The Wings have sent down Derek Meech’s only remaining competition for the 7th spot, Jonathan Ericsson. Jimmy Howard and Mattias Ritola were also sent down. The only question that remains is which of these four will stay with the Wings: Igor Grigorenko, Matt Ellis, Aaron Downey, and Mark Hartigen. As you know, I’m pulling for Ellis, and feel Grigorenko should at least start the season in the AHL. We should find out today.
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I was glad to this quote in a Helene St. James blog post today:
“The person no one ever talks about is Matty Ellis. His skating has improved 300 percent and he just works like a dog every single day and is a competitive guy and a big, strong guy. He’ll be in the mix, too.”
Grigorenko’s stock is falling somewhat, even given all the slack the Wings are allowing him, and if he doesn’t pick it up, people will be talking about Ellis and Aaron Downey competing for that last spot instead Downey and Igor.
According to Ted Kulfan, the Wings expect to carry 22 players into the season. Apparently, that means 13 forwards, 7 defensemen, and 2 goalies, though Holland allows for the possibility that another forward could impress in camp, forcing them to carry 14. He doesn’t say the same about the defensemen, so it looks like that logjam will have to be cleared up by camp/pre-season performances. If Meech doesn’t out-perform Sopel, it looks like the Wings will risk losing him on waivers by sending him back to GR. This isn’t the first time the Wings have indicated they’d only like to carry 7 defensemen, so the scenario I posted the other day is looking more and more unlikely. Wishful thinking, I guess.
As for the forwards, the battle for the 13th spot will primarily be between Matt Ellis and Igor Grigorenko. I think Igor’d better watch his back. Ellis is just the kind of player Babcock loves and if Grigs takes so much as a drill off, he’ll fall behind. Obviously, though, the Wings know what their doing in leaving a 13th and a 14th spot open, as it’s likely both players will perform well.
Jason Kasiorek of Griffins Central reports that Grand Rapids Griffins captain Matt Ellis has signed a one-year contract extension with the Wings. I haven’t seen him play all that often, but among Griffins fans, Ellis has a reputation as one of the hardest-working players in the organization and that will no doubt endear him to Mike Babcock come training camp.
According to Kasiorek, Ellis would have to clear waivers to return to the AHL, which means the team will have to come to a decision on his status. Given that they re-signed him, it seems they’re looking to carry him as a 12th or 13th forward, pending his camp performance. Ellis’ history indicates that he’s unlikely to disappoint. I expect to see him in the Winged Wheel next year, perhaps on a line with Hudler and Kopecky, at least to start off.
Matthew Wuest* of Red Wings Central says a team source has confirmed the signings of defenseman Brad Ference and goalie Adam Berkhoel to one-year contracts. Both are for depth (read: for the Griffins), though Ference could conceivably earn an NHL spot. RWC has Berkhoel in the fourth spot in the Wings’ goaltending depth chart, behind #3 Jimmy Howard and ahead of #5 Stefan Liv, whose RFA status and sub-par performance last season obviously knocked him down a spot.
*Who, by the way, says Ellis signed a two-year deal. I’m going with the Griffins expert on this one, though, until shown otherwise by an official source.
Update (2:02 PM): The AHL transaction wire has Ellis listed as returned to Grand Rapids, so that confirms it. He wasn’t claimed off waivers. - Matt
Update (12:05 PM): It wasn’t really clear from Conklin’s original report , but the team apparently already began the process of sending Ellis down (making much of the post below unnecessary). Conklin informed me via email that teams had until 12:00 PM today to claim him and since I haven’t seen anything saying he’s been taken, it looks like he made it. - Matt
The Wings will soon be sending Matt Ellis down to make room on the roster, but because Ellis has played over 10 games with the Wings (16), he has to clear waivers before he can go to Grand Rapids, according to Joe Conklin of the GR Press.
Cross your fingers, folks. Ellis may not have played a lot of time, but as Conklin pointed out, he looked good when he was on the ice and he may have attracted attention. The Wings have already lost a player to waivers this season, Joey MacDonald, who was taken by Boston. Given that, it’s not too far out of the realm of possibility that Ellis will get claimed.
The move is especially necessary if everyone currently injured is to return for the playoffs. With Dan Cleary, Todd Bertuzzi, and Tomas Kopecky healthy, and Ellis on the roster, the Wings would be a man over the limit of 23 players. The only way out of sending Ellis down is keeping Kopecky on the IR, which isn’t likely since he’s been practicing and they’ve been making noises about his return for weeks now. Even if that’s what they did, the Griffins still wouldn’t have their captain for their playoff run.
Personally, I think the Wings should get a break on this rule because they needed Ellis to fill in for injured players. He wasn’t on the team for the heck of it and they shouldn’t be punished for filling that kind of a need. He’d be a big loss to the system, for the Wings but for the Griffins, especially.
… Helene St. James reports that Johan Franzen is day-to-day with the upper body injury that forced him to leave the game last night. Either no one has been called up to replace him in the lineup, or the AHL transaction page hasn’t been updated (as of 9:37 AM). I suppose that they’re waiting to see if Tomas Holmstrom really will be able to return tomorrow. If not, they’ll need another body.
… Both Ted Kulfan and St. James elaborate on the reason Danny Markov sat out last night: he had upper body soreness that hadn’t gone away and needed to rest. According to Kulfan, the team isn’t sure when he’ll be back.
… According to the Boston Globe, Former Red Wing goalie Joey MacDonald will play today, but will sit tomorrow when the Bruins come to visit the Wings. Joey has assumed the role of the #2 man in Boston and has been getting regular starts. (via. Snapshots)
… Both Detroit papers (Freep and News) have pieces on the Wings’ reaction to the Chris Simon incident of the other night.
All I’ll say about it is Simon should have thrown off his gloves if he thought Hollweg’s hit was questionable (which I think it was, honestly). There’s no excuse for what he did, I don’t care how fuzzy his head was after having it planted into the glass. It was an impulsive attack and one instantly regretted, I’m sure, but he ought to have the book thrown at him.
… Lastly, a correction: apparently, Matt Ellis’ son is named Haeden Matthew Ellis, not Matthew Hayden. (via Kulfan and St. James)
I didn’t take notes on the game, so I can only offer a few thoughts, not a comprehensive summary.
… Big story of the night: Johan Franzen left the game in the second period, not long after Pavel Datsyuk scored to make it 1-1, and did not return. According to Helene St. James, he didn’t practice yesterday due to the same injury (contradicting Babcock’s “Mule’s fine” comment) but apparently he felt good to go before the game.
Hopefully Franzen’s not going to be out for long because he was a big loss against the Kings. His tendency to shoot first, ask questions later, would have come in handy at some points later in the game.
Also, you may have noticed Danny Markov was missing from the lineup. According to St. James, he’s not hurt, he was just being given the night off, in favor of Andreas Lilja, who was in need of some playing time.
… The Wings came out flat and paid for it as the Kings took a one-goal lead in the first period. A bad turnover by Niklas Kronwall led directly to the goal, and it was too early in his return to expect Dominik Hasek to be 100% sharp on the play, especially after Kronwall failed to clear the net. Not Nik’s best game by a long shot.
The team as a whole looked out of sync for much of the first half of the game, whereas the Kings were battling hard and earning their lead.
… One positive thing was that there were few penalties called, so the flow of the game wasn’t disrupted so much. Only two penalties in the first two periods combined, followed by three in the third. Of course, the final call was an unfortunate one as it put the Wings on a 4-on-3 penalty kill to start overtime.
… Sean Burke was steady the whole game, though to be honest, he didn’t have to shine all that often. The Wings put 54 shots on net but the majority of them were low percentage perimeter shots or C-grade offensive chances. Not to take anything away from Burke, he had a great game. But the Wings did not put on their best performance offensively. The Kings, to their credit, put up a pretty good stand on the defensive side, though, which contributed to the Wings’ offensive hiccups.
… I noticed Matt Ellis a lot tonight. The man was obviously pumped from becoming a father, as he was everywhere when on the ice. He finished with only 8:22 in ice-time, but came close to scoring his first NHL goal a number of times.
… Good to see Brett Lebda channel Bobby Orr and/or Paul Coffey on his (literally) coast-to-coast goal in the third. Brett’s got the best wheels on the team, I think, and showed he’s got some great hands to go with them with that impressive finish. One of the top highlight reel goals of the season for both the Wings and the League, I’d say.
… Late in the third, the Wings had a power play but got far too cute in their attempts at scoring. They had Burke beat down low multiple times but made two or three too many passes and blew their chances.
… Nice penalty by Robert Lang at the end of regulation. I was a bit surprised when Mike Babcock put Andreas “Relative Pylon” Lilja out there with Chris Chelios and Kris Draper for the 4-on-3 penalty kill in OT. Fortunately, Lilja played it well and my fears were unnecessary.
… Nice give and go by Mikael Samuelsson and Pavel Datsyuk for the game winner. Poor Aaron Miller had no chance to defend the play, having committed to Datsyuk just as Pavel dished it right back to Samuelsson for the slam dunk.
Of course, I look foolish for saying in my preview Samuelsson probably wouldn’t figure much into the game. I admit it. I was surprised. He looked good in his return, though he looks real good for having scored a goal handed to him on a silver platter by Datsyuk. Hopefully it was just the first in a series of goals for Sammy.
… The win put the Wings one point behind Nashville in the Central Division title race. They have one more game in hand, Sunday’s matchup with Boston, before the big mid-March home-and-home showdown.
… Also, Ken Daniels and Mickey Redmond said not to expect Henrik Zetterberg or Todd Bertuzzi back until after the team’s trip to Vancouver and Calgary later this month, saying that the Wings would probably rather not have the two make the six hour flight out there with their backs having just healed. If they’re right, that would mean a March 22nd return, at the earliest.
Update (5:15 PM): Ansar Khan confirms that we can expect Mikael Samuelsson and Dominik Hasek back Friday night. - Matt
According to the AHL transaction wire, Matt Hussey and Jimmy Howard have been returned to Grand Rapids. So, it looks like Mikael Samuelsson will be ready for Friday, and Dominik Hasek will at least back up Chris Osgood.
To send down Hussey rather than Darryl Bootland, the team must have been really impressed with Darryl’s effort last night. Good to see that he’ll get another game in. Bootland, by the way, had 9:15 in ice time last night, which was almost three and a half minutes more than Matt Ellis, Josh Langfeld, and Matt Hussey had combined (2:32+2:08+1:09=5:49, via the NHL’s Official Super Stats).
Hussey was originally called up after Henrik Zetterberg went down with his back injury. If the Wings were sending down the player that was covering for Samuelsson, Josh Langfeld would be driving across the state on I-96 today. They can’t send Langfeld down, however, because he wasn’t on the Griffins’ clear day roster and cannot play for them again this season.
Update (1:45 PM): See 1:40 PM update on today’s GameDay post. - Matt
So says the AHL transaction page. Someone must be hurt, because Josh Langfeld isn’t going the other way, at least not yet. It could be Dan Cleary, who took the butt-end of a stick in the gut last night on a freak incident along the endboards. The blade of the stick had somehow gotten wedged underneath the back of the net and caught Cleary in the stomach as he skated by.
Ansar Khan reports the following:
… Chris Osgood broke a finger on his right hand during warmups last night and played through it. Apparently, it’s not serious, but it could keep him out of the action for a while.
… Fortunately, both Joey MacDonald and Dominik Hasek, who were down with the flu, are expected to dress tomorrow for the Colorado game. Megan points out that if MacDonald, Hasek, and Osgood end up not being capable of playing tomorrow, the best goalie the Wings have available is Stefan Liv, who will have played two games in a row after tonight (Jimmy Howard is out with an ankle injury). Not a good situation, though I’m sure Dom and Joey will be able to suit up, since they did practice today.
… Kris Draper, Valtteri Filppula and Robert Lang are also expected to be ready to go tomorrow after practicing today. Khan, though, is right to say that Matt Ellis and Matt Hussey should keep their cell phones on because they very well may have to drive out to Detroit tomorrow before the game.
… Apparently, Mathieu Schneider feels “great” and could possibly return tomorrow. Khan says that he’s more likely to sit out one more and return Tuesday, but says Chris Chelios hurt his shoulder in practice and if he can’t go, the Wings might insert Schneider earlier than planned. Chelios finished practice, though, and should play tomorrow.
… Mikael Samuelsson hopes to begin skating in a week, but there’s no further news about when he’ll be back in the lineup.
