The Detroit Red Wings won a 4-3 shootout decision over the Seattle Kraken last night at Little Caesars Arena, and both MLive’s Ansar Khan and the Free Press’s Helene St. James weigh in on the Wings’ win this morning (and the highlights are courtesy of AWood40):
Khan notes that the Red Wings won their fourth straight game despite playing…less than excellent hockey…
“I thought our compete was high, I thought our energy was good,” coach Jeff Blashill said. “I didn’t think our execution was great. I thought we were sloppy at times. Sometimes we made the game a little bit harder. Sometimes when you get in late (from the road) you don’t play quite as smart as you need to play, and I thought there was some of that tonight.
“But we weren’t at our best and we found ways to win, which I think is critically important. Certainly, there are lessons to be learned. But you want to do it while you’re winning, and we did that.”
The Red Wings on consecutive nights came back to win after allowing the tying goal in the third period. Ryan Donato scored his second goal of the game with 5:44 to play in regulation to tie it at 3-3 for the Kraken.
The Red Wings got shootout goals from Dylan Larkin and Adam Erne — the winner in the fourth round.
“It was a great win in Boston, so to follow it up here after we get in late, it’s a back-to-back, but I feel like really big of the team to be able to pull this one through even if the play maybe wasn’t there today,” Lucas Raymond said. “Today wasn’t the prettiest game, but we got it done and that’s a huge thing.”
Khan continues; St. James describes the Red Wings’ win as an effort capped by “Rookies and Resiliency“:
The Detroit Red Wings are riding their rookies and their resilience onto a winning streak that shows just how much growth the team has undergone.
They’ve won four consecutive games for the first time since spring of 2019, days before Steve Yzerman was named general manager. Two of the players he drafted — Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider — are key reasons the Wings feel good about themselves as they prepare to take on the New York Islanders on Saturday at Little Caesars Arena.
“We have a great group in there,” Raymond said. “There’s a lot of leaders that step up and take responsibility to get the team back on track. I feel especially since we had that tough road games, we got back, hit the reset button, and now we’re going again. It’s a lot of different things, but it comes from the locker room.”
…
The Wings won without [Tyler] Bertuzzi on Wednesday, thanks, in no small part, to Raymond and fellow rookie Moritz Seider. Raymond scored his 10th goal of the season and Seider had two assists to help push the Wings past the Seattle Kraken, 4-3, a day after grinding out a 2-1 victory at Boston.
Yzerman drafted Raymond at No. 4 in 2020. Seider, the No. 6 pick in 2019, already has established himself as the team’s go-to blue liner, and leads the Wings with 14 assists. Raymond, 19, has three goals the last four games.
“I’m trying to find my game and I’m still learning every day, trying to get better at areas that are my weaknesses,” Raymond said. “I’m just trying to be an offensive forward that you can count on defensively who plays hard every night. Still working and going to find my identity as it goes on. My main thing is just to skate hard every night.”
St. James also continues (paywall)…
