Month: September 2025

Morning news: Regarding the Red & White Game and what happens afterward

If you missed it, the Grand Rapids Griffins posted a Tweet with information you can use regarding today’s Red & White Game (3 PM EDT start on WXSP and DetroitRedWings.com)…

And WOOD TV8’s Cameron James posted a video report regarding today’s affair:

The Free Press’s Helene St. James also posted a morning article which discusses coach Todd McLellan’s goals for Detroit’s 8-games-in-12-nights exhibition season:

Continue reading Morning news: Regarding the Red & White Game and what happens afterward

Fit and Finnie

Emmitt Finnie is one of those players who I almost feel guilty for judging to project as more of a Kris Draper-style, grinding dynamo than what he’s shown at the WHL level in terms of scoring (see: 37 goals and 84 points in only 55 games with Kamloops this past season).

Finnie is very fast, Finnie works very hard, and the 6’1,” 190-pound Finnie is still growing into his stocky, strong frame at all of 20 years of age.

But my stupid job is to try and guess as best I can how a player’s skills at the developmental level translate into professional level roles, and I just see Finnie as a superstar of the “grinder’s” world at the NHL level.

The one thing we can all agree upon with young Emmitt, however, is that he has the work ethic of a superstar, and, as Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff notes, Red Wings coach Todd McLellan is a believer in Finnie’s “motor”:

“I’d heard about Emmitt and his game, but he’s really grown on me,” McLellan said on the club’s website. “The pace of play, the detail that he has, the courage that he has to take pucks to the net, the tenacity that he plays with. So he’s in one spot, then he’s getting to the next with some meaning.”

During Saturday’s final day of training camp workouts, Finnie, the club’s seventh-round pick in the 2023 NHL entry draft, got his chance to work on the club’s top line alongside captain Dylan Larkin and Lucas Raymond.

“Emmitt Finnie played pretty damn well up there,” McLellan said.

As Duff notes, when Finnie played his first pro games last season, he posted a goal and 4 assists for 5 points in 10 games, and he fit like a composite-molded $1,000 hockey skate at the AHL level. I don’t know whether that’s going to translate to NHL scoring, but we know one thing about Finnie already:

“I told the group today that there’s some players that have come here and they’re kind of riding the brakes a little bit,” McLellan said. “Maybe (they’re) afraid to make mistakes. And then there’s players that have come to make the team.

“And if you’ve been riding the brake a little bit, figure out who you are and let loose. You can’t play conservative all the time. If you make mistakes, we’ll help you. But if your biggest mistake is you’re playing with your foot on the brake all the time, we can’t help you with that. And I don’t think Emmett’s been one that’s been riding the brake. He’s been full on the gas.”

Finnie knows no other way to play, and for the Red Wings, that’s a very good thing.

Day 3 of training camp involved the Red Wings ‘getting closer to what real hockey should look like’

DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills posted his late-evening recap of the events of Day 3 of Red Wings’ 2025 training camp, and tonight, Mills frames Saturday’s activities in terms of what coach McLellan hopes will carry over to Sunday’s Red & White Game (3 PM EDT Sunday on WXSP and DetroitRedWings.com):

A productive scrimmage for McLellan will start with the players carrying over the level of competition that he saw on the ice on Saturday.

“I thought the guys were a little more competitive today than they were yesterday,” McLellan said. “There was physicality in the game. The ice was harder to come by, so it was tighter. There wasn’t a lot of free space. It was getting closer to what real hockey should look like. I hope that continues tomorrow in GR. Then we can pack up, get home, have a day off and a lot of games are going to come at us in a real short period of time.”

Creating that tough, but beneficial, environment in Training Camp has been a group effort.

“[The veterans] have been really good,” McLellan said. “There hasn’t been anybody dragging their butts or cutting corners, but I expected that from all of them. The youth have certainly pushed. There have been some real good performances by some players who have provided pace and tenacity, and that’s a real good sign as well.”

McLellan added that he’s encouraged the skaters to embrace a mindset that includes a willingness to take risks.

“I told the group today that there’s some players who have come here and they’re kind of riding the brake a little bit, maybe afraid to make mistakes,” McLellan said. “And then there are players who have come to make the team. If you’ve been riding the brake a little bit, figure out who you are and let loose. You can’t play conservative all the time. If you make mistakes, we’ll help you. But if your biggest mistake is you’re playing with your foot on the brake all the time, we can’t help you with that.”

Continued; hockey-wise, I get the feeling that coach McLellan’s brakes don’t get a whole lot of work. He seems like a gas pedal kind of coach.

Gas pedal vs. brake pedal

When Red Wings coach Todd McLellan spoke with the media today, he emphasized that, as training camp gives way to the Red & White Game, and a looming slate of 8 exhibition games to be played over the course of only 12 nights, the Red Wings’ bench boss wants his team to push itself to play harder, faster, smarter, and much more intense.

The Hockey News’s Michael Whitaker took note of McLellan’s remarks as to whether the Wings’ players have heeded his message to “play effing hockey” yet:

“I’d like to think they have, but we’re going to need to see them play against someone wearing a different color to really determine that,” McLellan said. “They can’t just skate around and think their way through games. They’re really good instinctual players; I think we have a really good skating team, and if we’re riding the brake, that’s for our veterans. If we’re riding the brake, we’re not going to give ourselves a chance.”

The Red Wings began turning things around almost immediately after McLellan was hired on December 26, aside from a 5-2 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs the following day, when he hadn’t yet had time to run a full practice.

Their intensity increased, their focus seemed renewed, and suddenly they resembled the team that held a nine-point lead at the playoff cutoff in February 2024, rather than the club that stumbled to a 13-17-4 start in the 2024-25 season.

While the Red Wings ultimately fell short of securing a playoff berth last season, McLellan’s overall record since taking over the head coaching duties (26-18-4) would translate into a 96 point total over the course of 82 games, which would have been sufficient to claim the second overall Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference.

In order to avoid a similar lull in the month of March like what they’ve experienced in the last two seasons, the Red Wings will need to, as McLellan put it, “play with our foot on the gas”.

“We’ve got to push the gas pedal and get after teams,” he said. “Obviously, there’s areas for improvement – penalty kill, defensively, we can’t give up that many goals, but we’ve got to play with our foot on the gas.”

Continued

Tweet of note: ‘Know before you go’ to the Red & White Game

The Grand Rapids Griffins will host the Red & White Game at Van Andel Arena tomorrow at 3 PM (on WXSP and DetroitRedWings.com), and they’ve posted a Tweet and Instagram post which summarize the format, when fans should arrive–as warm-ups start just after 2:30–and the alumni who will be on the concourse signing autographs (Kirk Maltby, Kris Draper, Daren McCarty, Mickey Redmond, Dan Cleary and Jiri Fischer):

Kulfan’s notebook: Axel Sandin Pellikka on adjusting to the North American game, and a bit about the Red & White Game’s implications

The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan filed an afternoon notebook which parallels MLive’s Ansar Khan’s discussion of one Axel Sandin Pellikka’s pluses and minuses as a developing prospect who’s not overly big at 5’11” and 185 pounds:

Sandin-Pellikka, similar to Wings defenseman Albert Johansson, has heard the talk of him being a smallish defenseman throughout his career. Sandin-Pellikka has been able to overcome not having NBA power forward size by using his smarts, positioning, and knowing the game.

“Use your brain well,” Sandin-Pellikka said of how to overcome being on the smaller side. “Hockey IQ is a big part of the defensive game sometimes. I don’t want to call it just pure strength. If you use your brain, position yourself right, it’s going to be OK in most situations.”

There are few doubts about Sandin-Pellikka’s skating ability, his poise with the puck, and creating offense. It’s on defense, and adapting to the smaller ice surface in North America, and how quickly Sandin-Pellikka adjusts to those two facets, will likely determine how fast he gets to the NHL.

“It’s a different game, the ice is smaller and it’s going to be quicker,” Sandin-Pellikka said. “(I have to) be aware in the defensive zone, be smart, on the inside a lot more and have your head on a swivel. That’s the thing I’ve been hearing, and what I want to get better at, too. Getting adjusted to that, learning a little bit more about the game here, all over the ice.”

Kulfan also discusses coach McLellan’s take on the likely pace of the Red & White Game, which is scheduled to take place on Sunday at 3 PM EDT in Grand Rapids’ Van Andel Arena:

Continue reading Kulfan’s notebook: Axel Sandin Pellikka on adjusting to the North American game, and a bit about the Red & White Game’s implications

Axel Sandin Pellikka understands he must become a more robust defensive player to graduate to the NHL

MLive’s Ansar Khan posted an article about Red Wings prospect Axel Sandin Pellikka, who’s well aware of the adjustments he must make as he faces his first fulls season in North America with the AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins:

How quickly the 20-year-old defenseman adapts defensively to the North American game will determine to a large part how soon he reaches the NHL.

“That’s the thing I’ve been hearing, and this is what I want to get better at, too,” Sandin Pellikka said. “Just getting adjusted to that, learning a little bit more about the game here. Pretty much all over the ice, though, offensive zone, too.”

Sandin Pellikka is experiencing his first NHL training camp this week in Traverse City. Following a strong season with Skelleftea AIK, when he led all players under 21 in goals (12) and points (29) in 46 games, Sandin Pellikka appeared in five games for the Griffins.

“It’s a different game, just that the ice is smaller and it’s going to be quicker,” he said. “Just be aware in the D-zone, be smart, be on the inside a lot more and have your head on a swivel.”

Despite his skills, Sandin Pellikka is almost certain to start the season in Grand Rapids because defensemen typically need more time to develop.

“I want to show the staff that I can play hockey on a good level,” Sandin Pellikka said. “Other than that, we’ll see how it goes.”

Red Wings coach Todd McLellan offered the following observations regarding Sandin Pellikka, who isn’t overly big at 5’11” and 185 pounds:

“There’s the pros to Axe’s game, and we’re certainly looking for that, because if we’re not seeing what really makes him as a player, then he’s probably playing very safe,” McLellan said during his media availability. “There’s some cons. And we look and see when he’s in those situations, how does he handle it against the bigger players or in his zone. I find him to be very confident. Not cocky at all, willing to learn. All good signs.”

Prospect round-up: Kiiskinen 1A, Johansson tossed, LDN 1G on a busy day in Europe

Of Red Wings prospect-related note in Europe today:

In the Finnish Liiga, Jesse Kiiskinen had an assist, finishing at -1 in 20:39 played, and taking 8 shots in HPK Hameenlinna’s 3-2 OT win over Kiekko-Espoo;

In the SHL, Eddie Genborg finished even with 5 shots and 1 hit in 16:33 played (on Timra’s first line) as Timra IK won 1-0 over Farjestads BK;

Anton Johansson took 7 minutes in penalties (a cross-checking minor and a 5-minute major), finishing at -1 with 2 shots and 2 hits in 19:48 played as Leksands IF lost 4-0 to Rogle BK;

Noah Dower Nilsson scored a goal, finishing at +1 with 4 shots in 13:57 played as Frolunda HC won 4-1 over Lulea Hockey:

Continue reading Prospect round-up: Kiiskinen 1A, Johansson tossed, LDN 1G on a busy day in Europe

DHN’s Allen on Sebastian Cossa taking the next steps in his development

Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen posted an article about Red Wings goaltending prospect Sebastian Cossa, who is confident in his status as the team’s #3 goaltender this season:

“I’m the highest on the depth chart that I’ve ever been going into camp here,” Cossa said. ” That’s good. But at the end of the day, I still got to put the work in, you know, still have to play.”

The Red Wings are prepared to give him the opportunity to show what he can do. â€śHe’ll play in the preseason — there is no doubt about that,” Detroit coach Todd McLellan said. “And (Michal) Postava should get some games too, or parts of games. We’ve got to find out a little bit about him. But Cossa’s coming into a really, really important year for himself. At this point, he’s the guy.”

John Gibson and Cam Talbot are the presumptive tandem that will start the season, but it is hard to imagine that Cossa won’t get some games at the NHL level. He played in one game last season.  With Talbot now 38, and Gibson, 32, the Red Wings know the future is now, or at least very soon for Cossa. He doesn”t turn 23 until November, but he is starting his fourth professional season. He has paid his dues with 84 AHL games, 46 ECHL games (with Toledo) and one NHL game.

“We have a lot of confidence in him,” McLellan said. “Our coaching staff has been following his progress. (Assistant coach) Trent Yawney and I both watched the (Griffins) playoff games and he’s been up and practicing with us. There’s a lot of early familiarity. I think he’s going to be a hell of a player. We just have to give him more time to develop.”

Cossa told Allen that he knows he must play more consistent hockey to earn a promotion:

“I didn’t have the best second half last year, 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 a shot (at the NHL).”

Cossa said he knows he still must prove he’s worthy to be the organization No. 3 goalie. “It’s step by step,” he said. “I’m happy where I am right now just continue to push it.”