Another one.
You know things are bad when the teams best player in a 3-0 loss is the goalie. That’s the reality of the Red Wings right now, who have gone 120 minutes of hockey without scoring a goal. It’s been nine games since the Red Wings last won a game, which is pretty bad. But was there a silver lining in this game? Uh, maybe?
The first period turned up scoreless, but the Red Wings got a chance to put their league-worst penalty kill to work, and it didn’t go poorly! In fact, the PK looked real solid the only time it was needed in the first 20 minutes. Darren Helm even ripped off a quasi-breakaway chance. Perhaps the best scoring chance in the first was a wicked pass by Dylan Larkin to Tyler Bertuzzi on the doorstep of the Flyers’ net. Unfortunately, Brian Elliott made a stone cold save.
Andreas Athanasiou is back, and he hasn’t looked like he lost a step. We’ll see what his role is like now that Filip Zadina will be sidelined for a bit.
The Red Wings PK went back to work early on in the second period, and again, it looked real good. Overall, disruptive play on the Flyers’ playmakers. The Flyers managed to break the tie shortly after being on the man advantage — Scott Laughton dizzied Jonathan Bernier with a wicked snapshot.
Adam Erne got hit in the god damn face with a puck:
Biega hits Erne in the face with a slap shot. Erne bloodied but able to skate off under his own power. Lots of friendly-fire on the #RedWings of late. #LGRW pic.twitter.com/Pi2W1Xf2I6
— Ryan Hana (@RyanHanaWWP) February 4, 2020
Was there much to talk about in the third period? Of course. None of it is good outside of Jonathan Bernier. The Red Wings were handed a few chances to turn the momentum of the game, and they failed. Miserably. They got two looks on the power-play, and both turned into short-handed goals. The first came from Kevin Hayes, who capitalized on some overaggressiveness from Dennis Cholowski.
Pause. Have I mentioned that Jonathan Bernier looked pretty good?
Jonathan Bernier is the only good thing about this game for the #RedWings (again). #LGRW pic.twitter.com/9IeeauAeaJ
— Ryan Hana (@RyanHanaWWP) February 4, 2020
The fun didn’t stop there — Detroit limped their way to another power-play chance, which they ran as a six-on-four with Bernier on the bench. From the very start, the unit looked complacent? I think that’s a word I would use to describe it. It didn’t take long before the Flyers got themselves an empty net goal, sealing a shutout victory.
So, the Red Wings find themselves staring down another 10-game losing streak. That’s kinda fun, this is fun. The takeaways/silver linings from this game are:
- Andreas Athanasiou is back.
- Jonathan Bernier still wants to play hockey./
fin.
