Red Wings Open Preseason With 1-0 Shootout Loss in Columbus

Detroit opened its 2026-27 preseason schedule with a 1-0 shootout loss to the Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena on Monday night, the exhibition debut for both clubs.

It took a shootout to separate them. Conor Garland beat Michal Postava blocker-side for the only goal of the tiebreaker, and Phoenix Copley turned aside Axel Sandin-Pellikka, Nate Danielson and John Leonard.

Daniil Tarasov, who signed a one-year free-agent contract with Detroit this summer, stopped all 15 shots he faced over two periods. Postava handled the third with 10 saves. At the other end, Jet Greaves and Copley combined for 18 stops.

"I thought (Tarasov) was fantastic," Red Wings coach Todd McLellan said. "New team, first night out. Just played a real solid game."

Special teams dominated the evening. Detroit killed all five Columbus power plays, starting with an Anton Johansson slashing minor 4:27 into the first, and went 0-for-3 with the man advantage of its own.

"The penalty kill did its job. I thought the goaltending was really good," McLellan said. "I'd like to see us have a little more connectivity offensively. I think we created some chances, and there were some there that we gave up simply because of some sloppy passing."

There was no shortage of extracurriculars for a September exhibition. Kienan Draper and Luke Tuch fought at 15:40 of the second. Later, after Dominik Shine, the 33-year-old captain of the AHL's Grand Rapids Griffins, hit Guillaume Richard, Max McCue answered with 2:07 left in the third.

"It's always nice not playing against your own guys and actually being able to try to be physical," Jacob Bernard-Docker said. "Obviously, there's going to be some learning curves here in the preseason but that's what it's for. We'll work out the kinks."

The loss was the front end of a back-to-back road set. Detroit visits the Penguins at PPG Paints Arena on Tuesday night.