The Detroit Red Wings skated to a 4-1 win on Wednesday night with a comfortable road victory over the Chicago Blackhawks.
While the game lacked the theatrics of Patrick Kane’s first game back in Chicago last year, it was a rare night where the Red Wings didn’t appear to be on their heels as much as the previous month. Per the TNT broadcast, they won despite being outshot for a ninth-straight game (with a 5-2-2 record in that span). This one was closer in shots (29-25 Chicago) than others in the present stretch, and I’d argue that high-danger chances were slightly in Detroit’s favor.
It continues to be a frustrating start for an offense that was so potent last season, but results are results: the win vaults Detroit into a playoff spot, passing Boston, Ottawa and Buffalo with games in hand on most of the division. It’s still early days, but if you’re going to struggle, at least limit the depth of the hole you’re digging.
Game Summary
Event Summary
Progress is progress
In his post-game interview with the TNT desk, Dylan Larkin called this the team’s best 60-minute effort, and I agree. The shots don’t show it, and it was a fairly sluggish affair overall, but once they got the lead, the Red Wings felt completely in control to me. The Blackhawks briefly tied it on a goal from Nick Foligno, but Detroit reclaimed the lead within minutes and never looked back.
Again, it’s just progress: two good efforts in a row. The next step is having a little more killer instinct against the bottomfeeders like Chicago, who to their credit are deeper and much healthier than they were last season. Detroit looked like a playoff team last season because they put these teams away more regularly. While I’ve stated the Red Wings were the better team tonight, I think they should have another gear to dominate these types of games. They’ve had a fairly tough schedule to start the season, but there will be more of these games coming up (not this week though: Toronto and the Rangers are ahead).
Heating up
The Red Wings’ offensive struggles are such that I’m not sure there’s been much of an individual hot streak worth highlighting. But Larkin and DeBrincat deserve credit for carrying the mail so far. As Riley pointed out in our WIIM writer chat, they now have 14 of the team’s 33 goals this season. Copp is the only other name worth mentioning, now up to five (the rest: Compher – 3, Tarasenko, Rasmussen, Kane – 2, Veleno, Fischer, Edvinsson, Seider, Raymond – 1).
I’m not personally worried about Kane or Raymond — they’re creating offense, I’d just like to see each shoot more. Goals by defensemen can be a little misleading when so many d-men shoot for tips, but you’d like more than two combined for the unit at the 12-game mark. Everyone else needs to start chipping in a bit more.
Larkin has looked increasingly dangerous as the season has worn on. DeBrincat is up to seven points in his last six games, but it’s the overall effort level more than the production that was enticing tonight. He had a puck swept off the goal line by Petr Mrazek and rang another off the post before scoring in the dying moments of the first period. We know he’s streaky, we know he can score in bunches; the Red Wings are in a much better spot when their best pure shooter finds a way to pot two or more goals.
A better defensive effort
While the team was outshot again, I didn’t dislike much of they gave up. Where Chicago got its goal was the most notable, with Tyler Bertuzzi winning a battle against Ben Chiarot and slipping a past between Jeff Petry’s skates for a wide-open Nick Foligno. Cam Talbot even got over in time, but couldn’t quite seal the post as Foligno tucked it past him.
Other than that, it wasn’t the cleanest effort but for the most part, Talbot had an easy night — especially relative to the rest of the season. So some props to the defensive group for not standing out in the wrong ways against a team with a decent amount of offensive pop.
The Red Wings (6-5-1) will finish off this week with a back-to-back set in Toronto on Friday at 7 p.m. and back at Little Caesars Arena on Saturday at 7 p.m. against the NY Rangers.
Your moment of zen