Of Red Wings-related note this morning:
1. The Free Press’s Helene St. James wrote a recap which suggests that the Wings played poorly during last night’s overtime loss to Columbus:
For a team wanting to make an impression of being miserable to play against, the Detroit Red Wings flubbed their first attempt.
They didn’t create much offensively, skated ruts to the penalty box, and got pinned in the defensive zone in overtime. They took a point away from Thursday’s season opening loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets at Little Caesars Arena, but the overall performance disappointed.
“We got a big point against a good team, but once again, we have to find a way to flip the switch and find a way to steal these points,” veteran goalie Jimmy Howard said. “Opening night, you want to come out here and you want to give your fans a great show.
“In the first period, we felt like we were getting some momentum and then we shoot ourselves in the foot with penalties. We can’t rely on our penalty kill like that every single night.”
2. MLive’s Ansar Khan notes that the Wings spent much of the night playing defense, which isn’t a winning recipe against an offensive team like Columbus (the Blue Jackets had 39 shots on Howard and 76 total shot attempts):
Detroit’s lack of puck possession was evident during the second shift in overtime, when Luke Glendening, Anthony Mantha and Trevor Daley were hemmed in their own zone for an extended time before Artemi Panarin whipped a shot past Jimmy Howard at 2:11.
“Once they get possession there it’s hard to get possession back,” Blashill said. “Generally, it’s not the biggest deal. You kind of call switches and protect inside ice. You don’t want to let the best player in this game, Panarin, get a shot from there, so you got to identify him and make sure he’s not the one beating you. We made a little bit of a mistake on that.”
The Red Wings did not establish a forecheck.
“I think we made it hard on ourselves, especially that first period, just getting out of our zone,” Justin Abdelkader said. “They’re a good team, once they hem us in, their D are active. Just got to communicate, make better plays.
“Between that and managing the puck as we go through the neutral zone, we got to be a team that plays smart hockey and simple hockey. We get the puck in their zone, then we can start opening things up a bit and getting our D active. But anytime you spend that much time in the D-zone, it’s going to be a tough night.”
3. Finally, 97.1 the Ticket’s Will Burtchfield wrote an article regarding a bright spot during the Wings’ loss in one Dennis Cholowski, who looked NHL-ready during his debut:
Playing alongside Danny DeKeyser on the top D pair, Cholowski was strong on his skates, calm with the puck – sometimes too calm – and responsible in his own end for much of the game. He wound up getting 19:51 of ice time, including 18:30 at even strength, second most on the team to DeKeyser. Even when he stumbled, he would not be staggered.
When the dust settled on the Red Wings’ opener, a 3-2 OT loss to the Blue Jackets that was hardly that close, Cholowski represented a reason to be encouraged. He looked encouraged himself as he spoke to the media, flashing the occasional smile that no other Red Wing could muster.
“I was happy (with my performance). I thought I did pretty well for my first game,” he said. “Would like to have won the game, but ultimately I feel like I did pretty well.”
His night began with a hiccup, in what was a belch of a first period for the Red Wings. But his holding penalty did his team no harm. He made amends in the second period, just in case, when he spied a patch of open ice in the offensive zone, snuck in from the point and buried a one-timer in the low slot off a corner feed from Dylan Larkin to tie the game at one.
It was a play indicative of Cholowski’s offensive bent, his ability to anticipate and capitalize, the largely unteachable aspect of his game that the Red Wings liked so much when they drafted him 20th overall in 2016. (Sure, they could have had Jakob Chychrun at No. 16 had they not dumped Datsyuk’s contract on the Coyotes, but that trade’s also the reason they have Filip Hronek.)
“It was a real good job of jumping into the play, and a good finish,” said Jeff Blashill.
Update: Fox Sports Detroit also posted a pair of post-game videos this morning, spotlighting Cholowski, Howard and coach Blashill’s post-game remarks:
