Through three games this season, the Detroit Lions have a top-five offense in the league.

What do coaches always preach when talking about getting the offense rolling? We need to establish the run, and Detroit is doing that with their two stellar running backs.

Starting with second-year back Jahmyr Gibbs. There were some questions about why the organization took him in the first round of the 2023 NFL Draft, bu those are quickly being answered.

This season, he’s already compiled more than 200 yards on the ground, averaging more than five yards a carry to go along with two touchdowns.

His counterpart, the veteran David Montgomery, is getting a slightly larger load of the carries. He’s up to 230 yards and three touchdowns.

Montgomery was critical in the week one overtime win against the Los Angeles Rams, which included the game-winning touchdown.

The two are on a bit of a historic run. In every game, Montgomery and Gibbs have each topped 70 scrimmage yards, making them the first running back duo to do so in each of the first three games since 2006.

While they are similar in productivity, assistant head coach and running backs coach Scottie Montgomery said they are very different stylistically.

“A lot of people don’t understand how shifty David is. So as he’s coming off of these jump cuts, a lot of people when they come off of jump cuts are very light, but when he comes off of jump cuts he’s heavy. So when they’re hitting him off of jump cuts they think when he gets hit it’s going to knock him off balance, but it’s not he’s very solid. As when Jah comes off the jump cut, more people wait, so now they’re waiting for what’s going to happen after the jump cut, and now he’s very heavy. So it’s just a different way of being able to use a skill,” Montgomery said.

What the Detroit Tigers have done over the past two months can’t be overlooked. Factoring in how young this ball club is, the Tigers should be very proud of what they’ve accomplished.

Things haven’t been easy for them throughout the 162-game season, and they won’t get much easier as they head to Houston to take on the Houston Astros in the Wild Card series.

Not only are the Astros arguably the best team in Major League Baseball and have essentially been a dynasty throughout the past decade, but current Detroit manager A.J. Hinch used to coach Houston.

There are many storylines throughout this series, but at the end of the day, the Tigers simply just need to get the job done. That’s much easier said than done, but they have the talent to do so.

Game 1 will be the biggest of the series. With Tarik Skubal on the bump for Detroit, he gives them their best chance to win. Winning that first game would also go a long way, as they’d only need to win one more contest in the three-game set.

The Astros will also have their left-handed ace going, as Framber Valdez is expected to get the start in Game 1, according to Julia Morales of the team.

Valdez pitched against the Tigers back in May, allowing two earned runs over 6.0 innings pitched.

However, as Valdez and Houston certainly understand, this is a completely different Detroit team than he faced at the beginning of the campaign. 

This Tigers lineup has been clicking, and if that continues, they’ll be a tough out in the postseason.

Hopefully, that’ll be the case against the two-time All-Star.

Game Notes

Earlier this summer, the Penguins added David Quinn to Head Coach Mike Sullivan’s coaching staff as an assistant coach. Quinn, 57, joins Assistant Coaches Mike Vellucci and Ty Hennes, Goaltending Coach Andy Chiodo, Video Coach Madison Nikkel and Assistant Video Coach CJ D’Alimonte. Quinn will oversee the team’s defensive group.

Quinn, who has over 30 years of coaching experience, has served as head coach of the San Jose Sharks (2022-24) and New York Rangers (2018-21). Under his reign as head coach with the Sharks and Rangers, two defensemen captured the Norris Trophy as the NHL’s best defensemen, with Adam Fox and Erik Karlsson claiming the award in 2020-21 and ’22-23, respectively.

The Cranston, Rhode Island native has extensive experience at the international level with Team USA, most recently as the head coach of the 2022 and ’23 World Championship teams and the ‘22 Olympic Team. Quinn has also represented Team USA as an assistant coach at three World Championships (2007, ’12 & ’16) and the 2005 World Junior Championship. He spent two seasons (2002-04) as the head coach for USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program. Quinn also helped guide the U.S. Women’s National Team to a pair of silver medals (2000 & 1999) in the Women’s World Championship.

The Pittsburgh Penguins selected six players at the 2024 NHL Draft at Sphere in Las Vegas. The Penguins selected defenseman Harrison Brunicke (44th overall) and forward Tanner Howe (46th overall) in the second round, defenseman Chase Pietila in the fourth round (111th overall), defenseman Joona Vaisanen in the sixth round (175th overall) and forward Mac Swanson (207th overall) and defenseman Finn Harding (223rd overall) in the seventh round.

Brunicke, who was drafted by the Penguins this past June in the second round (44th overall), has played parts
of three seasons with the Kamloops Blazers of the Western Hockey League. This past season, the defenseman recorded 10 goals, 11 assists and 21 points in 49 games. In 110 career junior games, he has tallied 14 goals, 15 assists and 29 points. Brunicke also played for Team Canada at the World Under-18 Championship this past year and tallied one goal and four points in seven games.

Howe, who was drafted 46th overall by the Penguins in June, has played parts of four seasons with the Regina Pats of the WHL. As captain of the Pats last season, the forward tallied 28 goals, 49 assists and 77 points in 68 games. In 207 career junior games, Howe has recorded 92 goals, 141 assists and 233 points. He has played in two World Under-18 Championships with Team Canada in 2022 and ’23, winning the bronze medal in ’23.

Harding, who was selected in the seventh round (223rd overall) in 2024, has spent the last two seasons with the Mississauga Steelheads of the Ontario Hockey League. In 2023-24, the defenseman tallied 10 goals, 24 assists and 34 points in 68 games. Over the past two seasons, Harding has recorded 12 goals, 32 assists and 44 points in 131 games.

Pittsburgh’s prospects went a perfect 3-0 in Buffalo at the 2024 Prospects Challenge, winning the tournament for the second-straight season. Below is a recap of each game:

Friday, Sept. 13 – PIT vs. BOS: Pittsburgh got off to a slow start, falling behind 3-1 before rattling off five unanswered goals to win their opening game. Tristan Broz tallied twice for Pittsburgh, as he was one of five players to record multiple points.

Saturday, Sept. 14 – PIT vs. OTT: Three second period goals from Pittsburgh helped them start off 2-0 in the Prospects Challenge. Jack Beck (1G-1A) and Atley Calvert (2A) each notched multiple points.

Monday, Sept. 16 – PIT vs. BUF: The Penguins capped off the weekend with a tournament-high eight-goal outburst. Atley Calvert recorded a hat trick (3G-1A) as he and Tristan Broz (1G-3A) each notched four points. Rutger McGroarty (1G-1A) and Ville Koivunen (1G-1A) each had multiple points in the win.

On Sept. 16, the Penguins re-signed Captain Sidney Crosby to a two-year contract extension, which runs through the 2026-27 season and carries an average annual value of $8.7 million.

The three-time Stanley Cup Champion (2009, ’16 & ’17) will be entering his franchise-record 20th season in a Penguins uniform and 18th with the ‘C’ on his sweater, trailing only Detroit’s Steve Yzerman (19) as the longest- tenured captain in NHL history. Crosby is the Penguins’ franchise record holder in games played (1st, 1,272), even- strength goals (416, 1st), even-strength points (1,025, 1st) and game-winning goals (90, 1st), and trails only Hall-of- Famer Mario Lemieux in every major category in Penguins history including goals (2nd, 592), assists (1,004, 2nd), and points (1,596, 2nd).

Named one of the ‘100 Greatest NHL Players’, the 37-year old ranks 10th in NHL history with 1,596 points (592G-1,004A) in 1,272 games played, and has averaged at least a point per game in each of his 19 NHL seasons, a feat only he and Wayne Gretzky have accomplished. The 5-foot-11, 201-pound forward ranks in the top-25 in league history in goals (592, 21st), assists (1,004, 14th), points (1,596, 10th) and game-winning goals (90, 23rd). The 50-goal scorer in 2009-10 has surpassed the 30-goal mark a franchise-record 12 times and the 100-point plateau six times, which is the seventh-most instances in NHL history.

Among players drafted first overall in NHL history, only Lemieux (1,723) has recorded more points than Crosby’s 1,596.

The Penguins coaching staff will be well represented on the national stage, as earlier this summer Mike Sullivan was named the head coach of Team USA for the 2025 Four Nations Face-Off and the 2026 United States Men’s Olympic Hockey Team. Additionally, David Quinn will be serve as an assistant coach for Team USA at the Four Nations Face- Off.

The 2025 Four Nations Face-Off is an international tournament with NHL players from the U.S., Canada, Finland, and Sweden that will be played from Feb. 12-20, 2025. The tournament will take place in Boston, MA and Montreal, QC. The 2026 Olympic Games will be held from Feb.6-22, 2026 in the Italian cities of Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo.

Sullivan, 56, will be representing his native country at the international level in a coaching capacity for the fifth time. He previously served as an assistant coach at the 2006 Olympics. He has also represented his home country as head coach of Team USA at the 2007 World Championship and as an assistant coach at the ‘08 World Championship and ’16 World Cup. He was named head coach of the 2022 Olympic squad, but did not attend due to NHL players not participating in the Games.

The Marshfield, Massachusetts native will be the third U.S. Olympic head coach in the last 20 years with Pittsburgh Penguins connections. Herb Brooks was a Penguins scout in 2002 when he guided the Americans to a silver medal in Salt Lake City, while Dan Bylsma was Pittsburgh’s head coach when he was the U.S. Olympic team’s bench boss in 2014.

Sullivan has a career NHL head coaching record of 445-275-115 with Pittsburgh and the Boston Bruins, and is one of just three American-born head coaches, along with John Tortorella and Peter Laviolette, to notch 400 wins. This past season, he appeared in his 800th NHL game as a head coach on Feb. 6, 2024. His 430 wins through his first 800 NHL games were 11th-most in NHL history.