Category: Uncategorized

The Grand Rapids Griffins had just about everything go right over the course of their season-opening 3-0 victory over the Milwaukee Admirals on Friday night.

Sebastian Cossa pitched a 35-save shutout, Marco Kasper had a goal and an assist, Carter Mazur scored, Austin Watson had 2 assists and a fight, and Hunter Johannes got into a mid-3rd-period scrap as well.

The Griffins’ website posted a recap:

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Sebastian Cossa on Friday became the first Grand Rapids Griffins goalie to post an opening-night shutout in 26 years, as his 35 saves propelled the home team to a 3-0 victory over the Milwaukee Admirals at Van Andel Arena.

After having fallen to the Admirals in last spring’s Central Division Finals, the Griffins gained a measure of revenge against their rival in front of a capacity crowd of 10,834.

Cossa’s perfect performance was the first by a Griffin in either a season or home opener since Oct. 9, 1998, when Ian Gordon made 33 saves in a 2-0 home win over Kansas City to begin the team’s third campaign in the International Hockey League.

Following a scoreless opening period, the Griffins struck 8:08 into the second frame. On the rush from the top of the right circle, Dominik Shine found Marco Kasper slicing down the slot, and the second-year center put a top-shelf backhand past Magnus Chrona for the only goal Grand Rapids would need.

Carter Mazur added to the Grand Rapids lead at 15:16, blasting home a William Wallinder feed from the bottom of the left circle during a 4-on-3 power play.

After compiling 20 saves over the first 40 minutes, Cossa turned back 15 Milwaukee shots during the final frame to preserve the shutout, and Shine slipped a shot into an empty net from the right boards with 15 seconds left to seal the Griffins’ seventh win in their last nine home openers. 

The Griffins’ website also posted a highlight clip, an interview clip and a photo gallery:

Continue reading Recap: Grand Rapids Griffins beat Milwaukee 3-0 in home opener

The Red Wings made just about every mistake from their arsenal of 2023-2024 season “book of defensive mistakes” during Thursday night’s 6-3 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins, and on Friday, the coach and players were quite aware of the error of their ways, as they told the Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan:

“We just gave them a lot of offense,” coach Derek Lalonde said. “And it came so easy.”

The Wings carried the play for most of the opening 20 minutes against Pittsburgh. But the game got away from the Wings when they became generous defensively, and the Penguins took advantage.

“Pucks were just going in,” captain Dylan Larkin said. “It felt like we were doing the right things but then we would just have big-time breakdowns. The rest of the game it was a different story every shift, what was breaking down. 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.”

How the Wings respond Saturday against Nashville will be interesting to watch, as they attempt to nip this particular slip-up in the bud before it builds in what is a difficult October schedule.

The Wings will be without defenseman Jeff Petry (upper body) on Saturday. Petry missed the third period against Pittsburgh and his status is “day-to-day,” Lalonde said Friday.

Lalonde said the Wings will recall defenseman Justin Holl, a right-hand shot, to replace Petry. Lalonde also wouldn’t rule out seeing rookie defenseman Albert Johansson in the lineup against Nashville. Johansson, a left-handed shot, was a heathy scratch against Pittsburgh.

“I’d like to get Albert in,” Lalonde said. “Might see Albert (Saturday), we haven’t decided on that yet. But I would like to try to get him in soon and get him some game feel here. We’re going to get him in here pretty soon to see how he handles a real NHL game.”

Continued; Kulfan also discusses Ville Husso being pulled and Steven Stamkos signing with Nashville, given that Derek Lalonde was Stamkos’ assistant coach in Tampa Bay.

The Hockey News’s Connor Eargood discusses the Red Wings coaching staff’s decision to move Alex DeBrincat from the left wing on the power play to the “bumper” position, which seems to have suited #93 well:

“It’s a little different,” DeBrincat told The Hockey News after Thursday’s morning skate. “I think it takes a little bit of time to get used to, but it’s not a big deal. I think a lot of different guys can play a lot of different positions, so wherever they need me, I’ll play and try to do my best at it.”

Why did Lalonde do this? It’s easiest to see this as a demotion for DeBrincat. After all, a shooter of his caliber belongs on the flank, where he can get shots off easily. That’s where he scored one of his two goals in Thursday’s home opener, the other of which was a near identical one-timer at even strength.

Such a simplistic perspective ignores the way that Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde values his bumper position. At a presentation at TCS Live in July 2023, Lalonde included bumper support as one of the four priorities that he and assistant coaches Alex Tanguay and Jay Varady identified. 

An effective bumper serves as support to extend a penalty kill, supporting a pressured puck carrier and maintaining possession, as well as providing another scoring threat. Whereas the point player might be seen as the last line to keep a power play in the zone, it’s just as much a responsibility of the bumper to anticipate where he needs to support. 

It’s under this philosophy that evolving the shot-first DeBrincat into a playmaking role is novel. And looking at how it all played out in Thursday’s 6-3 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins — when the power play was one of the few bright spots — the effects are noticeable.

Continued; this is an interesting thought experiment.

MLive’s Ansar Khan asked Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde and forward J.T. Compher for their input as to why the Red Wings lost a 6-3 decision to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday night, and where the team is at going forward:

“[I’m] fully confident how we performed in the first period will translate over 60 minutes in being successful,” coach Derek Lalonde said. “Even some of the things that creeped into our game in the second – some D-zone structure, puck play was an issue — it was pretty self-inflicted. So, it’s important not to overreact but to respond correctly. Feels like we kind of gave one away.”

The changes include recalling Justin Holl from the Grand Rapids Griffins and inserting him into the lineup in place of Jeff Petry, who’s unavailable and day-to-day with an upper-body injury. Lalonde said it’s important to have a second right-shooting defenseman in the lineup in addition to Moritz Seider.

They’re also pondering whether Albert Johansson should make his NHL debut. If he doesn’t play Saturday, he’ll likely debut Monday at the New York Rangers, Lalonde said.

…

One adjustment in practice saw Lucas Raymond and Patrick Kane switch places. Kane skated with Dylan Larkin and Alex DeBrincat while Raymond lined up with J.T. Compher and Vladimir Tarasenko. Lalonde, however, said line combinations are fluid.

“I think lots to learn from our first game, systems-wise, execution-wise,” Compher said. “We did it right for a period, so we know what it looks like. We know the way we want to play. Then the rest of the game, just learning points, execution, details, stuff that’s important for winning hockey games and stuff we got to clean up going into tomorrow.”

The Predators are coming off a 4-3 season-opening loss Thursday to Dallas. They have a different look after signing forwards Steven Stamkos and Jonathan Marchessault in the offseason.

Continued

In Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen’s second notebook of the afternoon, he points out that Red Wings defenseman Simon Edvinsson took an ill-timed penalty and made some badly-timed reads over the course of last night’s game vs. Pittsburgh:

Simon Edvinsson, crucial to Detroit’s playoff hopes this season, didn’t play as well as did late last season when he helped the Red Wings make an unsuccessful late run for the playoffs. He took a bad penalty.

“Yeah, the penalty, but I think his whole game,” Lalonde said. “Even their second goal, he gets beat on a 50-50 off the line, gets beat on a 50-50 in front of the net. Just a little urgency you need all the time. If you’re going to stick up for a teammate, be smart about it. Grab the guy, give him the ‘Hey, I didn’t like the hit.’ Just giving the ref a freebie with the objective of calling cross-checks, it’s momentum, it’s learning, it’s game management. We got the game back with a little momentum, which was a battle for us, and (he) put them on the power play.”

If left-shot [Albert] Johansson plays [instead], he might find himself playing on the right side. Playing at home, the Red Wings can control the matchups he gets.

“We wanted to get him in sooner than later,” Lalonde said. “It’s hard. He’s never played an NHL game. He’s going to sit out for a long period of time, it’s a hard ask for him. We’re going to get him in I’d expect in the next two games, maybe (against Nashville).”

Johansson’s strengths are his defensive-mind approach and his efficiency, two qualities that the Red Wings could use.

“The way he moves the puck, good hockey sense,” Lalonde said. “He’s not the biggest D-man, so he’s got to defend through hands. I like what I saw at the end of last year and it’s pretty much translated into preseason.”

Continued

EP Rinkside’ Victor Nuno examines Jonatan Berggren’s fantasy hockey upside today, and I can’t share the entire article, but Nuno does a superb job of chronicling Berggren’s development (and he may have asked me for my opinion of Berggren as well):

Jonatan Berggren has been knocking on the door of a full-time NHL job now for years. Though he has scored well in leagues outside of the NHL, questions remain about how well that production can translate. Can he be a full-time NHLer? If so, just how high is his offencive upside? We will dig into those questions and more in this edition of the X-gamers.

Berggren was drafted 33rd overall in the 2018 NHL draft by the Detroit Red Wings. He had a superb 57 points in 38 games in the J20 SuperElit. He even appeared in 10 SHL games for Skelleftea AIK. The following two seasons, he was hampered by injury and had the season cut short due to COVID so he played only 30 SHL games total, scoring 15 points.

In 2020-21, he once again exhibited his scoring prowess again by putting up 45 points in 49 SHL games for Skelleftea AIK. The excitement for his potential had returned and it was bolstered when in 2021-2, he scored 64 points in 70 games for AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins. This led to a role with the Detroit Red Wings in 2021-22.

In his first taste of NHL action, Berggren was able to score 28 points in 67 games. He only skated 13:28 total time on ice with 1:30 on average on the power play. His linemates shifted often, including Austin Czarnik, Joe Veleno, David Perron, and Filip Zadina. No combination was together for more than 11% of his even strength minutes. It’s hard to have consistent production without consistent linemates.

Even though he scored nearly a half-point-per-game in his first NHL season, Berggren had one of the worst expected goals differentials on the team. His Corsi against per 60 minutes was the fifth worst, just ahead of Patrick Kane. It’s clear he needed to spend some more time in the AHL rounding out his game. 

In 2023-24, he spent most of the season in the AHL, scoring 56 points in 53 games. He was able to drive play with a 54% Corsi, but what’s more is that he was the best defencive forward by Corsi against on the team. This is exactly the type of defencive improvement he needs to get a regular NHL role.

Continued (paywall)

Of Red Wings prospect-related note in Europe on Friday:

In the Finnish Liiga, Jesse Kiiskinen finished at -1 in 13:02 played as HPK Hameenlinna lost 5-0 to Lukko Rauma;

In the Swedish Allsvenskan, Maximilian Kilpinen didn’t play in Ostersunds IK’s 4-1 loss to Tingsryd IF;

Liam Dower Nilsson had 3 assists, finishing at +1 with 2 shots in only 11:04 played as IF Bjorkloven won 5-2 over Vimmerby Hockey:

Liam Dower Nilsson(5th round ‘21)
3 Assists 2 SOG +1 11:04 TOI in a 5-2 win

Björklöven is in 1st place in hockey allsvenskan #LGRW

pic.twitter.com/2vVIP5EzJz

— Red Wings Prospects (@LGRWProspects) October 11, 2024

And in the DEL, Kevin Bicker didn’t play in the Frankfurt Lowen’s 4-1 loss to the Augsburger Panther.

The Grand Rapids Griffins posted their game notes ahead of tonight’s season-opener against the Milwaukee Admirals (7 PM EDT start) at Van Andel Arena:

Griffins Game #1 * Home Game #1 * AHL Game #4

Season Series: 0-0-0-0 Home Series: 0-0-0-0 Road Series: 0-0-0-0
All-Time Series: 113-83-7-9-8 All-Time Home Series: 61-39-2-3-3 All-Time Road Series: 52-44-5-6-5

Admirals at Griffins
First of eight meetings overall, first of four at Van Andel Arena…Tonight’s game is a rematch of last year’s Central Division Finals where the Admirals defeated the Griffins 3-2 in the five-game series…Last season, the Griffins went 4-3-1-0 against the Admirals…Grand Rapids is 11-15-2-0 (.429) against Milwaukee since the 2020-21 campaign…Dating back to the 2020-21 season, the Griffins are 7-6-1-0 (.536) against the Admirals in Grand Rapids with a plus-three scoring margin (40-37)…Grand Rapids has faced Milwaukee more than any other opponent – 221st meeting tonight – and the Griffins’ 113 victories against the Admirals are the most against any foe…Milwaukee has reached the Western Conference Finals in the last two postseasons, both times being defeated by Coachella Valley…Milwaukee head coach Karl Taylor enters his sixth season as head boss. Taylor has a 204-112-31-13 record (.628) with the Admirals that includes two division titles and three 40-plus win seasons, in addition to never finishing worse than third place in the Central Division…The Admirals return two of their top five scorers from last season in Zach L’Heureux (2nd) and Joakim Kemell (4th)…Austin Watson spent nine seasons within Nashville’s organization and logged 132 points (73-59—132) in 234 games with the Admirals.

This Date in Griffins History
1996: Griffins host their first-ever game at Van Andel Arena against the Orlando Solar Bears before a sold-out crowd of 10,834, but fall by a 3-1 score to the defending Eastern Conference playoff champions. Darin Smith scores the first Griffins goal in the new facility.

Continued

The ECHL’s Toledo Walleye have upgraded their boards and glass at the Huntington Center, and the Toledo Blade’s Mark Monroe reports that the Walleye believe that the new boards and glass will help them in more ways than one:

“It’s unbelievable what they did with all the new glass, boards, benches, and everything,” [forward Conlan] Keenan said. “I really like the new wide glass. It’s going to be great for the fans as well.”

The ledge along the top of the boards and below the tempered glass, which are traditionally red, are now colored blue. The dashers at the bottom of the boards remain yellow. The scheme pairs perfectly with the team’s navy blue and gold colors. Both the home and visiting benches also have been replaced along with the penalty boxes and public address announcer box.

Aside from being aesthetically pleasing, the boards and glass also offer increased safety. Greg Setola, the director of operations at the Huntington Center, said the new system is the same that all NHL teams use with enhanced safety features.

“The glass and boards are designed to assist in limiting injuries as they naturally flex to absorb some of the impact [of hits],” Setola said. “The glass on both sides of the player benches is now rounded and spring loaded, which will assist in cutting down on upper body injuries.”

Continued

The Red Wings practiced on Friday after dropping a 6-3 decision to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday, and the team will recall Justin Holl to substitute for the injured Jeff Petry, and Cam Talbot will start against the Nashville Predators tomorrow (7 PM EDT start on Bally Sports Detroit/Bally Sports South).

After Friday’s practice, forward Joe Veleno and coach Derek Lalonde spoke with the media, and the Free Press’s Helene St. James addressed the Wings’ decision to recall Holl:

“[Jeff Petry]’s day-to-day,” coach Derek Lalonde said Friday. “We’ll get through tomorrow and see if he’s available for Monday. We’re going to get Justin up, because we’ll need the righty there.”

With Petry sidelined, Moritz Seider and Holl are the only righties available. But that doesn’t mean rookie Albert Johansson won’t get a look — maybe as soon as this weekend.

“We might see Albert tomorrow,” Lalonde said. “We haven’t decided on that yet. But I’d like to get him in soon, kind of get him some game feel here.”

The Wings (0-1-0) could opt to use 11 forwards and seven defensemen against the Predators. That would also ease the pressure on seeing what a defenseman can do in what would be Johansson’s NHL debut.

Update: Here’s a bit more on Johansson from the Hockey News’s Sam Stockton;

However, [coach Lalonde] also noted that the Red Wings would look at getting Albert Johansson (a healthy scratch last night) into the lineup for his NHL debut.  “I’d like to get Albert in,” Lalonde said.  “Might see Albert tomorrow.  We haven’t decided on that yet, but I would like to try to get him in soon in the season, kinda get him some game feel here.”

When asked what he likes about Johansson’s game, Lalonde replied, “the way he moves the puck, good hockey sense.”  “I like what I saw at the end of last year [in Grand Rapids], and it’s translated pretty much to pre-season,” continued Lalonde.  “Maybe tomorrow, may not be tomorrow, but I think we’re gonna get him in here pretty soon to see how he handles a real NHL game.”