First Period
Kind of a slow start to the game, but that’s not so surprising, I suppose. Neither team has a whole lot to play for in these last 11 games. Eventually Detroit would get some momentum as they’d have about 6 straight minutes of power play time thanks to a Too-Many-Men and one of the most boneheaded high sticks I’ve seen in a long time, committed by none other than noted… person, Tony DeAngelo, against Adam Erne.
Don’t worry, though, Detroit didn’t score. It was kind of them, really, knowing we all want to see a technical masterpiece 1-0 win tonight by two teams with a combined -70 goal differential in late March.
Nedeljkovic got a sort of decent test finally about 12 minutes into the period when Deacon Morgan Frost had a breakaway that was easily turned aside. Cool stuff.
Philadelphia actually gave Ned a real test late in the period with a pass across the slot , but the netminder butterflied to prevent the easy tap in. Detroit had a similar opportunity a few minutes earlier, but the pass to Copp missed the mark, so the score stayed at zero apiece through the period.
Second Period
Well, this one started more fun, at least. Philly had a solid opportunity on the shorty and Raymond couldn’t quite lift the puck on a nice rotation around Carter Hart. Kieffer Sutherland Bellows did manage to break the grid lock, though, half way through the second period. Ned gave up a rebound and the defenders were caught too high in the slot to react to Bellows. 1-0 Flyers.
The Flyers would get a second on the board in the final minute of the period. Scaught Scott Laughton led a 2-on-1 breakaway and had an admittedly really nice shot into the top corner despite being covered by Lindstrom. 2-0 Flyers.
In between the goals, play was mostly boring, if you’d asked me. The main culprit of the Wings’ failure to score was some atrocious passing this afternoon, and so they just couldn’t generate many quality scoring chances. Larkin in particular wore the frustration on his sleeve. I feel bad for the guy. He’s been in Detroit for 8 seasons without much success. I worry it wears on him.
Third Period
Kind of the same old, same old way to start this period. Nothing clean, nothing fast in the offensive zone. It was probably uncharitable of me to claim Detroit’s passing was ugly today without further context; it was fine for mobilizing transition in their own end, but a lack of offensive urgency made this game BORING.
Mid-period Detroit went to the man advantage but couldn’t get anything going. Yeah, Detroit, if we want to look for areas of improvement, maybe consider the solid 25% of the game where you got to have an extra guy on the ice and couldn’t score. Ugh.
Walman Laughton wanted to scrap after a long delayed penalty on the Flyers and how, how did Detroit not score during that sequence with Carter Hart leaving enough room on the left side of the net for Optimus Prime to drive through?
A the ensuing penalty closed out, Berggren nearly made it a one-goal game, but the Wings, with their usual luck these days, hit a Flyer’s butt and didn’t even register a shot on goal.
Detroit pulled Ned with just over two minutes left, but instead of a Detroit goal, the Flyers got one in to make it 3-0 thanks to Joel I Can’t Think of Anything Clever Farabee.
And that’s where we’d end things. Yay, hockey?
Conclusion
What a plunge. Detroit’s effort was actually pretty spirited in the second half of the third, but loyal readers, I am so. damn. tired. of writing “well, they tried real hard at the end.” I’ve been writing variations of that for half a decade. Detroit’s fate is more or less sealed this season, and the way this game felt so sleepy, I’m just tired of most stretches of these past five seasons feeling sleepy. There are better days ahead, but for now, like so many of you, I’m tired.
