The Detroit Red Wings won a 2-1 decision over the Pittsburgh Penguins in preseason hockey on Wednesday night. Daniel Sprong and Simon Edvinsson scored goals, and James Reimer was excellent in stopping 21 shots for the Wings, who played a gritty, grimy, greasy game against an undermanned Penguins team.
The Wings will conclude an unprecedented slate of 3 games to be played over the course of 3 preseason nights on Thursday, when they head to Toronto to play the Maple Leafs (7 PM EDT on ESPN+/TSN4).
In the interim, we’ll examine the media’s takes on Wednesday night’s win for the 4-and-2 Wings, whose preseason concludes with this weekend’s home-and-home games against the Leafs.
NHL.com posted a succinct recap of the Wings-Pens game:
James Reimer made 21 saves for the Detroit Red Wings in their win against the Pittsburgh Penguins at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh. Simon Edvinsson and Daniel Sprong scored, and J.T. Compher had two assists for Detroit.
Xavier Ouellet scored for Pittsburgh. Alex Nedeljkovic made 22 saves. Ouellet gave the Penguins a 1-0 lead at 17:38 of the first period, scoring with a backhand off an assist from Jansen Harkins.
Sprong scored his third of the preseason on a slap shot near the blue line to tie it 1-1 at 5:32 of the second period.
Edvinsson, who was the No. 6 pick in the 2021 NHL Draft, put the Red Wings ahead 2-1 at 13:14 of the third period. He scored with a wrist shot from the left circle during a 4-on-4.
MLive’s Ansar Khan took note of the Wings’ record, and their remaining opponent…
The Red Wings improved to 4-2-0 and wrap up their exhibition schedule with games at Toronto Thursday at Scotiabank Arena (7 p.m.) and Saturday at Little Caesars Arena (7 p.m., Bally Sports Detroit).
The Free Press’s Ryan Ford (with an attached 8-image photo gallery) and the Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan also provided recaps, and on the Penguins’ side of the equation, the Post-Gazette’s Andrew Destin, Pittsburgh Hockey Now’s Dave Molinari, the Hockey News’s Nick Horwat, and PittsburghPenguins.com’s Michelle Crechiolo all provide good recaps…
But we’re shifting toward the regular season now, so we’re going to examine the quips and quotes that might make an impact, as noted by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review’s Justin Gurriero…
The Detroit Red Wings’ Simon Edvinsson scored the winning goal at the 13-minute, 14-second mark of the third period Wednesday, as the Pittsburgh Penguins dropped their penultimate preseason game 2-1 at PPG Paints Arena.
About 30 seconds prior, the Penguins were on their fifth power-play opportunity of the evening, but Sam Poulin’s delay of game penalty on a faceoff violation created the 4-on-4 situation that led to Edvinsson’s goal.
Earlier in the third, the Penguins had 1:17 worth of a 5-on-3 power-play but came up empty as they did on every other man-advantage opportunity Wednesday.
“It’s preseason and we’re all trying to get chemistry,” said forward Rem Pitlick, who logged 3:41 of power-play time vs. Detroit. ” … I don’t know if there’s always enough time to build that chemistry, so we’re all trying our best to learn they system and things like that.”
The Penguins’ lineup Wednesday was largely devoid of their mainstay NHLers. With one preseason game remaining ahead of Oct. 10’s regular-season opener against Chicago, Wednedsay night may have proven to be the final live-action opportunity to earn a roster spot for several players.
“I thought we had a group tonight — a lot of those guys in the lineup are the guys that are competing for spots,” said coach Mike Sullivan. “I thought they played really hard. … We’re getting down to the time where we’re going to have to make decisions here fairly shortly and we’re in that process right now.”
Goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic made 22 of 24 saves in the loss, including all six the Penguins allowed short-handed.
And Pittsburgh Hockey Now’s Dan Kingerski:
The Red Wings beat the Penguins 2-1 Wednesday at PPG Paints Arena, but plenty of the Penguins players deserved a better result.
Perhaps Austin Wagner was chief among the Penguins who earned better. Seriously, when was the last time a Penguins forward gave a quote like this:
“I thought I did a good job of playing the body a lot of the time. As bad as it sounds, making their guys worry more about me than the game,” said Wagner. “And for the majority of the game, they were coming after me and other guys on our team because we were just playing physically, and they didn’t want to play that way.”
For what it’s worth, I can no longer embed NHL.com-formatted videos, but the Penguins’ website posted clips of Alex Nedeljkovic speaking with the media about playing against his former team after the game, and coach Mike Sullivan’s post-game remarks are available as well.
On the Red Wings’ side of things, DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills snagged some quotes from Simon Edvinsson and coach Derek Lalonde:
Lalonde on being on the penalty kill for extended periods of time on Wednesday: “It’s really hard to get rhythm and get guys proper minutes. You’re gassing your penalty-kill guys. It’s just the way the lineup played out tonight. We weren’t really deep on penalty killers, so (we) did a really good job.”
Edvinsson on his game-winning goal: “I had maybe a little too much reaction. But there were a lot of feelings in that game, especially at the end.”
Edvinsson on his preseason experience: “It’s been good. I feel like this game maybe was my worst of them, but I feel like (this preseason) has been going well. I just come to the rink, do my work and want to get better. You have to do it every day and see where it leads. I feel like it’s been a good preseason. I’ve worked hard.”
As many of you noted on Twitter, Edvinsson and Jeff Petry looked like a real, solid pair out there. There were some moments when things got a little heavy for them, but at times, they were incredibly smooth, slick with the puck in terms of passing and generating shots, and sometimes downright mean. Edvinsson has a bit of a competitive streak in him, and that’s good to see.
As I said in the Tweetcap, there are no good Stat Sheets tonight, so we’ll move on to the Multimedia in the form of Sportsnet and NHL.com’s highlight clips:
