On his own bobblehead night, Patrick Kane scored in overtime to help the Detroit Red Wings beat the Ottawa Senators by a 3-2 score on Tuesday night at Little Caesars Arena.
The Red Wings improve to 5-1-0 under Todd McLellan to move within two points of a playoff spot at publishing time, albeit in a crowded mix of six teams separated by just two points. Notably, the Red Wings are back to a .500 points percentage, now sitting at 18-18-4 on the campaign.
Detroit opened the scoring on a tic-tac-toe Dylan Larkin power-play goal, but Ottawa took the lead thanks to their special teams units, scoring once on the power play and again just seconds after a penalty had expired. Joe Veleno knotted the game up early in the third period, before Kane called game on a 4-on-3 man advantage in overtime.
Meeting the Moment
The Red Wings and Senators are often compared as two teams in the same division amid lengthy rebuilds, and it’s no secret that Ottawa has had the edge in head-to-head play over Detroit, often physically dominating the meetings and usually winning — at times handily.
The script of this game felt like a familiar Detroit/Ottawa game, as the first period was getting quite chippy with a lot of after-the-whistle nonsense, but it did settle down for what was a relatively tame second period. In the third, although the Red Wings were outshot 10-8, they had the Senators on their heels especially in the final few minutes, tilting the ice with some of their best looks of the game — control they were able to hang onto in overtime to eventually draw the penalty that won the game.
It’s a composed win, which is great to see. I’m not sure the Red Wings of the last couple of seasons can keep calm like that, not taking any unnecessary penalties during the scrums and riding out the ebbs-and-flows of the game. In either case, the momentum is flowing and the five-game win streak has to feel great in that dressing room, especially when it’s extended against a division rival and moves playoff positioning within an arm’s reach.
Best Players Stay Hot
There’s a conversation to be had about depth scoring, but Detroit’s best players were disappearing offensively at the wrong times in the BME (Before McLellan Era). Larkin now has five goals in his last four games, in addition to a six-game point streak (5-4-9). DeBrincat and Kane (both 4-4-8 in five games) each extended their streaks, while Raymond has racked up nine points (3-6-9) in his last six.
Unsung Efforts
Aside from the big names, I thought Albert Johansson had a really nice game, playing alongside Simon Edvinsson for the most part in Jeff Petry’s absence. In particular, he mixed it up a few times with Brady Tkachuk (drawing a penalty on an accidental high stick), and didn’t seem to have much trouble holding position against the much bigger, traditionally angrier forward. He was also on the ice late in the game, activating into the zone to extend the Red Wings’ offensive pressure. He wasn’t rewarded, but it’s a good sign in the confidence of a player who might be looking for some, having come in-and-out of the lineup and recording just one assist in 20 games after producing decent offense at lower levels.
After a pretty flat second period, we saw Marco Kasper and Joe Veleno switch lines, which I thought worked well for each. Veleno immediately scored the game-tying goal, and Kasper was noticeable throughout the third as that top line saw its best looks of the night with Kasper on the wing. He flubbed an opportunity late and was robbed on a glove save by Anton Forsberg, but I’ve liked both Veleno and Kasper at different times on that top line, so it’s nice to see some different players getting looks in that spot to attempt to spread the offense around the lineup.
A Question in the Crease
The negative news of the night was that Alex Lyon exited the game following the first period with an upper-body injury. The (hopeful) good news is that it is seemingly something that happened during the period that he was able to play through, and I suppose it’s good that it’s not a reoccurrence of the lower-body injury that sidelined him recently. But it’s a bummer that both Lyon and Talbot have suffered multiple injuries this season, because the team will need consistent goaltending to play at the level it needs to distance itself from the rest of the pack.
The good news is the Grand Rapids Griffins are still rolling, and all three goalies have played well of late. It’ll likely be Ville Husso if a call-up is warranted, and he’s 6-1-0 with a 1.86 GAA and 0.935 save percentage. Sebastian Cossa has been the workhorse (10-6-3, 2.30, 0.918), and even Jack Campbell is finding his footing (2-2-0, 2.02, 0.924). I don’t expect we’ll see either one of them as long as Husso is available, but I guess that “why is Detroit signing so many goalies?” offseason question is answering itself yet again.
The Red Wings are on a four-game homestand which continues when the Chicago Blackhawks come to town on Friday at 7:00 p.m. We’ll see you then!
