The Columbus Blue Jackets walked into Detroit and took a 4-2 decision over the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday night. As such, Detroit’s preseason ended on a sour note, with the Wings dropping to 2-1-and-1 over the course of 4 short preseason games.
The problem with Saturday night’s game wasn’t the outcome per se.
The Red Wings rallied from a 3-0 deficit in the 3rd and nearly tied the game while firing 34 shots and a staggering 86 shot attempts on Jet Greaves, who was very good, but didn’t need to be spectacular as Columbus blocked 29 shots, and Detroit fired 23 pucks wide of the net…
But Columbus’ first goal, a power-play marker by Charlie Coyle, was as simple as, “Win the faceoff, defenseman takes puck, passes to half boards, lateral pass, crease tip behind Anton Johansson’s stick, goal” at 14:40 of the first.
Columbus doubled up its lead 4:04 later, off a rare turnover from Moritz Seider turned one-timer by Valeri Nichushkin, so John Gibson had very little chance to stop either goal…
Another awful turnover at center ice yielded a 2-on-2 in which Ryan Lomberg found Jack Williams, who blasted the puck past Axel Sandin Pellikka and top shelf over Gibson at 3:55 of the 2nd period…
And Detroit slowly but surely dug back into the game after that, but Columbus had a pretty easy time of stifling Detroit’s offense until the Wings broke through in the 3rd period, with Ben Chiarot ripping a Marco Kasper won faceoff through traffic at 6:39…
Chiarot with goal #1 for the @DetroitRedWings !! pic.twitter.com/OwUY6vNSTB
— Detroit SportsNet (@WatchDSN) September 27, 2026
Chiarot and Kasper would find each other again as Kasper blazed through the middle of the ice and into the zone off a Chiarot outlet, and Michael Rasmussen jammed home a loose puck to make it 3-2 at 14:19…
Rasmussen makes it a one goal game!! 🥳 pic.twitter.com/nnoPWOt7wt
— Detroit SportsNet (@WatchDSN) September 27, 2026
But the Red Wings’ furious late-3rd-period rally was repelled, the fact that the Wings didn’t score on 4 power plays didn’t help, and they scored a relatively easy empty-netter with 11 seconds remaining to salt the game away.
The Wings were just either a step behind in terms of their skating, a play short in terms of their execution, or both, and they looked lackadaisical at times as well, which you don’t want to see when you’ve got all but an NHL lineup playing its “dress rehearsal” game.
The fact that Lucas Raymond stood up for Alex DeBrincat after Carson Soucy tried to cross-check DeBrincat into next week from behind was a good sign, and the team never gave up, but the Wings made the easy parts of the game look difficult, and the difficult parts of the game look extreme.
After the game, Red Wings coach Todd McLellan remained optimistic, but McLellan admitted to Detroit Hockey Now’s Max Smith that Gibson had a light but difficult workload…
“[John Gibson] Gibby tonight didn’t have a lot of work, but he had some tough work.” McLellan said.
Even the Red Wings best players weren’t immune from making mistakes tonight. Columbus’ second goal came after Mo Seider’s attempt to clear the puck from behind the net got intercepted by Charlie Coyle and sent home by Valeri Nichushkin. The former Avalanche forwards both finished the night with a goal and assist for Columbus.
Meanwhile, the Red Wings were anemic on the power play, going zero-for-four on the night with only ten shot attempts recorded with the man advantage.
“Our forecheck, and like control of forecheck was really good. But we turned a lot of pucks over and we couldn’t really connect and pass.” Marco Kasper said.
And Axel Sandin Pellikka summarized the team’s outlook regarding the game as a whole…
“We had a lot of chances before [the third period]. We just didn’t execute. I think our third period here we really showed what we’re in for.” Axel Sandin-Pellikka said.
Ben Chiarot, the Red Wings other two point player on the night, and Rasmussen, names not usually called out for their offensive prowess, managed to make the game interesting for the second half of the third period by making it 3-2 off of Kasper’s assists. However, it wasn’t enough to complete the rally, and the Blue Jackets put the game away after the Red Wings pulled John Gibson from the net, scoring the empty netter with a little over ten seconds left.
“I think some players are really ready to play.” McLellan said. “Some need a little more time this week to polish things up.”
Sandin Pellikka told the Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan that he was satisfied with his team’s rally…
“The bounce-back in the third period was awesome,” said defenseman Axel Sandin-Pellikka, who’s vying for a roster spot. “We had (offensive) chances before, but we didn’t execute. Our third period, we really showed (their best performance) and created chances and executed. We just fell short there and it was a good end to the game.”
And coach McLellan offered the following:
“We played a real NHL team and I didn’t mind our game,” coach Todd McLellan said. “We were a little bit sloppy with the puck. Passing from A to B was sometimes at B’s feet or 2 feet in front of him and it cost us a couple of goals. But other than that, I didn’t think we were under siege. We had some scoring opportunities, and if it ends up on the stick a second earlier or a different angle, we have a chance to finish. I didn’t mind tonight’s game. It should set us up for a good week of practice and away we go.”
Rosters need to be turned it by Monday, Sept. 28 at 5 p.m. The Wings’ 23-man roster has some uncertainty to it currently with Dylan Larkin (upper body) injured, restricted free agent Simon Edvinsson unsigned, and young players like Sandin-Pellikka, Anton Johansson, Nate Danielson, Michael Brandsegg-Nygard and Carter Mazur all fighting for possible available roster spots.
“What I can tell you is Monday the roster will go out and you’ll see names that could change real quick,” McLellan said “There could be paper moves or moves made for waiver reasons or something is in the hopper somewhere else that you have to buy time. We don’t play until Friday, so we have four days until we play, so there could be some movement.”
Kasper told DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills that the Red Wings’ players have to straighten out their detail work…
“I think it was partially good,” said Marco Kasper, who led Detroit offensively with two assists. “Some things about our game definitely have to step up. Like, I thought we played really well on our forecheck, but then we turned a lot of pucks over and couldn’t really connect passes. I think that’s got to get a lot better… Maybe try not to go lateral too much but be a little bit more direct.”
And coach McLellan was happy with the Wings’ push-back when Soucy tried to shove DeBrincat through the boards…
At 4:22 of the third period, Alex DeBrincat went head-first into the end boards behind Columbus’s net after being cross-checked by Carson Soucy. Lucas Raymond immediately came to his defense – going after Soucy – and DeBrincat skated to the bench before returning later in the frame.
“There isn’t a player on our team that can’t respond in those situations,” McLellan said. “Rarely does anything come out of it, but at least you’re there and you’re standing your ground. We saw that the last two games, and we’re going to continue to have that. We need that. It’ll bond us. It’ll bring us together more. I think during this season, we’re going to really have to rely on each other and create a bond and a trust to get through a lot of different things.”
Also of note from Mills:
McLellan on what he thought of Detroit’s four-game preseason schedule
“Fast. This happened quickly, as we thought it would. We talked about having some early urgency and trying to get things into play quickly. For the most part, I think we accomplished that. I think some players are really ready to play. Some need a little more time this week to polish things up, and then we should be ready to go.”
Kasper on where his game stands heading into the regular season
“It’s good to get some points, but you’re obviously looking to get the points as a team. I think whatever way I can contribute, it’s important for us and that’s my main focus. It’s also good to get a couple of points. It’s a quick turnaround during Camp, just two games, and got to be ready.”
The Red Wings will likely take Sunday off before returning to practice Monday through Thursday; they host the New York Rangers in the home opener on Friday at 6:30 PM.
MULTIMEDIA:
Highlights: NHL.com posted a 10:24 highlight clip:
Sportsnet posted a 9:58 highlight clip:
Post-game: The Blue Jackets’ website posted a 9:23 clip of comments from Jack Williams, Carson Soucy, Jet Greaves and coach Rick Bowness;
The Red Wings posted a 12:20 clip of comments from Marco Kasper, Axel Sandin Pellikka and coach Todd McLellan:
The Free Press’s Helene St. James also posted a condensed 2:10 clip of Kasper’s remarks;
Photos: All the regular photographers were at Justin Verlander’s farewell game, so there were no newspaper pictures from this one.
Statistics: Here are the Game Summary and Event Summary:
Red Wings notebooks/also of Red Wings-related note: The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan took note of coach McLellan’s take on the Red Wings’ waiver pick-up on Saturday, Andreas Englund:
“Eggie is an outstanding human being,” McLellan said. “He will fit into our room well. He works hard at his game. He’s played in the system that we are trying to put in. He’s physical and tough and he shepherds the group. We like all those attributes that he’ll bring.”
And Detroit Hockey Now’s Max Smith wrote an article about the Red Wings’ likely workload for John Gibson this upcoming season, with coach McLellan admitting that the Wings didn’t get much in the way of back-up goaltending last season (sort of):
The Red Wings made Gibson one of the key features of their lineup for the upcoming season by not pursuing any marquee free agent netminders and letting go of the most NHL ready of their prospect goalies, Sebastian Cossa.
As their backup, the Red Wings signed former Florida Panthers goalie Daniil Tarasov to a one year contract. Tarasov has never started for more than 35 games in a year, and while Gibson is certainly no stranger to shouldering large workloads, fatigue was also apparent towards the end of last year.
Fatigue shouldn’t be a problem this early in the year however, it’ll be more about getting warmed up on the frigid playing surface early.
Tarasov will of course be the Red Wings primary option aside from Gibson, as the next three goaltenders on Detroit’s depth chart have exactly 0 NHL game experience between them. At that, only Michal Postava has started a full season with the Red Wings top farm club at the AHL level.
“In retrospect we may have ran Gibby too hard. He won’t tell you that. He’ll say, I want to be in there more.” McLellan said.
