Month: September 2025

Sebastian Cossa’s prepared ahead of a pivotal season

We all know that Red Wings goaltending prospect Sebastian Cossa faces a pivotal season this year. At 22, going on 23 in November, the 6’6,” 209-pound netminder had an up-and-down sophomore season with the AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins, starting strong and fading down the stretch.

This year, the Red Wings have chosen to go with a 2-goaltender system, and they didn’t sign a veteran to spell Cossa in Grand Rapids, instead, signing Czech league star Michal Postava as a rookie companion.

This year should afford Cossa multiple chances to build upon his rookie debut in 2024-2025 with some stints in Detroit, but Cossa’s got to stake his case for time in the Wings’ crease, especially given that fellow star goaltending prospect Trey Augustine’s probably playing in his final season at Michigan State.

Cossa told the Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan that he’s well aware of his situation:

“I’m the highest on the depth chart that I’ve ever been going into camp,” Cossa said. “That’s good, but at the end of the day I still got to put the work in. I still have to play. It’s step by step. I’m happy where I am right now and just want to continue to push it.”

After an impressive first half in Grand Rapids last season — which also included Cossa’s first NHL victory in his first NHL game, in a relief role in Buffalo — Cossa’s play took downturn after the All-Star break (as did many Griffins, to be fair). That also included a forgettable overall performance in a first-round, three-game series loss in the playoffs.

Cossa didn’t shy away, or make any excuses, for his disappointing late-season downfall.

“I didn’t have the best second half last year, I wasn’t happy with the playoff performance,” Cossa said. “There’s a bit of a chip on the shoulder when it comes to that. I want to prove I can play at a really high level in the AHL and hopefully get (an NHL opportunity). I was rock solid the first half of the year up until to around December, then a couple of injuries in Grand Rapids and Detroit, and you miss a couple of guys and we got into a bit of a slump, the whole team. I wasn’t playing great. It’s unfortunate.”

Red Wings coach Todd McLellan’s well aware of Cossa’s situation, too…

Continue reading Sebastian Cossa’s prepared ahead of a pivotal season

More Red & White recaps: Coach Tanguay weighs in; Mo’ physical, Mo’ better

I posted a set of text recaps of Sunday’s Red & White Game a couple of hours ago, and in the interim, two more recaps were posted.

MLive’s Matthew Ehler took note of Red Wings assistant coach Alex Tanguay’s remarks regarding the game and its standout performers:

“What those players do in the summertime is play summer hockey so there’s no stopping and there’s not really that motion,” Red Wings assistant coach Alex Tanguay said. “Once you get into the games and in tight spaces, you get your feels back. It’s important for our players to get their feels back, get their legs back and to get bumped a few times to know what it feels like again. Playing every day raised their competitive juices a little bit.”

DeBrincat put Team White on the board first with a goal in the first period, while Jonatan Berggren scored later on in the frame and Emmitt Finnie added his own tally in the second period for Team Red.

Finnie impressed teammates and coaches throughout camp –– he played on a line with Larkin and Lucas Raymond on both Saturday and Sunday.

“He probably, more than some of the guys, he’s brought his best aspect forward,” Tanguay said. “He’s a good skater and he’s a good puck retriever and he showed that in the games in Dallas and he showed that in the games here. And again tonight, we put him on a good line and he showed that he was able to retrieve pucks and drive the pace with his speed and his size.”

Tanguay was also impressed with Amadeus Lombardi’s play, and in his assessment thereof, Tanguay made a wise remark regarding every prospect’s attempts to earn an NHL job:

Continue reading More Red & White recaps: Coach Tanguay weighs in; Mo’ physical, Mo’ better

The Red & White Game emphasized progress made, but as training camp ends, Larkin says, ‘We’re tired of playing each other’

Okay, I’ve posted a “Tweetcap” of today’s Red & White Game, as well as the post-game comments video. As we round 7 PM, the Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan and the Hockey News’s Michael Whitaker have posted recaps with good quotes from Dylan Larkin, Elmer Soderblom, Emmitt Finnie and assistant coach Alex Tanguay.

All four seem to agree that the team’s playing intense, fast hockey right now, but after four days of intrasquad scrimmages, captain Larkin told Kulfan that there’s a fatigue factor developing–and it’s not physical fatigue that we’re talking about:

“Unbelievable atmosphere,” captain Dylan Larkin said. “I’m not surprised knowing the hockey fans here in Grand Rapids and the people that drove from all over the west side of the state to come watch. It was real special.”

The pace was faster than in Traverse City for the three days of camp — and frankly, the pace was impressive there, too. Larkin felt the tempo and intensity of Sunday’s scrimmage and felt it was more like an actual game. But it’s time to face someone in a different uniform, which the Wings will Tuesday when they host Chicago.

“We’re tired of playing each other,” Larkin said. “We’ve been going at each other for four days now, somewhat the same teams and lineups, and we’re ready. You saw it kind of got physical there (Sunday) and that’s good for our group to do that. I’d like to hit someone else now and play with Patrick (Kane), Marco (Kasper) and Alex (DeBrincat) and not against them.”

We talked about Finnie overnight, and after scoring a goal in the scrimmage, he’s feeling pretty good about himself–and the coaches have taken notice of #58’s play:

Continue reading The Red & White Game emphasized progress made, but as training camp ends, Larkin says, ‘We’re tired of playing each other’

Video: Larkin, Soderblom, Finnie and coach Tanguay speak after the Red & White Game

Updated at 6 PM: 15 minutes’ worth of commentary:

Update: MLive also posted a massive 70-image photo gallery from the game….

And here’s the Griffins’ game recap:

Team Red 2 vs. Team White 3

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Rounding out the Detroit Red Wings’ 2025 Training Camp, the team made the trip to Van Andel Arena to compete in the Red & White Game in Grand Rapids for the first time since 2011. In front of a sell-out crowd of 10,834, Team White came away with a 3-2 victory over Team Red, highlighted by two-point outings from Elmer Soderblom (2-0–2) and Amadeus Lombardi (0-2–2). 

Continue reading Video: Larkin, Soderblom, Finnie and coach Tanguay speak after the Red & White Game

It’s a Red & White Game Tweetcap!

Updated at 5:28 PM: It may have been just a scrimmage, but the Red & White Game was incredibly fun to watch. Coach Todd McLellan’s emphasis on players playing with their “foot on the gas pedal” was evident in what was a fast-paced, intense and sometimes (when Mo Seider was on the ice, anyway) physical game that resulted in a 3-2 win for the White Team.

Here are some highlights from the game in Twitter form:

Continue reading It’s a Red & White Game Tweetcap!

Prospect round-up: Tyurin posts an assist for Spartak, Miller stops 27 shots for Soo Greyhounds

Of Red Wings prospect-related note today:

In the DEL, Kevin Bicker wasn’t able to make it home in time to participate in the Frankfurt Lowen’s 6-3 loss to the Schwenninger Wild Wings;

In the KHL, Dmitri Buchelnikov finished even with 1 shot on goal, 1 takeaway and 1 intercepted pass in 14:38 as CSKA Moscow lost 5-4 to Metallurg Magnitogorsk;

And in the MHL, Nikita Tyurin had an assist, finishing even with 4 shots and 4 blocks in 25:46 played as MHK Spartak lost 4-3 to Taifun.

In North America, in the OHL, Landon Miller stopped 27 of 29 shots in the Soo Greyhounds’ 5-2 win over the Sarnia Sting:

Tweets of note: Red vs. White Game rosters and more

Of Red Wings-related note this afternoon on Twitter:

Continue reading Tweets of note: Red vs. White Game rosters and more

On Compher and Copp

As Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff notes, Red Wings coach Todd McLellan believes that J.T. Compher and Andrew Copp can still be useful members of the team as Swiss Army Knife players:

“I think (Copp) and JT could be different difference makers this year,” McLellan said.

At the same time, he’s witnessed two players in action who are far too often all about inaction.

“In JT and in Copper, I saw two different players,” McLellan said. “I saw somebody that wasn’t getting after it. They were a little reserved, holding back, kind of (getting there) second to different scenarios. And then when they got after it and they went after it, they were way better.

“They have to decide which one of those they want to be. And if they want to be ahead of things and using their hockey sense and getting after it, then they’re going to be really good players. If they want to be reserved and playing in the middle of the rink all the time and calculated well, we’ll have to figure that part out.”

Continued