The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan posted a meaty notebook article this afternoon, discussing the Red Wings’ “scrambling” defense last night, J.T. Compher breaking his 22-game goal-less slump, and sharing Ville Husso’s demotion to Grand Rapids.
Regarding Simon Edvinsson’s absence due to his upper-body injury (there was not clarification on that as the Red Wings didn’t practice today), Kulfan offers this:
With Edvinsson unavailable, Ben Chiarot filled in to play with Moritz Seider and played a season-high 29 minutes, 14 seconds. Seider, who absorbed a shot near his head late in the game but was not hurt, played a season-high 28:02.
Jeff Petry played 20 minutes, Justin Holl played 17:14 and Erik Gustafsson 15:30 as the Wings compensated for the loss of Edvinsson (played six shifts, 5:36).
Edvinsson collided high with Philadelphia’s Rasmus Ristolainen in the first period and appeared a little uneasy skating back to the bench.
“Obviously he (Edvinsson) only played a handful of minutes there,” Lalonde said. “Really good on our D-core to play most of the game with five (defensemen) and a lot of those D are not accustomed to playing top-four minutes. They gutted it out.”
Seider and Chiarot have plenty of experience playing together and the chemistry returned quickly. Chiarot ended with a plus-three for the evening, and arguably had one of his best games of the season, adding three hits and two blocks.
“Both played really well,” Lalonde said. “We had (Philadelphia) registered for three (scoring) chances in the third. We gave them 19 shots the entire game and that’s a pretty good offensive team and obviously those two are leading it playing most of the minutes. Good on them, they were winning shifts for sure.”
Continued (paywall)
