The Red Wings released their 2024-2025 regular season schedule earlier this month, and today, the Hockey News’s Connor Eargood lists “five must-watch games,” including an up-tick in the Red Wings-Senators rivalry:
Tuesday, January 7 vs. Ottawa Senators: When David Perron spoke to reporters at his April exit interview, he spoke of his desire to remain a Red Wing for the foreseeable future. He loved living in Detroit, with its proximity to his Quebec home and the way his family was accepted by the Red Wings. He also had his fair share of heroics for the Winged Wheel, including the tying goal in Detroit’s April 16 game against the Montreal Canadiens that kept their playoff hopes alive for a few more minutes.
Instead, Detroit didn’t re-sign Perron, and he left to play for division rival Ottawa in free agency. Players tend to have good games against their former teams, and the battle-winning Perron is already a pain in the neck to play against.
Detroit’s bouts with Ottawa have already been chock full of meaning in the past few seasons, some of the most defining of the past couple seasons. In 2023, a back-to-back drubbing by the Senators caused Red Wings general manager Steve Yzerman to sell at the deadline, trading off key pieces in Bertuzzi and defenseman Filip Hronek. Last season, a Dec. 9 game at Little Caesars Arena saw Detroit captain Dylan Larkin knocked out by a Mathieu Joseph hit, causing Perron to attack Senators defenseman Artem Zub as retaliation because he thought he was the perpetrator.
Continued; the one thing the Red Wings didn’t address during this offseason was…Well, okay, two things. As it applies to the Ottawa Senators, the Wings haven’t really added any “team toughness,” and it may take adding that much-needed right-shot defenseman to bring in a real gunner who can play toe-to-toe with the Perrons and Tkachuks of the Senators.
I was as surprised as anyone that Perron left Detroit, but he arguably received more money ($4 million a season!) and probably more term (2 years) than the Red Wings were willing to give him, and he’s headed off to Ottawa to kick-start the Senators’ rebuild.
He’s definitely slowed and he’s definitely taken more obstruction penalties as his tenure with the Red Wings progressed, but he’s still a vocal leader and a “sneaky dirty” sniper.
Anyway, Detroit plays Ottawa 4 times–on December 5th in Ottawa, on January 7th in Detroit, on March 10th in Ottawa, and on March 27th in Detroit. As such, the games are spread out in a way that will make the budding rivalry between the teams relevant all season long.
