to this is a diff this is a good team that’s off to a tough start. do not underestimate them and as you put don’t put a lot of stock in what their stats say through a sample size of four games because they’re one two in one not one three in one I was incorrect for sure well and I mean so far this year one of the biggest uh or maybe the biggest Achilles heel for them uh has just been they haven’t gotten very good goalending uh and I’m you know who’s to blame you know chicken or egg is it the goalending is it the defense is it both but for a team that has been just fantastic in that for the better part of a decade. Um that you know that’s something that you I don’t want to say assume will iron itself out because like obviously stuff changes year to year. Um but that’s you know them having a a team save percentage of 871 I’d imagine. Again four games in I’d imagine that’s not something that’ll stay down there forever. Well, especially when one of your goalenders is Andre Vasilovki. He’s got an 870 right now, which is not great. But I Andre Vasilovski has too much track record for him to continue to struggle like this. But if you’re the Red Wings and you’re looking to take advantage, you know, the the biggest thing you can do is just keep building on your game, right? This is a team that’s struggling. You’ve had one real bad game. It’s funny, one real bad game that you won, one decent game that you got blown out of, but keep building on the play style you’re trying to accomplish. Stay heavy on the forche, keep on them because right now, if they’re playing poorly, you have an opportunity to really, really dig your heels in and stretch this win streak to four games. So, it’s for me, it’s all going to come back down to that five-on-ive play. You know, these two teams, special teams are very good. It’s going to be how do you play at five on five against a team that’s struggled through four games so far at that and then also can John Gibson bounce back and be solid and net like we think he can be. Sure. Yeah, 100%. And that’s I think maybe the biggest question for me going into this game, right? Uh we’ve talked about it a lot over the last week and a half and I think yeah, week and a half. We’re a week and a half into the season. Yeah, we we’ve talked about it a lot is just how again you’re four games in, you’re three and0 with Cam Talbot and he’s played in all four games like that. So maybe not the start that we thought we were going to have in terms of goalender, but this is something I really wanted to talk about yesterday a little bit more in depth. So I’m glad we have an off day now to do it. This is awesome that Cam Talbot has been so good and it’s awesome that you’re winning hockey games with him in net. We also have to remember that this literally happened last year and it it it will end like he’s another year older than he was last year even and that is what happened last season, right? It was like oh my goodness, Cam Talba’s doing so well the start of the year. We called him the MVP of the team two months into the season. We literally said he was the only reason this team wasn’t even worse than they already were at the end of the Lone era, right? He was fantastic. And so it’s great to see him playing well. I hope that he plays this well for the whole season. Um, but that being said, you got Gibson for a reason. You have to remember that like eventually the the wear and tear of the year is going to get to Talbot just like it did a year ago. This is not something that I don’t think you can at least plan on lasting for 82 games. So it is still again we’re talking very small sample sizes. It’s still very important obviously for John Gibson to get right and it is still of the utmost importance because you got him to play him. Not only that, you got him to be the the bellcount like you got him to be the guy that that’s going to carry a majority of the load. So, um get as much out of Talbot as you can. I’m happy for him. I’m I’m glad that he’s here. He’s doing fantastic. uh he he probably stole us a win already this season, but uh it is still of the utmost importance that John Gibson gets going and and if he doesn’t, then this year is going to get ugly rather quickly because I I don’t anticipate uh Talbot to be this good throughout the entire season. No, like you said, we’ve seen it after a while. The wear and tear of a full season, especially this defense, uh you know, has gotten to him and the defense has been better for the most part early on in this season. Uh, but you need to have a you need Gibson to be able to win you hockey games and give Talbbert a rest. So, we’ll be looking for that on Friday. We’re going to head to another break. When we return, we’ll talk about the Edmonton Oilers as Conor McDavid and the Oilers come to town. The NFL season is here and FanDuel has an offer you don’t want to miss. Right now, new customers can bet just $5 and get 300 in bonus bets. If you win, that’s right. Pick a bet, put down five bucks, and if it hits, you’ll unlock $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. You’re going to love using FanDuel because it gives you so many ways to play. You can build parlays, try player props, and even follow the live lines during the game. It makes watching hockey even more exciting when you’ve got a little something riding on the action. Whether you’re a casual fan or love diving into the stats, FanDuel makes the game day experience even better. So, what are you waiting for? or visit fanuel.com to download the FanDuel app today and get started. All right, segment three locked down Red Wings podcast. We got another game to preview as the Red Wings play both the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Oilers this weekend to finish off this difficult stretch of six, not five games like I thought yesterday. Uh Oilers back-to-back Stanley Cup finals. So, back-to-back Western Conference Championships for them. They have Conor McDavid on a shiny new dirt cheap contract that starts next year. And uh yeah, it’s the Edmonton Oilers. They’re a really good hockey team. They’ve got the best player on the planet and then another guy who’s top five in the planet on their team. They’re going to be hard to stop. If you’re the Detroit Red Wings, Scotty, what the heck do you got to do? So, I I mean I mentioned it going into the Tampa Bay game about how I was interesting interested in, you know, how this new style of play was going to match up against then them. I am extremely interested in how this style of play matches up against a team like the Oilers. And the reason why is because I mean we’ve seen already, you know, against Toronto that with this aggressive forch check and aggressive uh pressure that the Wings forwards want to put in the neutral zone and in the offensive zone. This is a team in Edmonton that is so fast that if you do that and leave the back door open, you are going to get absolutely obliterated. And like that is something again we already saw one game where that happened and and Toronto is very talented as well obviously and has a lot of really talented and fast players as well but like there probably isn’t a more highpowered and fast offense. I guess maybe Colorado when they’re all healthy, but like this is one of the most dynamic offenses in the entire sport in Edmonton for a reason. And so I I I’m I’m really intrigued on if this is going to be it’s a decent litness test of like, okay, even against a high-powered offense like this, can they still hold it together and and produce and win hockey games this way? or is this maybe something that they I don’t know have to reconsider or re kind of group on restrategize when they go when they play teams that are clearly more talented and faster than them on the offensive side of the puck. One thing that Detroit’s going to have going for them in this situation is that this is a long East Coast road trip for the Edmonton Oilers. Uh they just shut out the New York Rangers in New York on Tuesday. Hey, Steuart Skinner, by the way, huge shout out. He actually goalied the New York Rangers in this hockey game. Let me see if I can’t pull up the exact numbers here. He made 30 saves. A 30 save shut out for Steuart Skinner in that hockey game. Then they’re playing New York Islanders on Thursday night. Still pending to happen as we’re recording this. Then the day before they come to Detroit, they play in New Jersey. So it’ll be a second half of a backto back for the Edmonton Oilers. So again, where there’s an opportunity with the struggling start for Edmonton, you know, you have an opportunity to really attack some tired legs in the Edmonton Oilers playing three games in four days coming into Detroit. So there’s an opportunity here, but you’re spot on that with the speed that which this team has, especially Conor McDavid, obviously if you miss on your opportunities on the forche, you will be burned. And we kind of saw that a little bit with Montreal. Montreal is a fast team, too. And when they didn’t play good fundamental hockey, they got burned pretty hard. So they outchanced the Montreal Canadians, but they were giving up so many great A’s that they scored five goals on 13 shots. It super fair point. If you’re going to play a we’re going to outwork you, you better make sure you outwork them. It’s what it comes down to. Do it. You best do it because if you get caught deep, they’re going to burn you, right? And that’ll be another test for uh for these young rookies as well. You know, ASP and and I mean Edmonson obviously not a rookie, but you know, if that pair stays together, that’s a that’s a young pair on the blue line with this strategy in this team. You know, it’ll be interesting. It’ll it I mean, again, it’ll be a good lit test. It’ll be a good idea to kind of gauge where this team is at um with uh with again this this style of play so far this year. Man, what a start of the season for Edmonton Oilers. So, let’s see. Yeah, dude. They they had Conor McDavid sign for 12 mil. Like, I’m sure they’re all buzzing. No, what I mean is the first seven of their seven of their first 10 games are on the road. Oh, well, that’s kind of crazy. That is kind of crazy. The schedule’s whack this year because of the Olympic break. So, the schedule’s super condensed. Lots of teams are going on long stretches of the road. I know with the Olympic break, I think the Red Wings play at home like one time in February. So, well, they only play like four games in February. I know, but it’s going to be legitimately like 3 weeks before they see LCA’s ice again. Yeah, it’s a long um Scotty, do you have any final thoughts on this one? I don’t think so, man. We ball. It’ll be hopefully a fun weekend with a good kind of weekend to set the bar, uh, if you will. All right, we’ll be back with a new episode on Monday. Stay tuned for that. Same time, same place. It’s your team every day.

For the first time since preseason, Nate Danielson was spotted on the ice in Grand Rapids wearing a non-contact jersey. In Detroit, Lucas Raymond is still day-to-day. Previewing the Tampa Bay Lightning and Edmonton Oilers. #LGRW

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