TOLEDO, Ohio — The Grand Rapids Griffins received goals from five different players in a 5-2 victory over the Cleveland Monsters at the Huntington Center.
Ondrej Becher (1-2—3) led all Griffins with three points, while Noah Dower Nilsson (1-1—2) and Jesse Kiiskinen (0-2—2) chipped in with two points. Rookie netminder Trey Augustine showed 23 saves on 25 shots.
Defenseman Ronnie Attard got things going in the first period with his wrister from the high slot that sailed over the glove of Pheonix Copley 9:28 into the outing.
Dylan James made it a two-goal game on a breakaway at the 9:08 mark of the second frame. Cleveland’s Luca Pinelli responded with 5:13 remaining from the top of the crease. Dower Nilsson capped off the second period with a power-play goal at 16:45 from the right circle, giving the Griffins a 3-1 lead going into the third.
Sutter Muzzatti collected his first goal as a Griffin at the 7:13 mark of the third period to give Grand Rapids a 4-1 advantage. The Monsters’ Dante Sheriff made it a two-goal deficit with 10:10 remaining, and Becher made it a 5-2 contest with his shot from the low slot at 12:15.
Notes
Cleveland has been the Griffins’ opponent for 10 of their last 11 preseason games, dating back to 2012.
The Griffins will begin the regular season this Friday when they travel to Rocket Arena to face Cleveland.
Here’s a clip of post-game comments from Trey Augustine, Ronnie Attard and coach Dan Watson:
After Dylan Larkin stepped down as the Red Wings’ captain, coach Todd McLellan stated that the Red Wings will begin the 2026-2027 season with three alternate captains wearing “A’s” on their jerseys.
According to head coach Todd McLellan, DeBrincat has helped fill the leadership void left by Patrick Kane’s departure, while also providing a steady presence amid the uncertainty surrounding Larkin’s situation. He is also a candidate to be named an alternate captain.
“He’s done a really good job of providing leadership in the void that’s there right now. It’s not out of character; he hasn’t changed from what he’s done last year,” McLellan said of DeBrincat. “Maybe away from the rink a little bit more with the guys to bring them together, but at the rink, he’s still Cat, and he would certainly be a candidate to be that.”
However, according to McLellan, wearing a letter on his jersey won’t change the way DeBrincat conducts himself in the locker room or on the ice.
“The thing with Cat, though, is we could probably put the whole alphabet across his chest, and he would still be Cat. And if we took every letter of the alphabet away from him, he would still be Cat. He’s not going to change who he is based on that little piece of felt.”
“I take a lot of pride playing with the Red Wings,” DeBrincat said earlier in the month. “Putting on that jersey every night, I think all of us in this room take a lot of pride in that and the history that comes with it.
“There’s so much respect that comes with that crest – it’s a privilege,” he continued. “It’s something I don’t take lightly, and I definitely want to be part of the solution, get back to the glory days, and be a big part of that.”
“Some things in our game, we definitely have to step up,” Kasper said. “We played very well; our forecheck and controlled forecheck were really good, but then we turned a lot of pucks over, and we couldn’t really connect on passes. So I think that’s got to get a lot better, and just trying to find the open guy and not maybe try to go lateral too much but be a little bit more direct going to forecheck when those pucks are there. We got some goals from shooting from the point even the last few games, and I think that’s what we got to do to create from the forecheck.”
Kasper’s mission is to contribute as much as he can to help the team win. He’s very skillful and crafty when he attacks the net. He played 81 games last season and scored 19 points (9 goals, 10 assists). For a young player, he has the right mindset of a winner and leader. The Red Wings have several young guys with leadership qualities, and he’s one of them.
“We practice hard, we play a little bit of a new system, and try to get adjusted to that and be ready for next week,” Kasper said.
Kasper realizes how talented this team is and how good they can be when everyone, including himself, gives it 100 percent effort night in and night out.
“I think there’s a lot of great players here, so everybody can play with everybody and just try to get out there. Whatever I do, I think I’ve got to try to do it 100 percent,” Kasper said.
“What I can tell you is Monday the roster will go out and you’ll see names that could change real quick,” coach Tod McLellan said after the 4-2 loss to Columbus on Saturday, Sept. 26, that ended the preseason. “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.”
Per The Athletic/TSN’s Pierre LeBrun, the Red Wings are still negotiating with Simon Edvinsson to hammer out a contract before the start of the regular season on Friday:
Both sides expected to talk again today as they try to bridge the gap on an Edvinsson contract. It's been a grind for sure. Good piece here from @m_bultman ⤵️ https://t.co/MYj8Qetv22
With Shawn Horcoff steering the ship in Detroit, at least for the immediate future as the club’s Interim General Manager, the Red Wings hoped that move would reignite trade discussions involving former captain Dylan Larkin.
Larkin, 30, is in the fourth season of an eight-year contract that comes with an $8.7 million average annual value (AAV) and a full no-movement clause, something the veteran centre has used to dictate where he is willing to go to after requesting a trade in June.
At the time of the request, Larkin’s camp informed then-GM Steve Yzerman that he wanted out and would waive his NMC for Florida, Minnesota and Vegas. After multiple failed attempts to find a trade they deemed acceptable, Larkin added Dallas to the mix. Still, zip.
During the week, I reported on SiriusXM NHL Network Radio that Larkin’s list also included Tampa Bay, an addition made at some point over the off-season, bring the total to five clubs. On Friday, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman that Larkin’s list is now “somewhere around eight” teams, with Colorado and Washington also in the mix.
Larkin, whose mindset has not changed, understands this may take longer than he originally wanted. Even with Horcoff now at the helm, and capable to making all hockey-related decisions, a move may not occur until midway through the season.
Pagnotta opens up the possibility that Larkin may end up with a team not on his list, and the Montreal Canadiens are one of those teams–mostly because their press corps has been drumming up the, “Larkin would be the perfect fit” storyline for about two weeks now, mostly in the French-language media:
For core players, long-term extensions right out of [Entry-Level Contracts] seem to work out nearly every time. And even for players who fall short of that bar, the rising cap turns even the questionable deals into manageable ones. One contract previously seen as a cautionary tale was the Ottawa Senators’ eight-year, $7.95 million AAV pact with Josh Norris, whose health has kept him from becoming a consistent difference-maker. But that contract was still tradeable enough two seasons ago that the Senators turned Norris into young top-six center Dylan Cozens. Soon, that $7.95 million will be the going rate for a second-line wing. It might already be.
And yet, even with that history (and the cap’s promising future), Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman has reported that the Red Wings prefer a bridge deal with Edvinsson. It’s unfathomable how that could be the case for a team currently more than $20 million under the cap, and with most of its other core players (sans Alex DeBrincat) locked up for the intermediate future. There is no squeeze on the horizon in Detroit.
“I think he’s an outstanding human being,” McLellan said Saturday, after a 4-2 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets in the preseason finale at Little Caesars Arena. “He will fit our room really well. He’s fit, he works hard at his game, he has played in the system that we’re trying to put in, and he’s physical and he’s tough and he shepherds the group. So, we like all those attributes that he’ll bring in. When he’s in the lineup, he’ll give you everything he has, and when he’s not in the lineup, he’ll give you everything he can from the outside.”
The Detroit Red Wings dropped a 3-2 decision to the Columbus Blue Jackets last night at Little Caesars Arena, and coach Todd McLellan explained what comes next for the coaches and management, who must submit a 23-man roster to the NHL by 5 PM on Monday.
“We have to put the puzzle together,” McLellan said. “What I can tell you is that on Monday, the roster will go out, and you’ll see names or whatever. That could change real quick. There can be paper moves. There could be moves made for waiver reasons, there could be something in the hopper somewhere else where you have to buy time.
“We’ve got to go for four days before we play, and there could be some movement and stuff in there. … It might not be what it turns out to be when it’s all said and done.”
McLellan noted Saturday’s game, when both teams dressed most of their regulars, provided a better indication of where some young players stand.
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 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…
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.
“[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.”
“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.”
“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:
“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.”
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.
