The Detroit Red Wings (and their fans) put up a fight against the Philadelphia Flyers last night, winning a 6-4 decision that was a little wild and woolly.
The Hockey News’s Sam Stockton posted an overnight recap which emphasizes the “wild and woolly” aspects of the loosely-played game…
Patrick Kane scored the winner for the home side at the 7:22 mark of the third period, burying a wrist shot off a marvelous Moritz Seider stretch pass that led Kane seamlessly into the attacking third. “Well last game I had a similar play, and I missed the net to the far side,” Kane said post-game, when asked about the sequence. “I’ve come down that wing a few times in my career and scored going short side, so sometimes that play happens once or twice in a row and you get redemption the second time.” Though he was only referring to a personal redemption, the notion applied just as well to his team’s second look at the Flyers in six days.
Even with six goals on the evening, the Red Wings have scored fewer goals than every other team in the Eastern Conference, but, per JT Compher (who scored Detroit’s first of the night on a first period power play), the early season offensive lethargy didn’t detract from confidence. “In the room we know that we’re capable of scoring more,” Compher said.
Coach Lalonde understood that the team didn’t play its best defensively…
Detroit’s performance wasn’t perfect. The Red Wings needed every last drop of rush offense they produced because, even after the initial sting of Konency’s goal, they couldn’t entirely cut out Philadelphia’s counter-attacks. As coach Derek Lalonde put it, “as a group, we probably could’ve managed our game a little better.” Nonetheless, Lalonde was pleased with his team’s overall effort, pointing to the way Detroit limited their guests’ offensive volume. “We had four shots we gave up in the first,” he noted. “We held them to under 20 shots. We’ll take that game any night. Obviously, we didn’t make it comfortable…but of course, we’ll take that game.”
But there was a big reason for that, and it was the loss of Simon Edvinsson to an “upper-body injury” in the 1st period. MLive’s Ansar Khan noted Lalonde’s remarks regarding his 5-man defensive corps, which mostly included a Ben Chiarot-Moritz Seider pairing and a Justin Holl-Jeff Petry pairing…
“Really good on our D corps to play most of the game with five D and a lot of those D are not accustomed to playing top-four minutes and I thought they gutted it out,” Lalonde said. “Really good job on our depleted D core there.”
Ben Chiarot moved up to the top pairing with Seider and logged a season-high 29:14 and registered a plus-3 rating. Seider’s 28:02 also was his season high in minutes.
“I thought both played really well,” Lalonde said. “I think we had (the Flyers) registered for three chances in the third. We gave them 19 shots the entire game and it’s a pretty good offensive team and obviously those two are leading it playing most of the minutes. So good on them. They were winning shifts for sure.”
Jeff Petry (20:00) and Justin Holl (17:14) also logged more ice time than their season averages.
The Red Wings (13-14-4) have won three of their past four and back-to-back games, but if Edvinsson is out for any length of time, he’ll be difficult to replace. Rookie Albert Johansson has been their reserve defenseman in six of the past eight games.
“Obviously that pairing has been really good for us with Mo and Simon, but I think the guys did a really good job playing with five tonight after that … keeping it simple and making the game easy for everyone,” Kane said.
It should be noted that, as of December 20th, the Wings wouldn’t be able to make any recalls or demotions save a “roster emergency,” with back-to-back games against Montreal (Friday and Saturday) and a tilt against St. Louis (on Monday the 23rd) looming…
And the Free Press’s Carlos Monarrez also posted an overnight recap, emphasizing the Red Wings’ rather desperate need to turn their ship around over the holiday hockey period, with the Wings sitting at 13-14-and-4 (while the Sabres keep losing and the Senators keep winning)…
The 6-4 win over the Philadelphia Flyers represented a season-high in goals scored for this offensively challenged team. And no goal was bigger than Patrick Kane’s winner at 7:22 of the third period – his fourth of the season, but only his first goal since Nov. 13.
The two points and the winning streak are important for the Wings – and Derek Lalonde’s job security – as they struggle to climb back into contention. Earning their 30th point in 31 games puts them on pace for 79 points, but they’ll likely need at least 90 to get a wild-card playoff berth.
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The Wings looked like the better team almost the entire game. They took more shots and fewer penalties. They scored on the power play and seized on opportunities, especially on Moritz Seider’s heads-up stretch pass to Kane during the Flyers’ line shift.
As the puck hit the tape on Kane’s stick, a thought flashed across his mind. He was 18 when he made his NHL debut, but now he’s 36 and he’d been here many times before, streaking down the ice toward the left circle and bearing down on the goalie.
“Well, last game I had a similar play and I missed the net to the far side,” he said. “So I’ve come down that wing a few times in my career, and kind of scored going short side.”
Monarrez tends to put things bluntly, and he did just that regarding the Red Wings’ home record, as well as the fact that the Wings play oodles of games at home to close out the year:
The Wings also reached the .500 mark at home, where they improved to 7-7-2. And this year it looks like Santa’s feeling a little extra generous by granting the Wings five of their next six games at home, with a home-and-home coming up against Montreal, one of the NHL’s truly putrid teams.
“If you’re going to stay in this battle, or if you’re going to push to be in this battle, you’ve got to take care of home ice,” Lalonde said. “And for the most part, we’ve just been OK. A little run of late is a positive. But we got to keep winning (these) games and taking points at home.”
I wouldn’t underestimate the Habs for a second. They’ve been surging with Patrik Laine cranking up his goal-scoring, and they’re going to want to jump over the Wings in the Atlantic Division standings, which they can very easily do by taking 4 points out of the home-and-home series.
Montreal may have a 12-16-and-3 record, but they’re plucky, and the Wings are in their sights. So let’s look forward to the next game, via an early Associated Press preview:
BOTTOM LINE: The Montreal Canadiens visit the Detroit Red Wings after Patrik Laine recorded a hat trick in the Canadiens’ 6-1 win over the Buffalo Sabres.
Detroit is 13-14-4 overall and 3-4-1 against the Atlantic Division. The Red Wings are 3-4-2 in games they serve more penalty minutes than their opponents.
Montreal has a 12-16-3 record overall and a 4-3-0 record in Atlantic Division games. The Canadiens have gone 6-8-2 in games their opponents commit fewer penalties.
Friday’s game is the first time these teams match up this season.
TOP PERFORMERS: Lucas Raymond has 13 goals and 20 assists for the Red Wings. Alex DeBrincat has five goals and two assists over the last 10 games.
Nicholas Suzuki has 11 goals and 21 assists for the Canadiens. Laine has scored six goals with one assist over the last 10 games.
LAST 10 GAMES: Red Wings: 4-4-2, averaging three goals, five assists, 3.4 penalties and 7.3 penalty minutes while giving up 3.1 goals per game.
Canadiens: 5-5-0, averaging 2.9 goals, 4.8 assists, 4.7 penalties and 11.3 penalty minutes while giving up 3.2 goals per game.
There are no nights off in today’s NHL, and the Red Wings will play 3 games in 4 nights to close out the pre-Christmas part of their schedule…
And then the Wings will play 5 games in 9 nights, sandwiched around the New Year’s holiday, with Toronto, the improved Capitals, the middling Penguins and then road games against the Blue Jackets and streaking Jets.
That’s not an easy schedule, but the Red Wings will have to make hay while the sun shines if the team, players and coach plan on earning some sort of late-first-half-of-the-season rally, never mind some job security.
