Red Wings-Oilers wrap-up: Detroit’s ‘intimidation factor’ near zero as they win 3rd straight game

The Detroit Red Wings emerged 4-2 victors in a mightily entertaining battle with the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday night, and things will get no easier as the Washington Capitals will come to town on Thursday…

But this 7-5-and-2 Red Wings team is at literal .500 after 14 games, and this brutal stretch of 11 games to be played over the course of 17 nights won’t even be half over until after Thursday night…

But the Red Wings have won 3 straight games for the first time in two seasons, and there’s little doubt that they’re not going to be shivering in their skate boots when Alex Ovechkin and the Capitals come to town on Thursday.

It’s still bloody early in the season, but this year’s Red Wings team has a different definition of “competitive,” and we’re still at the point where it seems to shock the contenders that the Red Wings have given competitive efforts.

For our friends from Edmonton, however, this game turned upon a self-inflicted wound by Oilers goaltender Stuart Skinner, who fumbled the puck in his second NHL start, affording Dylan Larkin what appeared to be a 3-0, insurance goal at 14:29 of the 2nd period. The Edmonton Journal’s Jim Matheson offered this take on Skinner, who stopped 35 of the 38 shots he faced:

Skinner was very sharp in the first 20, facing 16 shots and only giving a goal to Namesknikov, who shouldered his way around Tyson Barrie for a tuck job. In the second, Namestnikov shovelled home a rebound after a tip in front by Michael Rasmussen with Skinner fighting through bodies to see a long Filip Hronek shot.
The Wings captain Larkin got a gift later in the middle frame when Skinner had one of those bloopers all goalies have at one time or another. He tried to bank the puck off the boards after a dump-in, but it pin-balled in front for an empty-netter.
“Just fanned on it, bad timing If that doesn’t happen, maybe we win the game. Believe it or not, I’ve made a worse play than that in the minors. Just have to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” shrugged Skinner, falling on his own sword but taking far too much blame for a team that looked like they were still basking in that terrific rally against the New York Rangers Saturday night.
The first sign of Oiler life came on a McDavid rush on a power play late in the second, then Jesse Puljujarvi raced in on a breakaway with 35 seconds left and beat Nedeljkovic for his fourth in three games. McDavid sent a 20-footer past Nedeljkovic in the first minute of the third, but that was as close as they got.
“Can’t start (playing) from three down,” said McDavid.
Nedeljkovic had an easy first 40 minutes but made a terrific poke-check on Zach Hyman on a short-handed chance in the third and stoned Evan Bouchard from 10 feet later. Hyman also hit the crossbar with six minutes left.
Tippett went with 11 forwards after the first 10 minutes when Zack Kassian, who started on the second line with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Hyman, left with a possible groin issue. He appeared to pull up lame in the neutral zone. He wasn’t hit on a play.
“Takes you out of some rhythm because you have a game plan going in. I don’t think it’s too bad (injury), we’ll see how it is tomorrow (Wednesday in Boston as they prepare for the Bruins Thursday),” said Tippett, who had moved Kassian up and slid Kailer Yamamoto back to the third line because he wasn’t happy, even as the wins piled up (five straight to start, a loss to Philadelphia, then four consecutive victories).

The Oilers’ website does recaps a little differently, separating player comments from the game narrative, but that’s okay for me:

McDavid’s evaluation of the loss: “Didn’t love it. Didn’t love the start and dug ourselves in a hole again. I liked our response and liked our third period. We definitely had enough chances to tie the game but we can’t keep digging ourselves in that type of hole.”
McDavid on goaltender Skinner’s second career NHL start: “I thought he was good. I thought he did a good job of letting us get into the game. Obviously, by the time we found our legs, we were already down by three. I thought he battled hard and we definitely didn’t make it easy on him in front of him. I thought he was good. He played well and obviously had a mistake there but everyone makes mistakes. That’s just the way it is.”
Goaltender Skinner on misplaying the puck on Larkin’s game-winning goal: “Just fanned on it. Hard fan, bad timing. If that didn’t happen, we’d probably potentially still be playing. It sucks. It was a big goal. At the same time, it happens. Move forward and make sure it doesn’t happen again.
“Believe it or not, I’ve made a worse play before in my career and we ended up winning the game. I just kind of look back to that. There’s always a chance to come back and win a game. We battled really hard in the third period and almost got it.”
Skinner’s self-assessment after career game No. 2: “For me, I felt like I belonged. I think that’s huge. Playing my first game was a little shaky. After this game, I feel a lot better about my game… I’ve been preparing for this for quite some time now. I felt like I was game-ready. I think that was a huge help going into my second NHL start.”

Sportsnet’s Mark Spector also took note of McDavid’s remarks, as well as those of Edmonton coach Dave Tippett…

“Didn’t like the start,” began Connor McDavid, whose team trailed 3-0 until Jesse Puljujarvi scored with 35 seconds left in the second period. “We dug ourselves a hole again. Loved the response, but we can’t keep digging that kind of a hole.”
Edmonton trailed the New York Rangers 4-1 on Friday night, before storming back to win 6-5 in overtime. After opening a five-game road trip in Detroit, a grumpy head coach Dave Tippett did not see any similarities between the two efforts.
“Last game was different. We were down 4-1 but we were still in the game,” he said. “Not enough urgency not enough execution tonight. They played a desperate first period and we didn’t match that.”
Though McDavid scored a goal to stretch his points streak to 19 games going back to last season, one run that died in Motown Tuesday came on the power play, as Edmonton failed to notch a goal for the first time all season, going 0-for-2. That’s a franchise record that stops at 10 games.
Vlad Namestnikov walked Tyson Barrie wide on the first Detroit goal, then he stood in the slot and poked home a rebound while defenceman Evan Bouchard stood next to him, admiring the Detroit forward’s fine form. Then Skinner’s gaffe made it 3-0, and the Oilers just couldn’t climb all the way back.
“Never lose two in a row,” said McDavid, whose club is still a lofty 9-2. “That’s the focus now.”

Maybe the message of desperation from Tippett is what should stick–for both teams–as NHL.com’s Dave Hogg noted:

Vladislav Namestnikov scored twice, and the Detroit Red Wings held on for a 4-2 win against the Edmonton Oilers at Little Caesars Arena on Tuesday.
“This was definitely one of our best games this season,” Namestnikov said. “If we keep playing like that, we’re going to win a lot of games.”
Alex Nedeljkovic made 31 saves for Detroit (7-5-2), which has won three straight.
“We’ve played some good games this season, but I thought we were very good for two periods against a team with a great record,” Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said. “The third period wasn’t as good, but it is important for us to learn to win games like this.”
Connor McDavid and Jesse Puljujarvi scored for Edmonton (9-2-0), which had won four straight. Stuart Skinner made 35 saves in his first start of the season.
“We didn’t well play enough to win,” Oilers coach Dave Tippett said. “We didn’t have enough urgency. They came out and played desperate hockey, and we didn’t match them.”

The Associated Press’s recap will serve as our pivot point between the Oilers and Red Wings’ perspectives:

The Oilers had won nine of their first 10 games for the first time in franchise history, but they could not overcome a slow start in Detroit.
”Not enough urgency,” Edmonton coach Dave Tippett said. ”They came out and played a desperate first period and we didn’t match that level and we got behind.”
The Oilers went 0 for 2 on the power play after becoming the first team since Pittsburgh in 2007 to open a season with a power-play goal in 10 straight games.
”They are eventually going to score on anyone, but it helps if you take two instead of taking six,” Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said.
The Red Wings have won three in a row and their rebuilding efforts finally seem to be paying off. Dylan Larkin put Detroit ahead 3-0 midway through the second period, rookie Moritz Seider had an empty-net goal Alex Nedeljkovic finished with 31 saves.
”A huge part of winning that game was goaltending, but our battle level was very high,” Blashill said.

The fact that the Red Wings were able to win despite giving up a very late 2nd period goal to Jesse Puljujarvi and a very early 3rd period goal to Connor McDavid–again, in this case, for the late-and-early-period-goal-surrendering-Wings–was pretty impressive.

It’s a margin of error that the Red Wings will not have on Thursday vs. Washington.

The Red Wings did not deny that they want to be a team that’s harder to play against, as the Free Press’s Helene St. James noted:

“We want to be that team that teams come in here and say wow, it’s hard to play against these guys,” Vladislav Namestnikov said. “Hopefully we can keep rolling and winning.”
Moritz Seider scored into an empty net with 5.4 seconds to play to seal the victory and improve the Wings to 7-5-2. It’s only the second time in 11 games the Oilers have lost in regulation.
“For the first two periods we did a really good job against a team that has a heck of a record, that’s a really good team,” coach Jeff Blashill said. ” Not quite as good in the third, but in the first two, we did a really good job. We made lots of plays, we got the puck in in the o-zone and then we tracked and gapped really well. That’s how we have to play to be successful.”
It was as crisp a game as the Wings have played all season. Namestnikov made his sixth goal of the season a beauty, scoring in the first period, and added his seventh in the second period. Dylan Larkin made it 3-0 on an opportunistic goal. Stuart Skinner attempted to send the puck behind his net but it bounced right back out front and onto Larkin’s stick, leaving the LCA crowd to celebrate another goal.
“The arena was buzzing,” Namestnikov said. “Whenever you get a 3-0 lead, it’s always great. We kind of let them come back a little bit, but it was for sure a fun game.”

The Detroit News’s Steve Kornacki noted that the Red Wings received fine goaltending, both in the third period and throughout the game…

Yes, Connor McDavid scored for the Oilers (9-2) with his ninth of the season 38 seconds into the third period and Jesse Puljujarvi scored his sixth with 35 seconds left in the second.
But NHL goal-scoring leader Leon Draisaitl (10 goals) didn’t beat Detroit goalie Alex Nedeljkovic, who made 31 saves, and the Red Wings (7-5-2) held on for an impressive victory.
“He was unreal tonight,” Namestnikov said of Nedeljkovic. “If it wasn’t for him, who knows how the game could’ve went. He stood on his head.”
Namestnikov, the nephew of Russian Five star Slava Kozlov who was central to a team that broke Detroit’s four-decade Stanley Cup drought in 1997, is now second on the team with seven goals.

Namestnikov sort of shrugged off his goal, and his performance…

“I had speed coming through and Gags found me,” Namestnikov said. “And I saw I had that lane and took it to the net, and just had to get it over the goalie.”
Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said: “I thought he played really, really good. Obviously, getting on the board first is a big part of winning — especially at home and especially with the crowd as good they’ve been. It was great energy and just good momentum.
“I think the game he played was real important for us. I thought it was one of his better games in the last little bit. He’s had a good year, but tonight he was really good.”

And again, as DetroitRedWings.com’s Josh Berenter noted, Namestnikov deferred credit to his goaltender:

“He was unreal today,” Namestnikov said about the Red Wings goalie. “If it wasn’t for him at the end, who knows how the game could’ve went. He stood on his head. We rely on both of our goalies and they’re both unbelievable.”
Edmonton pulled Skinner with less than two minutes to go in the third, and the reigning NHL Rookie of the Month put the game away as Seider potted an empty-net goal with six seconds left to slam the door on the Oilers.
Nick Leddy and Rasmussen earned assists on the empty-netter, giving Rasmussen his first multi-point game of the season.
Blashill said he was happy with the way his team battled against the high-scoring Oilers.
“I thought our battle level was extremely high throughout,” he said. “We weren’t perfect defensively, but I think we’re learning, and I think there were areas where we took a step tonight.”

Among Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen’s “5 Takeaways“:

No Power Play Goals for the Oilers: That was a key factor in the win. The Oilers have the NHL’s No. 1 power play with a 46.9% efficiency. The Red Wings rank 26th in the league in penalty killing. But they killed off both of Edmonton’s power play chances in this game.
“I haven’t disliked our penalty killing,” Blashill said. “I’ve disliked the percentage (72.3%) its at.”
He thinks the Red Wings can have a “a real good kill by the end of the year.”
Growing Confidence: Earlier in the season, the Red Wings would lost that game or given a goal in the third to end up in overtime. But the Red Wings are growing, maturing into a confident group. They seemed poised, not harried, when the Oilers were pushing for the final goal. With McDavid and Leon Drasaitl flying about, the Oilers are intimidating offensively.
The Red Wings didn’t act intimidated in this game.

They’ll have to repeat their performance on Thursday to win. And I believe they can do it.

Multimedia:

Highlights: Sportsnet posted an 8:16 highlight clip: