Griffins and Monsters Meet Again, With Bootland and Watson Across the Benches
Grand Rapids visits Cleveland on Sunday for the second of eight meetings this season, with new Monsters coach Nick Bootland facing an old teammate.
The Grand Rapids Griffins return to Rocket Arena on Sunday, Oct. 4, at 3 p.m. ET to face the Cleveland Monsters, with Grand Rapids carrying a 1-0-0-0 lead in the season series. It is the second of eight meetings this season and the second of four in Cleveland.
The benches carry most of the story. Nick Bootland is in his first season as Monsters head coach, replacing Trent Vogelhuber, who left to become an assistant with the Columbus Blue Jackets. Bootland won two Calder Cups as a Hershey Bears assistant from 2022-26. Before that he spent 14 seasons running the Kalamazoo Wings of the ECHL, from 2008-22.
Grand Rapids coach Dan Watson knows him well. Watson was on the Toledo Walleye's bench from 2009-23, and the two have met 42 times in the regular season as head coaches between the ECHL and AHL. Watson holds a 30-7-2-3 record in those games. They were also teammates in 2003-04 with the Cleveland Barons, the Columbus Stars and the Kalamazoo Wings.
There is a family angle too. Bootland is the older brother of Darryl Bootland, who piled up 140 points and a team-record 1,164 penalty minutes in 293 games as a Griffin from 2002-07.
The game streams on AHLTV on FloHockey, with radio coverage on WOOD 106.9 FM and 1300 AM.
