Author: George Malik

The Detroit Red Wings are coming off a 4-3 overtime victory over the Buffalo Sabres, and they will get right back at ‘er on Sunday, using that “extra hour” of time* to prepare for a home engagement against the Vegas Golden Knights (6 PM EST start on Bally Sports Detroit/ATT Sportsnet Rocky Mountain/97.1 FM).

The Red Wings now stand at 5-5-and-2 after 12 games of play, and Vegas enters tonight’s game at 6-and-5, having won 5 of their past 6 games. This will be the first meeting of the season between the teams, who will meet again on November 18th in Sin City.

Vegas rallied from a 2-0 deficit and a 20-to-1 shot deficit to win a 5-2 decision over the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday night, and Laurent Broissoit is scheduled to start opposite Thomas Greiss tonight as Robin Lehner stopped 36 Montreal shots on Saturday.

Absent a morning skate for both teams, most likely, we’ll examine Vegas’s win over the Canadiens, which was a rematch of last Spring’s Stanley Cup Semifinal.

In terms of video highlights, for those of you who are visual learners, here are Sportsnet’s Vegas-Montreal highlights…

The Detroit Red Wings may or may not have earned their 4-3 overtime victory over the Buffalo Sabres, but they took it nonetheless, and coming into Saturday night’s tilt 0-3-and-1, sometimes you have to just take those “unearned” victories and run with them.

Detroit comes home for a 4-game home stand that begins tonight against the Vegas Golden Knights (6 PM EST on Bally Sports Detroit/ATT Sportsnet Rocky Mountain/97.1 FM). Vegas rallied from a 2-0 deficit and a 20-to-1 shot deficit in their first period vs. Montreal to take the Canadiens 5-2 on Saturday, so it will be interesting to see who comes out and takes Sunday’s affair.

As far as Saturday’s effort is concerned, Detroit rallied from a 3-1 third period deficit on the strength of a pair of Tyler Bertuzzi markers, and Moritz Seider’s game-winning OT goal was his first…

But if the Red Wings had not received fine goaltending from Alex Nedeljkovic, who stopped 29 shots, I’m not sure we would have seen the Wings recover after Pius Suter’s first-shift goal was buried by 2 2nd period goals scored in 1:04, and a 3rd period-marker by a man whose name is legally spelled Arttu Ruotsalainen.

Lucas Raymond had a game of his own, assisting on 3 of the Wings’ 4 goals; Bertuzzi added a helper for a 4-point night, and the pairing of Nick Leddy and Filip Hronek played close to (and over) 25 minutes, so Detroit may have found a 1A/1B pairing on defense…

And the Sabres, who were without several of their own marquee names, sounded quite a lot like the Red Wings in their assessments of Saturday night’s loss, as the Buffalo News’s Lance Lysowski noted:

Of prospect-related note in North America on Saturday:

In the ECHL, the Toledo Walleye held their home opener on Saturday, and Red Wings prospect Kaden Fulcher stopped 22 shots en route to a 6-0 Walleye shutout over the Kalmazoo K-Wings.

The Walleye’s website and the Toledo Blade’s Mark Monroe provide recaps, and the Walleye also posted a highlight clip and an interview with Fulcher:

Elsewhere, in the QMJHL, Jan Bednar stopped 29 of 31 shots as the Acadie-Bathurst Titan won 3-2 over Halifax;

Oscar Plandowski finished at -1 with 3 shots in the Charlottetown Islanders’ 4-3 win over Blainville-Boisbriand;

In the OHL, Pasquale Zito did not play in the Windsor Spitfires’ 3-2 win over Erie;

In the WHL, Sebastian Cossa was the back-up in the Edmonton Oil Kings’ 3-2 win over Calgary;

Cross Hanas finished even with 3 shots as his Portland Winterhawks lost 3-1 to the Vancouver Giants, who did not have Alex Cotton in the lineup;

In the BCHL, Kienan Draper had an assist, finishing even with a penalty taken in the Chilliwack Chiefs’ 4-3 loss to Powell River;

And in NCAA Hockey, Carter Gylander was the back-up in the Colgate Raiders’ 5-1 loss to the Harvard Crimson. Kyle Aucoin finished at +1 for Harvard;

Chase Bradley finished even with 4 shots in the UConn Huskies’ 3-2 win over Maine;

Sam Stange finished at -1 in the University of Wisconsin Badgers’ 4-1 loss to Minnesota;

Ethan Phillips had an assist, finishing at +1 with 1 shot in the Boston University Terriers’ 6-2 loss to Northern Michigan University. Robert Mastrosimone finished at +1 with 1 shot;

Red Savage finished at –1 with a 5-for-18 faceoff record in the Miami of Ohio Redhawks’ 4-1 loss to the University of Nebraska-Omaha;

Cooper Moore finished at -1 with 3 shots in the University of North Dakota Fighting Hawks’ 4-1 win over the University of Denver Pioneers. For Denver:

Shai Buium finished at -2 with 1 shot;

Carter Mazur finished at -2;

And Antti Tuomisto did not play for Denver.

The Grand Rapids Griffins won a tight game on Saturday night, building a 2-0 lead on goals by Tyler Spezia and Taro Hirose, and then hanging on for a 2-1 win over the Rockford IceHogs thanks to a 21-save effort by Calvin Pickard.

The Griffins’ website posted a game recap:

The Detroit Red Wings attempted to snap a 4-game winless skid as they took on the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday night.

The Detroit Red Wings probably didn’t earn their win, fumbling a 1-0 lead into a 3-1 deficit heading into the 3rd period, but the Red Wings’ talent took over, with Tyler Bertuzzi scoring 2 3rd-period goals, and Moritz Seider scoring his first NHL goal to make it a 4-3 overtime victory.

FIRST CAREER NHL GOAL.
OVERTIME GAME-WINNER.

MO. SEIDER. pic.twitter.com/yJkDR5CGCE— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) November 7, 2021

Detroit is arriving. Seider, Raymond, Bertuzzi, Larkin are high end. They need to hit pretty big on 4 more draft picks to play or use to big game trade hunt; the have enough solid guys to fill out the rest. they are ready to add UFAs. Just got to make the right bet. https://t.co/xRZcZ8F2Eh— Bucci Mane (@Buccigross) November 7, 2021

The Red Wings got going on a first-shift goal by Pius Suter, assisted by Lucas Raymond and Tyler Bertuzzi, but Buffalo crawled back into the 1st period, had a huge second, scoring 2 goals, and by the time Arttu Ruotsalainen had scored the 3-1 marker some 6:08 into the 3rd, it felt like the game was over.

Instead, Tyler Bertuzzi was given two great feeds Danny DeKeyser and then Pius Suter–set up by Lucas Raymond both times–as Detroit scored 2 goals in 1:30, and in overtime, Moritz Seider came off the bench (on a sketchy change) and made no mistake on the feed from Bertuzzi.

That being said, without the play of Alex Nedeljkovic, who stopped 29 of 32 Sabres shots, the Red Wings played far too sloppily and loosely defensively to win. Detroit just earned its luck the old-fashioned way–they lucked their way out to some extent, and earned the rest because the Red Wings were more talented than the Sabres.

In no small part thanks to Bertuzzi, Raymond and Seider.

Of Red Wings prospect-related note in Europe today:

In the Finnish Liiga, Eemil Viro finished even with 2 shots in 17:53 played as TPS Turku lost 4-1 to Tappara;

In the SHL, William Wallinder had 2 assists, finishing at +1 with 2 shots in 17:07 played as Rogle BK lost 4-3 in overtime to Linkoping;

Wallinder's assist on the 1st goal of the game. #LGRW pic.twitter.com/FHndcvfmuu

— IcehockeyGifs (@IcehockeyG) November 6, 2021

William Wallinder with his 2nd assist of the game and 7th point of the last 8 games. #LGRW pic.twitter.com/vfsIlbSaYV

— IcehockeyGifs (@IcehockeyG) November 6, 2021

Elmer Soderblom scored a goal on 7 shots, finishing at +1 in 19:50 played as Frolunda HC won 3-1 over Skelleftea AIK:

Elmer Söderblom got the game-winning 2-1 goal, he was also looking for another one on this play #LGRW pic.twitter.com/4fgcbJRowc

— IcehockeyGifs (@IcehockeyG) November 6, 2021

Staffan Kronwall on the right is 6'4" (194cm). pic.twitter.com/QvDqLi4n23

— IcehockeyGifs (@IcehockeyG) November 6, 2021

Simon Edvinsson (illness) did not play;

Theodor Niederbach played only 34 seconds, taking a hard hit and hitting his head on the ice (Aftonbladet’s Fredrik Anderson confirms the injury):

Theodor Niederbach left today's game early and did not return after these hard-to-watch scenes. pic.twitter.com/bOMbqyJ7ao

— IcehockeyGifs (@IcehockeyG) November 6, 2021

And Liam Dower Nilsson finished even in 8:21 played.

Finally, Albert Johansson finished even with 1 shot in 19:16 played as Farjestads BK lost 3-2 to Orebro.

Of note from the Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan’s game-day notebook:

Forward Lucas Raymond and defenseman Moritz Seider are among the rookie offensive leaders statistically, and both are among the early favorites to win the Calder Trophy (rookie of the year).

The play of both young players has been a pleasant development for the Wings, but Blashill wouldn’t say if they’ve exceeded expectations.

“I don’t necessarily place expectations on guys that haven’t been able to do it yet in the league, not that they won’t or will, but until you prove it, you wait and see,” Blashill said. “I don’t get too wrapped up in the expectations side.

“They’ve both done a good job. They’ve both had quality ice time, good opportunity and they both have done a good job with that.

“We’re going to push them to do an even better job.”

Continued

The Grand Rapids Griffins posted a game-day preview ahead of tonight’s game in Rockford, IL (7 PM EDT start vs. Rockford IceHogs, AHL.tv):

The Detroit Red Wings and Buffalo Sabres held their morning skates today without Dylan Larkin, who remains absent due to a personal reason. Coach Jeff Blashill addressed Larkin’s absence ahead of tonight’s game vs. Buffalo (7 PM EDT on Bally Sports Detroit/MSG-B/97.1 FM), and MLive’s Ansar Khan addressed Larkin’s absence as well in his pre-game notebook…

“Dylan’s an engine for us. Tyler’s an engine. They’re two of our best players,” coach Jeff Blashill said after the morning skate. “But the degree to which you miss guys always depends on the degree to which the guys who are in those spots, how good they play. If we get an effort tonight where the 12 forwards that are dressed are playing their ‘A’ game, I think you don’t feel the loss nearly as much. I think if we get an effort tonight where the 12 forwards are playing their ‘C’ game, you’re going to wish maybe that you have Dylan in the lineup. That’s the reality. We’re going to have 20 dressed good enough to win.”

Blashill has not disclosed the nature of Larkin’s absence but said he remains on the active 23-man roster.

Pius Suter (one goal, one assist in 11 games) is expected to center the top line with Bertuzzi (six goals, nine points) and Lucas Raymond (five goals, 10 points).

The Red Wings have scored only one goal in the past two games and have registered just 26 shots on goal over the past five periods. Blashill said they passed up too many shooting opportunities in Thursday’s 5-1 loss at Boston.

As did the Free Press’s Helene St. James…

The Red Wings and Sabres held morning skates ahead of tonight’s game (7 PM EDT on Bally Sports Detroit/MSG-B/97.1 FM). Buffalo’s starting goalies are in flux, with Craig Anderson absent (Dustin Tokarski or Aaron Dell will start), and Dylan Larkin is still not with the team.

After the Wings’ optional skate, coach Jeff Blashill spoke with the media:

Also: ugh:

Stupid Stat of the Day: All-time the Red Wings have a .231 winning percentage in the fourth game of a four-game road trip after having lost the first three games of the trip. pic.twitter.com/mL7H3ExYRK— DetroitHockey.Net (@detroithockey96) November 6, 2021