The Detroit Red Wings won a slightly unorthodox 6-4 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers on Wednesday night at Little Caesars Arena, but they also lost Simon Edvinsson to an upper-body injury in the process thereof.
For the Red Wings, winning a game as they prepare to play in 3 more games over the course of 4 pre-holiday-break nights (starting Friday evening vs. Montreal); for the Flyers, their second loss in a row can be assuaged tomorrow night when they host Los Angeles.
Coach John Tortorella told NBC Sports Philadelphia’s Jordan Hall that it was to the Flyers’ detriment to perhaps overlook the result of Wednesday night’s game:
“These times before holidays, the five, six, seven games, I think they’re really important points for the end of the year,” Tortorella said Tuesday. “Because I think sometimes players are packed and ready to go somewhere and they forget. We can’t forget. We’re not good enough. We need to grab as many points as we can before we have that Christmas break. We’ve got four games in six nights here, it’s a tough schedule. I’m just hoping we can get some points here, that you go home and you put them in the bank for March and April.”
The Flyers are 1-1-0 against the Red Wings (13-14-4). They beat Detroit, 4-1, six days ago. The clubs meet once more Jan. 21 in Philadelphia.
Tortorella continued while speaking with NHL.com’s Dave Hogg…
“I don’t think we played well,” Flyers coach John Tortorella said. “We crawled back into it, which is good, but we didn’t spend enough time in the offensive zone and we didn’t defend well enough to get the puck back.”
Travis Konecny gave the Flyers a 1-0 lead at 1:06 of the first period, sliding a backhand under Lyon on a breakaway. Compher tied it 1-1 on the power play at 18:19, tapping in Larkin’s pass at the edge of the crease.
The Flyers committed a minor penalty and a double minor in the final 7:44 of the period.
“We got the good start, but the penalty trouble at the end of the period killed all our momentum,” Couturier said. “They capitalized on their chances and we made some costly mistakes.”
For the Red Wings, the game was a joyful victory…
“We had some things in mind going into these last games before the (holiday) break,” Kane said. “We’re playing here at home and there’s been some good energy from the crowd in the last couple games and from the team, too.”
Raymond added an assist, and J.T. Compher also had a goal and an assist for Detroit (13-14-4), which has won three of its past four games. Dylan Larkin had two assists, and Alex Lyon made 15 saves after being out for the previous nine games with a lower-body injury.
The Red Wings lost top-pair defenseman Simon Edvinsson to an upper-body injury; his last shift ended at 11:44 of the first period. Coach Derek Lalonde did not have an update on his status after the game.
“He obviously only played a handful of minutes,” Lalonde said. “A lot of our ‘D’ are not accustomed to playing top-four minutes and I thought they gutted it out.”
(Ben Chiarot played 28:16 and Moritz Seider played 27:04, which tells you how much the Edvinsson injury affected the Wings…
And the Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan took note of the spirited effort on the ice…
“Very important,” said Kane of being successful at home, where the Wings are now 7-7-2. “Especially when you’re playing teams in your own conference or division, you have to take advantage of those games and treat them like four-point games. The last couple games, we’ve come out with good urgency.”
The Wings are 6-7-2 away from LCA, which has kept them in the thick of the standings.
“We’ve done our job on the road, which is a credit to our guys,” coach Derek Lalonde said. “If you’re going to stay in this battle, and push to be in this battle, you have to take care of home ice and for the most part we’ve been just okay. But this little run of late is a positive. We have to keep winning our games and earning points at home.”
As well as Kane’s scoring performance…
“It’s nice to produce and playing with Cat (Alex DeBrincat) and Copper (Andrew Copp),” Kane said. “We’ve had a couple of good games in a row now. Last game I had a similar play (on the game-winner) and missed the net to the far side. I’ve came down that wing a few times in my career and scored short side. Sometimes that play happens once or twice in a row and you get redemption the second time.”
As well as the Wings,’ well, better defensive game…
The victory for the Wings avenged a 4-1 loss to the Flyers last week in Philadelphia. The Wings were better defensively in this game, limiting Philadelphia to only 19 shots, and exploded for the six-goal night offensively.
“We held them to four shots (in the first period) and held them to under 20 shots, we’ll take that game any night,” Lalonde said. “We didn’t make it comfortable, we had a couple of individual plays and bad bounces that went against us, but we’ll take that game.”
Kane and J.T. Compher spoke with the media after the game because they scored goals, which has been rare thus far, and they both told Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen that they were relieved to contribute…
“I think in the room, we know that we’re capable of scoring more,” Detroit center J.T. Compher said. “But we don’t want to give up more at the same time. And I think for a good portion of the game tonight, we earned our goals by playing well defensively and playing the right way. And that’s the way you want to create offense, not trading chances all game long and just trying to score more goals.”
Compher scored his first goal in 22 game and Kane delivered broke a 4-4 tie with a goal at 7:32 of the third period to spark the Red Wings to a 6-4 win against the Philadelphia Flyers. That was Kane’s first goal in 11 games. Compher and Kane each had a goal and an assist.
The Red Wings have now won three out of four, and they scored 16 goals in those three wins. They have looked more dangerous than the Red Wings team that has scored two or fewer goals too many nights this season.
…
An injury has undermined Kane’s offense this season. The Red Wings need more production from him to have hope of pushing for the playoffs.
“Good on him getting the two points,” Detroit coach Derek Lalonde said. “Obviously (Kane, Andrew Copp and Alex DeBrincat) also caught themselves out there for two goals against two. So I don’t think we want to get into the trading goals and chances anywhere. But really good sign. But Patty’s been having some touches. He’s had the puck on his stick. He’s had some looks. Felt like it was a matter of time. “
And then there was, well, the shirtless guy who got into a fight in the stands. Need an explanation? The Free Press’s Andrew Birkle and Helene St. James clarify:
As the Red Wings were in the midst of a crazy, back-and-forth game with the Philadelphia Flyers, looking for some revenge over a team they lost to just a few days ago, a scene in the stands stole everyone’s attention.
During the third period, a shirtless man had to be escorted out of the lower bowl at LCA by multiple ushers. At one point, it looked like he may try and make a run for it before he was suddenly swarmed by more ushers in the area. Unfortunately, it was hard to tell which team’s fan base should be embarrassed about the tussle because, well, he didn’t have a shirt!
Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff reports that the fans’ scuffle attracted the Red Wings players’ and coach’s attention:
“Yeah, I think everyone was looking at that,” Red Wings forward Patrick Kane said. “So it’d be fun to see that one on replay.”
It sure would. Yet amazingly, in this day and age when everyone and their brother and their cousin and maybe even their dog has a camera phone, no one is posting any footage from this bout so far on any social media outlet.
So we’ll have to rely on some old-fashioned play by play to set the scene.
It was in the third period. A shirtless fan, believed to be a Flyers supporter, was trading punches with a Red Wings fan in the lower bowl. It was near the blue line in the end that Detroit was defending.
When it appeared that the bout was broken up and cooler heads were prevailing, it again ignited. The shirtless fellow decked one of the LCA security staff that was trying to escort him from the building and tried to make a run for it.
Needless to say, the guy without the shirt lost the fight. You’ll have to trust me when I say that there are some older folks among the LCA security staff, but they will deck you in an instant if you step out of line, in the stands or elsewhere.
“That was interesting,” Detroit coach Derek Lalonde said. “I’ve never seen one when all four refs and both teams stopped playing to watch mid-game. That’s an all timer.”
Anyway!
The Free Press’s St. James covered the game as well…
Taking advantage
The Flyers scored first, when Joel Farabee won a battle for the puck along the boards in the neutral zone and fed Travis Konecny, who got in behind Simon Edvinsson for a breakaway that ended with slipping a backhand shot into Detroit’s net, just 1:06 into the game. The Wings went on a power play at 12:16, and at least built some momentum with how active they were with the puck, taking three shots on Samuel Ersson. They got another man advantage at 15:42 when Tippett was given a double-minor for high-sticking Petry. It took multiple shifts to finally break through, but the Wings were able to tie it when Dylan Larkin fired a shot that Compher tipped while falling down in the paint, at 18:19. That was Compher’s first goal since Oct. 27.
Set them up
Kane, who had gone nine games without a point before earning an assist against the Toronto Maple Leafs, picked up a second straight point with a perfect setup in the second period. He’d been thwarted on a great scoring chance earlier, when he had the puck cleanly in front of the Flyers net. Kane had something to celebrate midway through the period, when he took the puck up ice and wired a pass that DeBrincat blasted past Ersson. Noah Cates scored less than half a minute after that, but the Wings were able to retake the lead. Compher won a draw and Rasmussen immediate pounced on the puck to make it 3-2 at 16:05, and Veleno finished off a give-and-go with Christian Fischer at 17:27.
Things got a little wild in the 3rd, but the Wings shut the Flyers down when it counted, and earned the win.
According to DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills, Patrick Kane celebrated a small milestone with his game-winner…
Reclaiming the lead for Detroit, Kane took advantage of a Philadelphia line change and buried a wrister from the left face-off circle to make it 5-4 at 7:32 of the third period. Moritz Seider’s stretch pass helped set up Kane’s fourth goal of the season, which was also his 78th career game-winning tally and moved the veteran forward past Bill Guerin for the fourth-most by a U.S.-born player in NHL history.
“It’s pretty cool,” Kane said. “Growing up as an American, there’s obviously a lot of guys you look up to that kind of pave the way for U.S.-born players. I don’t think you really ever think as a player yourself you’ve reached some of the milestones or look at it that way, but I guess if you accumulate enough games and play for a long time maybe it starts happening. Been very fortunate in my career.”
And, among Mills’ post-game quotes are the following:
Lalonde on Kane’s night
“We need offense from Patty. Good on him getting the two points. Obviously, they also caught themselves out there for two goals against too. I don’t think we want to get into the trading goals and chances anywhere in our lineup, but really good sign. Patty’s been having some touches. He’s had the puck on his stick. He’s had some looks. Felt like it was a matter of time.”
Lalonde on Compher lighting the lamp on Wednesday
“We ask so much of him. Obviously, them on the power play now and he’s a main cog on our penalty kill, and now we’ve asked him to check some top lines these last couple games at home. Of course we want the offense, but we just need him playing winning hockey and he’s done that.”
Kane on his game as of late
“It’s nice to produce. I feel like playing with Cat and Copper, we’ve had a couple good games here in a row so try to continue that.”
Compher on limiting Philadelphia’s shots through 40 minutes and helping Lyon ease back into game action
“I think we want to do that every game. We want to play in their zone, and that’s the best way to play defense is when we’re playing in the O-zone, rumbling around and making them earn everything they get. I thought, besides the first 30 seconds, we did a really good job of that.”
If Simon Edvinsson’s OK to look at video, he might want to watch Konecny’s goal twice, because Edvinsson surrendered the puck on an attempted pass to Erik Gustafsson at center ice, during a Red Wings line change. Sometimes you learn when the puck hits the back of your net, and that was a hard lesson learned as to a couple of, “Don’t do that’s!” for Edvinsson.
Not as bad as the guys in the stands, I’m sure, but still.
Multimedia:
Highlights: NHL.com posted a 9:59 highlight clip:
Sportsnet posted a 10:20 highlight clip:
Post-game: The Flyers posted post-game remarks from Jamie Drysdale, Sean Couturier and coach John Tortorella;
The Red Wings posted comments from J.T. Compher, Patrick Kane and coach Derek Lalonde:
The Free Press’s Helene St. James also posted a clip of Compher, Kane and coach Lalonde speaking with the media:
Also:
Birthday boy Alex DeBrincat with a goal and a chat with the boys ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/c2Rjs7KgnX
— NHLonTNT (@NHL_On_TNT) December 19, 2024
Photos: Reuters posted a 28-image gallery;
The Free Press posted a 38-image gallery;
The Detroit News posted a 14-image gallery.
Statistics: Here are the Game Summary and Event Summary:
