Red Wings-Golden Knights Tweetcap: Detroit’s shut out despite Gibson’s best game as a Wing (thus far)

The NHL’s schedule-makers saved the Red Wings’ biggest challenge for last in terms of difficulty of opponent for the team’s 5-game road trip.

On Tuesday night, the Red Wings headed into T-Mobile Arena to battle the powerhouse Vegas Golden Knights, with the Red Wings hoping to earn 4 of a possible 6 wins while battling Jack Eichel and Vegas’ plucky hockey team.

On Tuesday evening, Detroit would not beat the Vegas Golden Knights, but John Gibson’s 32-save performance ensured that the Wings weren’t run out of the building, either.

Vegas would take a 1-0 lead at 13:45 of the 2nd period, with Ivan Barbashev scoring a gorgeous backhand goal over Gibson’s blocker side, but in a game that was full of pulls, tugs and holds and not many power plays (Detroit had 2; Vegas had 1), the Red Wings struggled to battle the layers with which Vegas defends, Akira Schmid deserves credit for the 24-save shutout, and Detroit was just both too indecisive in the offensive zone and too turnover-prone south of the offensive blueline in order to secure a victory.

The fact that Detroit only won 32% of their 69 faceoffs didn’t help, and the Wings’ few power plays were lackadaisical and involved too much lateral passing instead of north-south, net-front hockey.

So the Red Wings head home with 3 of 5 and 6 of a possible 10 points, and Detroit will host the New York Rangers on Friday night and Chicago on Sunday.

PREGAME: Akira Schmid and John Gibson led their respective teams onto the ice at T-Mobile Arena…

Vegas announces its lineup via emojis, so we’re going to go with Red Wings play-by-play announcer Ken Kal to reveal Vegas’ player personnel machinations:

As I said, emojis:

Anyway, the Red Wings posted their lineup a few minutes before the start of the game:

1ST PERIOD:

The teams dressed the following starters and lineups:

PENALTY: Jonatan Berggren was tripped by Brayden McNabb at 10:23 of the 1st period, affording Detroit its first power play.

PENALTY: Lucas Raymond was called for slashing at 11:18, giving the teams a 1:06 4-on-4 and then a 54-second PP for Vegas. The Wings’ 1st unit did NOT look very good against Vegas’ penalty-killers.

The Red Wing killed the penalty, and they got off to a good start, but Vegas really began to come in waves, and that was not ideal. The fact that the puck was bouncing in and out of John Gibson’s glove on a regular basis didn’t help, but he was making the saves and sealing the rebounds, which was enough for one period of play.

2ND PERIOD

The Red Wings had a really shaky start to the 2nd period, but they held their own as Vegas pressed for the opening goal, with Reilly Smith getting loose all alone in front of the Wings’ goal. John Gibson made a big stop there.

Just before the 8:00 mark of the 2nd period, however, Lucas Raymond got the Red Wings’ first good chance of the 2nd period, hitting the right goalpost behind Akira Schmid, on a set of passes from Moritz Seider and Dylan Larkin…

GOAL: Ivan Barbashev was able to jab the rebound of a Brandon Saad shot away from John Gibson’s slot only a couple inches from the Wings’ goaltender, and Barbashev took the puck and roofed it blocker side on his backhand to make it 1-0 Vegas at 13:45 of the 2nd period.

Vegas 1, Detroit 0: Barbashev (4) from Saad (2) and Lauzon (3) at 13:45 2nd period.

Vegas almost scored a 2-0 goal some 17:27 into the 2nd period, but Gibson was able to keep the puck out through his legs after Ben Chiarot and Axel Sandin Pellikka got crossed up and the Golden Knights, who were relentlessly forechecking at the time, pulled another puck out of the corner and into Detroit’s slot.

3RD PERIOD:

The Golden Knights were riding high on their horse as the 3rd period began, but Alex DeBrincat managed to send a pair of shots of the difficult variety Akira Schmid’s way, and at the other end, Gibson made a fine stop on a tipped shot with that thus-far-shaky glove.

PENALTY: Colton Sissons was finally called for tripping at 9:38 of the 3rd period, giving Detroit a very necessary power play.

Regrettably, the Wings couldn’t win a faceoff to save their lives, and the Vegas Golden Knights both attacked and defended in waves, so Detroit never got any really good chances on Schmid.

GOAL? Jeremy Lauzon scored on assists from Brett Howden and Mitch Marner at 15:06 of the 3rd period…

NO GOAL: But Detroit challenged the marker for offside, and Howden was not in control of the puck as he skated over the Red Wings’ blueline.

1:40 left 3rd: GOALIE PULL: Detroit pulled John Gibson in order to push for a game-tying marker with a 6th attacker, but Detroit was unable to get many chances on Akira Schmid due to the Vegas Golden Knights’ checking (and grabbing on occasion), and that was that.

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!