Red Wings-vs-Blackhawks preseason quick take: Undercard Red Wings efficient in a 2-0 victory over Sweep Home, Chicago

The Detroit Red Wings played the back half of a home-and-home series with the Chicago Blackhawks on Friday night at Little Caesars Arena.

Detroit won their first game against Chicago 4-2 on Wednesday in the Windy City, and Friday’s lineup for the home opener was a little different:

The Red Wings were of course the undercard to the playoff-clinching Detroit Tigers on Friday night, but they were nonetheless efficient, defeating Chicago 2-0 on the strength of an even-strength goal by Christian Fischer (from Copp and Seider) at 4:10 of the 2nd, a 5-on-4 power play goal from Tarasenko (from Copp and Compher) at 12:32 of the 2nd, and fine performances by Alex Lyon and Cam Talbot, who stopped 13 and 9 shots, respectively.

Detroit’s top two lines were excellent, though there were some hiccups, and the Wings’ full defensive corps was superb as well, though Moritz Seider had a particularly dominant game, finishing at +1 with 1 assist, 3 shots and shot 7 attempts, 3 hits and 4 blocked shots (and a team-high 5 giveaways) in 21:33.

In the 1st period, the line of Michael Rasmussen, Andrew Copp and Christian Fischer really took charge as Detroit attempted to sort out their Blackhawks opponents and establish territorial dominance.

Over the first five minutes’ worth of scrambly play, every time the Wings’ checking line was on the ice, the puck was deep in the Chicago end, and bodies were being bumped on a regular basis.

Early on, at least, the line of Vladimir Tarasenko, J.T. Compher and Jonatan Berggren didn’t show much chemistry, and in all honesty, Nate Danielson’s line, whose wingers were Alex Chiasson and Joe Snively, looked better all-around.

The best scoring chances early on came from a left wing shot by Michael Rasmussen whose rebound was corralled and shot on a spin-around by Christian Fischer just short of 7 minutes into the 1st period.

For what it’s worth, the Wings’ feed was pretty janky, too. Video, but no audio commentary, so one had to determine who was on the ice on one’s own.

The Wings’ defensive pairs were fairly solid, with Wallinder skating with Viro, the slightly heavy-footed Tuomisto with Lagesson, and Chiarot with Seider.

Some 9:12 into the 1st, a Blackhawk forward put the puck off the crossbar on a 2-on-1. Lyon got a little lucky there.

Just after a commercial break around 10:10 into the 1st, Copp stole the puck along the right wing half boards and dropped the puck to Fischer, who chipped a smart shot on Soderblom, who made a good stop.

Chicago was earning its set of 2-on-1’s, however, and even Seider and Chiarot gave up a couple of situations which looked shaky as the Blackhawks pushed to earn the game’s first goal some 12:22 into the 1st.

The Blackhawks began to push the Wings back into their zone as the period progressed, but again, when the Copp line took to the ice, the Wings steadied themselves, and the Hawks’ young lineup wasn’t quite able to parry their efforts.

Berggren nearly scored working with Tarasenko and Danielson, with Berggren buzzing along the ice like a water bug, and Seider had a secondary scoring chance which went wide of the goal.

William Wallinder doesn’t get talked up as much as he should. He looked quite solid out there as a complementary defender, and as Eemil Viro’s partner. Real smooth, real steady and really mobile.

About 17:30 into the game, Cross Hanas flipped the puck over the blueline and found Amadeus Lombardi behind the Hawks’ defense. Lombardi skated in for a breakaway, but Soderblom out-waited Lombardi and got a toe on Lombardi’s shot attempt.

Seider looked quite good as a forechecking forward for a moment with Danielson, Snively and Chiasson as well, which was surprising!

That was one period of play.

In the 2nd period, we received audio on the stream, but the stream began to buffer and get herky-jerky.

The line of Berggren, Compher and Tarasenko looked a bit more like a line looking for chemistry. Berggren was skating like a water bug, firing a hard shot on Soderblom off a pass from Compher some 1:25 into the 2nd, but his defense left something to be desired…

And Tarasenko just looked like a veteran trying to establish his muscle memory in terms of systems play.

I was a little surprised that big Isaac Ratcliffe wasn’t throwing his body around more. Both he and Alex Chiasson are on pro try-out contracts, and Ratcliffe’s known for his toughness, but I didn’t see much of that early

4:10 into the 2nd period, the Red Wings earned their first goal, and it came from the Copp line. Moritz Seider made a lovely pinch going right to left diagonally, he fed Copp in front, and he tapped the puck to Fischer at the side of Soderblom. 1-0 Detroit.

As play progressed, Lagesson looked promising. Again, like Wallinder, a smooth skater, and bigger and heavier at 6’2″ and 213 pounds.

When the Copp line took to the ice again, Wallinder and Copp played catch, and Wallinder nearly scored a 2-0 goal on a pass from Copp.

At the 7:24 mark of the 2nd period, Detroit was leading the Blackhawks 8-1 in shots, and it looked like Detroit was leading by that amount and nothing less. The Red Wings had calmly established control against the Hawks, and while the young Hawks did a decent job of generating a couple of chances here and there, the Red Wings were in command.

At 8:32 of the 2nd period, Cross Hanas got high-sticked in the mouth by Isak Phillips, and Hanas came out bloody, so Detroit earned a 4:00 power play.

Seider worked with Berggren, Compher, Copp and Tarasenko on the first PP unit, and it was sound but unspectacular;

The second unit was Danielson, Snively, Lombardi, Rasmussen and Wallinder, and they generated a nice little chance with Wallinder sending a wrister through traffic to Rasmussen, who tipped the puck into Soderblom’s 5-hole. Soderblom regrettably made the save.

The Hawks’ PK was quite aggressive and sharp, however, and they didn’t let the Wings get into the inside in terms of 1-on-1 battles…

And Frank Nazar took a penalty at 13:51 of the 2nd period due to a dumb cross-check, giving Detroit a 5-on-3.

Working aggressively on the 5-on-3, J.T. Compher found Andrew Copp down low, and Copp, who fanned on a shot earlier, found Tarasenko in front of Soderblom, and Tarasenko ripped a shot over Soderblom at 12:33 of the 2nd period. PPG.

You might expect Chicago to respond with some strong play, and they did push in terms of their skating in the offensive zone, but they were too cute for the most part, trying to generate goals from drop passes and lateral passes…

But Antti Tuomisto got called for holding at 14:22, affording Chicago a power play.

The Wings used Seider, Chiarot, Copp and Rasmussen on the first PK unit, and Seider made a great block to keep the Hawks off the board;

Compher, Viro, Lagesson and Danielson worked on the 2nd unit, and they were backed in by the Nazar unit, and Viro made a good block to stop the Hawks…

Detroit killed the penalty and Fischer and then Lombardi generated a 2-on-1 chance in which Fischer got the shot off and Soderblom stopped it, but Lombardi nearly put the rebound in the goal out of the air. He missed the puck, though.

Late in the 2nd period, Detroit held a 13-5 shot advantage in the 2nd and a 23-12 overall shot advantage.

Chicago did earn a 2-on-1 with about 1:35 left in the 2nd, and Spellacy fanned on the lateral pass over Tuomisto’s blade.

Amadeus Lombardi made a couple of good rushes in the final minute of play, as Cross Hanas returned to action, with Lombardi charging in himself on a 1-on-1 play only to be stopped by Soderblom, and the puck bounced off Lombardi’s stick on another attempt.

In the 3rd period, Fischer and Copp could not connect on a 2-on-1 as the Copp line continued to buzz right off the opening faceoff. If not for Copp’s blubs, it may have been 3-0 or 4-0.

The Danielson line gave Cam Talbot a couple of opportunities to warm up off an icing call, however, and the Blackhawks began to press, with the big 37-year-old goaltender making some sharp stops as Nate Danielson got a little bit of an education as to what happens when you don’t play at 100% defensively.

Chicago continued to push offensively, and Seider had to hack and kick the puck away from Lukas Reichel in order to stifle a Hawk rush.

When the Copp line was on the ice, the story was very different, especially with Seider and Chiarot on defense. It really was a case of a couple of different lines for the Red Wings early in the 3rd, with the veterans looking great and the youngsters looking young.

Nobody talks about Eemil Viro as he’s small (6,’ 184 lbs) and slight, but he was very good alongside Wallinder. A sharp technical defenseman who skates particularly well.

Michael Rasmussen nearly scored as well as the Red Wings pressed to ensure that the Wings fans not forget about them, with Amadeus Lombardi and Moritz Seider facilitating a play where Rasmusssen’s shot had Soderblom flip-flopping in the crease to stop a really smart Rasmussen shot.

Berggren got better and better as the game went along, really setting up some elegant offensive plays…

And at exactly 9:00, Colton Dach got called for kneeing, giving the Red Wings another power play opportunity.

Snively, Lombardi, Danielson, Wallinder and Rasmussen worked the first PP unit, and Detroit tried to establish a shooting gallery against Soderblom. The first unit was herky-jerky…

And Tarasenko, Compher, Copp, Berggren and Seider worked the 2nd unit, and they were elegant in terms of puck movement, but Copp couldn’t convert on a cross-crease pass from Compher, and the PP expired.

As the 3rd period progressed, the Wings’ defense was definitely getting more of a workout than they did in the 2nd, but the Wings were committed to defense, and so the Hawks weren’t quite able to dent Talbot without tremendous effort.

Detroit really hit “cruise control” over the last 5 minutes of the 3rd period…

But Cam Talbot had to make a SPECTACULAR stop on A.J. Spellacy, who deked and dangled, but Talbot got his toe on the puck, stopped the second shot, and the third shot was shoveled into him by a defenseman. Detroit held onto the shutout with 3:04 remaining.

Chicago pulled Soderblom with 2:50 remaining, and they threw Nazar, Craig Smith, Korchinski, Gutman, Lardis and Spellacy over the boards (among others), and Berggren made a defensive boo boo to afford Chicago a scoring chance that Talbot had to make a smart stop upon.

Joe Snively nearly converted on a pass to Nate Danielson for a 2-on-1 empty-net goal, but the players were just a bit “off,” so the Hawks persisted with 1:10 remaining…

Talbot made a really good long-distance stop on Lukas Reichel–who had a particularly nasty rivalry with fellow German Moritz Seider throughout the game–with 50 seconds left in regulation…

And the bouncing puck foiled a falling Amadeus Lombardi from generating an empty-netter as well, but Detroit won 2-0.

Statistics: Here are the Game Summary and Event Summary:

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George Malik

My name is George Malik, and I'm the Malik Report's editor/blogger/poster. I have been blogging about the Red Wings since 2006, and have worked with MLive and Kukla's Korner. Thank you for reading!