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Red Wings-Bruins Tweetcap: Boston holds Sway in Detroit

The Detroit Red Wings and Boston Bruins entered Saturday night’s game with identical 38-23-and-8 records, though the Bruins had 2 more regulation wins than Detroit. As such, Saturday night’s affair pretty much defined a “four-point game” in terms of the stakes thereof.

On Saturday night at Little Caesars Arena, the Red Wings had 1-0 and 2-1 leads, but a couple of bad goals against John Gibson and a spectacular performance by Jeremy Swayman–who stopped 41 shots–yielded a 4-2 defeat, empty-net goal for Boston included.

I wouldn’t totally pin this one on Gibson, who was spectacular at times, stopping 22 of 25 and stopping a Lukas Reichel penalty shot late in the 3rd period…

But the Wings had too many chances to score, and did not finish against a hot goalie.

Them’s the breaks. Now it gets harder from here.

PREGAME: John Gibson and Jeremy Swayman led their respective teams out onto the ice…

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Red Wings-Canadiens Tweetcap: back-foot blitz, DeBrincat’s savvy yield a gigantic 3-1 win for Detroit

The Detroit Red Wings entered a quartet of “four-point games” by hosting the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday evening.

The Wings play a gauntlet of Atlantic Division foes in Montreal, Boston (Saturday), Ottawa (next Tuesday) and Buffalo (next Friday) with the Red Wings’ playoff fate on the line, and it’s essential that the Wings snag as many points as possible out of this next set of games.

On Thursday night at Little Caesars Arena, the Red Wings did not necessarily have one of their better games, but they won 3-1 over Montreal anyway.

Detroit was out-shot 12-8 in a scoreless 1st period, surrendered a Jaroslav Slafkovsky goal late in the 2nd period, on a wonky power play, but J.T. Compher scored an even-strength marker at 2:14 of the 3rd, Alex DeBrincat scored off a Mike Matheson tumble at 16:35, and DeBrincat earned a 2nd assist and 3rd point of the night on Andrew Copp’s empty-netter at 19:43…

And John Gibson was a STALWART in net, stopping 31 of 32 shots for Detroit.

PREGAME: John Gibson and Jakub Dobes led their respective teams out onto the ice…

Continue reading Red Wings-Canadiens Tweetcap: back-foot blitz, DeBrincat’s savvy yield a gigantic 3-1 win for Detroit →

Red Wings-Stars Tweetcap: Detroit rallies in the 3rd period but falls in OT to the scintillating Stars

The Red Wings faced a particularly stiff task on Saturday night, heading into Dallas to face a Stars team that boasted a 13-0-and-1 record over their past 14 games…

And Detroit hasn’t won at the American Airlines Center in a very long time. Dallas entered tonight’s game with a 15-game point streak against Detroit (with the Wings’ last win coming in Dallas in 2016).

Given the Wings’ injuries, the match-up felt like “David vs. Goliath on ice.”

On Saturday evening in Dallas, the Red Wings were pancake flat for the first two periods, surrendering a 2-0 lead while Dallas out-shot Detroit 17-8, but in the 3rd period, Detroit out-shot Dallas 14-6 and got goals from Simon Edvinsson and Lucas Raymond (both at even strength), and forced overtime…

Where Thomas Harley broke in vs. Simon Edvinsson and a valiant John Gibson, and Harley fired a perfect shot over Gibson’s blocker to give Dallas yet another two-point, OT win.

This one felt like a gut punch after the Wings battled back so expertly in the 3rd period.

PREGAME: John Gibson and Jake Oettinger led their respective teams out onto the ice…

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Red Wings-Panthers Tweetcap: Detroit’s ‘ratted out’ as Florida pushes past Detroit late, sweeps home-and-home series

The Detroit Red Wings haven’t established a solid record against the Florida Panthers of late. But the NHL standings remain incredibly tight, so Detroit headed into a set of Sunshine State games (Detroit plays in Tampa Bay on Thursday) with a must-win battle against the Panthers on Tuesday evening.

At Amerant Bank Arena, the Red Wings held a 3-2 lead going into the final couple of minutes of the 3rd period, but a pair of Carter Verhaeghe goals at 18:30 and 19:45 afforded Florida a tie and then a 4-3 victory over the Red Wings, who got some bad bounces, lost Andrew Copp’s services in the 2nd period, and will be incredibly PISSED OFF about a terrible, terrible collapse.

PREGAME: John Gibson and Danil Tarasov led their respective teams out onto the ice…

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Red Wings-Devils Tweetcap: Detroit loses Gibson but Shine bright in New Jersey

The Detroit Red Wings attempted to snap a 1-1-and-1 streak against a back-to-back-game-playing New Jersey Devils team on Sunday night in Newark, New Jersey.

At the Prudential Center, the Red Wings slowly but surely woke up in the 1st period, scored a rare even-strength goal off a “Larry Murphy” snap shot from Moritz Seider (1G, 2A), John Gibson stopped 21 shots, and all was well with the Wings (JvR scored a PPG at 6:37 of the 2nd) as the 2nd period wore down…

But Timo Meier shoveled Lucas Raymond into John Gibson at 19:55 of the 2nd, and Gibson tried to shake off the cobwebs, but didn’t return for the 3rd…

Thankfully, Dominik Shine scored his first NHL goal 10:24 in the 3rd, and Cam Talbot stepped up in stopping 9 shots to give the Wings a 3-0 win, crucial for Detroit’s Eastern Conference standings situation as the 4-game road trip begins.

PREGAME: John Gibson and Jacob Markstrom led their respective teams out onto the ice…

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Red Wings-Panthers Tweetcap: Tkachuk scores ‘rat trick’ as Florida takes Detroit

The Detroit Red Wings needed to rebound from Wednesday night’s loss to the Vegas Golden Knights as Detroit began an extended home-and-then-a-game-between-and-home series with the Florida Panthers on Friday night.

The Panthers lost to Columbus on Thursday evening, so the Wings hoped to pounce upon Florida in a back-to-back situation.

On Friday at Little Caesars Arena, the Red Wings slipped up in terms of their attention to detail, and surrendered a 3-1 loss to the Florida Panthers. John Gibson was a stalwart in stopping 20 of 22 shots against (Tkachuk’s hatty was an empty-netter), but the Panthers out-worked, out-ground and out-hustled Detroit…

And if Dylan Larkin is injured from his trip/spear/fall that happened halfway through the 3rd period, the Wings are in a world of hurt.

PREGAME: John Gibson and Sergei Bobrovsky led their respective teams out onto the ice at the Pizzarena…

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Red Wings-Hurricanes Tweetcap: Detroit loses 5-2 to Carolina, drops 6th straight in Raleigh

With the Atlantic Division and Eastern Conference standings clustered tightly, the Red Wings headed into Carolina against a streaking Hurricanes team, needing to earn points by any means necessary.

Despite having won a solid victory over Ottawa on Thursday, the Wings play on an every-other-day basis until March 16th, so the stretch drive grind is really here.

On Saturday night in Raleigh, the Red Wings’ mistake-prone hockey afforded the Hurricanes their 6th straight win against Detroit at the Lenovo Center, with the sloppy Wings losing by a 5-3 tally.

The nearby-in-the-standings Sabres, Senators, Canadiens and Islanders all won, too, diminishing Detroit’s margin for error as the Wings head into Nashville for a 2 PM EDT start on Monday.

PREGAME: Cam Talbot and Fredrik Andersen led their respective teams out onto the ice at the Lenovo Center:

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Red Wings-Senators Tweetcap: Detroit rebounds from slow start to capture some OT magic in Ottawa

The Detroit Red Wings began their stretch run drive with a three-game road trip, starting with Thursday night’s game against the Ottawa Senators.

At the Canadian Tire Centre, the Red Wings were out-shot, out-hit, out-blocked and dominated in the faceoff circle, winning only 39% of the draws…..

But John Gibson stopped 26 of 27 shots, Detroit rallied from Brady Tkachuk’s late-1st-period goal, and captain Dylan Larkin scored a 2nd period PPG and he followed that up with an overtime winner to deliver a hard-fought, gritty, grind-y 2-1 overtime victory over the Senators. Detroit’s now 3-and-0 against Ottawa this season:

PREGAME: John Gibson and Linus Ullmark led their respective teams out onto the ice…

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Been sick

It’s been a while since I’ve been able to man the blog on a day-to-day basis, so here’s my health update as of February 26th:

I’ve been battling consistent and debilitating fatigue for the last four months. I am able to get online during Red Wings games and write “Tweecaps,” which are better than nothing at all…

But “off-days” require full days’ worth of rest and recovery, mostly in bed, to recuperate from the energy expended during games (and the daily grind of caregiving for Aunt Annie, from which I receive no recovery time).

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Red Wings-Mammoth Tweetcap: Utah spears the Wings

The Detroit Red Wings closed out their pre-Olympic break schedule with a match-up against the offensively potent Utah Mammoth on Wednesday evening.

With the Canadiens, Sabres and the rest of the Atlantic Division hot on their tail, Detroit would have to play a really strong game to match up with the Mammoth’s balanced attack.

On Wednesday night in Salt Lake City, the Red Wings were just a little too flat at the start, their power play was too inefficient, and they made Karl Vejmelka look too good in the Mammoth crease (while John Gibson was only OK against the speedy Mammoth).

Detroit lost 4-1 heading into the Olympic break, with Dylan Larkin scoring the team’s only goal.

If you believe Twitter, Larkin was totally at fault for everything that went wrong with the team, too, because he dared to slash back at Nick Schmaltz because Schmaltz speared Larkin in the balls off a faceoff, but I suppose that’s a matter of opinion.

Anyway, the Wings don’t go into the break with a great record of late, but they need the rest pretty badly as they’ve already played 58 games.

PREGAME: John Gibson and Karl Vejmelka led their respective teams out onto the ice at the Delta Center…

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