Author: 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!

A bit of praise for Sebastian Cossa

Daily Faceoff’s Steven Ellis offers a list of one player to watch on each and every one of the AHL’s 32 teams, and he’s picking Sebastian Cossa from the Griffins:

Grand Rapids Griffins (Detroit Red Wings): Sebastian Cossa, G

Is Cossa the Red Wings’ goalie of the future? It sure looks like it. Last year was about taking a bigger step forward against tougher competition, and Cossa looked great with Grand Rapids. He’s set to return there for another year, where he’ll look to challenge for the AHL’s top goaltender award, and I wouldn’t bet against him. He’s huge at 6-foot-6 and moves incredibly well for his size while showing all the signs of being a future No. 1 NHL keeper. The Red Wings have a crowded goalie pipeline right now, so there’s no need to rush Cossa. That patience could pay off.

Continued; Cossa and Augustine 2026?

Videos: Grand Rapids Griffins open their 2024-2025 season vs. Milwaukee tonight

Both Wood TV8 and WZZM 13 posted morning reports from Van Andel Arena ahead of tonight’s Grand Rapids Griffins opener against the Milwaukee Admirals:

Also of Grand Rapids Griffins-related note:

  1. MLive’s Tyler Kuehl posted a Griffins season preview;
  2. The Griffins’ website posted biographies of every player, coach and trainer on their website;
  3. The latest issue of “Griffiti” is also out, and the articles were made available online. Among their number are profiles of Sebastian Cossa and Antti Tuomisto, an introduction to Griffins video coach Eric Junge, a check-in with Griffins alumnus Tomas Nosek and an article about the other team that plays at Van Andel Arena, the Grand Rapids Rise volleyball team.

Morning Red Wings round-up: ‘That’s just, like your opinion, man’

Of Red Wings-related note this morning, mostly regarding the Wings’ 6-3 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins last night:

  1. The Free Press’s Helene St. James discusses the Red Wings’ lessons learned in the team’s loss to Pittsburgh, as the team looks forward to Saturday’s game against Nashville…

“We got away from that first-period game we had,” captain Dylan Larkin said after Thursday’s season-opening dud. “Pucks were just going in, and every time we went out there — we felt like we were doing the right things, but then we just have big-time breakdowns. A lot of sloppy breakouts, sloppy coming back to our zone and finding coverage. Not a good second and third period, not a good start for our season.”

The Nashville Predators, a preseason favorite to win the Stanley Cup, come into Little Caesars Arena having lost their opener, too.

In Thursday’s affair at LCA, it was 1-1 after the first period, largely because Penguins goaltender Joel Blomqvist was superb (outside of letting in a one-timer by Alex DeBrincat). But the second period was everything the Wings spent training camp and exhibition season trying to avoid: Letting the opponent run free.

“I think we had a good first period, and all those goals in the second are self-inflicted,” DeBrincat said. “It seems like we couldn’t keep it out of the net that second period. Hard to battle back from 4-1. We just have to get more juice at the start of the second period.”

Coach Derek Lalonde lamented the Wings’ inability to build on the good start.

“We gave up some easy offense, either through coverage or the puck was on our stick,” Lalonde said. “It was just one of those nights we could not sustain momentum. Had some signs of it, had some spurts of it, but we couldn’t sustain it.”

2. St. James also posted a video of the above-mentioned coach and players speaking with the media last night. The Red Wings didn’t post a post-game clip, and Bally Sports Detroit didn’t post a player clip, either. Did somebody swear on camera?

3. Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff wonders aloud what the Red Wings’ options are if Jeff Petry’s out for a significant period of time:

Continue reading Morning Red Wings round-up: ‘That’s just, like your opinion, man’

Red Wings-Penguins wrap-up: Wings strike out in their home opener

The Detroit Red Wings’ 6-3 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday night was problematic more for how it transpired as to the fact that it happened.

It was the kind of loss where everything that went badly for the Red Wings during the 2023-2024 season went bad for the team all over again, with no apparent signs of improvement or even effort made by the players, coaches or management to address the mistake-prone goaltending, leaky defense, over-reliance upon the top two lines to bail out mistakes made by the rest of the lineup, or, well, the inability of the rest of the lineup to deliver wins, should the team’s top-flight performers have “off nights”…

On a night where just about everybody had an “off night.”

This one was frustrating, innervating, and sometimes just plain scary, because it appeared like the Red Wings haven’t improved an ounce, and that the 2024-2025 Red Wings are going to spend all season long chasing the same ghosts out of their attic, so to speak.

For the Penguins, everything went right, from rookie goaltender Joel Blomqvist (29 saves) on out, as Pittsburgh Hockey Now’s Dan Kingerski noted:

Continue reading Red Wings-Penguins wrap-up: Wings strike out in their home opener

Red Wings-Penguins quick take: Wings out-played heavily in opening loss to Pittsburgh

The Detroit Red Wings opened their 2024-2025 season against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday night at Little Caesars Arena, opening up a difficult stretch of 3 games to be played over the course of 5 nights.

Pittsburgh came into tonight’s game on the rebound from a 6-0 loss to the New York Rangers in Pittsburgh’s home opener, so the Penguins came into tonight’s game with a spoiler’s mentality.

Bluntly, Thursday’s game was a bit of a mess.

Despite the Red Wings facing a rookie goaltender making his first NHL start, at times they made Joel Blomqvist look like a brick wall at times…

While Ville Husso was pulled after giving up 3 goals on 7 2nd period shots and 4 on 14 overall, mostly because the defense in front of him was so poor, as Detroit turned a 1-1 after-the-1st-period tie into a 4-2 after-the-2nd deficit (thanks to 3 Penguins goals in 2:53)…

And, ultimately, a stupid penalty assessed to Simon Edvinsson afforded the Penguins an early-3rd-period power play to put the game away, and put it away, Erik Karlsson and then Kevin Hayes did (with an Alex DeBrincat power play goal sandwiched in between the 5-2 and 6-3 goals against).

Pittsburgh won 6-3, Detroit lost Jeff Petry to an upper-body injury, the Tigers also lost, and the combination of Detroit getting its ass handed to it and Detroit getting its ass handed to it in two sports had people pissy and angry.

Detroit must rebound against Steven Stamkos’ Nashville Predators on Saturday and the mighty New York Rangers on Monday.

Uphill, as always.

Continue reading Red Wings-Penguins quick take: Wings out-played heavily in opening loss to Pittsburgh

Press release: Red Wings assign Shai Buium to Grand Rapids

Good news for the Griffins here:

RED WINGS ACTIVATE SHAI BUIUM FROM INJURED NON-ROSTER; ASSIGN HIM TO GRAND RAPIDS

  … 2021 Second-Round Pick Won Two National Championships at University of Denver …

DETROIT – The Detroit Red Wings today activated defenseman Shai Buium from injured non-roster and assigned him to the American Hockey League’s Grand Rapids Griffins.

Buium, 21, made his professional debut with the Griffins on April 19 against the Iowa Wild. The 6-foot-3, 213-pound defenseman signed a three-year, entry-level contract with the Red Wings on April 17 after playing three seasons at the University of Denver, helping the Pioneers capture two NCAA Division I national championships. As a junior, Buium earned NCHC Second All-Star Team honors after recording 36 points (7-29-36), a plus-33 rating and 14 penalty minutes in 43 games. He logged 21 points (4-17-21), a plus-eight rating and 18 penalty minutes in 38 games as a sophomore in 2022-23. Selected by the Red Wings in the second round (36th overall) of the 2021 NHL Entry Draft, Buium was selected to the NCHC All-Rookie Team after tallying 18 points (3-15-18), a plus-20 rating and 12 penalty minutes in 39 games as a freshman in 2021-22, winning a national title along with Red Wings prospects Carter Mazur (70th overall/2021) and Antti Tuomisto (35th overall/2019). In total, Buium compiled 75 points (14-61-75), a plus-61 rating and 44 penalty minutes in 120 games with the Pioneers.

Prior to his collegiate career, Buium played in parts of two seasons with the Sioux City Musketeers of the United States Hockey League from 2019-21. Buium was selected to the USHL’s Second All-Rookie Team in 2020-21 after collecting 26 points (4-22-26), a plus-16 rating and 27 penalty minutes in 50 regular-season games, in addition to three points (1-2-3) in four postseason contests. The San Diego, Calif., native also competed at Shattuck St. Mary’s Prep in 2020-21, registering 13 points (2-11-13) and two penalty minutes in 17 appearances. Buium posted 88 points (21-67-88) and 32 penalty minutes in 100 games with Shattuck St. Mary’s under-16 squad from 2018-20.