1st Period
Hooray for national broadcasts. A three-point game between the Laffs and Sabres delay the puck drop in Denver. Bad news is the Laffs win. Good news is there’s no skills competition to further delay this already too late game. Instead, we leave the wholly unnecessary delays to the insufferable TNT broadcast crew saying absolutely nothing useful for 15 minutes for no damn reason. This 9:30 game is now about to start at 9:57. Neat.
The game begins with LOUD Let’s Go Red Wings chants and there is a TON of red in the lower bowl. 1 minute in, Lehkonen hooks Debrincat and it’s time for a RRRRRRED WINGS POWER PLAY! Two great chances set up by Kane miss the net, but no matter. Robby Fabbri takes a slap pass from Debrincat with his skate and it’s one of those beautiful greasy grimy gopher goals!
DRW 1 – COL 0
The Avs fight back with predictable speed and urgency, Lyon makes an uncharacteristic giveaway behind the net, but the Wings are able to quickly flip the ice and Kane nearly sets up Veleno on the doorstep. Excellent creativity from 88 in the early going here. The next shift, Mackinnon and Makar show why they’re among the greatest duos in the game. Rantanen gained the zone with tremendous speed, did a nifty spinning backhand that Lyon saved which Mackinnon quickly corralled and whipped to Toews who set up Makar for a blast that cleanly beat Lyon’s blocker.
DRW 1 – COL 1
All Avs right now. A great save from Lyon and a quick reaction from Gostisbehere narrowly keeps this game tied. Another Lyon trapper save sends us to our first commercial. Raymond and Rasmussen do a great job of dictating possession against MacKinnon’s line, but the next shift sees a collision between Walman and Seider in the corner and Lyon has to make a tremendous save. Somehow, the Avs already have 10 shots on goal to Detroit’s 2. A couple of shifts later, the Red Wings took a collective nap after a defensive zone faceoff. Luckily, Rantanen sent a sure goal up into the protective netting with a backhand.
Poor Alex Lyon. The Avs are utterly dominating. Both their skating and their puck movement are so blazing fast this period he looks to be in pure desperation mode. So far, it’s working – the game is still miraculously tied at 1 – but he needs his teammates to start giving him some support.
Mackinnon gets a wide open net, but Seider gets the block. That creates a mini 2-on-1 for Detroit, and Detroit officially has twice as many missed shots as shots on goal. That of course creates an immediate rush for MacKinnon again, and again, Lyon makes the save.
Gimme the greasy grimy gopher goals! A team faceoff win in the Colorado zone. Georgiev stops Copp, stops Perron once, but not twice!
DRW 2 – COL 1
The next shift, Debrincat’s line generates 5 relatively non-threatening shots on goal to make the SOG differential shrink dramatically. Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but this Colorado team is really, really fast. They also change lines very well. Alex Lyon is a stud. Final commercial break of the opening frame.
A few minutes of neutrality. A puck over glass penalty to Seider. He’s back on the ice four seconds later after MacKinnon blasts his 40th of the season thru a sea of bodies and past Lyon.
DRW 2 – COL 2
The penalty parade persists as Pavel puts Papa Fabbri on the ice. Time for a RRRRRRRED WINGS POWER PLAY! Georgiev saves a Gostisbehere slapper that he was able to see the whole way to get the man advantage started. The Wings get a little generation, Georgiev succeeds with a little gamesmanship removing his mask while the Wings were in the neutral zone effectively killing a huge chunk of the penalty. Kane sets up Fabbri for a gimme, but Georgiev makes a truly spectacular, amazing glove save and the Wings will have 19 seconds of power play time with fresh ice.
End 1. DRW 2 – COL 2
The game is tied and the shot count is Colorado 16, Detroit 15, but in no way did that period feel as even as those stats might suggest. The speed of Colorado and the lack of Dylan Larkin to counter that speed are glaring.
2nd Period
Colorado uses the Super Mario power up sound clip when they kill a penalty. How unoriginal.. Otherwise, not much of note in the first few minutes outside of a couple Lyon saves, one of which was really terrific. Did I say that save was terrific? That was pedestrian compared to his next two, stymying MacKinnon not once but twice. Heroic effort thus far from Alex Lyon.
The ensuing faceoff results with a second delay of game penalty to Mo Seider. Hopefully this kill lasts 1:56 longer than the last. The Avs are in full control of the first 30 seconds of the power play. The Wings get a couple of clears and Andrew Copp gives some great effort, but the Avs set up again and their puck movement is phenomenal. MacKinnon gets a clean look at the net, but Lyon’s trapper stops MacKinnon in flashy fashion. Colorado’s top line stays out for nearly the entire penalty, and Lyon makes an emphatic body save on a shot from Rantanen with 1 second remaining on the penalty.
It seems like Colorado’s top line is just always on the ice, and they are really, really good at the hockey. Seider makes a drastic mistake chasing Rantanen behind the net for no reason while Walman was being woefully passive. Rantanen-MacKinnon-Lehkonen go tic-tac-toe and Lyon had no chance.
DRW 2 – COL 3
Several shifts later, Colorado gets whistled for a cross check. After the whistle, Maatta allowed himself to get baited into a retaliation penalty to join Colton in the box. I am very mad at Olli right now. 4-on-4 hockey for the next two minutes. Raymond, Chiarot, and Compher executed a beautiful cycle, but Petry caught the crossbar. A Raymond fumble ended the threat. Seider, who has been having easily the roughest night of any Red Wing is doing drop passes and making awful positioning decisions. Lyon made a wonderfully confident save on a clean breakaway for Drouin.
As the penalties expire, there’s a delayed penalty against Detroit for too many men, but Colton dangerously charged Lyon and the goalie interference will leave things even-strength. There was a scrum after the attack on our goalie that the TNT crew and Avs fans nationwide tried to force into some sort of nostalgic flashback to the 90’s and wow, what a stretch. That’s right, Avs fans. You’re no better than TNT’s second-tier broadcast crew.
Welp. Kane, who has probably been the best Red Wings skater along with Fabbri tonight, got the puck stripped from him in the D zone. Lyon did his best, but the rebound found Makar’s backhand on the doorstep who was able to slide it in 5-hole.
DRW 2 – COL 4
The Red Wings are collapsing now. Both structurally and figuratively. Two and a half minutes remain in the 2nd period. Hopefully the Avs have been skating too fast all game and will come out in the third completely gassed. The Wings lead the League in third-period comebacks this season, but that’s feeling awfully unlikely tonight. I’m still really mad at Olli Maatta.
Once again, the best player in a Detroit sweater is a goalie who has already given up four goals. Lyon makes another mindboggling save. Unreal performance from him tonight. With just over a minute remaining, Manson – the defenseman – effortlessly splits Seider and Walman to get himself a quick breakaway. Lyon makes the save, but Walman heads to the box for holding.
Lyon makes another save, the Avalanche are winning faceoffs at will, Makar gets a hat trick.
End 2. DRW 2 – COL 5
Just utter domination from Colorado tonight. I have no idea how Detroit has 2 goals and 21 shots on goal, and it’s even more miraculous the Avalanche haven’t potted a baker’s dozen. Hopefully Lyon gets the rest of the night off. He shouldn’t be forced to continue playing behind this team tonight.
3rd Period
Reimer is indeed in net. Veleno to the box for 4 minutes for high sticking and boy, Veleno’s foray into “replacing” Dylan Larkin is off to as bad of a start as I can imagine. The Avs seem to be taking the foot off the gas a little. Surprising, considering how tenuous their three-goal lead is. Small victories: the Wings kill the first half of the double minor. Reimer makes a handful of great saves in relief during the back half of Veleno’s penalty, and the four minutes are killed. The Avs, being the giants that they are, are pulling a Fezzik in this period letting the Wings possess the puck a little. They just want us to feel we’re doing well; hate for opponents to die embarrassed.
The rope-a-dope worked. Wings stopped skating and Drouin walked in and parked a wrister in the corner.
DRW 2 – COL 6
MacKinnon, Makar, and Rantanen to this point have combined for 22 shots on goal, the same as Detroit’s entire roster. This garbage fact is brought to you by Priority Waste. A very, very long 10 minutes remain.
Ho hum hockey for a while until Debrincat goes to the box for high sticking, but only for two minutes because he isn’t committed. The Avs are playing like they have dinner reservations which I honestly appreciate. Veleno and Seider look absolutely terrible tonight. Reimer made a few saves, one of them rather acrobatic. Penalty killed. Five and a half minutes cruelly remain.
Hey whaddya know? The Red Wings allowed someone’s first career NHL goal for the first time ever.
Final Score: DRW 2 – COL 7
Final Thoughts:
Makar, MacKinnon, and Rantanen put on a damned clinic tonight. I do wonder how some added toughness and #grit would have negated all their skill and speed tonight.
