Red Wings give Blashill two-year extension to continue developing youth

By Sean LeahyApr 2, 2019, 9:15 AM EDT

Another playoff-less spring means the Detroit Red Wings have already begun working on the 2019-20 NHL season. First, they extended goaltender Jimmy Howard and now they’re bringing back head coach Jeff Blashill.

The Red Wings announced on Thursday that Blashill has agreed to a two-year extension through the 2020-21 season. He was hired in June 2015 and has headed up a rebuild that is still on-going, but has some bright spots to it.

Dylan Larkin and Andreas Athanasiou each hit the 30-goal mark for the first time during career years, while Anthony Mantha hit 20 goals for the second straight season, and Tyler Bertuzzi took a big step forward as part of a developing Red Wing core. There’s still plenty of age on the roster beyond this season — Frans Nielsen, Justin Abdelkader, Darren Helm, Jonathan Ericcsson, Trevor Daley, and likely Niklas Kronwall, whose contract expires this summer — but a youth movement is afoot. In general manager Ken Holland’s eyes Blashill is the right choice to continue to lead this transition phase.

“Jeff has done a tremendous job developing our young talent as we continue to rebuild our organization,” said Holland in a statement. “Our young players have made significant strides during his time as head coach and are playing important minutes in key situations. As we continue to build towards the future, we have the utmost confidence that Jeff is the coach best suited to help our prospects become impactful NHL players. He has gained valuable experience as an NHL coach in each of his four years in Detroit and has instilled a work ethic in our current team that makes us hard to play against every night and competitive in every game, which is the identity we want our team to have as we move forward.”

The one solution the Red Wings have yet to find is a goaltender of the future who can step in in a year or two. With Howard’s extension and Jonathan Bernier still under contract through the end of next season, Holland has $7.25M invested between the pipes for 2019-20.

A two-year extension is a short enough leash that a change could be made if things aren’t trending in the right direction. There’s plenty of speculation about Holland’s future as well. He signed two-year deal last April, but his name has been constantly brought up in rumors surrounding the GM position for the Seattle franchise, which isn’t entering the NHL until the 2020-21 season.

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Sean Leahy is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @Sean_Leahy.

WATCH LIVE: Bruins – Red Wings on NBCSN

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By James O'BrienMar 31, 2019, 7:30 PM EDT

NBCSN’s coverage of the 2018-19 NHL season continues with Sunday night’s matchup between the Boston Bruins at the Detroit Red Wings. Coverage begins at 6:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN. You can watch the game online and on the NBC Sports app by clicking here.

On one side, you have the Bruins, a team hoping to cement its hold on the second seed in the Atlantic Division, and thus a round of home-ice advantage.

The Red Wings don’t face much in the way of stakes … yet they’ve been playing with pride lately, nonetheless. It might not help their tanking chances to win on Sunday, but try telling that to the players on the ice.

[WATCH LIVE – COVERAGE BEGINS AT 6:30 PM. ET – NBCSN]

What: Boston Bruins at Detroit Red Wings
Where: Little Caesars Arena
When: Sunday, March 31, 7:330 p.m. ET
TV: NBCSN
Live stream: You can watch the Bruins-Red Wings stream on NBC Sports’ live stream page and the NBC Sports app.

PROJECTED LINES

BRUINS

Brad Marchand — Patrice Bergeron — David Pastrnak

Jake DeBrusk — David Krejci — Marcus Johansson

Danton Heinen — Charlie Coyle — Chris Wagner

Joakim Nordstrom — Noel Acciari — David Backes

Zdeno Chara — Charlie McAvoy

Torey Krug — Brandon Carlo

Kevan Miller — Matt Grzelcyk

Starting goalie: Jaroslav Halak

RED WINGS

Darren Helm — Dylan Larkin — Anthony Mantha

Tyler Bertuzzi — Andreas Athanasiou — Dominic Turgeon

Martin Frk — Christoffer Ehn — Taro Hirose

Matt Puempel — Ryan Kuffner

Danny DeKeyser — Filip Hronek

Niklas Kronwall — Madison Bowey

Dylan McIlrath — Luke Witkowski

Jake Chelios

Starting goalie: Jimmy Howard

Brendan Burke (play-by-play) and Brian Boucher (‘Inside-the-Glass’ analyst) will have the call from Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, Mich. Pre-game coverage starts at 6:30 p.m. ET with NHL Live, hosted by Kathryn Tappen alongside Keith Jones and Anson Carter.

WATCH LIVE: Red Wings host Blackhawks on Wednesday Night Hockey

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By Sean LeahyFeb 20, 2019, 6:30 PM EDT

NBCSN’s coverage of the 2018-19 NHL season continues with the Wednesday Night Hockey matchup between the Chicago Blackhawks and Detroit Red Wings. Coverage begins at 6:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN. You can watch the game online and on the NBC Sports app by clicking here.

The Blackhawks have won nine of their last 11 games (9-2-0), including seven straight wins from Jan. 20 – Feb. 10, to climb right back into the playoff race. On the morning of January 20, exactly one month ago, the Blackhawks had 41 points and were dead last in the NHL. Now, as of Tuesday morning, they have 59 points, and are just one point behind the Minnesota Wild, who currently owns the second wild card in the Western Conference.

Patrick Kane is having arguably the best year of his career, and should the Blackhawks rally to make the playoffs, he could perhaps win his second career Hart Trophy. He’s currently on a season-best 18-game point streak (40 points: 14 goals, 26 assists), and is averaging 1.53 points/game, which would be the best of his 12-year career. He has an assist in 17 straight games… only two players in NHL history have posted a longer assist streak than Kane – Wayne Gretzky (23 games – 1990-91) & Adam Oates (18 games – 1992-93).

The NHL Trade Deadline is less than a week away and Detroit has a few key players that are set to become unrestricted free agents at the end of the season: Gustav Nyquist, Thomas Vanek, Niklas Kronwall, Nick Jensen, Luke Witkowski and Jimmy Howard.

Red Wings GM Ken Holland has been weighing whether he should try to sign some of the pending free agents or trade them – with a focus on Howard, Nyquist and Jensen specifically. Holland said he’d like to sign all three to extensions – and all three players have expressed a desire to stay – but a deal must work for both sides.

“I need to weigh which of them we consider re-signing because they can help us in ’19-20 and then we maybe need to do something to add to that in the summer of ’19 because if you just trade all those players away your team is worse,” he said. “So now you got to make moves to get back to where you’re at and even beyond and that’s hard to do in the summer.”

[WATCH LIVE – COVERAGE BEGINS AT 6:30 P.M. ET – NBCSN]

What: Chicago Blackhawks at Detroit Red Wings
Where: Little Caesars Arena
When: Wednesday, Feb. 20, 6:30 p.m. ET
TV: NBCSN
Live stream: You can watch the Blackhawks-Red Wings stream on NBC Sports’ live stream page and the NBC Sports app.

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BLACKHAWKS
Drake Caggiula – Jonathan Toews – Patrick Kane
Alex DeBrincat – Dylan Strome – Dominik Kahun
Brandon Saad – Artem Anisimov – Dylan Sikura
Chris Kunitz – Marcus Kruger – John Hayden

Duncan Keith – Erik Gustafsson
Carl Dahlstrom – Connor Murphy
Slater Koekkoek – Gustav Forsling

Starting goalie: Cam Ward

RED WINGS
Tyler Bertuzzi – Dylan Larkin – Anthony Mantha
Thomas Vanek – Frans Nielsen – Gustav Nyquist
Andreas Athanasiou – Luke Glendening – Christoffer Ehn
Darren Helm – Jacob De La Rose – Justin Abdelkader

Niklas Kronwall – Mike Green
Danny DeKeyser – Nick Jensen
Trevor Daley – Filip Hronek

Starting goalie: Jimmy Howard

MORE: Jonathan Toews is back

For the first time in his career, Mike Tirico will call play-by-play for an NHL game on Wednesday when the Red Wings host the Blackhawks. He’ll be joined in the booth by Eddie Olczyk and ‘Inside-the-Glass’ analyst Brian Boucher. Pre-game coverage starts at 6:30 p.m. ET with NHL Live, hosted by Kathryn Tappen alongside Mike Milbury, Keith Jones and Bob McKenzie.

WATCH LIVE: Red Wings at Oilers

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By James O'BrienJan 22, 2019, 8:00 PM EDT

NBCSN’s coverage of the 2018-19 NHL season continues with Tuesday’s matchup between the Detroit Red Wings and Edmonton Oilers. Coverage begins at 8 p.m. ET on NBCSN. You can watch the game online and on the NBC Sports app by clicking here.

Off the ice, it feels like there’s never a dull moment for the Edmonton Oilers.

Connor McDavid is admonishing anonymous teammates for a perceived lack of buy-in. Oilers GM Peter Chiarelli continues to make … interesting moves, with Mikko Koskinen‘s extension being an eyebrow-raiser, and Ryan Spooner being a tragicomic waiver addition.

It’s almost easy to miss the actual on-ice product of a team fighting for a spot in the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

[WATCH LIVE – COVERAGE BEGINS AT 8 P.M. ET – NBCSN]

The Oilers risk heading into the All-Star break on a three-game losing streak, as they fell 5-2 to the Flames on Saturday and 7-4 to the Hurricanes on Sunday.

McDavid and the Oilers face a Red Wings team that’s currently tied for last place in the NHL with 43 standings points. There’s plenty on the line, including Koskinen playing in his first game since signing that extension, so we’ll see how Edmonton responds on Tuesday.

[GAME PREVIEW]

What: Detroit Red Wings at Edmonton Oilers
Where: Rogers Place
When: Tuesday, Jan. 22, 8 p.m. ET
TV: NBCSN
Live stream: You can watch the Red Wings-Oilers stream on NBC Sports’ live stream page and the NBC Sports app.

PROJECTED LINEUPS

RED WINGS

Tyler Bertuzzi – Dylan Larkin – Gustav Nyquist
Thomas Vanek – Frans Nielsen – Anthony Mantha
Darren Helm – Luke Glendening – Andreas Athanasiou
Jacob De La Rose – Christoffer Ehn – Justin Abdelkader
Niklas Kronwall – Mike Green
Dan DeKeyser – Nick Jensen
Jonathan Ericsson – Filip Hronek

Starting goalie: Jimmy Howard

OILERS

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – Connor McDavid – Jesse Puljujarvi
Jujhar Khaira – Leon Draisaitl – Alex Chiasson
Ryan Spooner – Colby Cave – Kailer Yamamoto
Milan Lucic – Kyle Brodziak – Zack Kassian
Darnell Nurse – Adam Larsson
Kris Russell – Matt Benning
Brandon Manning – Alex Petrovic

Starting goalie: Mikko Koskinen

Ken Daniels (play-by-play) and Ray Ferraro (‘Inside-the-Glass’ analyst) will have the call from Rogers Place in Edmonton.

MORE: Oilers bet on Koskinen with three-year extension

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James O’Brien is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @cyclelikesedins.

Red Wings push Ducks’ skid to 12 games

By James O'BrienJan 15, 2019, 10:35 PM EDT

Anaheim Ducks GM Bob Murray gave head coach Randy Carlyle (the deadly?) vote of confidence and shipped Andrew Cogliano out of town, but playing against the struggling Detroit Red Wings did little to change this team’s path.

Despite Rickard Rakell scoring the opening goal, the Ducks dropped their 12th game in a row, as the Red Wings fired off three unanswered goals to win 3-1 on Tuesday.

Since beating the Pittsburgh Penguins 4-2 to improve to 19-11-5 on Dec. 17, the Ducks have gone 0-8-4 to slide down to 19-19-9, leaving them outside of the West’s eight playoff spots, and in a position of significant uncertainty in the conference’s clogged bubble races. So this could be a full month-long losing streak if the Ducks can’t beat the Minnesota Wild in their next game on Thursday, Jan. 17.

This wasn’t exactly the effort of a desperate team trying to save their coach’s job (and avoid further trades), as the Red Wings actually narrowly edged the Ducks in shots on goal at 25-24.

All three of the Red Wings’ goals happened in the third period. Anthony Mantha tied it up a little less than six minutes into the final frame after Rakell’s second-period goal, while Gustav Nyquist collected the game-winner with 4:16 left in the third. Darren Helm then added the insurance goal.

Things might not get much easier for Anaheim in the near future, as this loss represented the second game of a five-game road trip, and after one home date, they must endure another road run:

Thu., Jan. 17: at Minnesota
Sat., Jan. 19: at New Jersey
Sun., Jan. 20: at Islanders
Wed., Jan. 23: vs St. Louis
Sat., Feb. 2: at Winnipeg
Mon., Feb. 4: at Toronto
Tue., Feb. 5: at Montreal
Thu., Feb. 7: at Ottawa
Sat., Feb. 9: at Philadelphia

Ouch.

We’ll find out soon enough if something else gives with the Ducks, whether that means yet another trade, or even a coaching change. It’s fair to wonder if there’s much anyone can do, as even all-world goalie John Gibson has no longer been able to stop the bleeding.

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James O’Brien is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @cyclelikesedins.