Red Wings-Penguins rematch wrap-up: underdog-done good

Despite their unremarkable lineup, the Detroit Red Wings’ “non-game-day” players defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins’ “mostly NHL’ers” team 2-1 on Tuesday night, affording the Wings a 3-1-and-1 record (despite two losses in Monday night’s “split squad” games).

The game was far from elegant, but the “B Team” committed itself to defensive play, Ville Husso was tremendous in stopping 43 of 44 shot against (though he did receive some help from a couple of goalposts), Amadeus Lombardi scored an elegant deke-and-dangle goal in the slot 2:48 into the 2nd, Nate Danielson scored a breakaway goal at 17:11 of the 3rd, and the Wings killed 5 Penguins power plays, all en route to that 2-1 victory.

The Wings open the 2024-2025 season against Pittsburgh on Thursday, October 10th, and I’m certain that Pittsburgh will remember this game going into the Wings’ home opener. The only question is whether the Wings’ “A Team” will be fully ready to put in the kind of blue-collar effort in checking the Penguins’ stars that earned them (with a lot of help from Husso) a hard-fought victory.

Anyway, the Red Wings’ press corps didn’t travel to Pittsburgh, so what we’re going to get tonight is a lot of summaries, and a few quips and quotes.

MLive’s Ansar Khan kept his recap short and sweet…

Nate Danielson snapped a tie with 2:49 remaining in the third period Tuesday and Ville Husso made 43 saves to lift the Detroit Red Wings past the Pittsburgh Penguins 2-1 in a preseason game at PPG Paints Arena.

The Penguins, with star players Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang in the lineup, outshot the Red Wings 44-19. Detroit dressed only a few regulars – Husso, Joe Veleno, Tyler Motte, Justin Holl and Albert Johansson.

Danielson, the Red Wings’ top pick in 2023 (No. 9) scored on a breakaway against Tristan Jarry after taking a pass from 2024 top pick Michael Brandsegg-Nygard.

Danielson is competing for a spot on the NHL roster but unless there is an injury or two, he likely will start the season with Grand Rapids.

After Richard Rakell opened the scoring at 1:34 of the second period, Amadeus Lombardi tied it at 2:48. Lombardi, who’ll be entering his second season with the Griffins, made a good move to get past Matt Grzelcyk and whipped in a shot from the slot.

Ditto for the Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan…

Husso backstopped a lineup that was primarily a Grand Rapids Griffins-stacked roster — one night after Pittsburgh’s minor-league heavy roster defeated an NHL-laden Red Wings lineup Monday at Little Caesars Arena.

Amadeus Lombardi opened the scoring for the Wings, shortly after Rickard Rakell got Pittsburgh on the scoreboard in the second period.

The Penguins outshot the Wings 44-19. Both teams were 0-for-5 on the power play.

The Wings (3-1-1) conclude the preseason with three games in three nights beginning Thursday at LCA against Toronto.

And the Free Press’s Helene St. James, who focused on Husso’s performance…

Ville Husso looked in fine form in his first full game in more than nine months, helping a young Detroit Red Wings squad hold its own in a rematch against the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Husso, who missed two-thirds of last season dealing with a lower-body injury, was in net for the entirety of Tuesday’s exhibition match against a Sidney Crosby-led Penguins squad at PPG Paints Arena. He made 43 saves to lead the Wings to a 2-1 victory.

…

Husso made his second start of the exhibition season, but first playing all three periods, and came through with 14 saves in the first period, including three against Crosby and one each against Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang. While the Penguins had many of their A-listers in the lineup, the Wings brought a team light on NHL regulars, instead affording the likes of Brandsegg-Nygård and Danielson opportunities to play for the second straight night, after Danielson played the Pens in Detroit on Monday and Brandsegg-Nygård was part of the squad that was in Buffalo at the same time.

Husso made another dozen saves in the second period.

The Hockey News’s Sam Stockton offered three observations, discussing Husso’s play, Amadeus Lombardi’s performance on a line with Elmer Soderblom and Michael Brandsegg-Nygard, and, of course, the stand-out performance from the Red Wings’ “fourth line”:

In the Tyler Motte, Joe Veleno, and Austin Watson triumvirate, coach Derek Lalonde offered a decently realistic preview of the Red Wings fourth line come October 10th.  Veleno would be the sole holdover from last year’s fourth line, but the introduction of the industrious, tight checking Motte and simple, physical Watson represents a clear change of direction from last year’s fourth line mainstays Robby Fabbri and Daniel Sprong.

I wrote this afternoon about potential trajectories for Joe Veleno to become an essential piece of the Red Wings plan moving forward, and one of those paths is by becoming a specialized defensive fourth line center.  He’s spent time in that role, but playing with the likes of Motte and Watson would represent a pivot toward a different version of it and perhaps a more sustainable one.  Meanwhile, as the Red Wings look to tighten defensively, the fourth line seems an obvious area in which to emphasize that message, so that construction feels consistent with the stated path toward improved results.

That success, of course, raises the question of Watson and his PTO.  Strictly speaking, there isn’t a roster spot for him, but…perhaps one could be made.  Then, the question becomes just how much would Detroit be willing to risk or pay (whether via waivers or a trade) to open up a place for Watson.  He fits a profile the Red Wings don’t have, but it’s not as though the team is starved for options to play the wing on the fourth line.

I’m not certain whether the Red Wings are going to out-and-out sign Watson, but I think that a two-way contract with an early-season trip to Grand Rapids (via the waiver wire) may be in the offing, especially if he plays this well again.

Finally, DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills traveled with the team and spoke with Ville Husso, Nate Danielson and coach Lalonde, and here’s a chunk of his recap which discusses Husso’s 43-stop performance…

“I felt good,” Husso said. “After that first game I played in Chicago, I hadn’t played for a long time before that, so it was easy to come in today. We’ve had a good Training Camp so far. [The Penguins] pretty much had a full NHL roster, but we did a good job all night.”

Red Wings head coach Derek Lalonde said post-game it was always the plan for Husso to play all of Tuesday’s contest.

“Really, really promising,” Lalonde said about Husso’s night in the crease. “Good sign for him to be that sharp throughout the entire 60 minutes, and it was good volume. A good battle for him, a good test, and he certainly passed it tonight.”

Amadeus Lombardi’s gorgeous, highlight-reel goal…

Quickly responding for Detroit just 1:14 later, Amadeus Lombardi made a great move into the slot and roofed a quick wrister past Penguins netminder Tristan Jarry to tie it 1-1. The lone assist went to Hunter Johannes.

“I loved the play,” Lalonde said about Lombardi’s goal. “He had some poise, held onto it, took some time with it and finished. He’s had a good camp. He’s progressing extremely well over the last two years, which is exciting to see. A huge credit to the GR staff. He doesn’t look like the same player we had in camp last year. It’s a good sign for him going forward.”

And Nate Danielson’s game-winner:

Nate Danielson scored at 17:11 of the third period, taking a lead pass from Michael Brandsegg-Nygard before surging up the ice and sliding the puck five-hole for a breakaway goal to make it 2-1.

“I feel pretty confident,” Danielson said. “I’m just a confident person. I think I can still get better, be a little more offensive and create a little bit more, but I think I’m getting better every game.”

Overall?

“I loved our compete,” Lalonde said. “Obviously Ville was a big difference in the game tonight. I get the exhibition season can be tough to judge and very frustrating at times. A lot of times, you’ll get veterans who get what they need out of the game. You saw a little bit of that last night, probably a little bit tonight. But moving camp forward, we’d like a little more compete. I thought we had that from the group tonight, and they got rewarded in the end with a win.”

On the Penguins’ side of things, PittsburghPenguins.com’s James Baracia offered “Sully Says,” the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Matt Vensel focused on Harrison Brunicke’s superb performance, the Tribune-Review’s Justin Gurriero reported that the Penguins lost forward Vasily Ponomarev halfway through the game, Pittsburgh Hockey Now’s Dan Kingerski offered a couple of player and special teams grades, and the Hockey News’s Kelsey Surmacz offers a slate of post-game observations, while THN compatriot Ryan Gagne offered three observations of his own.

Multimedia:

Highlights: Here are the game’s three goals, in Twitter form:

The Penguins’ website also posted a 5:04 highlight clip, and the NHL posted a “Condensed Game” that’s 9 minutes long, but I can’t embed them because NHL.com’s removed its embed code.

Aha! The NHL’s YouTube channel posted the “Condensed Game,” too:

While I was filling Aunt Annie’s pills for tomorrow, Alex Wood also posted a highlight clip:

Post-game: The Penguins posted interviews with coach Mike Sullivan, Rickard Rackell and Tristan Jarry;

Here’s Tyler Motte’s first intermission interview from Bally Sports Detroit, regarding his trip to Egypt:

Photos: The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review posted an 8-image gallery;

The Free Press posted an 11-image AP gallery;

The Detroit News posted a 14-image gallery;

Statistics: Here are the Game Summary and Event Summary:

Red Wings notebooks: All about Justin Holl:

Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff posted a notebook article about Justin Holl…

Steady and reliable is what the Red Wings are looking for from Holl. The only NHL-esperienced defender in what was mostly an AHL-laden Detroit lineup, Holl would skate a game-high 21:59 [on Tuesday night]. He was plus-one and blocked three shots, also a team-high.

If he can deliver that type of game on a regular basis, Holl could be in more much more of a chunk during his second Red Wings season.

“I think just play the way I’ve always played,” is Holl’s strategy to earn ice time. “That would just be driving play up ice, quick breakouts, killing plays early in the defensive zone, penalty kill. Typically or historically that’s the kind of player I’ve been, and that’s the kind of player that I think I’m most or that’s the kind of game where I think I’m most effective.”

Last season, as the Red Wings were making their run at a playoff spot, Holl was assuming the role of spectator/cheerleader. He’d play in just three games after January 31. The message from Detroit coach Derek Lalonde to Holl is exactly the same as the game they want to see from him on the ice. Simple. Straightforward.

“Just bring your game, do the things you’re good at, defend,” Lalonde said. “Be hard to play against and we’ll see where it goes from there.”

And the Free Press’s Helene St. James posted a clip of Justin Holl’s media availability from Tuesday afternoon:

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George Malik

My name is George Malik, and I'm the Malik Report's editor/blogger/poster. I have been blogging about the Red Wings since 2006, and have worked with MLive and Kukla's Korner. Thank you for reading!