Detroit Red Wings

Red Wings Daily: Vrana Will Let You Do The Math

Published

2 years ago

April 21, 2022

Bob Duff

Thirty goals? Forty Goals? Fifty goals? Jakub Vrana's 20 goals in 32 games as a Red Wings player has everyone - except him - pondering his future totals.

Thirty goals? Forty goals? Dare we even dream of a 50-goal campaign?

Go ahead, do the math. Crunch the numbers. Run those algorithms. Create that pie chart.

Jakub Vrana doesn’t mind one bit if you want to go all Jethro Bodine and set out to ciphering. Just don’t don’t expect him to be that calculating.

“Those things, that’s not what’s laying in my head,” Vrana said. “Things can go wrong. Things can go really good and then it can throw you off.”

His two-goal effort in Tuesday’s 4-3 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning gave Vrana 20 goals in his first 32 games for the Detroit Red Wings, tying Danny Grant’s 47-year-old club record.

Jakub Vrana just tied the franchise record for the fewest games to reach 20 goals as a Red Wing because he’s unreal #LGRW
pic.twitter.com/Q0uEswal8x

— Barstool Detroit (@BSMotorCity) April 20, 2022

It also got people bubbling with excitement thinking of how many red lights Vrana might illuminate during the course of an 82-game season.

“A 40-goal season? To be honest with you, I don’t try to put any sort of pressure on myself,” Vrana explained. “I just try to get the best of it I can do. If I score 40 plus or minus, I don’t know.

“I’m gonna go into the season with doing my best every day and we will see how it goes.”

Griffins Rebound Strongly

Fresh off a devastating loss in Iowa that appeared to be leaving it far less likely that the Grand Rapids Griffins will be making the AHL playoffs, the Griffins were bouncing back strongly on Wednesday. They went into Rockford and put a 5-3 whipping on the IceHogs.

Just back from Detroit, Riley Barber extended his point streak to 13 games (11-6-17), which is the longest by a Griffin in more than 16 years, since Donald MacLean’s franchise-record 19-game run in 2005-06. Turner Elson tallied his team-leading 21st goal of the season. Barber and Elson are the first Grand Rapids teammates with 20-plus goals each since Chris Terry (29) and Matt Puempel (24) in 2018-19.

Jonatan Berggren pushed his point streak to seven games (4-7-11) while Kyle Criscuolo saw his climb to four (3-3-6). Taro Hirose (1-5-6) is also on a four-game point streak. Drew Worrad and Butrus Ghafari recorded their first AHL goals.

Head coach Ben Simon, goaltending coach Brian Mahoney-Wilson and defenseman Jared McIsaac were all sidelined due to COVID-19 protocol.

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Prospects Pipeline

Defenseman William Wallinder (32nd overall, 2020) played a game-high 23:17 for Rogle as they beat Farjestad 3-2 in Game 3 of their SHL semifinal series. Defenseman Albert Johansson (60th, 2019) dished out an assist for Farjestad, which leads the best-of-seven set 2-1.

Great movement by Albert Johansson in the o-zone, but he's defended well by Marco Kasper #LGRW #2022NHLDraft pic.twitter.com/XSRyt4DcqQ

— IcehockeyGifs (@IcehockeyG) April 20, 2022

Defenseman Eemil Viro (70th, 2020) didn’t figure in the scoring as his club TPS Turku lost 2-1 to Tappara Tampere in Game 1 of Finland’s SM-liiga final.

National Hockey Network

Florida: The Florida Panthers play host to the Red Wings on Thursday and Sasha Barkov is the straw that stirs the drink for them.

Pittsburgh: The Red Wings will play host to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday but they won’t be seeing goalie Tristan Jarry. With speculation that he’s injured his right foot, Jarry was needing to be pushed into position in a folding chair for the club’s team photo on Wednesday.

Boston: In the latest Boston Bruins injury updates, goalie Linus Ullmark is back this weekend. The returns of forward David Pastrnak and defenseman Hampus Lindholm remain less certain.

Washington: Can the Washington Capitals catch the Penguins in the Metropolitan Division standings? They think they can.

Colorado: Center Nazem Kadri is the latest member of the Colorado Avalanche walking wounded who’s ready to return to action.

Montreal: Leading scorer for the AHL Laval Rockets, forward Rafael Harvey-Pinard was recalled by the Montreal Canadiens and is suiting up Thursday against the Philadelphia Flyers.

Philadelphia: Meanwhile, Linus Hoberg was recalled and figures to be the ninth player to make his NHL debut for the Philadelphia Flyers this season when he suits up against the Habs.