Red Wings-Senators preseason quick take: frustrating collapse against the Sens, again.

The Detroit Red Wings attempted to rebound from Thursday’s 2-0 loss to Toronto as they faced the Ottawa Senators’ “B Team” on Friday night at Little Caesars Arena.

This game didn’t count, but it was incredibly frustrating to me.

Detroit blew a 2-0 and then a 3-1 lead en route to a 4-3 overtime loss, on a weird goal only 19 seconds into OT, where Noah Gregor blew past Moritz Seider, skated in alone on Alex Lyon, and fell over, the puck rolled into the net, and that goal (helped by the fact that Lucas Raymond and Dylan Larkin lost their checks) yielded a 3-3-and-1 record for the Wings…

Negating a fantastic game by Marco Kasper, who scored two goals, a great game by Lyon, who was superb despite surrendering 4 goals on 26 shots, and a Red Wings penalty-kill that had to stop a SEVEN-MINUTE PENALTY after Austin Watson got in trouble for peeling a Senators player off Moritz Seider.

The Sens were running around all night and mouthing off at the Wings and being their Ottawa-y selves, and nobody got booted from the game but Watson.

In their own weird way, the Wings never seemed to recover from losing their 12th forward, and Detroit’s own power play went 0-for-3 as Anton Forsberg was just good enough to make up for a bad goal against from Kasper and a worse goal against from Vladimir Tarasenko…

So Detroit blew another game where its “A-minus team” was playing against the Sens’ decidedly “B-minus team.”

Frustrating. Stupid, hard-working, dirty, mouthy Senators. Winning against Detroit again. Boy, have they become a rival!

Detroit closes out its exhibition season tomorrow vs. Toronto (7 PM EDT on ESPN+/TSN4).

The Red Wings and Senators hit the ice at 6:30 PM, preparing for both teams’ second-to-last exhibition games…

The Sens lined up as follows…

While the Red Wings dressed the following lines:

The starting lineups were as follows:

In the 1st period, Dylan Larkin and Matthew Highmore drew in at the faceoff circle and the Sens won the draw, pushed the puck into Detroit’s zone, and the Wings counter-attacked, with Chiarot sending a long bomb wide of the net….

Detroit changed 32 seconds into the 1st and the Compher line came out, afforded the Senators some zone time, and Maatta got a puck stolen away from him, but Tarasenko came back to help, Compher and Maatta worked the puck around and Detroit changed again at 1:15…

And, off a strange play, Marco Kasper stole the puck at the blueline, skated in behind the Sens’ defense and he tucked a puck over Forsberg’s blocker at 1:23 of the 1st period. An assist went to Tyler Motte, who batted the puck out of the air to Kasper.

On the bump-up shift, Kasper, Motte and Watson ground out the puck down low and set a good standard for the rest of the team as well.

Detroit continued to cycle well when they were in the Senators’ zone, and DeBrincat, Raymond and Larkin did a good job of pushing the Sens back into their zone some 3 minutes in.

Motte really is a bit of a buzzsaw, and he worked quite well with Kasper and Watson…

Halliday made the Sens’ first good scoring chance on Lyon, who toed the puck away…

Detroit really played with a lot of PACE and POISE, though they were trading chances with the Sens.

At the first TV timeout, which was facilitated by Alex Lyon gobbling up a deflected shot, the stats were:

Shots 3-2 Detroit;

Shot attempts 8-3 Detroit;

Hits 3-1 Ottawa;

Giveaways 3-2 Ottawa;

Takeaways 1-0 Ottawa;

Blocked shots 2-1 Ottawa;

Faceoffs 2-1 Ottawa (33%).

Ottawa regrouped and cycled well as Detroit battled its way out of its own zone and as the Red Wings’ third line pushed into the Senators’ zone, Marco Kasper took the puck at center ice nad flicked a shot through a Senators defenseman’s stick and the puck riffled through Forsberg’s blocker.

Detroit led 2-0 at 8:32, with Maatta and Brandsegg-Nygard drawing assists.

The Wings tried to keep the pressure up as the period progressed, and DeBrincat, Larkin and Raymond looked quite good together, sending pucks in on Forsberg and cycling as well as they could…

But it was Tyler Motte who was stealing the show, setting up Austin Watson for a scoring chance, cycling and forechecking and jamming and mashing and grinding opponents into applesauce.

At 12:54, Carter Mazur got into it with Kleven at the side boards, and Mazur’s cross-check to Kleven’s face yielded a cross-check which was called a high stick. Ottawa went to the power play.

Marco Kasper stole the puck at center and RACED IN ON A BREAKAWAY shorthanded but he was stifled by Forsberg…

Really, the Sens’ “B Team” couldn’t get set up on the power play at all, other than gaining the territory of the Wings’ blueline, so Detroit had an easy kill.

At 15:08, the shots were 8-2 Detroit;

Shot attempts 14-8 Detroit;

Hits 6-2 Ottawa;

Giveaways 6-4 Detroit;

Takeaways 1-0 Ottawa;

Blocked shots 4-2 Detroit;

Faceoffs 6-4 Ottawa (40%).

16:01 into the 1st, Moritz Seider dumped Jan Jenik, he tried to attack Seider, Austin Watson took Jenik down, and Sens enforcer Zack MacEwen tried to get in…

Ultimately, the referees discussed something, Seider and Jenik sat in the box, MacEwen and Watson got tossed for fighting, which he did not do, and the Senators got a SEVEN-MINUTE POWER PLAY as DeBrincat and Seider sat for minor penalties at 16:01.

Ottawa was quite confident and Detroit had to block shots and passes as the suddenly-energetic Sens cycled and cycled in the Wings’ zone, and even Lucas Raymond killed the penalty as Detroit continued to kill Sens PP time…

Compher and Danielson actually got the best scoring chance of the final few minutes of the 3rd period, working a 2-on-1 that Forsberg stopped, and Addison’s shot with 6 seconds left was gobbled up by Lyon’s glove.

Shots in the 1st 9-6 Detroit;

Shot attempts 18-16 Detroit;

Hits 6-4 Ottawa;

Giveaways 6-5 Detroit;

Takeaways 1-1;

Blocked shots 5-2 Detroit;

Faceoffs 8-7 Ottawa (47%).

In the 2nd period, the Wings started with 3:01 of PK time, and Detroit did a very good job of at least keeping the Sens out of the slot, but Ottawa slowly wore the Wings down as they came out with energy and vigor, and Lyon had to make a huge stop off a deflected puck that hit Moritz Seider and wandered toward the cage…

Mazur also made a nice steal and sent the puck wide of Forsberg…

Lyon made another good couple of saves as the Sens attacked with 33 seconds remaining…

Ultimately, Detroit killed the penalty. Erm, penalties.

As the period progressed, Ottawa really displayed a lot of offensive momentum, and Alex Lyon was keeping the Wings at 2-0…

Vladimir Tarasenko got a good shot off on Forsberg, and the rebound hit the goalpost!

Ultimately, Ottawa was throwing bodies around and skating as well as an NHL team by the time the power play(s) ended. Their “A Game” was dialed in.

At 7:42 of the 2nd, the shots were 9-2 Ottawa in the 2nd and 15-11 Ottawa overall;

Shot attempts 29-24 Ottawa;

Hits 8-5 Ottawa;

Giveaways an ugly 12-8 Detroit;

Takeaways 1-1;

Blocked shots 8-4 Detroit;

Faceoffs 9-9 (50%).

As the game reached its halfway mark, Mazur, Danielson and Brandsegg-Nygard got their first shift in what must have been half a period, and they looked sharp together;

Ultimately, the Sens were doing a very good job of cycling and finding passes to players in the Wings’ slot, but Detroit was slowly but surely finding its game on the rush, though many Red Wings shot attempts were wide of Forsberg.

The teams were trading rushes, and that’s always dangerous.

Danielson raced up on a 2-on-2 and was stifled by Forsberg after Seider got away with a check away from play at center ice…

Bafflingly, Ottawa was given a penalty as Crookshank stood up for a teammate and slashed Erik Gustafsson after Gustafsson hit a Senators player up high, and the Wings headed to the power play at 14:16 of the 2nd.

Regrettably, the Wings had a bit of a rough go, with the top unit struggling to generate shots, and the 2nd unit of Mazur, Danielson, Brandsegg-Nygard, Seider and DeBrincat was a bit better, but the Sens blocked lots of shot attempts and the PP expired.

Marco Kasper got a 2-minute minor for tripping at 16:02, so the Red Wings headed to the penalty-kill again…

Detroit did an excellent job of blocking Sens shots and shooting lanes on the 1st PK unit, and the 2nd unit continued the work.

Detroit killed the power play, and the 2nd period ended without any real incidents of violence.

In the 3rd period, the Red Wings and Senators traded some rushes and a couple of odd-man rushes over the course of the first minute of play, with Lyon making a good stop on MacEwen…

At 1:47 of the 3rd, Michael Brandsegg-Nygard got called for a pretty nasty trip of a Senators player, and the near-slew-foot yielded the Senators’ twelve billionth power play.

During the PK, Ottawa cycled well, but Stephen Halliday got called at 3:11 for a hook on Simon Edvinsson, who sold the call, and the Red Wings headed to the PP after a 39-second 4-on-4.

The Red Wings actually started Kasper and Mazur so that Brandsegg-Nygard could join them, with Johansson and Gustafsson working on the points.

The Red Wings then went to a PP unit where Kane and Gustafsson were on the points, Larkin and Raymond worked with Tarasenko, and the quintet did a very nice job of generating flow and a couple of chances, but not until the very end of the PP.

Simon Edvinsson hit Tyler Boucher high, and Cole Reinhardt went after Edvinsson to try and instigate a fight, but Edvinsson was so big that he simply held the Senators forward away and let him flail punches wildly. It was hilarious.

As a result, Reinhardt got called for 2 penalties at 6:37 and Detroit headed to the power play for 4 minutes.

Kane, Tarasenko, Larkin, Gustafsson and Raymond worked together, cycled well, but the Sens’ PK was competent and blocked lots of shots and passing lanes…

So Erik Gustafsson set up for a one-timer and Forsberg gobbled it up.

The second unit of Mazur, Seider, Brandsegg-Nygard, Kasper and DeBrincat worked the puck around the perimeter with more patience, but again, the Sens were great on the PK, and the Wings had some missteps in terms of passing and execution, so they worked for a full minute and were unable to generate much.

Finally, after Patrick Kane got a good scoring chance, Bernard-Docker cracked Raymond high and tried to go after Larkin, but the Wings did not bite, and the Sens killed the penalty.

Sadly, the Senators forechecked well and Adam Gaudette took the rebound of a MacEwen shot and Lyon was swimming hard to slide across and he missed the puck, yielding a 2-1 goal for the Sens at 11:25.

Gaudette scored from MacEwen and Crookshank. 2-1.

Detroit sort of settled in as the Senators shot pucks at Lyon and tried to stir shit up again and again, and Nate Danielson almost scored off a pass from Brandsegg-Nygard, but Forsberg got lucky and stopped the puck through his arm hole, forcing its trajectory wide of the goalpost.

Motte, Kasper and Mazur took to the ice after the Danielson line, and had a good shift, but they were repelled by the Sens, and DeBrincat was also stopped by Forsberg up high…

And Maatta backhanded a shot high and wide in the slot, yielding the last TV timeout of regulation with 5:39 remaining.

Vladimir Tarasenko then got a great pass from a changing Red Wings forward and riffled a puck off Forsberg’s glove and top shelf to give Detroit a 3-1 lead with 4:54 remaining, from Compher…

But Albert Johansson took a penalty for interference at 15:22, and the Senators scored the 3-2 goal as Gregor took the rebound of a Greig shot and chipped it over Lyon.

It was 3-2 with 4:28 left in the 3rd.

Then it was 3-3 as MacEwen sent the puck to former Wing Donovan Sebrango, and the Senators had a forward screen Lyon (Highmore), and it was 3-3. Boucher and Ostapchuk the assists at 16:33 of the 3rd.

The Wings had a 3-3 tie late in the game.

Marco Kasper was also stopped wrapping the puck around the goal by Forsberg, and Detroit headed to OT.

IN OVERTIME, Detroit began with Seider, Raymond and Larkin, and the SENATORS SCORED BUT THE GOAL WAS WAIVED OFF AS LYON WAS SHOVED INTO THE GOAL BY NOAH GREGOR…

Until the referees reviewed the goal in-house and discussed whether Gregor had scored the goal at 19 seconds of the OT period. Ottawa won 4-3 in OT.

Statistics: Here are the Game Summary and Event Summary:

Published by

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!