The Detroit Red Wings’ “A Team” took a 4-3 decision over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday night, wrapping up the preseason with a 5-2-and-1 record.
On Saturday night, the Red Wings’ effort was definitely uneven, but that’s okay as it doesn’t count (Detroit opens the regular season in New Jersey this Thursday, October 12th; the home opener is Saturday, October 14th vs. Tampa Bay).
That being said, it was pretty cool to see the Red Wings rally from a 2-0 deficit with 3 goals in 2:27 of late-2nd-period action, and 4 goals overall as the Wings blew the doors off Joseph Woll (who was very good, honestly, given that Detroit had 65 shot attempts).
Ben Chiarot, Dylan Larkin, Joe Veleno and Daniel Sprong would solve him, while Ville Husso stopped 21 of 24 shots for Detroit, which went 0-for-4 on the power play.
The Red Wings have a day off tomorrow, and they’ll cut their roster down from 29 to 23 players on Monday as by 5 PM EDT.
In terms of media takes on the game, we’ll start with NHL.com’s succinct recap…
The Detroit Red Wings scored four consecutive goals, including three late in the second period, to rally past the Toronto Maple Leafs, 4-3, at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit on Saturday.
Christian Fischer and Jeff Petry each had two assists, and Ville Husso made 21 saves for the Red Wings, who finished the preseason 5-2-1.
Max Ellis and Thomas Miller each had a goal and an assist, and Joseph Woll made 28 saves for the Maple Leafs, who went 4-2-2. Kyle Clifford had two assists.
Detroit scored three times in a 2:27 span to take the lead. Dylan Larkin cut it to 2-1 at 17:26 of the second by poking in a rebound.
Ben Chiarot tied it 2-2 at 19:04 with a one-timer from the point, and Joe Veleno put the Red Wings ahead 3-2 at 19:53 on a rebound from low in the right face-off circle.
Daniel Sprong scored six seconds after a power play expired to push it to 4-2 at 5:09 of the third period.
Sam Lafferty cut it to 4-3 at 17:48, scoring a power-play goal with Woll pulled for the extra attacker.
Ellis had given Toronto a 1-0 lead at 7:05 of the second, and Miller made it 2-0 at 10:41 with a wrist shot through traffic.
The Associated Press treated the game like a preseason affair, posting a quote-free recap; Sportsnet’s Luke Fox discussed the Leafs’ roster battles and mostly Friday-sourced notes; only the Toronto Sun’s Terry Koshan actually posted a recap with quotes, and he focused on the Leafs’ attempts to determine whether several players, like Sam Rafferty, Noah Gregor, and rookie Fraser Minten, should make the Leafs’ cap-strapped roster:
Against a Wings lineup full of NHL regulars, Minten played 20 minutes 22 seconds and again didn’t look out of place, recording seven shot attempts and going 8-7 in the faceoff circle.
“I don’t think anybody took a step back, and that’s what you are wanting to see,” coach Sheldon Keefe told reporters after the game. Our situation is complex. There’s a lot that goes into it. If there is no roster limitations or salary cap, I think there is no question (Minten) would remain here and you would give him an opportunity to get some regular-season time and grow through that. But it’s not that easy a decision. There is a lot at play (with the cap).”
Lafferty scored a late power-play goal, giving Keefe and the front office another factor to take into consideration. What works against Lafferty is his $1.15 million US cap hit, as the Leafs need to clear nearly $3 million to get cap compliant.
If the Leafs can get free of the Lafferty cost, they could sign Gregor to the NHL minimum of $775,000, giving them a player who could provide the same kind of energy that Lafferty does but for less money.
Neither Holmberg nor Robertson need waivers to be sent to the Marlies. For the Leafs to get their cap in order on Monday afternoon before final rosters are due to the NHL by 5 p.m. that day, both could start in the American Hockey League.
To be sure, assistant general manager and cap guru Brandon Pridham, along with general manager Brad Treliving, will be busy on Sunday.
That’s Toronto’s situation. In Detroit, it’s about whittling down the roster from 29 players (including the injured Matt Luff and Carter Mazur) to somewhere close to 23 healthy players before Monday.
It appears that questions as to whether Joe Veleno or Jonatan Berggren will end up as the Wings’ 12th forward over Christian Fischer or Klim Kostin, and both Fischer and Veleno acquitted themselves well on Saturday, as the Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan noted:
“The whole game was productive,” coach Derek Lalonde said. “We got a lot out of it. I’m glad for the outcome. I liked the fact we pushed back after we were down 2-0. Some positives for sure. You want to get (work on) every situation possible and you’re comfortable with it. It probably reflects camp (for the Wings), some ups and downs and a work in progress, but, again, some positives.”
The Leafs, ironically, got goals from a pair of metro Detroit products. Max Ellis (Plymouth) and Tommy Miller (Walled Lake Western) gave Toronto a 2-0 lead before the Wings rallied. The Wings outshot Toronto, 32-24.
“I didn’t hate our first half of the game. We were down 2-0 and it was a little bit on us in the fact we played extremely slow,” Lalonde said. “But give credit to them. They had a very organized 1-1-3 and they were committed to it. Not only were they making it hard on us in the neutral zone, but they were retrieving pucks and we had a ton of set breakouts and slow set regroups. When that happens, usually you’re playing slow.”
As far as the Wings’ fourth line is concerned, coach Lalonde feels that they’re building something positive…
Lalonde liked what he saw out of the line with Veleno centering Fischer and Klim Kostin, which resulted in two goals, and hopes it will keep building a physical identity as a difficult fourth line to play against.
“(Veleno) had a great camp, assertive with his game, confident, he scored again,” Lalonde said. “A real good camp for him and hopefully it’ll leak into a real good start to the season. We’d like to start getting an identity with that (line). We mixed around and some lines are still a work in progress, but that’s a line we’ll start with Thursday. We just want them to build a little identity.”
As Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff also noted…
Detroit many finally have the trio to meet [Lalonde’s] objective. In the 6-foot-2, 212-pound Fischer and the 6-foot-3, 215-pound Kostin, Detroit is sending two wingers over the boards that can punish the opposition.
“Me and Klimmie are two pretty big bodies matching up against other teams’ top lines,” Fischer said. “Obviously, situational based. But I think today was a great scenario. We score a goal, Newsie (coach Lalonde) puts us out there, I think with a minute left in the period and I think we spent the whole minute in there and Joe ended up scoring.”
Lalonde was indicating his intentions are to start the first game of the regular season on Thursday at New Jersey with this trio as his fourth unit. But this isn’t a fourth line like the ones who skated in your father’s NHL. While driving the other team to distraction, they’re also capable of driving offense.
Between them, Fischer (13), Kostin (11) and Veleno (9) accounted for 33 goals last season.
“You don’t want to say the fourth line, because the fourth line, it’s the new NHL, you got to be able to play hockey,” Fischer said. “All three of us can make plays, we can score goals. I think all three of us have proven in that scenario we can put up points.”
And the Free Press’s Helene St. James duly pointed out that Berggren’s not exactly chopped liver in her recap:
Jonatan Berggren was scratched from Saturday’s lineup. The 23-year-old began last season in the minors but when he was called up, his play demanded the Wings find a way to keep him, and the result was a 28-point, 67-game rookie season. Having a player with his skill set watching from the press box isn’t ideal, and Berggren is still waiver-exempt. If he’s not in the lineup Thursday, it may be a situation where the Wings wait and see how things go, and Berggren could be in the lineup the next game.
Or, he could be sent to Grand Rapids without much concern as to where he’d play in Grand Rapids’ lineup–and Grand Rapids is a team that’s deep on defense, but not overly offensively gifted. I’m not saying that there’s a “fit” per se there, but there’s a fit.
Anyway, it is the preseason, which doesn’t count, but I’ll readily admit that I wasn’t thrilled by the Wings’ defensive performance, and, as St. James notes, Jake Walman and Moritz Seider might be Detroit’s #1 defensive pair, but they didn’t have the greatest Saturday night:
Max Ellis scored while being defended by Moritz Seider, beating goalie Ville Husso on a wrist shot Husso should have stopped, shortly after the Leafs had killed off a holding penalty on Easton Cowan. The Wings’ power play unit of Jeff Petry, Lucas Raymond, J.T. Compher, Robby Fabbri and Daniel Sprong got the first shift, and did a good job funneling pucks to the net and keeping possession. The Leafs made it 2-0 when defenseman Tommy Miller fired a shot through traffic that went in off Seider, who was battling with Ellis in front of the net.
“I didn’t hate our first half,” Lalonde said. “Definitely a little bit on us in that we played extremely slow, but probably a credit to them, they had a very organized game plan.”
Jake Walman took a penalty with 2:45 to play in the third period and the Leafs pulled their goalie; it paid off with a goal from Sam Lafferty at 18:47, during the six-on-four advantage.
Fischer explained to the Hockey News’s Sam Stockton that the Wings had to battle through the game, roster advantage over the Leafs included…
“It’s preseason, but you saw the guys out there—kinda took it upon ourselves as a group,” said forward Christian Fischer. “A lot of emotion out there, a lot of guys battling, going all out, which is just fun to see.”
“It’s preseason,” Fischer continued. “Guys could choose one side or the other and just kind of forget about it. But when you look at our group there, every guy gave 100% tonight.” He added that there can be a deceptive difficulty to playing an AHL-heavy line-up, because of a general lack of familiarity with the opponent.
Coach Lalonde has very specifically said that he, and I quote, “isn’t married” to any of the Wings’ lineup combinations, but he’s struggled to find the proper forechecker to play alongside Alex DeBrincat and Dylan Larkin. Lucas Raymond just isn’t that kind of player, and Michael Rasmussen, who’s thrived on Andrew Copp’s wing during the preseason, looked out-of-place on the top line.
As Stockton noted, coach Lalonde may have found the solution organically:
For the Red Wings, the comeback began when a twirling David Perron managed to pull a puck off the wall and in one motion send an incisive cross-ice pass to Larkin at the far post. The initial connection wasn’t a clean one; instead, the puck deflected off the captain’s boot, off a defender’s skate, and on net, where Fischer and Larkin each took whacks until Larkin knocked it home.
That Perron got things headed in the right direction came as no surprise to Lalonde, who said after the game, “His legs probably aren’t where they were when he started his career, but he just has this way of driving lines, calming lines, getting involved, playing predictable.” Lalonde added that Larkin and DeBrincat’s best shift came in the third period, when he sent the pair out with Perron on their wing.
DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills will take us out with a few final quips and quotes from Fischer and Lalonde…
Fischer on Saturday’s win “The game came a lot of different ways too. A lot of power plays and penalty kills. Great to work on the 6-on-5 there and 6-on-4 at the end. I think it was a perfect last game for our team.”
Fischer on the Red Wings’ response in the second period “If you look at our group there, every guy gave a 100 percent tonight. Snapped three quick (goals) right away like that, I don’t care who you’re playing. Preseason or not, that’s a good response to have.”
Lalonde on the first half “If you think back to our first 30 minutes, we had a ton of set breakouts and slow set regroups in the neutral zone. When that happens, usually you’re pulling slow and a team is beating you into the structure. On us for playing slow, but definitely some credit to Toronto and their game plan.”
Lalonde on what he has learned about Kostin since the start of camp “He needs to build an identity and simplify his game. He’s big. When he’s simple, he’s effective. But you saw him turn some pucks over today that put him and his teammates in bad situations. But that’s typical exhibition – getting through some things and some rust.”
Lalonde on Detroit’s leadership group fostering a welcoming environment: “A couple things before camp, I give Dylan and those guys credit. They did a few exercises away from the rink with an all-inclusion-type feel. I’m very happy they did that. I think there’s some growth there. Would they have done that two or three years ago? I don’t know. But they’re to the point now where they took it upon themselves. Again, I think that helps for a welcoming room and a productive camp.”
It should also be noted that we’ll have more in the morning from MLive’s Ansar Khan, whose recap-with-quotes doesn’t post until 6 AM. Khan posted a sans-quotes recap after the game, but perhaps we’ll start calling his morning article the “last line” or something witty.
Anyway, this wraps up the Red Wings’ preseason, and the real stuff starts on Thursday. I hope that the games I was able to cover were tolerable for you, and we’ll all get down to business after a quiet day that I think even the fan base needs after enduring 8 games played over the course of only 12 nights, including that awful 3-games-in-3-nights stretch–which belongs in the minor leagues, and nowhere else.
Multimedia:
Highlights: Sportsnet and NHL.com posted highlight clips:
Update at 12:43 AM: Alex Wood posted a set of extended highlights on YouTube as well:
Post-game: The Maple Leafs posted post-game videos of comments from Fraser Minten, Sam Lafferty, Joseph Woll and coach Sheldon Keefe;
The Free Press’s Helene St. James posted a clip of comments from Christian Fischer and coach Derek Lalonde…
And the Red Wings posted Fischer and Lalonde’s remarks as well:
Photos: The Detroit Free Press and Detroit News posted photo galleries;
Statistics: Here are the Game Summary and Event Summary, as well as the Roster Report:
