Red Wings-Blue Jackets wrap-up: despite an unfair Stadium Series ending, Detroit still has the chance to write its own storybook tale

The Detroit Red Wings dropped a 5-3 decision to the Columbus Blue Jackets in the Stadium Series on Saturday night, and this is the biggest reason why Columbus swept the home-and-home series:

No, the Red Wings weren’t good enough to win. When you out-shot-attempt an opponent 84-45 and you’re the one that gives up 5 goals, you got out-goaltended by Elvis Merzlikins.

When you blow a 1-1 tie by giving up 2 2nd period goals in 32 seconds, you’re not on your game defensively.

And when you get beaten twice by the same opponent, that stings, especially when the latter game is on an international stage.

But when the game-winner is Justin Danforth giving Simon Edvinsson a high-stick shave and skating in to score the gamer, and the referees actually consult each other after the goal, and decide that the high-stick never happened en route to the goal, and ESPN’s Dave Jackson says it was fine, and ESPN spends the entire f***ing night talking about the Blue Jackets as the TEAM OF DESTINY, with this goal to punctuate it all…

The Red Wings play 3 games in 4 nights starting on Tuesday, hosting Carolina, then Utah Hockey Club on Thursday, and then flying to Washington to battle the Capitals on Trade Deadline Friday…And I sure hope that they can move on, because I’m not moving on any time soon.

Coach McLellan is of course moving on…

But the players aren’t yet:

It was gush, gush, gush for the Blue Jackets from the media all weekend long, and gush, gush, gush after the game, predictably so. You’d think that the Blue Jackets and the city of Columbus walk on water and turn that water into wine:

And the Red Wings’ captain…Is a captain. Per the Free Press’s Helene St. James, Larkin kept the Gaudreau family close by, even after the Red Wings honored Johnny and Matthew Gaudreau prior to the game:

“I would like to say — we just lost to those guys twice, but what those guys have been through, knowing Zach (Werenski) personally — they’ve been through the ringer,” Larkin said. “This city, this night, was special and I hope Mr. and Mrs. Gaudreau had something to smile about tonight.”

Larkin went a step further: The Wings (30-24-6, 66 points) had just dropped behind the Blue Jackets (68 points) in the playoff race, flipping places in the two Eastern Conference wild-card spots.

“I want both of our teams in the playoffs,” Larkin said. “I think those guys have quite the story going right now. Sometimes it’s bigger than the game and those guys are doing something that I tip my cap to and can appreciate.”

Of course, for the Blue Jackets, everything was coming up roses in Ohio Stadium, or, as I’ve been told it’s called, “The Horseshoe,” as NHL.com’s Dan Rosen noted…

“Definitely knew this day was going to be special but I was still blown away,” Blue Jackets captain Boone Jenner said. “Coming here today with the pep rally, the fans outside the stadium already, the walk in and then seeing the crowd in warmup — I mean warmup was pretty much sold out. I knew Columbus was going to show up and they did. What an atmosphere. What an experience for us. A great day.”

The Blue Jackets and Red Wings played in front of the second-largest crowd to attend an NHL game, behind the 105,491 that were at Michigan Stadium for the 2014 Winter Classic between the Red Wings and Toronto Maple Leafs on Jan. 1, 2014.

“This night was definitely my favorite night so far that I’ve played,” Merzlikins said. “It was amazing. Seriously, amazing.”

The Blue Jackets (30-22-8) have won four games in a row, the past two coming against Detroit, and moved two points ahead of the Red Wings for the first wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference.

“Since the break, the pace of play has upped and a lot of guys are stepping up,” Columbus forward Mathieu Olivier said. “You add the Stadium Series to that, the in-season series against the Wings, it was like the perfect storm and obviously quite a magical moment tonight.”

But then there was this part…

67 seconds [after Kane’s goal] Danforth fought off Simon Edvinsson for the puck, possibly getting away with a high stick, and scored off his own rebound to give the Blue Jackets a 4-3 lead.

“Probably the highlight of my career,” Danforth said.

Adam Fantilli scored an empty-net goal at 18:52 for the 5-3 final.

“Fantastic,” Merzlikins said. “It’s a dream come true.”

Yeah. Possibly.

But wait, there’s more, from Danforth himself, per NHL.com’s Craig Merz, who was tasked with profiling the “unlikely hero“…

Maybe it was fitting that Danforth (5-foot-8, 188 pounds) was the one who got the Blue Jackets back on track after blowing a two-goal lead in the third period.

But whereas Gaudreau (5-9, 163 pounds) was all about skill, Danforth is more of a grinder, an attribute which led forward Mathieu Olivier to describe him as “a little pit bull out there.”

“He’s such a huge part of our group and obviously our line. He centers it,” Olivier added. “He’s kind of the backbone of it, and he doesn’t get as much credit as he should, but he’s a real important piece to our team, and I couldn’t be happier for him to get that moment, especially on this big of a stage.”

On Danforth’s goal, which gave Columbus a 4-3 lead, he split between defensemen Albert Johansson and Simon Edvinsson while entering the offensive zone. Danforth’s stick caught Edvinsson in the face, but he continued with the play and scored on his own rebound near the right post.

The officials would huddle following the goal but the call stood.

“I was hoping that they made the right call, and I haven’t seen it, but I felt like it was just a battle and that’s what happened,” Danforth said.

Said Blue Jackets coach Dean Evason: “It could go either way, obviously. I’m sure if we’re on the other end we’ll be speaking to it.”

I’m not going to speak to whether the Hockey Gods were involved in the Blue Jackets’ win, or whether it’s somehow appropriate that Danforth got a “Gaudreau goal” or whatnot…

But the referees made a bullshit non-call, and that’s my subjective truth. And reading ColumbusBlueJackets.com’s Jeff Svoboda’s inspirational tale of Danforth’s goal makes me all the more certain:

Zach Aston-Reese flipped the puck off the wall and high out of the CBJ defensive zone, with Danforth chasing it into the neutral zone. Red Wings defensemen Albert Johansson and Simon Edvinsson were there to seemingly field it with a fair catch, but Danforth had other plans. When the puck hit the ice and bounced over the blue line, Danforth got his stick underneath Edvinsson’s and muscled him away.

Danforth may have gotten away with a high stick as his blade appeared to catch Edvinsson up high, but no whistle was made, and the CBJ center tracked down the puck and suddenly had a key look on goalie Cam Talbot.

The Detroit netminder made the first save, but Danforth had the presence of mind to follow his own rebound, drag it to the forehand and quickly put the puck past Talbot to set off another massive cannon concussion in the stadium.

“I can’t even explain it,” Danforth said when asked to describe how the emotion of the moment felt when he scored. “Honestly, it took over everything. Just very loud. A lot of emotion involved. It was a fun one, probably the highest of my career at that point. Yeah, it’s awesome.”

Danforth did more than just score the winning goal, as well. He had a team-high six hits, including a third-period shoulder check on Elmer Soderblom that left the 6-8 forward needing medical attention. Danforth was also a key part of the battle behind the net that led to Olivier’s goal late in the second period that made it 3-1.

But really, how can you beat a game-winning goal with two minutes to go in front of more than 90,000 people?

I don’t care. And I don’t care if that makes me sound bitter or pissed off, because I’m both.

The Red Wings were honest about the situation while speaking with the Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan…

What peeved the Wings, though, on the eventual game-winning goal, was an apparent high stick by Danforth on Edvinsson as Danforth was driving his way through. The referees believed Edvinsson was falling into the stick.

“Crazy play, crazy call, a penalty right in front of him (referee) and they score the game-winner,” captain Dylan Larkin said. “That’s a tough one. They said Simon was falling down and going into the stick. That’s the explanation I got. It’s a stick in the face, but we still have two guys and you’d like to make the play, but we didn’t make the play and they scored. We didn’t even get a point and that’s a tough one, especially clawing our way back in that game.”

The Blue Jackets moved ahead of the Wings in the wild card standings (68-66 points), with Boston and Ottawa two points behind the Wings for the final spot.

Saturday’s performance was a significant rebound after Thursday’s debacle, but coach Todd McLellan said the Wings still have some learning to do.

“We played a hell of a game when you think of the type of game we played (Thursday),” McLellan said. “The response we got, we were aggressive, but in the end we have to learn how to win those games and not lose them, and that’s what we did. Our team has work to do. Sometimes we just play the game. We have to manage the game and learn how to win in those situations. We played well enough to win but we have to work to do as far as managing it.”

McLellan didn’t get into the possible missed penalty on Danforth’s goal.

“It should have never been in that situation, not with the two defensemen back there,” McLellan said.

Patrick Kane agreed with his coach…

“Absolutely,” said Kane, as to whether the Wings deserved a better fate. “We followed our game plan, to shoot a lot of pucks (the Wings outshot Columbus 46-21) and get a lot on the net. Anything can happen in this type of environment and it comes down to one play here or there. Sometimes you have to make winning plays at the right time. Game management the last couple of games, maybe wasn’t our best but tonight we played well, probably deserved better.”

Kane continued while speaking with NHL.com’s David Satriano…

“Tonight, I thought we played pretty well,” said Kane, who had a goal and two assists. “The compete was there, energy was there, you could tell we were going to come back. … The vibes were great, but just didn’t get done. So obviously, we need to be better in those like game-winning type situations to make a play here or there, play it safe and make sure we’re at least getting a point in those situations, especially when you come back. It’s almost even more disheartening to lose that way.”

The Red Wings have lost four of six (2-3-1) following a seven-game winning streak and are hoping it’s not a repeat of last season, when they lost 15 of their final 23 games — including losing streaks of seven and four games — and missed the playoffs for the eighth straight season. They finished tied with the Washington Capitals in points but had fewer regulation wins, which was the tiebreaker.

“It’s tough. Everybody knows how important those points [are]. It [stinks],” Detroit defenseman Simon Edvinsson said. “It was a great setup by Ohio, NHL, Columbus. What a game it was. Of course we wanted to get out of here with two points. Not today. It didn’t happen.”

Kane said he was happy with the effort, which could help the Red Wings’ confidence moving forward, but it was difficult not to earn at least one point.

“There was great vibes tonight on the bench, even down 3-1,” Kane said. “We get ourselves in that situation, that just builds confidence that we can come back if we’re down one, two, three goals, that we can come back in those situations and tie it up. Obviously would have loved to get at least a point tonight. But like I said, it comes down to play here or there. Obviously they made one.”

With 22 games left, the Red Wings are hoping that the two-game slide will not extend to three. They next play Tuesday, when they host the Carolina Hurricanes.

“I think we know we can come back,” DeBrincat said. “And obviously, we did, and a weird bounce and weird play ends up in the back of our net. But we’ve had stretches that we’ve played very good. I thought for most of the game, we played well too. … We’ve got to regroup and come back ready to play (on Tuesday). It would have been better with a win, but [it’s] something I’ll remember, and a lot of fun out there. … It was a cool experience.”

Weird bounce. Okay.

The captain could only shrug his shoulders after a strong rebound performance, given Thursday’s “off” game…

“We’ve been here before, and there’s experience that we gained through that,” Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin said. “I said it yesterday: We control our own destiny. And we played well. We deserve better. We get back in the game. We got to find a way. … And that’s a tough one, tough for us.”

Coach McLellan agreed, as he told Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen:

“You’d love to end that story by saying, ‘Oh, by the way, we won and we can’t do that now,’” McLellan said.

…

“I thought we played a hell of a game,” McLellan said. “When you think of the type of game we played two nights ago in Detroit and the response that we got, we were aggressive, but at the end of the day, we have to learn how to win those games and not lose them.”

The Red Wings played well and lost on Saturday after playing one of the worst games under McLellan on Thursday.

“And what did I see?” McLellan said. “It’s hard to complain about the effort and the drive and the response, but yet the game management and the impatience sometimes of our team can come back to bite us.”

“There’s a huge difference between playing on your toes and being aggressive and being impatient,” McLellan said. “And I thought we got a little impatient at times tonight and it made us feel pain.”

For the present moment, the Wings can take some extra strength Tylenol, but they’ve got to be their own painkillers here. Detroit out-attempted Columbus eighty-four to forty-five, and on a night like that, when DeBrincat has 6 shots and 11 attempts, you should win the bloody game by scoring six or more goals on your opponent.

For whatever reason, the Wings couldn’t or wouldn’t do that, not on Thursday, and not on Saturday.

So yeah, the loss is on them, first and foremost.

But the call was still bullshit, and none of us have to forgive or forget any time soon.

I do wonder, as The Athletic’s Max Bultman did, whether these pair of losses will affect what happens between now and 3 PM on Friday, March 7th…

Detroit entered this two-game set with a chance to put distance between itself and the Blue Jackets — and the rest of that crowded Eastern field — with a pair of wins, and instead it finds itself highly vulnerable. Its remaining schedule is the toughest in the league, and 13 of its final 22 games are on the road, including five of its final six.

That’s a tough position for general manager Steve Yzerman to be in with the trade deadline looming Friday. Last year, in a similar spot, the Red Wings largely sat out the deadline, trading away depth forward Klim Kostin and otherwise leaning on their internal depth down the stretch.

Edvinsson was the key call-up, and he played well, giving himself a springboard to a major role this season. There isn’t an Edvinsson-level call-up available to the Red Wings this time around, but, notably, Carter Mazur is back from an early-season injury and picking up steam for AHL Grand Rapids. The gritty 22-year-old winger has four goals in his last three games and 9 points in his last eight. He was also a force in last year’s AHL playoffs. Could he be a factor for Detroit down the stretch?

If there is a trade addition to be made, the most logical would be on defense, where Detroit is thin. A veteran upgrade there would make sense, and Detroit has an extra third-round pick in the 2025 draft.

At the same time, that kind of move might have been easier to make if Detroit had a firmer grasp on a playoff spot. We’ll see how Yzerman decides to play this one.

In my book, the Red Wings need to add one more gritty forward–preferably a center–and a depth defender who is better than including William Lagesson in every warmup just in case somebody’s banged-up and can’t play.

I also agree with Bultman that these losses aren’t nearly as brutal as the pair of home-and-home stinkers the Wings gave up a year ago at this time to Ottawa, which cemented the Wings’ status as sellers, but I don’t want to see GMSY or any of the Wings’ management team make a foolhardy gamble on a rental player with assets that can be better-managed over the long term.

In other words, if it takes high picks and/or important prospects to get a deal done, stand pat, Mr. Yzerman.

For now.

But please, please, please, as Ken Holland might say, keep kicking those tires in the interim.

Because this team and this fan base and this town, Metropolitan Area and state deserve some effing playoff hockey at Little Caesars Arena, sooner than later.

Tonight sucked.

And for the rest of the season, the Red Wings are skating uphill. The schedule ahead really is brutal. Back-to-backs. 3-in-4’s, with travel. The Canes (three times), the Caps (twice), the Sens (twice), the Panthers (twice), Vegas (twice), Utah (twice), then the Bolts, the Leafs, the Stars, the spoiler Habs, the Devils…

It’s ugly. The Wings play 22 games over 45 nights, which is a game every other night plus one day, and 13 of those 22 games are on the road. 4 sets of back-to-backs on top of it all.

And it’d be nice to read this shit stop (per NHL.com’s Shawn P. Roarke):

The Blue Jackets are the best story in hockey, maybe all of sports, and they displayed it to a national TV audience in compelling fashion Saturday.

Hopefully, people took notice.

“The Columbus Blue Jackets know who we are at this point,” Columbus coach Dean Evason said. “We know that if we play the way we play, we are going to give ourselves a chance to win every night. You are not going to. This is an incredible league. But we’ve set a standard for ourselves in how we play. This team, all they care about is the two points at the end of the night. … They just play for each other, and I think that shows in our game.”

The Red Wings have taken notice. Columbus beat them in two distinct ways during the past 48 hours. Thursday, in Detroit, they were the better team from start to finish in a 5-2 win. Saturday, they scratched and clawed, blowing the lead twice, including allowing the goal that tied it at 3-3 with 3:24 remaining in the game.

“They are having fun playing the game and when you are having fun playing the game, it comes easier,” Red Wings coach Todd McLellan said. “I think their staff has done a tremendous job of putting structure in play and the belief system is strong. You put those three things together and you give yourself a chance to win. … I think Columbus has it right now.”

Yeah, eff that, and eff the Blue Jackets.

I’m tired of the other guy being “the best story in hockey, maybe all of sports,” and I hope the Red Wings are, too.

The games are over. Columbus won both of them, fairly or unfairly. And now it’s time to get ready for Carolina, Utah and Washington, starting when the Wings hit the ice for practice on Monday.

They get tomorrow off. So do we. Gord knows we all need it to rest and recharge.

But then we move forward, all of us, hopefully together.

And did I mention that the fact that the Wings have a 2-1-and-2 outdoor record belies the fact that they have only played in one outdoor home game, which seems a little “off” to me?

Let’s talk about that another day, too.

We’ll wrap things up with this from DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills’ 2 AM-posted recap:

“Prior to the game, we talked about whatever the result was going to be, as long as we had a good effort, we should cherish what we just went through here,” Detroit head coach Todd McLellan said. “It’s a really unique experience. It was an incredible night. Well done to the League, city of Columbus. Obviously, the Blue Jackets deserve a lot of credit for the way they put this game on. It was real smooth and first class all the way through.

“I think the fans got a hell of a game to watch, and we’ll all tell those stories 10 years from now, but you’d love to end that story by saying, ‘Oh, by the way, we won.’ We can’t do that now. Hopefully, some of us get another chance to play in this and we can finish the story that way. I think we played well enough to win, but we have work to do as far as managing it.”

With the loss, the Red Wings (30-24-6; 66 points) watched the Blue Jackets (30-22-8; 68 points) jump two points ahead of them for the Eastern Conference’s first Wild-Card spot.

“It’s hard to come back in this league,” said Alex DeBrincat, who scored twice for his fourth multi-goal and 12th multi-point game of the season. “Obviously, puck bounces, outdoor game. It is what it is. We got to regroup and come back on Tuesday stronger.”

This is where we stop:

“I got a stick in the face,” Edvinsson said. “I won’t say anything more about that. It’s a decision [the referees] made.”

Multimedia:

Highlights: NHL.com posted a 10:13 highlight clip:

Sportsnet posted a 10:22 highlight clip:

Post-game: NBC4 Columbus posted Blue Jackets coach Dean Evason’s post-game press conference…

And Boone Jenner and Elvis Merzlikins’ post-game pressers:

The Free Press’s Helene St. James posted a 12:18 clip of Dylan Larkin, Alex DeBrincat, Simon Edvinsson, Patrick Kane and coach Todd McLellan’s post-game comments:

WXYZ’s Brad Galli filed a 1:29 post-game report:

It took a while, but the Wings posted their post-game clip as well:

Photos:The Free Press posted a 41-image gallery;

The Detroit News posted a 40-image gallery;

Reuters posted a 120-image gallery;

The Columbus Dispatch posted a 96-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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