This Week’s Games

GRIFFINS vs. Cleveland Monsters // Fri., Oct. 27 // 7 p.m. // Van Andel Arena

Listen: WOOD 106.9 FM/1300 AM at 6:45 p.m.

Watch: AHLTV

Season Series: First of eight meetings overall, first of four at Van Andel Arena 

All-Time Series: 71-38-6-11 Overall, 40-18-2-3 Home

NHL Affiliation: Columbus Blue Jackets

Noteworthy: Right wing Trey Fix-Wolansky returns to the Monsters for his sixth campaign and has amassed 145 points (62-83—145) in 170 games, which includes six points (2-4—6) in four appearances this season. In 2022-23, Fix-Wolansky ranked seventh in the AHL with 71 points (29-42—71).  

GRIFFINS at Rockford IceHogs // Sat., Oct. 28 // 8 p.m. EDT // BMO Center

Listen: WOOD 106.9 FM/1300 AM at 7:45 p.m. EDT

Watch: AHLTV

Season Series: First of 12 meetings overall, first of six at BMO Center 

All-Time Series: 61-43-9-11 Overall, 23-29-4-6 Away

NHL Affiliation: Chicago Blackhawks

Noteworthy: The Griffins have excelled when playing Rockford in Grand Rapids, as the team possesses an 11-4-4-3 (.659) record in the past five years at home against the IceHogs. However, on the road that trend flips and the Griffins are just 10-10-2-0 (.500) at the BMO Center in the last five seasons.

Thou Shall Not Pass: Rookie goaltender Sebastian Cossa is off to a fast start, showing a 2.02 goals against average and a .947 save percentage to go along with a 1-1-0 record in two appearances. Cossa currently ranks fifth among rookie netminders in GAA and first in save percentage, having stopped 72 of 76 shots. In three games played with the Griffins during the 2022-23 campaign, the former 15^th overall pick in the 2021 NHL Entry Draft registered a 5.57 GAA and a 0.783 save percentage.

Shoot Your Shot: Allowing shots has been a problem for Grand Rapids to begin the season, as the Griffins have allowed 41 or more shots in three of the first four games. They rank fourth-to-last in the league for shots allowed with 159, leading only Laval (161, 5 GP), Rochester (163, 4 GP) and Springfield (171, 5 GP). Grand Rapids also places 23^rd out of 32 teams with a total of 93 shots. The Griffins are averaging 23.3 shots for and 39.8 shots against.  

Take Your Medicine: After serving up a weekend sweep of the Colorado Eagles from Oct. 13-14, Grand Rapids got a taste of its own medicine, as the Eagles returned the favor this past weekend in Loveland, Colorado. The two teams were evenly matched throughout the season series, as each team finished 2-2 and recorded 12 goals. Grand Rapids posted an 8-4 scoring margin at home but was outscored 4-8 on the road.

Let’s Go Streaking: Cross Hanas (1-1—2), Brogan Rafferty (0-2—2) and Wyatt Newpower (1-2—3) are all on active two-game point streaks. Rafferty and Newpower are tied with Taro Hirose and Jonatan Berggren for the longest assist streak this season, while Austin Czarnik holds the spot for the longest goal streak at two games. Hirose leads the squad with a three-game point streak from Oct. 13-20 and paces the team with five points (3-2—5) in four outings. Czarnik and Berggren are both on recall to the Detroit Red Wings.

The Climb: Dominik Shine became just the third player in franchise history to reach eight seasons of service, while Tyler Spezia became the eighth player to compete in his sixth campaign. Shine ranks sixth with 361 career games played for the Griffins and stands 10^th with 408 penalty minutes. Taro Hirose also continues to climb the Griffins’ all-time leaderboard, as he is currently ranked 10^th in points (170) and sixth in assists (126).

Rare Company: Dan Watson made his debut behind the Griffins’ bench on Oct. 13 and came away with a 3-2 victory. Watson became the first Griffins head coach since Mike Stothers in 2007 to win his debut. Grand Rapids followed that performance with a 5-2 victory on Oct. 14 over Colorado to kick off the season with a 2-0 start for the second time since 2007-08. Watson joined Mike Stothers (2007-08) and Bruce Cassidy (2000-01) as the only head coaches to begin their tenure with a 2-0 ledger. The Griffins’ last 2-0 start was seven years ago (2016-17), when they won the first three games of their eventual Calder Cup championship season. Grand Rapids’ last 2-0 start at home was three campaigns ago (2020-21), when the schedule commenced in February due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

You Must Be This Tall to Ride the Rollercoaster: Ten players on the Griffins’ roster are listed at 6-foot-3 or taller, with five players at least 6-foot-5. Elmer Soderblom, standing at 6-foot-8, became the tallest player to play for the Griffins when he made his AHL debut on Dec. 9, 2022 at Springfield. Soderblom edged out former 6-foot-6 players in Jared Coreau, Francois Leroux, Brad Norton, Michael Rasmussen, Dan Turple, and teammate Simon Edvinsson, and 6-foot-7 teammate Sebastian Cossa. In addition to Cossa and Edvinsson, newcomer Tim Gettinger also stands at 6-foot-6 while rookie Antti Tuomisto comes in at 6-foot-5. Both of the Griffins’ goaltenders are at least 6-foot-3.

New Coach, Who Dis: Dan Watson was named the 12th head coach in franchise history this past offseason after serving six seasons as head coach of the ECHL’s Toledo Walleye. A season ago, Watson guided Toledo to a 45-19-5-3 (.681) record before going 9-4 in the Kelly Cup Playoffs to reach the Western Conference Finals. The 44-year-old has been with the Red Wings organization for the past 14 seasons, holding multiple roles with the Walleye since the team’s inception. Watson has never missed the playoffs as head coach, reaching the Kelly Cup Finals twice (2019, 2022) and leading Toledo to three division titles (2016-17, 2017-18, 2021-22), three 100-point seasons (2016-17, 2017-18, 2021-22), two regular-season championships (2016-17, 2021-22), and four Western Conference Finals berths (2017, 2019, 2022, 2023). In 2016-17, he garnered the John Brophy Award as the ECHL’s Coach of the Year in his first year as head coach, when the Walleye won the Central Division behind a franchise-record 51 wins (51-17-2-2, .736) and reached the Western Conference Finals. As a head coach, the Glencoe, Ontario, native possesses a 272-112-22-13 (.691) ledger during the regular season and a 51-34 (.600) mark over only five playoff campaigns. Watson leaves Toledo as the franchise’s winningest head coach and the fastest coach in ECHL history to reach 100 wins.

New Faces in the Crowd: In addition to new head coach Dan Watson, assistant coaches Brian Lashoff and Steph Julien, and goaltending development coach Roope Koistinen (ROH-peh KOI-stih-NIHN) each begin his first year on the staff. Lashoff starts his first season as a coach after spending all or part of 14 seasons on the Griffins’ blue line, including the last three as the team’s captain. Lashoff ranks second on the Griffins’ all-time games played list with 629, behind only Travis Richards’ 655 and his games played rank third in league history among one-team players. Julien was the head coach of the Sherbrooke Phoenix in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) for the past eight seasons. In 2022-23, Julien was named the QMJHL Coach of the Year as well as the QMJHL General Manager of the Year. Koistinen comes to North America for the first time after being with Karpat’s youth programs in Finland since the 2014-15 campaign. The Griffins’ support staff also features many new faces. Austin Frank was named the head athletic trainer, Katie Berglund as the assistant athletic trainer, Zack Harvey as the team’s physical therapist, and Kyle Hornkohl as the assistant equipment manager.

Milestones: On Friday, Brogan Rafferty competed in his 200th pro game, securing an assist in the process. On Oct. 20, Dominik Shine passed Nathan Paetsch for sixth on the Griffins’ all-time games played list with 360 and Elmer Soderblom appeared in his 150^th pro game.
Zach Aston-Reese—Four points from 50 in the AHL
Jonatan Berggren—One assist from 50 as a Griffin and in the AHL
Taro Hirose—Two goals from 50 as a pro, two games from 200 as a Griffin
Jared McIsaac—Two points from 50 as a pro and as a Griffin
Dominik Shine—Two games from tying Francis Pare (363) for fifth on the Griffins’ all-time games played list
Tyler Spezia—One goal from 50 as a pro, two games from 200 as a Griffin
Brogan Rafferty—Two games from 200 in the AHL
Eemil Viro—Two games from 200 as a pro
William Wallinder—Two assists from 50 as a pro

Photo by Mark Newman/Griffins