Updated 2x at 10:03 AM: The Detroit Red Wings’ 6-3 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs included two late empty-net goals from Detroit, so the game’s result didn’t necessarily reflect the tight nature of last night’s win.
This morning, MLive’s Ansar Khan offers us his with-quotes recap…
Coach Todd McLellan and players believe this is the team they are – or least the team they can be – not the one that looked ill-prepared two nights earlier.
“We didn’t roll over and, you know, woe-is-us type attitude,” McLellan said. “We dug in a little bit more. That’s a really good sign for us. I just thought we played with more pop and more energy. We were connected. I think that team knows it can play that way. I believe they were all mad and really disappointed in what transpired the other night (5-1 loss Thursday). But now they got rewarded for fixing it and for doing the work, and we’ve got to bottle that type of game up and continue on with it.”
Despite trailing 2-0 at the first intermission, the Red Wings weren’t “shell-shocked” as Dylan Larkin put it, like they were when they were down 3-1 to the Canadiens after 20 minutes.
“It speaks volumes of the group with what we went through the past couple days … to bounce back and come out of the second up 3-2,” Patrick Kane said. “It’s two games into the season, but we proved we can turn the corner when we face that adversity.”
Kane also spoke honestly to Khan regarding the team’s mood when it was still down 2-0 in the 1st period:
“The vibes weren’t great in here, but I think just keeping it positive was huge,” Kane said. “And we have a good group in here that can compete with anyone. Being down 2-0, playing through that adversity, finding a way to get the first one and really turn the corner in the second period was a good feeling for everyone.”
In Swedish-language news, Lucas Raymond spoke with Aftonbladet’s Per Bjurman “after the final whistle”…
“Yes, it was a good win after a tough start to the game, when we didn’t get up to our normal standard,” Lucas Raymond said as we reach him after the final signal.
“It’s nice that we can first turn 0-2 deficit and then also close out the game.”
Lucas contributed with his first two-pointer of the season. 14:55 into the second period he scored the 2-2 goal finishing passing from Dylan Larkin right at the Leafs’ net, and on a powe rplay 06:45 into third he clapped with a direct shot in what would turn out to be the game-deciding 4-3 goal.
“It’s always fun to score goals,” says the hero laconically.
On Toronto’s endlessly over-reacting sports talk radio scene, TSN 1050 suggested that Todd McLellan went absolutely nuts after Thursday’s game in an unprecedented tirade–an over-dramatic Friday-timed reaction to coach McLellan calling out his team if there ever was one…
But this morning, The Athletic’s Max Bultman argues that McLellan’s approach has its merits…
“I actually asked a couple, maybe three or four players, like, ‘Are we tired of this yet?’” McLellan said Friday morning. “And they were longtime Red Wings. They didn’t come from other organizations. Just, you know, when is enough, enough, to play sloppy like that? And I wasn’t blaming those players, I wasn’t saying, ‘Hey it’s your fault.’ But it has to have an impact on those guys. They’ve got to be sitting in there going, ‘OK, enough already.’ But if those four start, or five start, and make a difference, the rest will follow. And I’m hoping that will happen.”
McLellan didn’t name any names, but the math on the number of “longtime Red Wings” who “didn’t come from other organizations” makes it pretty easy to narrow down.
More to the point, though, was the challenge itself. It’s not that anyone is under the impression nights like Thursday didn’t bother the Red Wings. But the message was about urgency. About nipping problems in the bud before they grow. About taking agency and ownership. And it was received.
“Obviously we’ve been through a lot,” Moritz Seider said Saturday morning. “I think ever since we got here, it was never OK to lose, but you kind of adjust to it. Maybe don’t have the team for it, and you know you’re in the rebuild process. Now, I think it’s the time to kind of show up, and that’s exactly what we need to do. … And I think he said it at the right time. I think it’s time for us to just get another gear going, and just show who we truly are.”
…
The underlying message of McLellan’s challenge was that this team can be better than it’s been. That it should already be. And that the time for falling back on progress is over.
It’s a stark contrast from some past messaging around this team — even from general manager Steve Yzerman — and it’s well-timed, in a season where Detroit once again isn’t being picked to make the playoffs, but also can’t afford to accept that as an outcome. Not in the big picture, and not in the form of a slow start. Certainly not in the form of Thursday’s loss, when avoidable mental lapses, defensive breakdowns and turnovers cost the Red Wings two early points against a divisional (and possible wild card) rival.
“We’ve been in situations a couple years in a row now where it’s come down to the end,” Raymond said. “Where the margins are very thin. And it’s about getting off to a good start, putting ourselves in a good position, and getting good habits. We’ve got all the tools in this locker room and around us to be a really good hockey team, and we have the confidence to have it as well.”
Meanwhile, the Maple Leafs offered a little “bulletin board” material by suggesting that a rebuilding, lesser team had very little to do with the game’s outcome, as The Athletic’s Jonas Siegel noted:
It all came undone for the Leafs in the second period. Three unanswered goals for the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday, two of them of the back-door variety, the other a wide-open look from the right faceoff circle. A whole whack of time spent defending, chasing around the Wings. Little time, conversely, spent on offence.
“We stopped getting pucks in deep. We stopped hunting them on the forecheck. We kinda just sat back and let them walk all over us,” Anthony Stolarz said afterward. “It’s a lesson for us. We have to come to play every night. It doesn’t matter who you’re playing.”
Head coach Craig Berube concurred.
“We beat ourselves in my opinion,” Berube said of the 3-6 loss to Detroit.
“It doesn’t matter who you’re playing.” add an even Detroit to that comment and you’ve got a hell of a motivating statement for the Red Wings to lean upon going into Monday’s 2 PM-starting rematch at Scotiabank Arena (2 PM because Monday is Canadian Thanksgiving, the game airs on Prime Video in Canada, and the Blue Jays’ playoff game against Seattle starts on 5 PM).
Sweeping the home-and-home series vs. Toronto wouldn’t hurt the Red Wings’ confidence after salvaging Saturday night’s game, and even taking one point from the Leafs on a home game designed to make Canadian fans happy would earn Detroit a 3-point holiday weekend.
Given that the Red Wings will play Toronto on Monday, and then the Florida Panthers, Tampa Bay Lightning and Edmonton Oilers over the next 7 days, you take the points where you can get ’em, even if you are the Detroit Red Wings. Or coach “meltdown” McLellan.
Update: the Hockey News’s David Alter offers more comments from Anthony Stolarz regarding the Red Wings’ naughty net-front tactics:
Stolarz was not only busy, but the Red Wings crashed the goaltender several times, leading the goaltender to have a discussion about the lack of penalty calls and an exchange with Dylan Larkin here the goalie hacked at the Detroit star in retaliation.
After the game, Stolarz was asked about what went wrong in addition to several other issues in the game.
“We stopped getting pucks in deep. Stopped hunting them on the forecheck, and we kind of just sat back and kind of let them walk all over us,” Stolarz said. “I think we have to you look at that first period, you know, we were all over them, two goals, a little high and then, you know, their team after their first game, and I imagine that period got reamed out, so we knew that they were going to be coming.”
Did you see more backdoor stuff from Detroit at your net?
“Yeah, I mean, they have some offensive skills, so they’re going to try to work in the zone and try to do some interchanges, some crisscrosses, and just try to find those seams that those guys are sitting in those quiet areas.”
Frustrating that Detroit was able to crash the next consistently?
“I mean, for me, it’s something I kind of get used to. I mean, I’m 6’6″, so teams are going to want to crash me and run me because they know I can see the puck and I can see over them. So it’s just about battling. That’s, I think, one of my best traits is just going out there and competing when the puck’s in the blue paint there. So you’ve got to respect what they’re doing. They’re trying to play hard, play a hard-nosed game, and it’s up to me and everyone else when the puck’s there and loose in front, just battle.”
“There were stretches there where they had a lot of zone time. How exhausting was tonight’s game?
“It was, you know, you get a couple shifts there, but we had a couple shifts where we were heading down, so, you know, the TV timeouts helped. But, at the end of the day, it’s a lesson for us. We have to come to play every night, and it doesn’t matter who you’re playing. You know, teams in this league are good, and anyone can beat anyone at any given night.”
Naughty boys…
Update #2: The Hockey News’s Michael Whitaker took note of comments made by Lucas Raymond and Patrick Kane…about each other:
Red Wings forward Patrick Kane, who scored Detroit’s initial go-ahead goal in the second period, had no shortage of praise for Raymond in the dressing room following the game.
“I think he’s just progressing every day, every game. Each year I’ve been here, he just gets better and better,” Kane said of Raymond. “The thing you love about him is that he wants to be the best. He puts the work in, whether its during practice or off the ice. He’s always finding ways to better himself, so he’s been really impressive since I’ve been here.”
Raymond said that while he wasn’t initially aware that his second goal was his 100th career tally, it’s always fun to light the lamp and he has no intention of slowing down.
“It’s fun, obviously. I didn’t know about it, but it’s cool, you know. You don’t take that stuff for granted, and it’s always fun to score. I’d like to keep that going.”
When asked what he thinks of such high praise from a bonafide Hall of Fame player like Kane, Raymond instead talked about what Kane’s presence and leadership means to the club as a whole.
“It’s fun, Kaner is huge for us, not just the stuff everyone sees on the ice but off the ice with his leadership,” he said. “It’s fun to see the work he puts in every day, and it’s great for young guys to come in and just be able to watch a guy like that. I remember when he came in, that was what stood out for me right away.”
