A herculean effort from Lucas Raymond helped the Detroit Red Wings earn a point, but the team’s playoff hopes took another shot in a wild 6-5 overtime loss against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday.
Raymond’s career-best performance helped Detroit erase a two-goal deficit in the final seven minutes of the third period, but the Penguins scored first and it felt like the Red Wings had to battle back all night. Ultimately, Pittsburgh controlled most of overtime and took a crucial extra point after an Erik Karlsson blast.
It’s another crushing loss to stomach, but the numbers are the numbers… the point the Red Wings picked up is critical. They still need help, but not an insurmountable amount.
Remaining schedules: Detroit is @TOR, vs. MTL, @MTL; the Islanders are @NYR, @NJD, vs. PIT; the Penguins are vs. BOS, vs. NSH, @NYI; the Capitals are vs. TB, vs. BOS, @PHI; and the Flyers are @NJD and @WSH.
They certainly haven’t done themselves many favors of late, but there’s still a path, is all I’m saying. And it’s just a bit more achievable thanks to Detroit’s burgeoning Swedish star.
To the recap:
1st period
Taking the home crowd out of it, generating chances early, all things you want to see… but Detroit ended up behind the eight-ball early. Sidney Crosby banked the puck to himself behind the net, and centered it for Bryan Rust. Rust’s attempt was stopped by Alex Lyon, but Drew O’Connor jammed the loose rebound home. It did look like O’Connor and Crosby may have pushed Lyon a bit with their sticks, but Detroit elected not to challenge.
That decision paid off for the Red Wings, as they evened the score immediately. After some pretty sloppy play in his own end by Kris Letang, Alex DeBrincat forced a turnover and threw the puck at the net. Alex Nedeljkovic made the stop, but the puck popped right to Lucas Raymond in the slot, who made no mistake in knotting us at one.
Letang made up for his earlier error by putting the Penguins up late in the frame, collecting a pass from Michael Bunting and beating Lyon from the top of the circle. Probably one Lyon would want back, but Letang had a step on DeBrincat and would have otherwise been in alone.
But Detroit drew even in the final seconds of the period — a big relief after a fairly sloppy period (Pittsburgh would probably say the same, save for the late goal against). Raymond picked up his second of the frame on a slick passing play with Dylan Larkin (his 500th career point) and DeBrincat, who picked up his second helper in a very eventful period. Also eventful for Letang, whose turnover kickstarted the sequence.
2nd period
Detroit was much more under control in the middle stanza, holding Pittsburgh to just one shot in the opening eight minutes. Unfortunately, they weren’t rewarded for their efforts, as the Penguins managed to score on their second shot. Rust picked up a bouncing puck in the neutral zone and fired a seam pass through multiple Red Wings defenders that Crosby tipped in on the side of the net. Later, Crosby picked up and slammed Ben Chiarot to the ice and both got penalties — nice to see some NHL standards never change.
Just past the midway point of the second period, the Penguins struck again. Mortiz Seider stepped up to stop Marcus Pettersson at the blueline, and Pettersson tripped up Raymond while he was going for the loose puck. That went uncalled, and Reilly Smith collected the puck and centered for Rust, who sniped one above Lyon’s glove to extend Pittsburgh’s lead to 4-2.
The sound you heard before the end of the period was thousands of Red Wings fans rushing to find a pen and paper to author an apology letter to the much-maligned Jeff Petry, who made it a one-goal game in the final minute and gave Detroit life heading into the third period. With plenty of traffic in front, Seider found Petry with a pass and loads of time, and Petry stepped into one that beat Nedeljkovic.
4-3 Penguins after 40 in a game that’s getting exceedingly chippy.
3rd period
Simon Edvinsson narrowly missed setting up a backdoor feed to Kane, and Shayne Gostisbehere hit the post early on a power-play, but seemingly the backbreaker came just moments later when Jeff Carter connected on a shorthanded breakaway, beating Lyon over the blocker to restore Pittsburgh’s two-goal advantage. He picked off a blueline pass from Daniel Sprong and somehow, at 38 years old, outraced everyone to it… Several things there that should not be happening.
The Red Wings weren’t going quietly though, and it was Raymond who created another goal by beating Pettersson to a loose puck and centering for Larkin, who was left wide-open with multiple Penguins caught puck-watching. He flipped it over Nedeljkovic, and the Red Wings had seven minutes to find one more goal.
And, buddy, did they ever find that goal:
Overtime
Overtime was the modern-day’s NHL “take your turn” template. After getting kicked out of the draw, Crosby intercepted Larkin’s clean faceoff win, and the Penguins controlled the puck for the first 70 seconds or so of the extra frame. Late in that same shift, Larkin and Seider had a two-on-one which Nedeljkovic stopped, and I believe that was the last time Detroit touched the puck in a meaningful way. A Karlsson blueline blast ultimately sent the fans home happy with a 6-5 Penguins win.
Takeaways
1. The silver lining. There’s plenty of praise for Raymond in the game thread, and plenty above. Here’s more: the development of Raymond down the stretch is the most important thing to come of the 2023-24 season. Sure, the team is better, but they’re in this position with a lot of players who may not be here in 2-3 years. With lottery luck falling the way it has, it now looks more-and-more that Detroit did manage to secure two lottery level talents in Raymond and Seider. Raymond was trending that way, anyway, but the next level he’s shown in his game, his compete level when the stakes are high… those are traits of very few in the NHL. He’ll need to piece that together on a regular basis, but I hope it’s inspired confidence in the barely 22-year-old that he can take over a game when he needs to.
2. Wanted: Saves. The Red Wings owe Alex Lyon a lot for even getting to this point. He gave Detroit long stretches of consistent play that they were lacking for the past several seasons. As they’ve crawled towards the finish line here, we’ve seen the odd leaky goal… and then seemed to hit the wall today, allowing five on his first 20 shots. Hard to win like that. I’m not pinning everything on him — when the downslide coincides with his workload (this is the most he’s played since 47 games as a first-year pro), it shows a clear and immediate need going forward. With Sebastian Cossa and Trey Augustine each having excellent seasons, Detroit doesn’t need to go crazy, but finding a veteran starting goalie with 2-3 years of tread left on the tires may serve them well.
Your moment of zen
Just picking a video at random tonight. No real reason at all.
The Red Wings will contest yet another most-important-game-of-the-year on Saturday at 7 p.m. against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
