Late-night Bultman and Allen: Not Mo’s best night

The Detroit Red Wings lost to the Columbus Blue Jackets 5-3 on Monday night thanks to a set of goals scored by Yegor Chinakhov and Zach Werenski scored over the course of 2 minutes and 59 seconds of playing time, and the mistakes which led to those goals against are the focus of The Athletic’s Max Bultman’s post-game write-up.

In both cases, defensemen made big errors on their “reads,” and one of those defensemen happened to be Moritz Seider:

The play that tied the score at 3-3 actually started out well for Detroit, with the fourth line of Joe Veleno, Sam Gagner and Carter Rowney applying pressure in Columbus’ zone. Veleno even got a shot off from the bottom of the left circle, and when Columbus tried to break out off the ensuing rebound, Rowney made a great play at the offensive blue line to break it up and deny the exit.

From there, though, things took a turn. Rowney’s chip-in off the turnover quickly ended up back in the Blue Jackets’ possession, and they started pushing up the ice. Jakub Voracek looked set for a one-on-two situation against Filip Hronek and Nick Leddy through the neutral zone — which Detroit would surely take every time — but when the pass from his teammate hit him in the feet, it caused a bit of a scramble, and Hronek and Leddy tried to close on the puck. That left them both flat-footed as Voracek simply tapped the puck to Yegor Chinakov for a clean breakaway and Chinakov’s first NHL goal.

Without knowing Detroit’s responsibilities on a play like that, it’s impossible to know who made the mistake. Most likely, one of the defenders simply needed to stay off the puck when the other went for it. Either way, it was a mistake by the Red Wings, and the result was a huge momentum swing for Columbus late in the game. The goal added a whopping 44.1 percent to the Blue Jackets’ win probability with 4:18 left, according to Evolving Hockey, and their next shifts kept the pressure on.

To the Red Wings credit, though, they didn’t fold. With about a minute and a half left, Pius Suter found Moritz Seider creeping down from the blue line for a shot from the right circle. That’s part of what Seider can bring to the Red Wings and one of the reasons he’s been so impressive early in his first NHL season.

An instant later, though, he showed the other side of being a rookie, finding the rebound of his own shot and forcing a pass to the middle of the ice. Columbus picked that puck off, and soon after, it was in the back of the Red Wings’ net.

Bultman continues (paywall), and here are the goals in question:

We have to call a spade a spade, and Seider, who finished at -2 with 1 shot, 4 attempts, a hit, giveaway, takeaway and blocked shot in 22:15 played, did not have his best game, as Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen noted:

Lost in the ugly setback was another two-point night by rookie Lucas Raymond. He now has 17 points in 16 games to lead all NHL rookies.

Fellow Detroit rookie Moritz Seider had a tough night. He was -2, with some glaring giveaways and a couple of poor decisions. But Raymond has maintained some consistency in his performances. In fact, he seems to improving daily as an all-around player.

Bluntly, Seider has a harder job in learning how to play defense in the NHL, and his margin for error is zero, but just as Raymond has to stop making those blind passes to no one at the offensive zone blueline…Seider has to stop making those blind passes to no one when holding the offensive zone blueline.

Moritz will learn, as Raymond is learning. As I like to say, because it’s the honest truth, sometimes the best and most pertinent “learning” in the NHL comes when the puck ends up in the back of your net.