The Detroit Red Wings fell 2-1 to the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday night, stretching their losing streak to three games which, courtesy of a tiebreaker, slides the Red Wings outside the Eastern Conference playoff picture for now.
It was a frustrating night for the Red Wings in a game where the score doesn’t quite tell the whole story. They started fairly strong and traded chances with Carolina in the first, but after falling behind two goals early in the second, the Red Wings began to look pretty lifeless. The standout lowlight came late in the second when the defensive pairing of Simon Edvinsson and Albert Johansson was pinned on the ice for nearly four-and-a-half minutes. The Hurricanes didn’t generate a ton of shots during that stretch, but it was just a tough look as the entire unit was too gassed to win a battle and get the puck any further than the opposing blueline.
One small (big) bright spot
Todd McLellan ran the line blender for the third and rewarded Elmer Soderblom with several shifts up on the first line, and Soderblom scored Detroit’s lone goal on a strong individual effort. He looked dangerous later in the period, too, showing a lot of confidence with the puck — a bright spot during a tough night.
The goal gave Detroit some life and it started to feel like the 2023-24 Red Wings, searching for late-game heroics to rescue an uneven performance. While they had a few good chances, it was a fairly sloppy end-of-game effort, having to defend several empty-net opportunities from the Hurricanes (who, unsurprisingly, were a lot more aggressive in finding that extra goal than most teams).
Raymond injured late
Carolina ultimately hung on for the win in a game that ended with a small scuffle after Jordan Staal hit Lucas Raymond in the head with his elbow/forearm. I didn’t see any ill intent behind the play — I thought Staal pulled up to avoid a hit and inadvertently caught him as he turned around — but Raymond’s status going forward is critical for Detroit. Early post-game reports, per Ansar Khan, are that he appears to be okay, but it’ll be closely monitored ahead of a back-to-back against Utah at home on Thursday and in Washington on Friday (also the trade deadline).
Lyon strong in net
Outside of Soderblom, this was a mostly good night for Alex Lyon. The second goal falls on him a bit, though it was bad luck that the dump-in attempt (which only occurred from a failed clear by Detroit) hopped over his stick and no one neutralized Staal (a tough ask) as he converted the wraparound.
But Lyon was especially sharp during the third period, notably on a Taylor Hall penalty shot attempt and by throwing the poke-check on Jackson Blake who caught the Red Wings defense sleeping and found himself alone with the puck in front of the net.
Moving on
Some expressed concerns over the timing of the Four Nations break, and it’s now looking like the time off hurt the Red Wings more than it helped. They did take five-of-six points in their first three outings back (needing overtime twice after losing late leads), but even strength offense has felt harder to come by over the six games since play resumed. The power play put up a goose egg after scoring seven times in the previous five games, and it took an individual effort by Soderblom to prevent a shutout tonight.
It’s hard to criticize a team for getting hemmed in by Carolina when that’s the Hurricanes’ whole identity, but Detroit had been a little harder on pucks than they’ve shown in the last week. Puck movement has been noticeably less crisp and cost them significant offensive zone time with the extra attacker, as they spent too much time defending their open net and had limited extended pressure.
You never want to overreact over too small of a sample size — they did outshoot Columbus 46-21 on Saturday and were one correct referee decision away from almost certainly getting a point — but the sloppiness has been uncharacteristic under McLellan, and the blame can be pretty evenly spread out throughout the roster. It’s critical to fix this if Detroit has any hope of ending its playoff drought.
UPDATE: One small post-game update that the Red Wings have assigned Sheldon Dries to Grand Rapids. It’s hopefully a sign that Michael Rasmussen will be good to go for Thursday, but the Griffins also play in Manitoba tomorrow if they want to get Dries a game.
