Red Wings-Ducks wrap-up: without Rasmussen (and Copp), Detroit persists over Anaheim, but there’s work to be done

The Detroit Red Wings took a 5-4 OT decision over the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday night, losing Michael Rasmussen in the process due to a dirty elbow from Trevor Zegras, and losing a 4-1 lead over the course of the 2nd and 3rd periods, surrendering a point to the Ducks as well.

Detroit splits the season series with Anaheim 1-and-1, with Anaheim taking 3 points out of the 2 games.

Detroit ends up going 1-0-and-1 on the weekend, taking 3 out of 4 points thanks to two overtime games, including Saturday’s 4-3 loss to Minnesota–whom the Wings play on Tuesday in Minneapolis-St. Paul.

Patrick Kane scored a glorious breakaway goal to end the affair…

But there was bad news after the game, too:

We’ll start with the injury news, per MLive’s Ansar Khan…

[The Red Wings] finished Sunday’s game short a pair of centers. Already missing Andrew Copp, the Red Wings lost Michael Rasmussen late in the second period due to a hit to the head from Trevor Zegras.

Coach Todd McLellan said they’ll know more on the status of Rasmussen on Monday.

“I think when a player gets a blow to the head and doesn’t return, it’s never a good sign,” McLellan said following a 5-4 overtime victory over Anaheim. “But we’ll see how he is tomorrow. He seems to be in fairly good spirits at least when I wandered by him. He’s not happy about it but he’s happy for the team.”

The Red Wings weren’t happy that Zegras wasn’t penalized for the hit.

“I don’t think anybody was really aware of what was going on, including obviously the four officials,” McLellan said. “What comes out of it now is out of everybody’s hands and we move on. If they didn’t see what happened, they can’t just make it up. And that’s what they told me.”

Zegras could face disciplinary action from the NHL, but that doesn’t help the Red Wings moving forward.

The Red Wings weren’t quite certain what to make of Zegras’ hit as it was a subtle one, as Patrick Kane told the Free Press’s Helene St. James…

Rasmussen left with 2:35 to play in the second period, immediately after the hit. At first nobody — officials, teammates — seemed sure what happened.

“I didn’t really see it too well,” said Patrick Kane, who scored in overtime to secure a 5-4 victory. “I saw a little bit of a replay, and of what I saw, it seemed pretty high, especially for a guy that’s 6 foot 6.”

But between Rasmussen’s injury and Andrew Copp being ruled out for Tuesday’s game, the Wings have some concerns at center going forward, as Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen noted:

The news is more definite about Andrew Copp. He won’t accompany the team to Minnesota. He has an upper body injury suffered in the loss Saturday to Minnesota.

“We’ll know more tomorrow,.” McLellan said.

If the Red Wings have two forwards out, they will likely call up a player from Grand Rapids Tuesday morning.

The Red Wings had already juggled their lines because of Copp’s absence Sunday, and they had to do more when Rasmussen left.

“There was a scramble going on,” McLellan said. “I thought J.T. Compher had one of his best games in a while.”

Allen also noted the obvious regarding Lucas Raymond and Dylan Larkin, who didn’t have their “A-games” on Sunday:

Lucas Raymond and Dylan Larkin were both minus-2 against Anaheim.

“I thought Larks looked gassed tonight,” McLellan said. “Razor probably not his best either. (The 4 Nations Faceoff) could be catching up to them.”

Raymond had 2 assists, Larkin 1, and Larkin went 15-and-14 on draws while playing just over 20 minutes.

Regarding the wrap-up, usually, we start with the opponent’s perspective, but, put bluntly, the Ducks’ press doesn’t travel with the team for the most part, and AnaheimDucks.com’s recap doesn’t have any quotes, so we’ll rely on NHL.com’s Dave Hogg for a bit of Anaheim takes, interspersed with Wings remarks…

Patrick Kane scored his second goal of the game with one minute remaining in overtime, and the Detroit Red Wings recovered for a 5-4 win against the Anaheim Ducks at Little Caesars Arena on Sunday.

Kane, who also had an assist, broke free and beat Lukas Dostal for the winning goal after Robby Fabbri and Jackson LaCombe were both unable to convert from the edge of the crease for the Ducks on the other end.

“Obviously, you see a lot in overtime where if there is a chance and they don’t score, it is usually coming back the other way,” Kane said. “(Moritz Seider) and Marco (Kasper) did a great job of getting the puck to me.”

Said Anaheim coach Greg Cronin: “We had an open net and couldn’t put it in. Robby tipped a shot just wide and Jackson played a great game, but if he had waited a second, he could have gone to his backhand and pushed it in.”

The Red Wings led 4-2 in the final three minutes, but the Ducks scored two goals with Dostal pulled for the extra skater to tie it. Olen Zellweger cut it to 4-3 at 17:44 with a slap shot from the point before Cutter Gauthier tied it 4-4 at 19:07 with his second goal of the game.

“We stuck to our game for the full 60 minutes and we needed all 60,” Fabbri said. “It’s tough to come up just a little short.”

…

Ryan Strome also scored for the Ducks (25-24-7), who had won four in a row and seven of their past eight, including a 3-2 overtime win at the Boston Bruins on Saturday. Dostal made 31 saves.

“This was a different brand of hockey than last night in Boston,” Cronin said. “Detroit’s got a lot of speed, a lot of talent and a lot of skill. Any time you give up three power-play goals and get a point, it’s a good point.”

Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff noted that the Wings–or at least their coach–weren’t thrilled with how the team won on Sunday and lost on Saturday, surrendering 3rd period leads…

Good teams don’t get themselves into the kind of scenarios that unfolded for the Red Wings over the weekend. The thing is, these Wings haven’t had much experience at defending leads. Or winning consistently, for that matter.

“We got into a situation similar to (Saturday) where the last three or four minutes we had to play six-on-five,” Detroit coach Todd McLellan said. “It’s pretty evident we have to do a better job. So all six guys, the three forwards, the two defensemen and the goaltender have to do a better job six-on-five. It’s not something you’re able to work on a lot, so maybe we’ll spend a little more time on that. But we also had, I think there was four icings prior to that, three icings and Patty Kane kind of down the ice and open. So we had plenty of opportunities to hit the net and we didn’t. We need to be better.”

The lack of experience was evident everywhere. Three times, defenseman Simon Edvinsson took the puck in the defensive zone on his backhand. You learn in peewee that you aren’t getting the puck out of the zone with a backhand shot.

“Nick Lidstrom, Nik Kronwall, they would say if you can stay on your forehand, you have way more control, more power with it,” McLellan said. “But that’s experience. He’s got to learn those things.”

And even Kane, while discussing his overtime winner, pointed out that the Wings’ fit and finish wasn’t good enough this weekend, as he told the Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan:

“You see it a lot in overtime where if there’s a chance one way and they don’t score, it’s usually going to come back the other way,” Kane said. “Mo (Seider) and Marco did a great job of battling there and getting the puck up to me, seeing me right away, too, behind the defense. It’s nice to get that one. A little better feeling than (Saturday) and get the two points. But definitely have to learn from those situations.”

Anaheim scored twice with the goaltender pulled late in the third period, pulling even 4-4. Olen Zellweger scored on a shot from the high slot at 17:44 of the third period, and Cutter Gauthier scored his second goal of the game, on a backhander, tying the game at 4 with 52.5 seconds left in regulation.

Minnesota did likewise the day before, then scored in overtime to win the game. From that perspective, attempting to defend a late lead, it was a weekend from which the Wings can learn some things.

“We’re happy with the win,” coach Todd McLellan said. “We got into a situation similar to (Saturday) where the last three or four minutes, we have to play six-on-five and it was pretty evident we have to do a better job. All six guys, the three forwards, two defensemen and the goaltender have to do a better job. We need to be better.”

The Wings iced the puck three times late and missed Kane open by himself in the Anaheim zone. The chances were there to put the game away, and the Wings must learn from that.

“We pushed fairly hard in the third period but we couldn’t find that fifth one both nights,” McLellan said. “We couldn’t find the dagger. We threw a lot of darts but couldn’t hit the target and it came back to push us to the limit. We got three out of four points but we’re not happy we gave the one up and we have work to do.”

As per usual, Moritz Seider was the resident optimist, but he offered points for improvement, too:

“We played a solid game in the third period, we had real good chances and stayed away from all the scrums and did a real good job,” Seider said. “We just have to find a way to eliminate those empty net chances. Just a little more composure and try to get the puck out as quick as possible, be in the shooting lanes at all times. We got the two points tonight but we’ll learn and analyze and get better.”

The Hockey News’s Sam Stockton felt that the Wings continued to under-perform in terms of fit-and-finish on both Saturday and then Sunday, in no small part due to being down one and then two centers…

“There was a scramble going on,” said McLellan, when asked about dealing with Copp’s absence and then Rasmussen’s.  “I thought J.T. Compher had one of his best games in a while…I thought when Joey [Veleno] took more responsibility on and moved up, he was good. [Tyler Motte] went in and was real good on the penalty kill, which was a real good sign for us.”

Meanwhile, after Lucas Raymond and Dylan Larkin had been among the most effective Red Wings Saturday afternoon, on Sunday, both showed signs of their international workload during a spell in which their teammates enjoyed a break.  Both Larkin and Raymond appeared weary by the end of the weekend, unable to summon their customary pace and influence over play.

When taken as a two-game set, there is an obvious pattern to Detroit’s weekend, and it’s not an encouraging one: Blown late leads against less-than-elite competition, failed opportunities to put each game out of reach, and two potentially impactful injuries.  However, the Red Wings also skate out of the weekend with three from a possible four points, and whatever lessons need to be learned don’t come at the cost of any major hurt in the standings.

But again, Moritz Seider provided the voice of optimism–and wisdom:

As Seider pointed out after the game, Detroit’s end to the ’23-24 season offered the most painful of lessons in the significance of each point over the course of an 82-game regular season.  “We came really close last year, and we know every single point matters in the long term,” Seider said.  “We gotta prepare every single night to be the dominant team out there, try to create and put our game in their faces and not the other way around, just to give ourselves a chance.”

Update: Or, as Seider told The Athletic’s Max Bultman:

“Every game matters,” Moritz Seider said. “But I mean, that was — right from the start of the season I knew. I think everybody knew. We came really close last year, and we know every single point matters in the long term. Obviously now we’ve got 25 games and we’ve got to prepare every single night to be the dominant team out there. Try to create and put our game in their faces and not the other way around, just to give ourselves a chance to stay in that picture and hopefully gain experience the closer we get to make a push for it.”

Bultman also weighed in on the losses of Rasmussen and Copp:

The Red Wings are left hoping not to be without Rasmussen for long as these games get even tougher and more consequential. Both he and Copp are important players for the Red Wings — and especially in the exact kind of late-game situations Detroit now finds itself needing to hone in on.

They certainly missed them both on Sunday, even while they ultimately emerged with the victory off of another Kane game-winner.

Particularly encouraging was that the play was really created by rookie Marco Kasper, who won a battle behind his own net and then banked a stretch pass off the boards to spring Kane loose. Kasper finished the game with a goal and an assist, as he continues to emerge as a key player in his own right.

If the Red Wings are without Copp and Rasmussen for any amount of time, players such as Kasper may need to step up and do even more to fill the void. That’s already been the case on Detroit’s blue line, where Jeff Petry’s injury created a hole and rookie Albert Johansson has been a revelation in replacing him.

Kasper and Johansson weren’t part of last year’s playoff chase with most of the rest of this group, which means they haven’t yet built up that kind of late-season experience at this level.

But as the key moments start arriving, each one bigger than the last, they — and the rest of the Red Wings — will have to find a way to keep rising to them. Nothing will be slowing down from here.

Ain’t that the truth.

Update #2: Among DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills’ post-game quotes:

Kane on Kasper’s awareness to get him the puck in overtime

“I think you see it a lot in overtime, where if there’s a chance one way and they don’t score it’s usually coming back the other way. I thought Mo and Marco did a great job battling there and getting the puck up to me. Seeing me right away too, behind the D.”

Kane on learning how to hold leads late

“I think just continue playing the way that we’re supposed to. It seems like we’re getting in a little bit of trouble when we sit back a little bit, but I don’t think that was the case tonight. We had plenty of chances to make it 5-2, so sometimes that’s something we can look at too: bearing down on those opportunities. Like Mo said, I think we can be a little bit harder in those 5-on-6 situations with the goalie pulled, whether it’s rimming it hard or winning the battle to get the puck out. Obviously, they got a couple shots through that went in. It happened the last two games in a row, but we can learn from it. I think we’ll definitely be better in those situations going forward.”

Multimedia:

Highlights: NHL.com posted a 10:10 highlight clip:

Sportsnet posted a 10:23 highlight clip:

Sportsnet also posted a 7:23 clip of overtime:

Post-game: Victory+ posted a post-game interview with Anaheim’s Cutter Gauthier:

The Ducks’ website also posted a very quick clip of coach Greg Cronin’s post-game remarks, and a combined clip of Robby Fabbri and Cutter Gauthier’s remarks;

The Red Wings posted a clip of Patrick Kane, Moritz Seider and coach Todd McLellan’s post-game comments:

The Free Press’s Helene St. James also posted a 5:28 clip of Kane, Seider and coach McLellan’s remarks:

Photos: The Free Press posted a 16-image gallery;

The Detroit News posted a 35-image gallery.

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!

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