The Four Nations Faceoff proved to be a great event for hockey, and a rare win for the NHL in attracting national attention during the season’s doldrums. Some Red Wings fans, myself included, were a little concerned with the timing; Detroit was red hot, and a two-week break could easily be disruptive to continuing that momentum.
None of the games were particular masterpieces, but the Red Wings improved to 2-0-1 coming out of the break and 16-5-2 under Todd McLellan after beating the Minnesota Wild 3-2 on Tuesday night. It’s bound to tighten back up, but the win puts Detroit four points up on Ottawa in the Wild Card race and four points behind Tampa Bay for the third seed in the Atlantic.
Meeting the Wild for the second time in four days, tonight’s game was a script reversal from Saturday in which the Red Wings jumped out to an early lead, lost it, and fell in overtime. It was Minnesota who took an early lead in a fashion where it felt like it just might not be Detroit’s night, but they battled back, got a mid-third period goal from Simon Edvinsson (his second of the night) and withstood a late Wild push to take the win in regulation.
1. Secondary Scoring Very Welcomed – I didn’t go back to count, but I would wager there are not many Red Wings wins this season that featured a combined 1 in the points column between Larkin, Raymond, Kane, DeBrincat (who had an assist) and Seider. That’s not a criticism of their performances tonight, they were all noticeable. But playoff teams have multiple games like this each season — if the top guys can’t get it going, you need offense from the rest of your lineup to win. It seems simple, but it hasn’t happened much this year. The Red Wings power play has been spectacular, but it’s almost exclusively coming from the top unit. It didn’t go down as a power play goal, but Vladimir Tarasenko was crafty to get lost behind the net and Erik Gustafsson made a heads-up play to hesitate and allow Tarasenko to emerge wide-open to score the team’s first goal, just seconds after a man advantage expired.
While Edvinsson is certainly not a “secondary” player, easily being Detroit’s second-most important defenseman this year, multi-goal games from any defenseman are unexpected and very welcome. I think Filip Gustavsson probably wants the first one back, with a completely unscreened goal, but I’ve hoped Edvinsson would let his shot go a little more — like the majority of defensemen, he shoots for tips and through traffic but was able to step into both of these opportunities and just beat a goalie. It’s hard to do that unless you have an elite shot, but Edvinsson’s first topped 90 miles-per-hour and the second seemed even harder — both were well-placed off a post, so a little more strength could make him one of those rare defensemen that can score from distance through pure ability.
The Red Wings will need at least a few more games like this if they want to pad their cushion for a playoff position. DeBrincat set up Edvinsson’s first, but the other assists tonight came from Compher, Kasper, Soderblom, Gustafsson and Johansson. I’m confident the top guys will continue to drive the bus, but we’ll need more of this going forward.
2. Wanted: Chaos. I’ve been overly Eastern Conference-heavy in my non-Red Wings viewing this season so this isn’t news to some of you, but how the Wild generate offense screams playoff hockey. They tied Saturday’s game and took an early lead tonight thanks to the havoc they create around the net. Talbot looked a little leaky early, but he also made several spectacular in-tight saves — I think both were the product of the Wild getting a lot of players within a few feet of the crease and generating chaos. They didn’t challenge Detroit much throughout the middle frame, maybe hoping to sit on their lead, but they turned it back on late and once the swarm resumed I was worried we were about to see overtime again. Detroit prevailed, but I just think it’s a good game to be involved in and something I’d like to see more of from the Red Wings — make life harder on opposing goalies, especially at even strength.
3. Critical Games Ahead. The Red Wings will host Columbus on Thursday before participating in a signature NHL event by taking on the Blue Jackets at Ohio Stadium on Saturday. As a Michigan football fan, rooting for the team in red on a Saturday and seeing a stadium that will be — mostly blue? Will they allow themselves to do that? — will be an out-of-body experience. Beyond the optics, it’s a pair of games this week between the teams in the first and second Wild Card spots in the Eastern Conference and one of the most unlikely outcomes given what has transpired for each franchise in the last six months.
Obviously, I’m thrilled Detroit has been able to climb back into the playoff race, what Columbus has done this season might be my favorite story in the league this year. The death of Johnny Gaudreau continues to be sickening to think about, and it goes well beyond the game, but the way the Blue Jackets have come out to play in his honor is genuinely inspiring. Having missed the playoffs by a wide margin last season, the entire hockey world was writing them off for this year after enduring such tragedy right before the season. Whether they were slept on to begin with or are just carried by the memory of their friend, it’s awesome to see them where they are right now.
It’s just one of those stories that overrides the sports rivalry gene — if both of these teams make the playoffs, I’ll be thrilled. Even if things go south for one or both of them, it’s just great that the national spotlight will be on these two teams so late in the season.
