Red Wings-Predators Tweetcap: pre-Thanksgiving setback to Nashville due to mental mistakes

The Detroit Red Wings attempted to bounce back from Monday night’s loss to New Jersey as they hosted the struggling Nashville Predators on Thanksgiving eve.

In the jam-packed Atlantic Division, every win matters, and as they started a set of 3 games over the course of 4 days, the Wings needed to earn a “W.”

On Wednesday night at Little Caesars Arena, the Red Wings lost, and they lost a WEIRD GAME. Nashville may be last in the league in points, but they’re not last in the league in terms of talent, grit or execution, and all three aspects of their game played into the Red Wings’ 6-3 defeat.

While Michael Bunting would open the scoring at 15:48 of the 1st on the power play, the Wings would answer 5:30 into the 2nd when Alex DeBrincat scored his 12th on the power play, and James van Riemsdyk would add another at 16:34 to give Detroit a 2-1 lead…

And when Nick Blankenburg and Roman Josi scored at 2:05 and 2:20 of the 3rd, Ben Chiarot answered with a fine goal at 3:04…

But at 14:14 of the 3rd, the Wings’ defense got caught all clumped on the right side of Cam Talbot as Ryan O’Reilly hung out near the left goalpost, and he stuffed in a Luke Evangelista pass at 14:14 for a 4-3 lead…

And only 28 seconds later, at 14:42, Erik Haula caught the Wings’ defense stuffed below the goal line, standing at the top of the Wings’ crease, and he stuffed a Filip Forsberg pass past Cam Talbot to make it 5-3.

Steven Stamkos’ goal was an empty-netter, and it gave the Preds the 6-3 win.

Justus Annunen stopped 28 of 31 shots for Nashville; Cam Talbot stopped 21 of 26 for Detroit.

PREGAME: Cam Talbot and Justus Annunen led their respective teams out onto the ice at LCA…

The Predators only announce their starting goaltender…

So we’ll rely on Brooks Bratten for the Preds’ lineup…

And the Red Wings made a roster move before announcing their lineup:

1ST PERIOD:

The Red Wings and Predators dressed the following starters and lineups:

In the milestone from a millstone department…

10:19 into the 1st period, Axel Sandin Pellikka got beaten to the puck by Ozzy Wiesblatt, and the Predators forward ripped a shot off the goalpost behind Cam Talbot, and the rebound stayed out of the net.

That was as Nashville took an 8-4 shot advantage, really out-hustling Detroit as the Wings just seemed to be a step slow and a bit “off” in the defensive zone.

Emmitt Finnie did get a fine pass from Lucas Raymond and stuffed the puck into Annunen on a 2-on-2 rush about 14:30 into the 1st, but Annunen made the save.

PENALTY: At 15:09 of the 1st period, Nate Danielson clipped Filip Forsberg in the face as he completed a check, and that’s high sticking. Nashville went to the PP.

GOAL: Nashville’s Nick Blankenburg ripped a shot through traffic on the power play, and Michael Bunting, standing behind Travis Hamonic, tipped the puck down and it rolled to the right side of Talbot and into the net at 15:48 of the 1st period.

Nashville 1, Detroit 0: Bunting (5) from Blankenburg (6) and Haula (9) at 15:48 1st, PPG.

PENALTY: Alex DeBrincat got a marginal penalty for slashing at 17:34, affording Nashville another power play.

PENALTY: Roman Josi got penalized for hooking Compher at 18:52 of the 1st, giving the teams a 4 on 4 for 43 seconds, and then a power play for Detroit.

Nashville made hay on the 4-on-4, dominating territorially, and when DeBrincat exited the box, he sent a pass to Larkin that could not be corralled.

Larkin managed to generate two shots on Annunen that were superb, but the Wings ended up scoreless on their 1st period portion of their power play.

2ND PERIOD:

The Wings had about 50 seconds of PP time, but they did not score on the power play, and instead, were stifled by Nashville’s defense.

Ken Daniels also informed us that Travis Hamonic was not on the Wings’ bench as of 2:10 into the 2nd, which was not ideal. He would return several minutes later.

PENALTY: Emmitt Finnie was cross-checked by Roman Josi at 4:34, affording Detroit a power play.

Nicholas Hague cross-checked Lucas Raymond, too, but there was no penalty called.

GOAL: Alex DeBrincat would take a set of passes from Lucas Raymond and Dylan Larkin along the left wing half boards, allow Larkin to charge up the middle lane to afford DeBrincat room, and he deked and dangled his way to the slot, where DeBrincat chipped the puck over Annunen.

Nashville 1, Detroit 1: DeBrincat (12) from Larkin (13) and Raymond (18) at 5:30 2nd period, PPG.

PENALTY: At 9:45 of the 2nd period, Moritz Seider was called for tripping Adam Wilsby, who dove.

PENALTY: Steven Stamkos gave James van Riemsdyk a free hand grab, so he sat for holding at 13:35 of the 2nd.

PENALTY: Nick Blankenburg got caught cross-checking Moritz Seider in front of the Wings’ bench at 15:03 of the 2nd. Detroit would have 32 seconds of a 5-on-3.

TIMEOUT: Detroit took timeout at 15:03 of the 2nd.

The 1st unit came back out for the power play, and Larkin tied up the draw, Seider held the line, DeBrincat to Raymond blueline side slid fanned to Kane to Raymond dekes for Seider tipped off a skate out.

Seider slid it up to Raymond over for Larkin for Kane rt wing side sticks for Seider for Kane rt wing half for Seider 1:15 left PP to Larkin for Seider to Larkin walks to Raymond to Kane Kane slides in off the broken stick of DeBrincat…

Seider to Raymond to Seider deep for Larkin for Kane to Danielson circling the net JvR for Kane rt wing 30 left shot stopped rebound GOAL James van Riemsdyk!

GOAL: Off Danielson’s circling of the net, Danielson sent the puck to Kane at the right goalpost, he reversed to James van Riemsdyk in the slot and he jabbed the rebound of his shot over Annunen.

Nashville 1, Detroit 2: James van Riemsdyk (3) from Kane (10) and Danielson (3) at 16:34 of the 2nd period, PPG.

PENALTY: Ben Chiarot for delay of game at 17:11 for puck over glass.

Detroit killed the penalty and Dylan Larkin endured another cross-check to his lower back before the 2nd ended…

With a scrum between the two teams as Ben Chiarot was hit from behind into the Wings’ bench, he retaliated on Svechkov, McCarron came in there to fight Chiarot, and with Seider, DeBrincat, Raymond and company on the ice, of course the Preds’ tougher guys came in to push and shove.

PENALTIES: Ozzy Wiesblatt and Ben Chiarot sat for roughing at 20:00.

3RD PERIOD:

Dylan Larkin was cross-checked by Michael McCarron near the end of the 2nd period, and Larkin left the game and did not return for the 3rd period…

The teams started 4-on-4 as Chiarot and Wiesblatt sat…

GOAL: And Nick Blankenburg skated in behind Johansson and Seider, Patrick Kane could not cover Blankenburg and he deked and dangled past Cam Talbot to make it 2-2 at 2:05 of the 3rd period.

Nashville 2, Detroit 2: Blankenburg (3) from O’Reilly (8) at 2:05 of the 3rd…

GOAL: And Nashville would win a deep defensive zone faceoff and Roman Josi’s initial shot was blocked by Axel Sandin Pellikka, but the puck ripped off Josi over Cam Talbot’s right shoulder at 2:20.

Nashville 3, Detroit 2: Josi (2) from Bunting (8) at 2:20 of the 3rd period.

Nashville 3, Detroit 2: Josi (2) from Bunting (8) at 2:20 of the 3rd period.

GOAL: After J.T. Compher and Mason Appleton ground the puck around the boards from behind the net, Ben Chiarot ripped a point shot through an Elmer Soderblom screen to make it 3-3 at 3:04 of the 3rd period.

Nashville 3, Detroit 3: Chiarot (3) from Appleton (8) and Compher (4) at 3:04 3rd period.

It really became a vicious game throughout, with lots of pushes, shoves, hacks, whacks and so forth as the periods progressed, and the referees became more and more willing to “let stuff go” as the score evened.

GOAL: Frustratingly, Steven Stamkos wrapped around the Wings’ goal, forced Detroit’s defense to cheat toward the right hand side, and O’Reilly hid behind coverage on the left hand side of the goal, chipping the puck over Talbot to make it 4-3 at 14:14…

Nashville 4, Detroit 3: O’Reilly (7) from Evangelista (10) and Stamkos (2) at 14:14 3rd;

GOAL: And Erik Haula snuck to the front of the net as Detroit’s defense all went below the goal line, affording Haula a front-door pass from Filip Forsberg and Jonathan Marchessault at 14:42, giving Nashville a 5-3 lead.

Nashville 5, Detroit 3: Haula (4) from Forsberg (8) and Marchessault (3) at 14:42 3rd.

GOALIE PULL: Talbot exited with 3:57 left in the 3rd.

GOAL: With the Wings playing desperately, Ryan O’Reilly broke away from the Wings’ offensive blueline and fed the puck to Steven Stamkos, who jabbed the puck into the empty net at 18:45 of the 3rd period.

Nashville 6, Detroit 3: Stamkos (5) from O’Reilly (9) and Evangelista (11) at 18:45 of the 3rd. Empty net.

STATISTICS: Here are the Game Summary and Event Summary:

Published by

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!