COLUMBUS, Ohio — If there was any young Red Wings player who needed a fresh start under new Detroit head coach Todd McLellan, it was Jonatan Berggren.
The young Swedish winger came into the NHL two years ago as a skilled but raw player who put up an impressive 15 goals at age 22. It was a promising start for a creative player — but one that quickly got derailed when the Red Wings loaded up their offensive depth that offseason and sent Berggren back to AHL Grand Rapids. He stayed there for most of the 2023-24 season. Speculation loomed around whether he could be the subject of a change-of-scenery trade.
That’s what you need to know to appreciate the scene Thursday at Nationwide Arena: Berggren sitting in the penalty box, serving a two-minute minor for McLellan’s failed goalie interference challenge in a 4-4 game; the clock ticking down under a minute when Berggren exited the penalty box; a Ben Chiarot shot block, a Tyler Motte diving stab to push the puck up ice; and finally Berggren, in all alone, ripping one under the bar to give the Red Wings a 5-4 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets.
“We punished him for the coach’s sin, we sent him to the box,” McLellan said. “But he rewarded us with a win.”
Two days ago, on New Years’ Eve, Berggren scored a nearly identical goal (albeit not after serving a penalty) to open the scoring against the Pittsburgh Penguins. He later assisted on the winning goal that night.
Thursday, he followed it up with his first career NHL game winner.
“It’s so weird — when you have confidence, the puck bounces your way a little bit,” Berggren said.
And certainly, on a play like that, there’s plenty of puck luck to set it up.
But as for the newfound confidence, for a player who just three days ago had only 7 points on the season? That part is a bit less random.
Shortly after McLellan arrived, he and the young winger had a meeting where he asked Berggren to do something simple: “Play free.” That’s a broad directive and surely nothing Berggren hasn’t heard before. But for Berggren, it hit the right note.
As the year had gone on, he had found himself thinking too much about not making a mistake. And with a new coach, if anything, there could have been an even greater fear of doing so. That’s why McLellan wanted to deliver a message to the contrary.
“I think when a new coach comes in and you’re a younger player, you’re afraid to err, you’re afraid to make mistakes, you just want to play a nice safe game and not be talked about,” McLellan said earlier this week. “And sometimes you’re talked about because you do play that way. We saw (Tuesday) he does have some pretty good offensive instincts and talent, and we want that to come out — with a smart game all over the rink, though.”
That final caveat is doing a lot of work there — and in all honesty, playing smart is the main thing previous Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde wanted from Berggren, too. This isn’t a story of one coach finding something another had missed.
But for all those who wondered if Berggren might need a fresh start to rediscover his offensive game, he appears to have gotten one — without having to change jerseys.
Jonatan Berggren makes his way down the handshake line after scoring the game winner against Columbus. (Russell LaBounty / Imagn Images)
And really, that’s just a piece of what the Red Wings are experiencing as a whole following their coaching change. Thursday’s win was their third straight. They’ve scored four or more goals in all three — the first time they’ve hit that number in three consecutive games all season. They look, frankly, like a new team.
“Right from the start, with practice since Todd came in, the speed — I think everyone that has watched the practices sees it,” Berggren said. “Feeling like we translate that to the games pretty good. Like, how we start the games and how much we skate. Then when you get these wins, the confidence gets higher.”
“I think there’s no quit,” Alex DeBrincat added. “We give up that late goal (to make it 4-4), and our PK does a great job, and obviously Berggy scores after that. We’re not getting down on the bench when we have a momentum swing. We just keep working to get that momentum back.”
McLellan noted an “attack mentality” for his team, playing off the goaltender’s pads to try and create rebounds and secondary chances, and the buy-in he’s gotten from players in doing so. He feels they’re spending less time in the defensive zone, which by definition tends to mean more opportunities the other way.
It’s everything you’d want to hear from a new coach, and the results have matched.
McLellan has already been quick to admit, however, that it’s still a “honeymoon” right now between him and his new players in Detroit. There’s a reason the new coach bump has its own name in the sports world, after all.
A fresh set of eyes from outside might see something that someone living it might not, and players sometimes just need a new message in their ears to find something they had lost within their game. But it doesn’t last forever.
It feels like a safe bet, for example, that the “play free” edict for Berggren won’t be the bottom line in perpetuity, and that over time he and Detroit’s other skilled forwards will have moments that call for the new coach to jog their memories in the other direction.
At the same news conference earlier this week, in fact, McLellan made sure to clarify that “playing free and playing dumb are two different things.” He has already talked about the growth star young defenseman Simon Edvinsson still has in front of him to “learn how to play the right way and be taught and held accountable and rewarded.” And it won’t be the last time.
In so many ways, McLellan and his new team are just at the beginning here. There’s a lot more left to do and far harder challenges on the horizon.
But for Berggren — and some other players like him — a new beginning may well have been the most important first step.
It certainly looks like it so far.
(Top photo: Jason Mowry / Getty Images)
