The Detroit Red Wings dressed a blended roster of prospects and established players opposite the Buffalo Sabres for today’s matinee affair. With the Wings nursing injuries to Michael Rasmussen and Givani Smith (per MLive’s Ansar Khan) the status of the Red Wings’ 23-man roster, as will be submitted to the NHL at 3 PM on Monday, looked like it was “to be determined.”
The Buffalo Sabres were slightly undermanned as well, but as far as regular season dress rehearsals are concerned, these were the best rosters that both teams could muster.
So the Red Wings wrapped up a slate of 8 exhibition games played over the course of only 11 days and nights, and they did so by dropping a 3-1 decision to the Buffalo Sabres.
During an afternoon in which Sam Gagner was probably the best player on the ice, and the Wings’ only scorer, Detroit was out-shot 38-19 by a more energetic Sabres team, and out-attempted 55-31 during a game where the Wings were just plain old mentally and physically exhausted from the grind–and Buffalo was all too happy to grind them down as a result.
Detroit ends the preseason with a 4-and-4 record, and the first game that counts is Thursday vs. Tampa Bay.
In the 1st period: the Red Wings and Sabres iced the following rosters, with the starters listed in bold:
The Red Wings and Sabres dropped the puck and pushed the nexus of play back into Detroit’s zone before the Wings were able to muck the puck into Buffalo’s zone, but the first shift was relatively nondescript for both teams.
Buffalo generated the first scoring chance some 2:10 into the 1st period, with Eric Staal and Troy Stecher fumbling the puck, and Tage Thompson generating a scoring chance on Alex Nedeljkovic as a result.
Detroit returned the favor in terms of generating a shot on goal, but the Wings’ weak attempt was easily parried away by Craig Anderson;
By the time J.J. Peterka generated a shot on a 3-on-2 rush vs. the Red Wings, Buffalo had accumulated a 5-1 shot advantage over the course of only 3:30 of play.
Jeff Skinner rushed in on a 2-on-1 and attempted to generate a scoring chance himself, so he was stifled by Nedeljkovic, but Buffalo had accumulated a 7-1 shot lead by the time that Pius Suter’s drop pass to Nick Leddy was blocked.
That shot advantage increased to 8-1, and the Wings had a semblance of an attack through the neutral zone, but it was all too easy for Buffalo to block the Wings’ attempts, and Buffalo would roar up the other way and charge into Detroit’s zone without interference or any sort of resistance from the Red Wings’ forwards or defense.
Joe Veleno also got high-sticked in the Sabres’ zone, sans call, but that was no surprise.
With 12:40 left in the 1st period, the first TV timeout hit, and Detroit just looked disinterested, for lack of a better term, against a sharp and cohesive Sabres team.
The Wings’ lines looked like this:
Zadina-Suter-Ryan
Raymond-Veleno-Bertuzzi
Rowney-Hirose-Gagner
Barber-Stephens
Staal-Stecher
DeKeyser/Leddy-Seider
Hronek-Oesterle
So that’s no Jonatan Berggren in today’s game.
Some 8:20 into the 1st, A.J. Peterka rushed in on a partial breakaway, but Nedeljkovic jabbed the puck away from the Sabres forward.
The Wings also generated their first scoring chance on their second shot, with sam Gagner taking a drop pass from Taro Hirose. Anderson stopped the shot easily, and moved it along.
At 10:07 of the 1st period, Carter Rowney sat for tripping, and the Sabres got to work on their power play.
Gagner, Stephens, DeKeyser and Hronek got to work on the first PK unit, and they did a fair job of clearing the puck out of trouble;
Staal and Seider hopped over the boards with Suter and Bertuzzi for a 2nd unit, and they also cleared the zone clinically as the Sabres got a little “cute”;
Ultimately, Detroit stiffened their resolve on the Sabres’ PP, and Detroit was successful in killing the penalty.
Rowney came out of the box and generated a fair shot chance off the rush with Gagner, too, so that was a positive;
The Wings got a close call as Zemgus Girgensons took a non-icing call and flipped a puck off Nedeljkovic’s back, but “Ned” got lucky, and the puck trickled over his back, off the crossbar, and away from the net…
By the 14:11 mark of the 1st period, Detroit had only closed the shot deficit to 11-4 Buffalo, with the shot attempts at 14-7.
Off the commercial break, Vinnie Hinostroza sent the puck to Casey Mittelstadt, but he whiffed on the shot;
Nedeljkovic had some hiccups smothering the puck, too;
Filip Hronek just watched Kyle Okposo skate past him and get a fine scoring chance on Nedeljkovic as well, and Buffalo got 3 more shots off before the Wings were able to clear the zone;
The line of Zadina, Suter and Ryan was at least generating shots on net, but that’s about all they could do. Pius Suter was able to get the Wings’ 6th shot on Anderson on a rush chance, but there were no screens or bodies near the net to corral the rebound.
Mostly, the Wings gave Buffalo scoring chances off the rush, and Nedeljkovic saved their butts.
The lines and defensive pairings had very little continuity after the top 2 lines and Staal-Stecher pairing, too, so the Wings’ personnel was a mess…
Ultimately, Alex Nedeljkovic had to stop 17 shots to Craig Anderson’s 6, and the Sabres had 25 attempts to Detroit’s 9.
In the 2nd period: Bertuzzi, Veleno and Raymond started up front, with DeKeyser and Hronek on defense, and Buffalo chipped the puck in deep, Detroit chased Buffalo back down ice, but Hronek was weak in battling Jeff Skinner, affording Vinnie Hinostroza a scoring chance.
Bertuzzi, Veleno and Raymond couldn’t connect in two chances at the other end of the ice, so Buffalo charged into Detroit’s zone and got the first shot on goal about 1:10 into the 2nd.
Detroit’s turnovers yielded really rough shift for that Veleno line.
Nothing got better as the Suter line took to the ice with Leddy and Seider on defense, and Buffalo continued to dominate possession and control of the puck, mostly in Detroit’s zone.
Nedeljkovic had stopped 4 shots by the 3-minute mark of the 2nd period.
Rowney, Hirose and Barber couldn’t help Oesterle stifle Okposo, who raced in and fired a shot off Greiss, and while the Wings were able to clear the zone and dump and chase, they could not generate any offense of any sort.
In all honesty, the line of Raymond, Stephens and Gagner had the team’s best shift from an offensive perspective, and that was because they were able to push the puck away from Nedeljkovic for the majority of their shift some 4:30 into the 2nd.
Nobody looked particularly good in the early 2nd period, whether that was Seider, Raymond, Veleno, Bertuzzi, Hronek, Zadina, Leddy, etc. etc. so I guess you could be distressed about the rookies and youngsters struggling, but nobody showed up…
And, ultimately, the Sabres were able to work the puck D to D, Tage Thompson worked away from Joe Veleno, and Thompson ripped a top shelf marker over Nedeljkovic at 6:00 of the 2nd. It turned out later that the goal was tipped by J.J. Peterka.
Tage Thompson makin’ moves ?#LetsGoBuffalo pic.twitter.com/FCHSN510sX— Buffalo Sabres (@BuffaloSabres) October 9, 2021
Peterka scored from Tage Thompson and Jacob Bryson at 6:00 of the 2nd. 1-0 Buffalo.
Riley Barber at least generated a scoring chance before the first commercial break of the 2nd period, but that’s all he did.
At the TV timeout @ 7:05, Detroit had been out-shot 7-0 in the 2nd and 24-6 overall. Attempts were 35-10.
When play returned, honestly, Carter Rowney, Riley Barber and Sam Gagner were by far the Wings’ best line, generating a pair of scoring chances, and Gagner was able to pick the corner on Anderson on a drop pass from a changing Joe Veleno…
But Anderson squeezed his arm and glove and kept the net closed.
When Raymond and Bertuzzi joined Veleno, they just weren’t very good, and Buffalo was able to regroup at center ice and cycle in the offensive zone against a tired Veleno line instead.
Nedeljkovic had to make a big stop just short of the 10-minute mark…
With a lot of “poke and hope” hockey going on by the Red Wings, Bobby Ryan was at least able to steal the puck and chip a hard shot in on Anderson at the 10-minute mark itself.
At the second TV timeout at 10:40, the shots were 10-4 Buffalo on the period and 27-10 overall.
Thankfully, Sam Gagner was the recipient of a fantastic steal by Mitchell Stephens off Vinnie Hinostroza, and Gagner jammed a wrist shot through Anderson to tie the game at 1.
Excellent work by Mitchell Stephens to win the puck battle and find Sam Gagner, who perfectly places his shot to tie the game. #LGRW pic.twitter.com/Wr5WOshgdt— Ryan Hana (@RyanHanaWWP) October 9, 2021
Sam Gagner’s bury to knot this one up. #LGRW
?: https://t.co/a1ZFiGyALB pic.twitter.com/oLix1vArLZ— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) October 9, 2021
Sam Gagner scored from Mitchell Stephens at 11:02. Casey Mittelstadt lost Gagner in traffic in the slot. The score was 1-1.
Suddenly, the Red Wings had some legs and had some energy. There was no doubt that the Sabres were still the better team, but the Wings seemed to understand that they were far from out of a game where they’d been thoroughly out-played.
Detroit was at least beginning to generate some shots and some time of possession in the offensive zone, though nothing they were doing was elegant or easy.
Detroit was able to cycle the puck down low, and Gagner fed Barber, but he was blocked off, and the feed back to Gagner didn’t work…
Detroit was out-shot 11-6 in the 2nd and 28-12 overall with 5:18 left in the 2nd.
Joe Veleno got mauled at the Sabres’ blueline, and Tyler Bertuzzi got whacked from behind, sans calls, so Buffalo raced up the other way, and Nedeljkovic had to stop Okposo on a 3-on-2 instead…
But Detroit was TENACIOUS on the puck, and the tide of the game really seemed to turn with about 3 minutes left in the 2nd period because Detroit wanted the puck as badly as Buffalo did. Via stick battles and one-on-one engagements for the puck, as well as some heavy hits…
Ultimately, Sam Gagner drew a penalty against the Sabres with 1:30 remaining via some superb work through the middle of the ice, and Casey Mittelstadt sat at 18:30 of the 2nd.
On the power play, the Red Wings experienced some hiccups as Bertuzzi, Leddy, Gagner, Raymond and Hirose cycled the puck down low, so they generated possession and control, but n few chances.
Filip Hronek sent the puck across to Hirose for a chance…
But Alex Nedeljkovic made a horrific decision to attempt to pass the puck off Moritz Seider, and the puck went right to Zemgus Girgensons, who scored a shorthanded marker at 19:47.
“unassisted” pic.twitter.com/wGUfqoPNpr— Buffalo Sabres (@BuffaloSabres) October 9, 2021
Girgensons made it 2-1 at 19:47 of the 2nd, unassisted, shorthanded.
In the 3rd period: Detroit actually began the 3rd period on the power play, for 30 seconds, and Zadina, Suter, Ryan, Seider and Hronek…
Lost the opening faceoff, pushed the puck to center, flubbed the puck at the Sabres’ slot, and basically got nothing done despite attempts from Ryan and Hronek that went wide.
Sam Gagner set up Mitchell Stephens for a good scoring chance after the power play expired, and Troy Stecher tried to do something with the rebound, but the Sabres blocked it out of play;
Lucas Raymond ultimately looked like a different player without Dylan Larkin’s presence, but he was still good alongside Joe Veleno, if not a little gassed from playing in so many exhibition games.
Nick Leddy was able to get a long shot through traffic around 3:33 into the 3rd, but the Wings surrendered ice in a hurry, and Buffalo cycled hard in Detroit’s zone as the Okposo line seemed to have its way with the Wings’ defense.
Stephens and Gagner had the most “jump” of any of the Red Wings’ forwards…
Raymond, Veleno and Bertuzzi found some energy working with Staal and Stecher around six minutes into the 3rd, too, but Stecher let a Sabre, John Hayden, walk around him at the other end, forcing Nedeljkovic to make a huge stop;
In all honesty, the 3rd period was a bit of a snoozer over its first 7-and-change minutes. Buffalo led the Wings in shots 3-2, and both teams appeared to be a little bit relieved to be playing their final exhibition period.
Both teams had more jump in their step as the period continued, and Detroit became more and more tenacious in terms of their desire to win puck battles and push possession into Buffalo’s zone.
The shots remained stuck at 3-2 Buffalo for a good five minutes, however, and that was a problem for the Red Wings.
Bobby Ryan changed that with 7:13 remaining, making a great deke-and-dangle play around the Sabres’ defenseman to tie the shots at 3-3, but Anderson made the save look routine, and away we went…
Buffalo took advantage of a couple of deep zone faceoffs to generate shots on Nedeljkovic and time in the Wings’ zone, essentially killing the clock…
And Buffalo took 3 more shots to Detroit’s 1, leading in shots 6-3 on the period and 37-18 with only 5:09 left in the 3rd.
The final few minutes of action ticked down without Detroit generating offensive chances, and Detroit pulled Nedeljkovic with about 2:15 remaining, but the Wings couldn’t actually hit Anderson to save their lives.
Lucas Raymond managed to get a shot away from the goal line, with Tyler Bertuzzi in front of the net, with 1:35 remaining, and Detroit took a timeout…
But it would ultimately be fore naught as Vinnie Hinostroza stole the puck from Filip Hronek, via a Jeff Skinner pass, and he made the 2-on-1 play to score an empty net goal.
Hinostroza scored from Skinner at 18:57. 3-1 Buffalo.
Rough ending for the Wings, who wind up 4-and-4 on the preseason.
Buffalo wins 3-1 in the preaseason finale. Detroit looked GASSED mentally and physically.— George Malik (@georgemalik) October 9, 2021
Statistics: Here are the Game Summary and Event Summary:
