Red Wings-Islanders quick take: Wings put the Islanders (and the rest of us) to sleep with a 1-0 victory

The Detroit Red Wings kicked off a slate of 4 games to be played over the course of 6 nights against the New York Islanders.

For the 2-and-3 Red Wings, the next 6 days are particularly consequential as the Islanders, Devils and Sabres all stand as potential Wild Card rivals; earning points against teams that may battle the Wings for playoff spots is an essential task.

On Tuesday night, the Red Wings won a particularly ugly 1-0 decision over the New York Islanders thanks to a 29-save shutout for Alex Lyon, Patrick Kane’s first goal of the season on only 10 shots for Detroit, and a 3-for-3 PK by a sleepy Red Wings team that played a sleep-inducing effort in front of an Islanders team that was booed out of its own rink.

It was ugly as hell, but an ugly win at that. Detroit’s now 3-and-3, including 2-and-1 on the road.

Due to the 7:45 PM start time, the Red Wings and Islanders hit the ice around 7:20 PM EDT…

The starters are in bold:

In the 1st period, thanks to the 32-teams-playing-on-the-same-night “Frozen Frenzy” on ESPN, the puck didn’t hit the ice at UBS Arena until 7:53 PM.

Rasmussen, Kasper and Berggren started up front for Detroit, with Simon Edvinsson and Moritz Seider (who wore the alternate captain’s “A”) on defense, and Alex Lyon in goal;

The quintet won the opening faceoff and chipped and chased, hiaort hopped over the boards and Petry soon followed, the Wings battled in front of the Isles’ bench for a bit and changed lines 35 seconds in;

Larkin, Raymond and DeBrincat worked with Chiarot to cycle deep, but barzal and company regrouped and got a shot attempt off…

Before Edvinsson and Seider hopped back over the boards to match up against the Horvat line.

Tarasenko, Kane and Compher won a deep zone faceoff but lost possession due to an offside, and they regrouped at the blueline faceoff and generated some zone time before chipping and changing for Veleno, Copp and Fischer.

The Islanders did a fine job of establishing possession and control on the Wings before Mike Reilly was stifled by Lyon on a point shot that saw no traffic.

Lyon made a BIG STOP on Brock Nelson and then Maxim Tsyplakov on the next set of rushes, and Noah Dobson sent a long bomb wide of the goal opposite the Kasper line.

The Islanders continued to cycle, but Lyon grabbed the puck off Palmieri’s shot and held on to afford the Wings a change.

On the next shift, Lyon had to help Moritz Seider, the Horvat line cycled away and so did Larkin, DeBrincat and Raymond, who parried the Isles’ rush and afforded Seider a point bomb that was blocked off.

Dylan Larkin was tripped up by Scott Mayfield sans call;

J.G. Pageau and the Isles continued to generate offense as they hit the 5-shot mark at 5:19 of the 1st.

The Isles continued to generate the better of the offensive chances as the game progressed, and Detroit tried to generate offense on the counter-attack, but the Isles’ defense was sound and stout early on.

As play continued, Jeff Petry fired a hard shot off an Islanders’ skate wide as the Kasper line cycled deep, and the Wings were at least establishing possession and control in the Isles’ zone when they didn’t surrender zone time to an aggressive Islanders team.

At 8:32 of the 1st period, the Islanders led in shots 5-0, and in shot attempts 14-3;

Hits 2-0 Detroit;

Giveaways 3-3;

Takeaways 1-0 Islanders;

Blocked shots 3-0 Islanders;

Faceoffs 5-2 Detroit (57%).

When play resumed after the TV timeout, the Red Wings SCORED A GOAL AS PATRICK KANE FOUND HIMSELF THE BENEFICIARY OF A VLADIMIR TARASENKO DROP PASS INTO THE SLOT, affording the Red Wings a 1-0 lead.

Kane made the score 1-0 Detroit from Tarasenko and Compher at 8:54 of the 1st period.

As play continued, the Red Wings appeared to be taking control of the puck and generating significant pressure on the Islanders, though the shot total did not reflect the Wings’ zone time and pressure.

Marco Kasper nearly fed Berggren for a goal, but the Wings could not add to their lead some 11:30 into the 1st;

After the second TV timeout, Detroit and Long Island appeared to be involved in a defensive struggle for the most part, a the Islanders hadn’t sent a shot on Lyon in 5 minutes, and the Wings had only 1 shot on Sorokin.

The period progressed without much in the way of offensive play by either team, despite the Islanders’ attempts to generate some scoring chances here and there.

Lyon stopped a sixth Islanders shot at 15:03…And the shot attempts were 16-6 Islanders at that time.

The Islanders were definitely generating the majority of offensive chances, but they were also perimeter chances for the most part.

Alex Lyon lost his footing a minute later, but made a good stop anyway;

Ultimately, Lyon made a fantastic glove stop on Nelson off an Islanders rush;

Detroit began to really dig in defensively and play a bit of a boring road game in order to quiet the Islanders’ sticks and shots as the period began to wind down, and it didn’t provide for a very good viewing experience, but sometimes you have to grind your opponents down as best you can in order to survive.

Dylan Larkin’s second shot of the game didn’t hit Sorokin’s glove until there was only 1:37 remaining in the 1st period.

Moritz Seider made a terrible defensive play to surrender the puck to an Islander in the slot and Lyon made a great stop, Edvinsson chipped the rebound away from the goal crease and Detroit slowly but surely battled the puck out of their own zone.

The first period ended with Detroit credited with 3 shots to the Islanders’ 8.

In the 2nd period, which began at 8:48 PM EDT, Detroit won the opening faceoff, chipped and chased with the Compher line on the ice, and Compher worked quite well in sustaining a bit of a forecheck before he was held up and the Isles simply dumped and didn’t chase.

After a 55-second shift, the Islanders’ Pollock and Tsyplakov generated a shot that Lyon stopped, and at the other end of the ice, DeBrincat, Raymond and Larkin cycled down low, forcing Reilly to hook DeBrincat at 1:17.

Detroit headed to the power play, but the Islanders won the opening faceoff, and then parried a Gustafsson rush.

DeBrincat, Larkin, Raymond and Kane joined Gustafsson on the ice and attempted to generate a couple of rush chances, but they were generally unable to get much done;

Compher, Berggren, Seider, Kasper and Tarasenko generated a couple of scoring chances near Sorokin, but again, the Islanders blocked what the Red Wings gave them, and Detroit really struggled to generate anything offensively due to a bunch of giveaways of the unforced variety.

Thankfully, after the power play expired, Alex Lyon made a tremendous glove stop to stifle the Islanders’ Mat Barzal, and Detroit got away with Ye Olde Ben Chiarot Forgetting He Plays on the Left Side Defense mistake leaving Seider all alone in front with Barzal open back door.

Then Noah Dobson was unable to score on Lyon pressing to skate through the Red Wings’ slot, and Alex DeBrincat was stifled by Sorokin at the other end of the ice as the game appeared to be opening up…a little.

The Islanders engaged in a significant amount of hooking and holding throughout the game, but it appeared to be the kind of game where, well…None of that rule-breaking stuff seemed to matter.

The game was just a bit herky-jerky for both teams, and neither team appeared to be able to sort things out in terms of generating consistent offensive pressure.

At the halfway point of the game, the shots were 10-6 Islanders, and an Alex DeBrincat centering pass for Vladimir Tarasenko was blocked off by Tsyplakov in the Islanders’ slot.

Regrettably, Ben Chiarot took a dumb hooking penalty at 10:21 to afford the Islanders a power play.

On the power play, Seider, Edvinsson, Copp and Compher worked on the first PK unit opposite Pageau, Horvat, Palmieri and Lee, and Lyon made a massive stop on Lee as facilitated by Palmieri.

Raymond, Larkin, Petry and Holl worked as the second PK unit, and they had a good shift, forcing the Islanders offside…

Luckily, Lyon got help from the juncture of the crossbar and goalpost as Nelson clanged a puck off the net behind #34…

After the PK expired, Gustafsson made a good rush toward the net himself and generated a strong scoring chance on Sorokin…

But Lyon was stopping a ton of Islanders attempts and 12 shots against, and he was really bringing home the bacon on Tuesday night.

As play continued, the Islanders continued to more than hold serve, but the Red Wings were persistent in counter-attacking and just playing ugly enough hockey to be leading by a goal.

The Kasper line really got worked over by Cizikas and Horvat, but Lyon made a big stop to keep the game 1-0 for the Red Wings.

Stupidly, the referees called Moritz Seider for a trip on Simon Holmstrom at 17:02 where Holmstrom was falling anyway…

But you have to kill the penalties that you have to kill, so Detroit got to work on the PK.

Petry, Chiarot, Compher and Copp worked on the first PK unit and Detroit got some lucky breaks as Lyon and Copp helped a stick-less Petry clear the zone…

Larkin, Raymond, Holl and Chiarot worked successfully on the second PK unit;

Kasper and Rasmussen helped out up front as Edvinsson and Holl worked on the 3rd PK unit, and Lyon made a nice stop on Nelson once and then twice…

Detroit killed the penalty and the period ended 55 seconds later, with the Red Wings at 8 shots to New York’s 22.

In the 3rd period, Detroit brought Compher, Tarasenko and Kane out and surrendered a couple of zone entries to the Islanders, who looked chippier early on.

DeBrincat, Larkin and Raymond replaced the Compher line, with Edvinsson and Seider on the blueline, and the Wings’ quintet seemed to have some difficulty penetrating the Islanders’ zone for any real significant period of time.

The Wings made some good defensive plays, but as the Kasper line took over, there just wasn’t much going on that merited description.

The Wings generated their first shot some 3:58 into the period, which Sorokin easily stopped, and Bo Horvat went the other way and fired a shot into Lyon at 4:07.

Lyon got some help from Edvinsson and Chiarot on the next shift, and Berggren, Kasper and Rasmussen did a good job of generating some zone time away from Lyon in the Islanders’ zone;

Andrew Copp got away with a bit of a trip on an Islanders forward because he dropped his stick at 5:15;

Seider iced the puck a step beyond Lucas Raymond at 6:59 of the 3rd, and the Winsg won the draw in their own zone, but it took a significant period of time for the Wings to clear their zone and re-set at center ice.

Kasper, Veleno and Berggren generated an actual scoring chance some 7:45 into the 3rd, but Sorokin made a good stop;

Pageau tried to settle a puck in the slot for Anders Lee, but he was stifled by a Red Wings team that chose to ice the puck as a reward for Lyon;

Dobson sent a shot wide of the net, the Islanders cycled off the icing faceoff win, but Copp and Fischer stifled the Islanders’ plays and cleared the zone.

9:25 in, the Red Wings looked resigned to surviving the 3rd period, as did the Islanders.

Lyon made a very good stop on Simon Holmstrom at the 10:00 mark;

The Kasper line worked with Edvinsson and Seider to generate some north-of-center ice time, and Berggren was particularly workmanlike in the situation;

Palmieri blasted a heavy shot over Lyon some 12:00 into the 3rd;

Tsyplakov’s shot hit a leg and went wide of the net shortly thereafter;

And the Islanders really got to work, with the Red Wings’ Petry, Chiarot and Compher line needing a change that was facilitated by a dump-out to center ice;

Edvinsson and Seider were really beginning to gel and generate some smart plays off of instinctive reads as the game wound down, and the play of the Wings’ defense seemed to assuage the fact that there was no chemistry between the Red Wings’ forwards on this night.

Detroit stupidly gave the Islanders a power play with 5:29 remaining as Erik Gustafsson got caught holding Pageau along the boards, and off the Islanders went to the PP.

On their third man-advantage, the Islanders surprisingly afforded Detroit a couple of easy clears, and whether it was Seider and Edvinsson, Chiarot and Copp, or the forward units, the Red Wings were smart in simplifying their play along the boards and generating clearing attempts against increasingly frustrated Islanders players.

The Islanders’ fans were booing them loudly on the PP, and Detroit didn’t much care.

Kasper and Rasmussen got some late PK work, and they did a nice job of killing the penalty.

New York really emptied the tanks after the power play expired, of course, but again, the Red Wings were making good defensive reads, and Lyon was making smart stops on the pucks that he did see.

The Islanders pulled Sorokin with 2:49 remaining in the 3rd, calling a timeout in the process…

Larkin drew in vs. Nelson for the faceoff at the right faceoff dot, Detroit won the draw and cleared it but iced it with 2:43 remaining;

Then Larkin had to battle Pageau, and Lyon helped Seider clear the zone;

Raymond made a good block at the Wings’ blueline to prevent an Islanders entry;

Palmieri went offside with 2:14 remaining;

Larkin then won the faceoff to Seider at the Wings’ line, Seider chipped, and Sorokin chased the clearing attempt but could not exit the goal until the Islanders entered the zone again with 1:41 remaining;

Detroit did a good job of keeping the play along the perimeter and forcing the boo birds out of the rafters as Rasmussen, Raymond and Larkin worked well together;

Pageau and Palmieri cycled to Dobson and Lyon made a nice stop and push-away;

Copp then battled the puck up for Rasmussen who could not clear, and the Islanders scrambled out front, but Lyon stopped Pageau with 21 seconds remaining.

Larkin won a draw that ended up bouncing off a defenseman’s skate, and the Islanders pressured the heck out of the Wings for a moment, but Detroit was able to clear the zone, ice the puck, and after Dylan Larkin tied up the final faceoff, Detroit prevailed with 10 shots on goal and 29 against.

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!

2 thoughts on “Red Wings-Islanders quick take: Wings put the Islanders (and the rest of us) to sleep with a 1-0 victory”

  1. It brought immense joy to my heart to hear NY fans booing Roy & team off the ice.
    Edvinsson looked really good, and the host broadcast mentioned it.
    Just win boys, just win.

    Reply

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