A rough month is mercifully coming to a close. Lyon is back, and Ozzie is taking him in LTL. The Wings are 0-15-1 on the season when scoring 3 or less. Lyon will have to be sharp if that trend is to end tonight. LGRW.
1st Period
Tonight is Mo’s 200th game. Congrats, Mo! Starting off with Larkin, Perron, Raymond, Seider, and Walman. I’m excited to see that line together again. The Preds start off with the first several shots on goal. One was a floater from the point that was tipped by an uncontested net-front forward. The next few were point blank from more uncovered Predators. Luckily, Lyon looks sharp enough out of the gate.
Larkin’s line gets sprung out of the d-zone on a really nice pass from Perron, but Raymond gets called for a hooking that Mickey Redmond will forever disagree with and it’s time for a Red Wings kill just two and a half into the first. Compher makes an incredible play off the faceoff and springs Copp immediately for a brief shorthanded breakaway, but Copp ran out of real estate.
Nyquist faked a drop pass and holy moly did every Red Wing bite hard on that fake, proving the Red Wings have waaay too much respect for the drop pass. Unrelated, but Compher is an elite penalty killer.
Hey, so is Dylan Larkin.. He creates a 2-on-1 with Rasmussen, takes the shot and SCOOOOORRREES. Unassisted SHG!!
DRW 1 – NSH 0
Penalty is killed. The Preds get a couple of mildly dangerous looks. Kane makes a really nifty skate-to-stick gather and eventually sets up Walman who nearly converts. Several more shifts are tilted in the Red Wings’ favor, but the lead remains 1 into the first commercial break. Walman and Maatta have stood out defensively so far, and Compher has had several fantastic shifts.
Tons of sustained pressure for the Wings, but then Chiarot couldn’t control a routine puck at the blue line. That results in a breakaway chance for Nyquist. He couldn’t corral the puck, but 2 Red Wings (Petry was the second man unnecessarily chasing a Goose) followed him behind the net anyway, leaving Forsberg wide open and once again hung their goalie completely out to dry.
DRW 1 – NSH 1
The Wings spend the next several minutes completely flat-footed, but Lyon doesn’t crumble. 7 minutes remain in the first, and Nashville unofficially has 15 shots on goal to Detroit’s 3. Honestly though, it feels like the shot attempts are fairly even; the Wings have missed at least a dozen shots high or wide. Sprong finally gets the Wings’ fourth shot on goal and persists on the puck to draw a penalty.
Detroit’s first power play starts with Larkin, Kane, Debrincat, Compher, and Gostisbehere. They win the faceoff, move the puck well, and get an absolute gimme goal for Kane. Except that Saros made a gold glove shortstop diving save. That hurt my feeling.
Several more top-notch saves by Saros, a good save by Lyon, and the penalty is killed by Nashville. Three minutes remain, and the Red Wings are starting to close the gap on the shot count. Berggren is looking a little … chaotic. Kane, Compher, Debrincat, Ghost, and Maatta have another solid shift together, and Saros makes another flashy trapper save. Mickey Redmond is still and always a national treasure.
30 seconds to go, Copp gets waived out, Rasmussen wins the draw, and the ref says it’s not fair. Puck don’t lie though, and Moose prevails a second time. Some solid puck movement and a great little play by Moose in the slot to protect the puck with his body and quickly hit Walman with a pass as Jake was rushing the net for at least the third time this period and Walman SCOOOORRREESSS!!! Finally, a last-minute goal for the good guys!
End 1. DRW 2 – NSH 1
2nd Period
The second period starts with the same line as the first. I like when the Wings don’t force the line blender with poor play in the first 20 minutes. Raymond’s patience behind the net leads to a great scoring chance for Walman again, but the puck hits a Pred on the far side of the open net. Walman then nearly flubs in his own zone moments later, but gets a flailing desperation stick to just prevent a 2-on-0.
2 shifts later, Gostisbehere makes some incredible moves to set up Copp, but Copp is allergic to scoring goals so that doesn’t go. Ghost is rewarded for his efforts with a 90-mph stick to the face that isn’t called because it’s a follow through on a shot attempt and he crumbles behind the Red Wings net. Lyon immediately makes a couple of really underrated saves, and then Seider misses a Grade-A look high and wide. Wicked pace to start this period.
Things do calm down a bit for the next several minutes. Fabbri and Rasmussen create a couple of great chances, but Saros makes another big save and the threat just kind of fizzles. Both Rasmussen and Fabbri are playing well, but they are also on a line with Andrew Copp.
Straight out of the first commercial, Detroit gives up another uncontested deflection off a point shot, but Lyon’s pad stays strong. Gostisbehere is back on the ice on the next shift and is just playing wonderful man defense. Gus Nyquist took some friendly fire from behind and he audibly slammed the door on his way down the tunnel. I hope Goose is okay, but also that was just flat out funny. Maatta broke up what was basically a 1-on-3 and I’m really happy he’s back. He has played well tonight.
It took a few Nashville penalties for the refs to blow a whistle, but Raymond’s stick spaghettifies like it’s crossing an event horizon and we’re off to a RRRRRRED WINGS POWER PLAY.
Kane gets all the time and space in the world, but doesn’t shoot. His ill-advised pass immediately turns into a 2-on-1 for Nyquist. Luckily, Lyon stands tall. Kane gets it back on the return rush and again passes when he could shoot, and now it’s a clean breakaway for Nyquist. He makes good on the second go-round.
DRW 2 – NSH 2
The Wings still have plenty of time on the power play. Seider is doing drop passes. Fabbri is making nice moves but shooting straight at Saros’s chest. The Wings are 0-for-2 on the power play.
After the penalty is killed, Sissons tries to kill Seider by swinging multiple elbows at Seider’s head like he’s practicing Muay Thai and there are zero whistles. The third elbow takes Seider’s helmet off, so he has to leave the ice and Forsberg scores. As refpuck a moment as I’ve seen in a long time.
NSH 3 – DRW 2
The refs then miss an egregious delay of game penalty against the Predators. Mick spends the next 4 minutes stammering while trying to be deferential to how hard referees’ jobs are in this league while being clearly furious because refs only miss calls when they would favor Detroit. Never change, Mick.
The Predators get away with 2 or 3 more borderline penalties and the Red Wings are getting pissy. I’d rather they got mad and evened this game up. Lyon is still making some really quality saves.
Kane made a nice takeaway. He had two options on either side of Saros to pass to and finally chose to shoot. After the easy save, Debrincat and Josi fought for 4 seconds and Debrincat landed several rights on their way down to the ice. I’ll take the tradeoff. Even though Josi dropped the gloves first, the refs are going to give more minutes to Detroit and this is starting to feel like one of those games – win or lose – that could have been a good game but instead just got boned by the refs. Wings kill the first chunk of the penalty.
End 2 NSH 3 – DRW 2
3rd Period
The Wings need to ignore this officiating crew who are all clearly disappointments in the eyes of their parents and play good, hard team hockey. No Cat for five minutes, and Moose and Compher are joining him in the roomy LCA sin bin, but they need an equalizer. Lyon has been solid in net, and they owe him an easy period. The Wings do kill the penalty but are seemingly unable to take the puck out of their defensive zone.
Over three minutes into the third and the Wings have yet to possess the puck inside Nashville’s zone, but some really encouraging physicality from Seider got my juices flowing. Lyon makes a save on a changeup with the nail of his right pinky toe. Copp gets a mini breakaway and misses the net by 20 inches. Walman continues to look like the Walman we all know and love – a most welcome change. Forsberg nearly had a breakaway for the hat trick, but Perron had himself a fantastic backcheck to limit Forsberg’s effort. Off to the first commercial break of the final frame in regulation with the Wings still down 1.
Fabbri, Rasmussen, and Walman again combine to create some dangerous-looking possession, but then Copp touches the puck and the Red Wings possession immediately ends.
On the next shift, the guys who spent this whole period in the box – Compher and Debrincat – make SOMETHIN’ HAPP’N. Compher with an absolutely juicy dish to the Cat who makes no mistake and bombs it home!
DRW 3 – NSH 3
Thrilling shift for Larkin’s line to follow things up, but they can’t quite capitalize. After a quick change while maintaining possession, Kane makes a nifty play to Debrincat who makes an incredible cross-ice pass to JAKE F’ING WALMAN! Debrincat with the Gordie Howe Cat Trick!
DRW 4 – NSH 3
Gus Nyquist clearly doesn’t care that we still love him and miss him because he’s playing an incredible game and is being Very Mean.
DRW 4 – NSH 4
After some fumbles and icings, Lyon makes yet another tremendous save. Chiarot juked McCarron out of his skates and I actually laughed out loud out that. Final commercial break and 5 minutes remain in a tie game.
The Wings start with some non-threatening possession after the break. As soon as the Predators get possession they are immediately threatening and Lyon made a huge save on Forsberg. There is an audible FUCK YOU on the broadcast and I sure hope that was directed at the referee because I couldn’t possibly agree more.
Two and a half minutes remain and the Preds refuse to pull Saros. Cheaters. Compher does a little cherry picking at the end of his shift and creates some more non-threatening o-zone time for the Wings. A minute to go and Lyon almost makes his first mistake of the game behind the net but no harm, some foul. Seider makes a fun little play with 10 to go, almost springing the Cat, but alas, we go to extras.
End 3 NSH 4 – DRW 4
Overtime:
Larks, Moose, and Mo to start ‘er. Possession in the first 45 seconds is all Predators and ends with a Lyon save on Forsberg’s bid for a game-sealing hat trick. The ensuing faceoff sees an unbelievably egregious interference with yet another no call and I can only hear my grandmother telling me what to say when you can’t say anything nice (my grandmother is a salty Irishwoman, most of those things start with ‘f’).
Lyon makes a couple more saves neither Husso nor Reimer would’ve had a chance to make, and the Wings finally establish some control. Mo Seider and Lucas Raymond do some great dangling work, exercising almost maddening patience, but after Mo set the standard, Razor followed it up with all that matters, using O’Reilly as a screen to properly rip one past Saros for the game winner.
Final Score: DRW 5 – NSH 4
Final Thoughts:
I’d say this is the Wings’ best game in December. 4 goals against of course isn’t ideal, and I’m not usually one to make excuses based on officiating, but the Predators should have definitely spent at least 8 more minutes shorthanded than they did tonight. I’m getting really tired of saying, “hey, how about our awesome goalie who was awesome even though he let in 4 goals tonight?!”, but it sure is nice to have Lyon back. Walman looking like Walman was a tremendous relief. Compher was a stud all night. Debrincat too. I think Moose had a great game as well, and would’ve had a three-point night if he was on a line without Andrew Copp.
There were still a few brutal defensive miscues that led immediately to goals, but the goals against in this game felt a lot more like the Predators earning them than the Red Wings just giving them away. Nice to see this level of compete from start to finish again. Let’s carry this over to the Booins, shall we?
