Red Wings-Maple Leafs quick take: bad bounces, execution spoil Wings’ trip to TO

The Detroit Red Wings attempted to earn their 3rd straight win as they faced the Toronto Maple Leafs (7-5-and-2) in the “Hockey Hall of Fame” game on Friday night. Detroit was playing its 2nd game over the course of 3-games-in-4-nights slate, with the New York Rangers awaiting the Wings back in Detroit for a Saturday night tilt.

Toronto played without the services of Auston Matthews, who had an “upper-body injury,” and the Red Wings both recalled Ville Husso due to an injury to Alex Lyon, and they swapped out Jeff Petry for Justin Holl on defense.

On Friday night, the Red Wings seemed to be one bad bounce and one bad pass away from just about everything, and the pregame ceremony to honor the Hockey Hall of Fame’s inductees for 2024 was probably the highlight of the game, Dylan Larkin’s 1-1 goal excluded.

Detroit lost a 3-1 decision to John Tavares (2G), Mitch Marner (1G, 1A) and Anthony Stolarz (21 stops) and the Toronto Maple Leafs, playing a sleepy, stumbly, frustrating game as their 2-game winning streak snapped.

In the pregame skate, Cam Talbot led the Red Wings out onto the ice at the Scotiabank Arena…

For the annual Hockey Hall of Fame game…

Anthony Stolarz was the Maple Leafs’ starter, and Toronto lined up as follows:

The Red Wings went with the following lineup:

The starters and scratches were as follows:

There was a lengthy ceremony at center ice for the Hockey Hall of Fame inductees, delaying the start of the game until 7:23 PM, which was fine. It was neat to see the HHOF’s newest members be honored on the ice.

In the 1st period, Detroit started the Larkin line opposite Mitch Marner’s line, and the Leafs won the draw via a kick from Domi, the Leafs dumped, Seider chased and DeBrincat flipped the puck past Kane, affording Toronto a reset in their own zone…

But DeBrincat, Larkin and Kane connected for the first shot of the game on Stolarz, and Detroit changed 43 seconds into the game.

Raymond, Copp and Compher joined Seider and Edvinsson, they were parried away by Pacioretty and Tavares and Nylander, and the Leafs put a puck out of play as Chiarot and Holl joined the fray.

1:20 into the 1st period, Kasper’s line drew in for a defensive zone faceoff, lost it, and Holl and Chiarot helped Tarasenko and Kasper cycle deep and Tarasenko fired a shot on Stolarz as Kasper was bumped into Stolarz, Toronto went the other way, and Bobby McMann ran into Talbot, flipped the puck back to Nick Robertson, and Robertson flicked the puck behind Talbot’s blocker and into the net on the goal line to make it 1-0 Toronto at 2:01 of the 1st.

The Red Wings CHALLENGED the goal against, and the crowd growled as the goal was reviewed and denied to Toronto on account of goaltender interference.

Play continued with Veleno’s line ending the four-line rotation, chipping the puck into the Leafs’ zone and forechecking, with Fischer, Rasmussen and then Holl and Johansson generating an icing call against Toronto some 2:29 into the 1st.

Toronto spent the next minute-and-a-half icing the puck twice, and Craig Berube was furious about the goal being called back, so he barked at the referee until he came over to speak with Berube…

First, Larkin’s line generated an icing against, and then a physical Raymond, Compher and Copp pushed the puck deep and Chiarot pinched to help Copp fire a puck that never made it to Stolarz, so Nylander went the other way and fired a long shot in Talbot.

Detroit won the ensuing faceoff, pushed the puck away from Talbot, and Toronto recoiled, icing the puck sans call against (I guess Berube was listened to);

Anyway, Johansson did a fine job of avoiding checks against while working with Gustafsson;

Seider and Edvinsson sprung Larkin, Kane and DeBrincat on a rush, but the Leafs went the other way at 5:30, and Detroit nearly sprung DeBrincat deep in the Toronto zone, but DeBrincat was out of gas and could not convert…

So J.T. Compher hit the post behind Stolarz on a rush.

Compher, Copp and Raymond continued to cycle off the next faceoff, with Holl generating a shot of his own before they were parried twice by the Pacioretty line…

Albert Johansson and Erik Gustafsson made a couple of uncharacteristic mistakes before the first TV timeout, but the Kasper line bailed them out.

After the TV timeout at 7:20, McMann menaced the Wings off the rush;

Kane, Debrincat and Larkin gave up a good rush to Domi, Marner and Knies as they cycled in the Wings’ zone, but Detroit at least pushed the puck back out to center ice and hemmed the Leafs in their own zone for 15 seconds;

Seider broke out with Raymond on the left wing side, Raymond fell, got back up and Holl helped Compher and Raymond cycle down low, Compher lost the puck, regained it from Chiarot, and Chiarot centered the puck to nobody, squandering a scoring chance;

Kasper, Berggren and Tarasenko then worked the Leafs down low, Veleno’s line ground ’em out as the Leafs’ fans attempted to cheer on their team…

And, sadly, Michael Rasmussen went for an interference call at 10:48, getting tied up with Nick Robertson at center ice.

On the penalty-kill, William Nylander and Mitch Marner chased down a dump-in and retrieved a rebound off Talbot that went off Edvinsson’s stick and right to Marner, who scored the 1-0 goal on the power play at 11:12.

At 11:22, Rielly found Nylander, he chipped a puck on goal, the puck bounced off Edvinsson’s stick on the rebound and Marner put the puck home for a 1-0 goal.

The Red Wings responded with a good bump-up shift, where Kane jammed a puck into Stolarz off a strange bounce where DeBrincat’s shot was blocked into the air, and it rolled down onto Kane’s stick in tight;

Kasper, Tarasenko and Holl kept a good cycle going on the next shift, and Berggren was STIFLED BY STOLARZ despite a between-the-legs attempt!

Seider and Edvinsson returned to the ice at 13:30, tried to help the Wings forecheck as the Veleno line was on the ice, and Detroit changed everybody 14 minutes in, with Chiarot and Holl working together, bouncing a puck off a linesman, and facing some pressure from Knies, who was blocked by Chiarot, Ekman-Larsson was also blocked off, and Knies centered to Marner, who was also blocked.

When play resumed with about 5:29 left in the 1st, Compher fed Raymond in the slot, but Raymond’s stick couldn’t capture the puck;

Nylander then walked Edvinsson, who made another error, and Paccioretty was stifled by Edvinsson in the slot, and Seider blazed down the other way to make sure that the Leafs had something to struggle with as the Kasper line came onto the ice.

Justin Holl heard some boo birds as he fed Kane and Kane fed Larkin for a shot that hit Stolarz high, and DeBrincat turned around and fired a shot on Stolarz that was stopped;

Holl chipped, Stolarz fired a puck out and down past Larkin and Holl, and with 2:59 left, both teams changed;

Marner, Domi and Knies worked hard and Tanev got a BIG BOOMER off the post via Marner’s deflection of the rebound off Talbot with 2:35 left in the 1st;

Talbot was having to stop his share of shots, as Toronto hit 10 at 17:45, but Fischer sent a puck off Stolarz to tie the number of shots at 10 at 17:57.

As the period wound down, a couple of bad bounces on bad Toronto ice gave the Leafs possession of the puck during a Raymond line shift, and a Chiarot giveaway yielded a Robinson-Holmberg exchange and a McCabe point shot, with Albert Johansson’s stick coming out of his hands, and for some reason, the Leafs’ Robertson was called for interference with 40.4 seconds left in the 1st period.

On the power play, Larkin, Raymond, DeBrincat, Seider and Kane cycled hard, Kane fed Larkin in the slot but it went off his skate, he fired a shot wide, and the Leafs cleared the offensive zone, resulting in no goal for the first 40.4 of the PP.

In the 2nd period, the Red Wings began the period with 1:39 of PP time, and Detroit won the opening faceoff, Kane walked over for Larkin but he wa offside, and instead, Kampf fired a shot on Seider who was blocked off, Kampf ran Talbot, and Detroit’s DeBrincat, Raymond and Larkin struggled to enter and maintain possession, so the Wings regrouped again…

Kane and Raymond swatted at the puck as they were held up by Toronto players, and DeBrincat couldn’t sweep the puck into the net.

Detroit’s first PP unit sat with 26 left in the PP, Gustafsson fed Tarasenko for Kasper, and Kasper was pissed off that he didn’t beat Stolarz.

Compher drew in for a faceoff with 1:02 gone in the 2nd and 18 left on the PP, and Tarasenko flubbed a pass, so Toronto was able to clear the zone and kill the penalty.

Tarasenko did skate through center ice and into the Toronto zone, but the Leafs managed to reset, Nylander tripped Holl, and he got away with it, but Holl sat on the puck for a faceoff deep in Detroit’s zone.

Detroit won the faceoff and Chiarot tried to feed Fischer for a rush, but the Leafs regrouped, so Detroit did, too, and ultimately, DeBrincat, Larkin and Edvinsson generated a shot attempt that Stolarz saw all the way from the left wing.

The Larkin line remained on the ice, and DeBrincat tried to feed Edvinsson for a point shot, but he flubbed the effort–Edvinsson was having a rough night.

Kane did generate a good scoring chance on Stolarz via DeBrincat, however…

Talbot made a good stop on Domi some 3:30 into the 2nd;

Edvinsson got aught out long and worked with Gustafsson to flip the puck out for Berggren battling Oliver Ekman-Larsson;

McMann found Holmberg on a 2-on-1, but the gents blubbed it;

Toronto really got its cycle going in the offensive zone as Holl and Chiarot struggled against the Pacioretty line, but Copp, Compher and Raymond came the other way, worked their own cycle as the Veleno line succeeded them, and Fischer made a good play at center ice to feed Veleno, but Ekman-Larsson blocked Veleno off the first time;

The second, Fischer chose not to shoot in the slot, and as a result, the Wings’ scoring chance evaporated.

Detroit was changing a lot in the offensive zone to utilize the proximity of their bench to the offensive end of the ice, and again, Edvinsson, Seider, Larkin, Kane and DeBrincat worked against the Leafs’ 4th line, but they did a fine job of stifling Detroit’s outlet game…

Kane, DeBrincat, Holl and Larkin worked hard vs. Tanev and McCabe, but Marner and Domi got out to center, Detroit regrouped at center ice, and Detroit chipped and chased…And changed some 7:15 into the 2nd.

Somewhat thankfully, the brain-fart-prone Red Wings were bailed out to some extent by Jonatan Berggren being tripped by John Tavares at 7:55, affording Detroit a much-needed man advantage in a game that had turned into gravel.

On the power play, Raymond fired a pass to Kane, whose wide shot was cleared all the way down the ice;

Larkin, Kane and DeBrincat skated in 3 wide, but they were blocked out to center ice and down the ice;

With 1:20 left PP, DeBrincat skated up and into the offensive zone, Larkin and Raymond fed Kane, he fed Seider for a high shot and the rebound went off Larkin and Seider fed Kane to Seider, to Kane, across for Raymond blocked over his stick…

DeBrincat went low and Larkin SCORED A MASTERFUL GOAL FROM THE BUMPER SPOT AT 9:10, walking away from coverage and snapping a sneaky shot over Stolarz’ shoulder to make it 1-1 on the power play.

Larkin scored from Raymond and DeBrincat at 9:10 to make it 1-1…

But on the post-goal shift, Michael Rasmussen made a bad change and was the “too many men” man at 10:48, sitting to afford Toronto another power play.

On the penalty-kill…

Detroit cleared the zone initially, but Toronto set up with Marner, Nylander, Tavares, Knies and Rielly, and Seider, Edvinsson, Compher and Fischer did their best to help Talbot make a couple of good stops on Tavares…

But Tavares got loose in the slot and gave his own Larkin, ripping a shot over Talbot to make it 2-1 at 11:01.

Tavares scored from Marner and Rielly at 11:01 to make it 2-1 Toronto. PPG.

The post-goal shift was a bit of a mess, and Detroit needed Raymond, Rasmussen and Copp to succeed the Kasper line to settle things down.

As play continued, Berggren got hooked and held and Benoit sealed Kasper after knocking Berggren’s stick out of his hand…And that’s a penalty at 13:03.

On the power play, Seider held in a lost faceoff, Larkin shot but was stopped, Raymond and Kane exchanged passes through a seam, Seider and Kane battled the bouncing puck and Toronto cleared it…

With 1:20 left in the PP, Larkin, DeBrincat and Kane dug in, Raymond tapped it to Seider, Seider fed Raymond and he fired a high shot wide aiming for Stolarz’ shoulder.

Detroit changed lines at 1:10 and Kasper looped at center, fed Berggren, he dropped for Gustafsson, Tarasenko kept the puck in for Gustafsson, he lateralled to Berggren, and Tarasenko fired wide as Stolarz was screened.

Detroit iced the puck with 12 left in the PP and 5:09 left in the 2nd.

That power play ended poorly, and the bad ice and bad bounces for Detroit were adding up. The ice was terrible, but you’ve got to adjust for that, and acclimate to the bad ice and weird bounces.

With 3:40 left in the 2nd, Larkin was stood up by Nylander and Larkin had to block off Paccioretty, as did Edvinsson, as the Leafs loaded up Nylander, Tavares and Paccioretty to try and generate a 3-1 lead.

As play continued, the Larkin line worked the puck deep with 2:45 remaining, but the puck bounced funnily off Kane and Tavares had to be stopped by Talbot at the other end of the ice as a result.

The puck bounced off Tarasenko’s blade from Kasper on the next shift;

Edvinsson iced the puck with 1:19 left in the 2nd…

Fischer helped get the puck turned over for Rasmussen and Veleno with a minute left to play, but Seider contorted funny, Marner and Tavares and Nylander menaced Detroit for the final 35 of the 2nd, and Holmberg’s point shot was blocked away, affording Detroit an escape from a rough 2nd period.

In the 3rd period, Larkin, Kane and DeBrincat drew in vs. Domi and company, Toronto won the opening faceoff, and the teams battled hard through center ice, with Seider giving up the puck to Domi as the Leafs generated the first rush;

Detroit headed the other way, but Toronto sustained possession as Compher tried to center for Kane, Compher held the zone for Chiarot, he fed Holl, and the Wings ground out the puck down low, with Raymond, Chiarot, Copp and Compher trying very hard to generate a scoring chance.

They could not accomplish their task.

Instead, Toronto clamped down defensively, and the Wings really couldn’t get past center ice without great effort early on in the 3rd. McMann, Robertson and Holmberg menaced the Kasper line, and a Johansson block went right to a Leaf, yielding a couple of stops for Talbot as the Leafs pushed their fourth line onto the ice…

Reeves, Kampf and Lorentz cycled away and Talbot made a huge, huge stop after 2:22 of ice time for the Kasper line.

The Wings kept rolling lines, however, with the Veleno line and then Larkin’s line taking to the ice, and Chiarot at least blocked a Domi shot out of play some 4:46 into the 3rd.

The puck kept bouncing funnily as well, and Nick Robertson of all people looked like a world-beater as Chiarot and Larkin got caught flat-footed, but nothing came of Robertson’s efforts.

Kane joined Berggren, Kasper and Johansson and Gustafsson, and Johansson nearly set up Berggren for a goal, but Berggren’s shot was blocked wide;

In what had become a slow game of board battles and weird puck bounces, both teams appeared to be flailing toward the finish over the course of the first 7:00.

Play perked up as Rasmussen, Gustafsson and Fischer tried to connect for a shot on goal, and could not do so;

Tavares, roaring in on a 3-on-2, was blocked off by Holl, but Nylander stole the puck and Tavares’ resulting attempt was blocked wide;

With 9 gone in the 3rd, Toronto was happy to lull the Wings to sleep, and Detroit was twitching uncomfortably in half-slumber.

Talbot came out to help Seider and Edvinsson keep the Leafs breaking away from Detroit on one shift, and then Larkin, Kane and DeBrincat had an odd change, and Kasper, Berggren and Tarasenko joined the fray only to race back to stop Holmberg, Robertson and McMann hemming in Johansson and Erik Gustafsson;

With Toronto fans growling and hoping for a penalty, Holl nearly held Reeves for a bit too long, but the referees were feeling charitable at that moment.

The TV timeout with 8:21 remaining saw the shots in the 3rd at only 2-1 Toronto, which is not a lot.

A steal for DeBrincat and Kane yielded very little despite the offensive zone play, even with a great Seider keep-in and a Larkin rim-around, and DeBrincat held the line, shot and was stopped by Stolarz for the 2nd shot of the period.

Lorentz nearly blazed through the Wings’ Kasper line and scored, but he fired his backhand wide;

As a Leaf fell, Tarasenko shanked a pass into the slot wrong, and he negated a scoring chance as a result;

With 6 minutes left in regulation, Fischer, Rasmussen and Veleno at least pushed the puck deep in Toronto’s zone and held it there for a couple of seconds, but no longer;

Rasmussen sent a shot off Stolarz and into the corner, Fischer got it back and Chiarot shanked his own shot wide;

Raymond and Tavares exchanged giveaways;

Copp was sealed to the boards by Benoit, somewhat illegally;

With 4:37 remaining, Stolarz made a tremendous goal-line stand as Copp, Compher and Raymond hacked and whacked at the loose puck until the referees reluctantly blew a whistle with the puck under the Leafs’ goaltender šŸ™

As Mickey Redmond noted, the bounces were not going the Wings’ way.

The Wings rolled the Larkin line over the boards after the TV timeout, but Larkin and Kane could not convert on a pass to Seider that Stolarz stopped easily;

Kane found LARKIN and he was gloved away by Stolarz in the slot;

With 3:30 left, Berggren and Kasper were held up, so Timmins fed Tavares, and Talbot had to hold onto a Nylander shot with 3:18 left…

Raymond, Copp and Compher then came back out as the Wings stacked their lines, and Toronto checked the snot out of them.

A bad Holl pass to Knies yielded Raymond, Tarasenko and Holl struggling to clear the zone…

Talbot tried to leave the goal from the 2:20 mark on down, but the Leafs held him in the crease until 1:33 remained, and Seider gave the puck up to Tavares instead of Patrick Kane, and it was Tavares who sealed the game away with a 3-1 empty-netter.

Tavares scored at 18:30 to make it 3-1.

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!