Ted Kulfan takes a look at the Nashville series, the Columbus weekend games, the new NHL draft lottery, the trade deadline and former Red Wings center Mark Kirton is the special guest on this week’s edition of OctoPulse.
Kirton, who centered a checking line with Paul Woods and Brad “Motor City” Smith in the early 1980s, was diagnosed with ALS in 2018 and is now an advocate for ALS awareness and finding a cure for Lou Gehrig’s disease.
He says he “may be in the third period of life but guaranteed there will be numerous overtimes” and that “there’s a lot of life left.”
Kulfan and assistant sports editor Mark Falkner also talk about the Red Wings dressing only three players who are 23 and under against Nashville on Thursday: Filip Hronek, Filip Zadina and Michael Rasmussen.
Dennis Cholowski is 23 but he didn’t play in the 7-1 loss against the Predators. If you add up the points of Hronek, who leads the team in scoring, Zadina and Rasmussen, the total is just 34 points, ranking among the worst teams in the NHL.
In comparison, the Devils are No. 1 with 115 points from players 23 and under. The Senators have 89 points and the Canucks/Hurricanes/BlackHawks 87.
Here’s the highlights from episode 48 of OctoPulse:
►:40: Jeff Blashill on “too many no-shows” in 7-1 loss in Nashville
►3:20: Blashill on Thomas Greiss allowing four goals on seven shots
►9:10: Detroit dresses just three players 23 years old or younger
►13:30: Mark Kirton interview
►33:10: Sam Gagner on Tim Peel fired for on-ice comments
►37:10: Redrafting Tim Stutzle or Lucas Raymond