Red Wings-Penguins wrap-up: Wings strike out in their home opener

The Detroit Red Wings’ 6-3 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday night was problematic more for how it transpired as to the fact that it happened.

It was the kind of loss where everything that went badly for the Red Wings during the 2023-2024 season went bad for the team all over again, with no apparent signs of improvement or even effort made by the players, coaches or management to address the mistake-prone goaltending, leaky defense, over-reliance upon the top two lines to bail out mistakes made by the rest of the lineup, or, well, the inability of the rest of the lineup to deliver wins, should the team’s top-flight performers have “off nights”…

On a night where just about everybody had an “off night.”

This one was frustrating, innervating, and sometimes just plain scary, because it appeared like the Red Wings haven’t improved an ounce, and that the 2024-2025 Red Wings are going to spend all season long chasing the same ghosts out of their attic, so to speak.

For the Penguins, everything went right, from rookie goaltender Joel Blomqvist (29 saves) on out, as Pittsburgh Hockey Now’s Dan Kingerski noted:

The primary story of the game was Blomqvist and the saves that kept the Penguins in the game, even when Detroit badly outplayed them in the first period. Adding to the special night, Blomqvist’s parents arrived from Finland and were in the arena.

“It feels good. Maybe a little bit weird,” said Blomqvist. “I guess it’s something you’ve always been dreaming about and looking forward to. Yeah, I’m happy you ended up like this way.”

He’s not yet a man of many words. The language barrier, being just 22 in the Penguins veteran locker room, and being a goalie keep his word count low. Not that the Penguins mind, so long as he stops pucks at that rate.

Make no mistake, the Penguins were teetering in the first 20 minutes. The first period was more of the same lackluster slop they submitted the night before against the New York Rangers. It looked like the Penguins season was about to head south faster than geese in October. However, unlike the night before when starting goalie Tristan Jarry was leaky in the first period, Blomqvist was stellar, if not spectacular.

The Penguins found their stride in the second period, and Detroit adopted the Penguins’ carelessness with the puck and defensive disorganization.

“(Blomqvist) made some key saves early in the game that gave us a chance to stay in it. And then we were able to get the tying goal,” said coach Mike Sullivan. “And then I thought we settled in after that. So, I thought he had a big impact on our ability to settle into the game.”

NHL.com’s Dave Hogg continues the Penguins’ narrative…

“I thought we played a much better team game tonight, but Joel made some key saves early that gave us a chance to stay in it,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “He let us settle into the game and get the tying goal.”

Marcus Pettersson and Erik Karlsson each had a goal and an assist, and Sidney Crosby and Malkin each had two assists.

“We faced some adversity right away, so it was nice to be able to play again tonight and get right back at it,” Crosby said. “I thought we were a lot hungrier around the net than we were last night.”

Alex DeBrincat had two goals and an assist, and Vladimir Tarasenko scored in his debut for Detroit (0-1-0). Ville Husso allowed four goals on 14 shots before being replaced early in the second period by Cam Talbot, who allowed two goals on 14 shots.

…

The Red Wings outshot the Penguins 13-7 in the first period.

“It might help a little bit to be busy early, it gets you a feel for the puck,” Blomqvist said. “They were pressuring hard and I had to battle through it.”

Coach Sullivan was satisfied enough to give Evgeni Malkin some constructive criticism after Malkin hit 800 assists, as the Hockey News’s Kelsey Surmacz noted:

The big story of the night was probably Evgeni Malkin, who registered two assists and earned his 800th career assist on Karlsson’s goal. 

“He’s such a passionate guy, and he’s playing extremely hard,” head coach Mike Sullivan said. “I thought his line was much better tonight. It wasn’t as high-risk. and they were more calculated with their decisions with the puck. When we can get ‘G’ to play that game and get him to stop a little bit more in the defensive zone and not play as much in motion, that’s when he can have a really positive impact on the game. And I thought he did that tonight.”

At the other end of the ice, Ville Husso gave up 4 goals on 14 shots, and had to be pulled. That equaled a mixed outing from the Red Wings’ beleaguered starting goaltender, as Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen noted:

Coach Derek Lalonde replaced him at 5:28 of the second period after he gave up three goals in a span of two minutes and 33 seconds. That gave a seemingly tired Pittsburgh Penguins team a 4-1 lead and they went on to post a 6-3 win in Detroit’s season opener. The Penguins lost 6-0 to the Rangers Thursday night.

“Obviously (Husso) didn’t look as sharp as he did in the preseason,” Lalonde said. “You could just tell some of the rebound control, some things that were sticking to him or he was controlling in the preseason, he didn’t tonight. So again, he hasn’t played hockey. He had a lot of looks in the exhibition, but it’s still probably a little rust there, too.”

Husso played a full game in a 2-1 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes on December 14. Two days later, he provided a 30-minute relief effort against Philadelphia. He was then injured against the Anaheim Ducks of Dec. 18, playing only 17 minutes and 23 seconds. He returned to the lineup in February against Edmonton and lasted less than nine minutes before he was reinjured.

The Finnish goaltender has looked sharp in the preseason to win Derek Lalonde’s “blank slate” open goalie competition to be Detroit’s starter.

He had just recently beat the Penguins with a 43-save preseason performance. He looked like he was ready to reclaim the No. 1 job.

“I mean, you don’t want to see that at all,” captain Dylan Larkin said about Husso’s early departure. ”

Cam Talbot is scheduled to start on Saturday, but the Red Wings don’t believe that changing goaltenders is the way to solve all their problems:

“I think a lot of it was us,” [Alex] DeBrincat said. “We weren’t winning battles. Weren’t clean on a lot of different plays. We had some good looks, too. We had a couple good power plays. Overall, we weren’t strong on our sticks. The board battles, we end up rimming it out and no one’s there. I think there’s plenty to clean up. Some good, a lot of bad. We got to be more ready for Saturday.”

Captain Dylan Larkin agreed, as he told the Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan noted…

“The last few years we’ve been pretty good in the openers and I can’t remember having a performance like that in our opener,” captain Dylan Larkin said. “They were on a back to back, so you never know, right? But you have to play a full 60 (minutes) and we didn’t and they did.”

And coach Lalonde was not exactly thrilled with the team’s defensive game:

“Definitely a work in progress,” coach Derek Lalonde said. “With box outs, gaps, some (defensive) zone coverage. It’s a little frustrating because there were some signs of it looking really good tonight and the way we wanted it to look to be successful. But we couldn’t sustain it.”

The Wings outshot Pittsburgh, 32-28, and 13-7 in the first period but were only able to get out of the opening 20 minutes tied 1-1.

“Our start was there,” Lalonde said. “We dictated the start. It’s frustrating we got out of that period 1-1. We have to do a better job of maintaining some momentum.”

Again, Alex DeBrincat wasn’t exactly willing to suggest that the Red Wings did anything less than beat themselves…

“We were ready to go from the puck drop, had a good first period,” DeBrincat said. “All those goals in the second period were self-inflicted. We couldn’t keep it out of our net. We weren’t winning battles, we weren’t clean a lot of different plays.”

As the Hockey News’s Sam Stockton pointed out, the Red Wings started well…

The Red Wings got the precise start they craved: earning a territorial advantage on the forecheck, peppering the Penguin net with shots, and finding an early goal to ignite the crowd after Alex DeBrincat capped off a beautifully worked line rush from Detroit’s top trio just three minutes and 46 seconds into the game.  

The Red Wings built a 13-7 edge in shots over the opening 20 minutes, but doubt crept into Detroit’s game after about 12 minutes of action along with the recurrence of warts all too familiar from last season’s rough patches, most acutely a tendency toward defensive lapses on a galactic scale.  One such lapse ended in Anthony Beauvillier equalizer with 4:58 left in the first on a shot banked off goaltender Ville Husso from below the goal line.  

“Really good start actually,” assessed Lalonde after the game.  “Probably a little unfortunate to come out of that period tied, and then just we couldn’t get momentum going. Unfortunately, we gave ’em some easy offense either through coverage or the puck was on our stick. Just one of those nights where we just could not sustain any momentum.”

The start was good, and the Red Wings very well could have score more than just the one in the first period, not least because of two power plays that did not convert but did create quality looks and help build early momentum.  However, Detroit wasn’t able to turn its strong start into so much as a one-goal first intermission lead, and the night would only slip further from its grasp from there.

“We got away from that, that first period game we had,” said captain Dylan Larkin from the post-game podium. “Pucks were just going in, and every time we went out there, it felt like we were doing the right things, but then we would just have big time breakdowns…A lot of sloppy breakouts, sloppy coming back to our zone and finding coverage.”

Among the Free Press’s Helene St. James’ points of emphasis…

The Penguins, still led by Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin — who date to days when the Wings and Penguins met in the 2008 and 2009 Stanley Cup finals — marched all over the Wings when the second period began, enough to chase Husso. Beauvillier sccored his second of the game at the 2:55 mark. A minute later, the 38-year-old Malkin skated through the Wings and set up Drew O’Connor. Petterson was credited for a goal at 5:28 that appeared to change direction as it sneaked glove-side on Husso. Whatever the circumstance, that ended Husso’s night: four goals on 14 shots, in 25:28 minutes. The performance came, too, after Husso had an outstanding exhibition season that included starts against NHL-loaded Penguins and Toronto Maple Leafs squads. O’Connor scored on Talbot at 13:43 after Kane left O’Connor open, but the call was successfully challenged when a review showed the Penguins were guilty of a hand pass.

And DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills’ recap offers an assortment of quotes that will take us out:

Lalonde on if the Red Wings did a good enough job of clearing the front of their net: “There’s a couple that were probably a little bit on the arrivals, little bit on the box-outs and little bit on the rebounds. It makes it tough on our guys when it pops out like that. Definitely a work in progress with some of those box-outs, gaps and D-zone coverage.”

Larkin on Thursday’s season-opening loss: “Every time we went out there, we felt like we were doing the right thing. Big-time breakdowns. It was a different story every shift. A lot of sloppy breakouts, sloppy coming back into our zone and finding coverage. Not a good second and third period, not a good start to our season.”

Larkin on if emotions impact play on Opening Night: “The last few years, we’ve been pretty good in openers. I can’t remember having problems like that in our openers. It is what it is. I don’t know if it’s a trend. They’re on a back-to-back, so you never know. We got to play the games and play a full 60 [minutes]. We didn’t do that tonight. They did.”

DeBrincat on what the Penguins did to limit the Red Wings’ power play: “A lot of it was us. We weren’t winning battles, weren’t clean in a lot of different plays. We had some good looks too, a couple good power plays. Overall I think we weren’t strong on our sticks.”

The Red Wings weren’t strong in many aspects of their game, and with the Nashville Predators having lost 4-3 to Dallas in their own home opener, the likely Jeff Petry-less Wings (Petry suffered an upper-body injury during the second period of Thursday night’s game) will be facing a very stiff test on Saturday.

Multimedia:

Highlights: Sportsnet posted a 10:24 highlight clip:

ESPN posted a 4:42 highlight clip:

And NHL.com posted a 9:49 highlight clip:

Post-game: The Penguins’ website posted clips of coach Mike Sullivan, forward Evgeni Malkin and goaltender Joel Blomqvist’s post-game comments;

And the Penguins’ Twitter account posted a clip of coach Sullivan’s post-game victory speech:

Bally Sports Detroit posted comments from coach Derek Lalonde:

Photos: The Free Press posted an 11-image gallery;

The Detroit News posted a 34-image gallery.

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!