Preseason recap: Red Wings lose to the Pittsburgh Penguins 5-1

The Detroit Red Wings iced a mixed lineup highlighted by the Fabbri-Suter line and a returning Jonatan Berggren against an NHL-heavy Penguins roster (minus COVID-positive Jake Guentzel) or today’s matinee game in Pittsburgh.

DetroitRedWings.com streamed the game, piggybacking off the Penguins’ broadcast–a radio broadcast superimposed over the Penguins’ in-arena video feed, and it was a painful affair to watch, as Detroit dropped a 5-1 decision. Pius Suter scored the Wings’ only goal, and Alex Nedeljkovic gave up 4 goals on 23 shots, while Victor Brattstrom gave up 1 goal on 9 shots.

On Sunday afternoon, in the 1st period, with Robby Fabbri, Sam Gagner and Marc Staal wearing the “A’s”:

The teams traded possession and chances early on in the 1s period, but Jeff Carter fired a seeing-eye shot off Alex Nedeljkovic’s goalie pants and it was suddenly 1-0 Pittsburgh:

BIG. JEFF. CARTER. pic.twitter.com/YDHX47p4qY— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) October 3, 2021

The goal was Jeff Carter from Bryan Rust and Danton Heinen at 3:45.

Pittsburgh began to dominate on the forecheck after the goal, really taking it to the Wings, and Jonathan Berggren was bumped by Brian Dumoulin, so Turner Elson stepped up and got into a fight with Dumoulin at 5:47.

Detroit got back into the game, as it were, after the fight, but Pittsburgh was playing a hard, heavy physical game against an undersized Detroit lineup. Robby Fabbri didn’t back down after he was splatted by defenseman John Marino, but it was an ugly hit nonetheless, and that seemed to be the emphasis for Pittsburgh–dominate physically, intimidate physically, and then muck and grind the puck toward Nedeljkovic.

Pittsburgh generated some scoring chances as a result of their physical dominance, but the plucky little Wings did not take the Penguins’ plays lying down, though Detroit’s defense was a little scrambly.

At 11:05 of the 1st, Brian Lashoff headed to the penalty box for interference, and Pittsburgh’s dangerous power play looked to add to their lead:

Detroit was hemmed into their own defensive zone for a good chunk of the power play, but they disrupted the Penguins’ offensive game, and kept Alex Nedeljkovic’s sight lines clear.

Regrettably, Kasperi Kapanen took a pass from a teammate and ripped a low shot through Jordan Oesterle and fired the puck blocker side to make it 2-0 Pittsburgh, on the PP.

Kapanen scored at 12:56 from Marino and Heinen. 2-0 Pittsburgh.

We also got bad news from The Athletic’s Max Bultman:

Michael Rasmussen did not make the trip to Pittsburgh today for the Red Wings. Will pass along any updates when I can— Max Bultman (@m_bultman) October 3, 2021

The Wings just looked a step slow and a bit confused in their own zone, and it was frustrating to watch at team with a 3-0 record play so damn tentatively.

Turner Elson managed to draw an interference penalty against Marino at 14:40, and their power play…And Brian Dumoulin headed to the box for cross-checking 17 seconds into the PP, giving Detroit a 5-on-3 for 1:43.

Pius Suter scored a lovely little goal to give the Red Wings a 2-1 deficit on the 5-on-3, via a great passing play from Jordan Oesterle and Robby Fabbri.

#RedWings convert on the 5-on-3 powerplay as Oesterle dishes to Fabbri who finds Pius Suter on the doorstep for the finish.

*Sorry we don’t have highlights today so this goal description will have to do.* #LGRW— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) October 3, 2021

Edit/update: This clip comes from Kukla’s Korner:

The scoring play was Suter from Fabbri and Oesterle at 15:46. 2-1.

Then Pittsburgh took a too many men penalty with 1:35 left in the 1st/at 18:25, and Detroit headed back to the power play, and Bobby Ryan clanged the puck off the post with a couple of seconds left in the 1st, and that was the Wings’ only real scoring chance.

Nedeljkovic was a little shaky at times throughout the 1st period, but as Detroit was out-shot 12-8 and out-attempted 18-12, the Wings held their own.

In the 2nd period, which Detroit began with 25 seconds of power play time, but a rush by Bobby Ryan, dropped to Pius Suter and intercepted as Suter attempted to “home run pass” to Sam Gagner, was all the Wings could muster.

Pittsburgh then took consecutive shots against Nedeljkovic, who made some VERY BIG stops…And then he got ran by Kris Letang at 2:18 of the 2nd, and Letang sat for goaltender interference, despite pleas by the Penguins’ radio crew that Nedeljkovic was faking everything.

The Fabbri-Suter-Gagner-Oesterle-Ryan unit came out first, and cycled well, but did not generate any scoring chance over the course of about 1:30 of play;

Cotton, Namestnikov, Erne, Smith and company had a particularly rough 2nd power play unit shift…

And Alex Cotton and Vladislav Namestnikov completely missed Letang coming out of the box, and a blocked shot yielded a Letang breakaway goal.

OUT OF THE BOX, INTO THE NET! pic.twitter.com/HNoG3Lj8rr— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) October 3, 2021

Pittsburgh went up 3-1 on the Letang goal, which was unassisted.

Then Mitchell Stephens headed to the penalty box for an interference call at 5:09, and Sam Gagner’s shorthanded breakaway was for naught…

Tristan Jarry, probably: “No, thank you”. pic.twitter.com/8NC2vTw50e— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) October 3, 2021

So Pittsburgh attempted to add to their lead, and Detroit did a fine job of ensuring that the Pens did not connect for a 4-1 marker.

Detroit sort of rope-a-doped their way through the middle of the 2nd period, playing on their back skate as Pittsburgh really took it to Detroit territorially, and it took until about the 12-minute mark for the Wings to find their backbone again. They began to push right back against the Penguins, whose defense was excellent in terms of getting sticks in passing lanes and blocking shots…

But, sadly, Nedeljkovic made a good stop on Bryan Rust, the rebound went right to Danton Heinen, and with Stecher and Staal and the Wings’ forwards swimming away from the net, Heinen was able to score an easy 4-1 goal at 15:15:

Heinen scored from Rust and Carter, making it 4-1.

As the game progressed, with Victor Brattstrom relieving Nedeljkovic (who stopped 19 of 23 shots), Pius Suter found Robby Fabbri for he Wings’ first scoring chance in about 10 minutes, but Jarry made the stop.

Detroit was able to generate a couple of OK chances before the period ended, but that was that.

It bears mentioning that the Wings were 0-for-4 on the power play and 1-for-2 on the penalty-kill after 2 periods’ worth of play.

In the 3rd period, Vladislav Namestnikov headed to the penalty box for boarding at 1:06, and the PK was…OK. Not great, not terrible, but effective enough to kill the penalty.

The period settled into a bit of a lull after that, with both teams sort of “playing out the string”…

Until Kasperi Kapanen scored on a fine pass from Evan Rodrigues, as Brian Lashoff and Alex Cotton went for a skate instead of protecting their “men,” and that was that.

5-1 Pittsburgh @ 6:45, Kapanen from Rodrigues and Jason Zucker.

Detroit was icing a completely different roster than the one which played vs. Columbus on Saturday, but they looked gassed nonetheless. This team never performs well in matinee games (it’s a curse or something), but this one was particularly ugly.

Jonatan Berggren had his moments, but he looked a little skittery and jittery as he worked out the kinks in his game opposite a stiff opposition in the Penguins’ NHL lineup. I felt bad for the kid.

Bobby Ryan got the Wings’ best scoring chance of the period when he was set up by Robby Fabbri on a 2-on-1, but he was not only stopped, but also had to jump to avoid running Tristan Jarry too badly after being picked off by a Penguins defenseman. Ryan went flying sans stick, and Jarry made the save.

Ultimately, the final five minutes were quiet, save a wraparound attempt by Givani Smith, and an Adam Erne slot shot that went nowhere.

It was interesting to see how Michael Rasmussen serves as a “straw that stirs the drink” for Rasmussen and Namestnikov, to the point that his presence was sorely missed.

That was the game. Detroit lost 5-1.

Statistics: Here are the Game Summary and Event Summary:

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George Malik

My name is George Malik, and I'm the Malik Report's editor/blogger/poster. I have been blogging about the Red Wings since 2006, and have worked with MLive and Kukla's Korner. Thank you for reading!