Surely this is the matchup this team needed, right? The Detroit Red Wings return home after a tough 1-0 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers to play the absolutely sputtering Anaheim Ducks. The Ducks are coming off a 5-1 win last night against the New Jersey Devils, but before that, had lost 13 of their past 14 games. Between that and it being a road back-to-back, traveling overnight from New Jersey, this should be a really tough game for the Ducks and be a perfect matchup for a Detroit Red Wings team who have captain Dylan Larkin returning to the lineup.
Larkin will be a player to watch for the Red Wings as this team will need to get back on track offensively after just one goal scored in the last two games. It’s also Alex DeBrincat’s birthday, so look out for the birthday boy to try to get back going. He’s without a point in the last three games and has gone seven straight without a goal. He’s taken at least three shots on goal in five of those seven games so he’s eventually going to find the back of the net so tonight is the night to do it. For the Ducks, Adam Henrique is coming off a hat trick last night so he’ll be a player to look out for. The Ducks are without one of their best forwards in Mason McTavish who has 21 points in 24 games this season. It’s an offense that has been struggling and it’s a great night for a Red Wings team to keep the defensive pace of the last two games.
In goal, the Red Wings will be starting Ville Husso who looked great in relief of the injured Alex Lyon the other night. He stopped all 18 shots he faced and it’s a great start to potentially bring the Finnish netminder back to his form of early 2022-23. Meanwhile, the Ducks will be starting Lukas Dostal who has been struggling this season. He comes into the game with a 3.93 GAA and a .887 SV% and presents the Red Wings with the perfect chance to get back on track. Of course, this is the Red Wings we’re talking about so surely, nothing will be this easy. Let’s get into it, shall we?
1st Period
We get underway and right away, the puck is kept in the Ducks offensive end. The Ducks create a couple of chances but don’t get a shot on goal. That is until the puck finds the stick of Radko Gudas at the point. He fires a wrist shot and it goes off the crossbar and in. No idea if Husso even saw that shot as Chiarot appeared to be screening him. Either way, just 2:23 in, it’s 1-0 Ducks and for the fourth straight game, the Red Wings give up the first goal. The assists on the goal go to Brett Leason and the previously mentioned Henrique.
The Ducks get the next really big chance too. Troy Terry gets the puck in the left circle off a rebound and fires a wrist shot but Husso makes a huge save. He had to reach out his stick to get it and frankly, this should be 2-0 Ducks. What an insane save and words aren’t gonna do it justice. We head to the first media timeout with the Ducks still up 1-0 and the Red Wings without a good chance so far.
Out of the break, the Red Wings do get a shot early but Dostal makes the easy save. They get a couple more quickly so they’re throwing the puck at the net a lot but none of their six shots have been threatening. The Ducks get the puck back in the offensive end and the puck comes out to Pavel Mintyukov. He fires a shot that deflects off the side of Larkin’s shin and goes over Husso’s shoulder an in. Wow, just like that it’s 2-0. That is just so unfortunate. So rarely do you see a puck go off a player’s leg redirect like that. It’s an unlucky goal and the Red Wings are in an early hole. The assists go to Leo Carlsson and Terry.
Shortly after, the Red Wings get a break. The Ducks pick up a tripping minor courtesy of Leason and the Red Wings get their first power play. Now is the time for the Red Wings to finally get their power play going again. They get an excellent chance right away. A perfect chance sets up Larkin with a shot and the rebound is loose in front after hitting a Red Wing skate. However, no one is there to put the loose puck home. A key stat that Ken Daniels just mentioned on the broadcast is that the Ducks are the most penalized team in the NHL. This power play desperately needs to take advantage.
Lucas Raymond gets a good look from the left circle and it hits Veleno in front. The puck flies up in the air but because of how Veleno reacts, the official thinks the puck went up into his pants and blows the play dead. That was very odd. The power play comes to an end shortly after. One great chance but nothing to show for it. The Ducks shortly after end up offside and that sends us to another break. The Ducks lead 2-0 and the Red Wings need to get going.
Coming out of the break, Mickey Redmond breaks down both Red Wings goals and in both, the Red Wings had all five players below the hash marks. That is…not good at all. The next couple of minutes pass without much of anything happening. There’s some possession from both teams but neither team can create anything. The closest either team gets is Robby Fabbri making a great move after getting the puck at the top of the circle with the rest of his team out of the zone. He goes down and the LCA crowd wants a penalty but it looks like he just got knocked down. We head to another timeout with the score still 2-0 Anaheim.
Right out of the break, the Red Wings get a chance as Klim Kostin drives to the net. The issue is, he puts his head down, doesn’t look at all where he’s going, and just runs Dostal over. Like, absolutely blew him up. You just can’t do that and he gets a deserved goalie interference call to put the Ducks on the power play with 4:26 left in the first period. On the power play, Jake Walman blocks a shot and is absolutely in pain. He loses his stick and can’t get off the ice, essentially putting the Red Wings to five-on-three. The puck was 95 mph and hit him right in the knee.
Meanwhile, Husso also gets hurt on this stretch. He tries to spread out into the butterfly to make a save and doesn’t get up. Looks like a knee or groin issue and he comes out, putting James Reimer into the net. With Husso and Lyon both out, the Red Wings are in a dire goaltending situation. The Ducks’ power play comes to an end with no goals but potentially two Red Wings done for the game. Then, immediately after, Justin Holl gets his left arm around Alex Killorn’s shoulder and head and gets called for holding. And just like that, the Red Wings will be on the penalty kill for the remainder of the first period barring a goal.
Well, 40 seconds into the power play, Adam Henrique deflects a perfect shot pass from Cam Fowler and it trickles five-hole on Reimer. His tenth goal of the season and it’s now 3-0 Ducks. This is just an awful performance from this Red Wings team as they’re losing badly to one of the worst teams in the NHL. The period comes to an end with shots 10-9 in favor of Anaheim. The Red Wings had one actual quality chance all period and didn’t even get a shot out of it. A horrible period and you have to hope this team gets a fire lit under their ass in the intermission because you can’t play this bad against this bad of a hockey team.
2nd Period
The period gets underway and just over a minute in, Lucas Raymond picks up a loose puck and gets a good look but the puck deflects off a defender into the netting. Ken Daniels then informs us that Walman has returned so great to see he’s able to come back and we didn’t lose another player to injury. After the draw, the Ducks go forward into the Red Wings zone. The Red Wings defense completely falls asleep after Mo Seider’s stick gets caught into the boards and he doesn’t handle a Reimer wrap around the boards. The puck gets passed from the point to a wide-open Troy Terry in front of the net who slides the puck in and it’s 4-0 Ducks. Wow. Just, wow.
Seconds later, the Red Wings get the puck into the offensive zone. The puck finds Jeff Petry on the right boards at the hash and fires a shot AND HE SCORES!!! A SEEING-EYE SHOT BEATS DOSTAL AND HE GETS THE RED WINGS ON THE BOARD WITH HIS FIRST OF THE SEASON!!! Assists on the goal go to Andrew Copp and Patrick Kane and the Red Wings have made it a 4-1 game. There’s a long way to go still but this is a team you can come back on.
The Red Wings get another chance shortly after this. Petry streaks into the right circle and gets a beautiful pass. He goes around the net at full speed and gets a great wraparound look, but Ilya Lybushkin gets a stick on his stick before he can direct the puck toward the net. An amazing chance for Petry to get his second and to get them another goal closer. That goal seems to have woken the Red Wings up and they have grabbed the momentum. They get a couple more chances that Dostal snuffs out and we end up going to the first media timeout.
About a minute back from the break, the Ducks pick up another tripping minor, this one by Mintyukov, and the Red Wings go to their second power play. The first two chances of the power play go through Kane. He fires the first shot that deflects up into the netting and he throws a second one on net hoping for a deflection and doesn’t get one. The Red Wings just can’t get their power play set up after this with them not getting another chance until they get a rush with seven seconds remaining which ends up in the netting. They then get a slap shot on target from Seider off the ensuing draw but that’s all as they come up empty again.
Oh jeez, Radko Gudas just absolutely lit up Klim Kostin and he is not ok. A completely clean hit that comes with a nice poke check by Gudas as well and that at the very least knocked the wind out of him. It would not surprise me if that broke a rib or two because he took a shoulder directly to his chest and I wouldn’t want to know what that feels like. A clean play that unfortunately ends up with an injured Red Wing.
A couple of minutes pass and outside of a couple of weak shots on target by the Red Wings, neither team creates much. We head into the media timeout with the score still 4-1 Ducks. This team needs to get one before the period comes to a close. Three goals is a tough ask for the third period, even against the Ducks. The Red Wings get the puck in the Anaheim end out of the break but can’t get a good look. However, Frank Vatrano crosschecks Chiarot and just like that, the Red Wings have their third power play with 2:58 to go in the period.
The Red Wings have some great puck movement early. Then, Shayne Gostisbehere rifles a slap shot from the point that rings off the crossbar and bounces in the crease. No one can pick the puck up but what a chance for Detroit. Larkin gets a good chance himself shortly after but Dostal makes the save. We get a faceoff with 50 seconds left on the man-advantage and right off the draw, Fabbri picks up a hooking call. A tough call but when you get a stick around an opponent’s stick and they go down, you’re gonna get called nine out of ten times.
The Red Wings get what SHOULD be a great chance. Seider makes a big hit and starts a chance as the Ducks were heading the other way. However, Joe Veleno wasn’t ready for a pass and the puck goes the other way. After the Ducks penalty ends and it goes to five-on-four, the Ducks get a great chance as the puck nearly squirts through Reimer’s legs, but he covers it up with his glove. That is the final chance of the period as the game still stands at 4-1 Ducks. The Red Wings outshot the Ducks 11-8 in that period and had chances but can only get one past Dostal. It’s a big mountain to climb in the third but it looks like they woke up a little bit there. Let’s see if they can pull off the comeback which they have done before this season.
3rd Period
It’s a slow start to the period for both teams with no real chances in the first few minutes. Then, the two teams get offsetting penalties as the Ducks pick up a hook and Christian Fischer picks up an embellishment call. They showed the replay and Ken and Mick both burst out laughing at Fischer’s embellishment. The Red Wings get a good chance on the four-on-four as Larkin and Seider lead a two-on-one rush but the Ducks make an excellent defensive play to stop the pass from getting to Seider. They get another two-on-one with Kane and DeBrincat about a minute later but Kane’s shot is blocked by Dostal.
The game heads back to five-on-five and the Red Wings get a lot of possession inside the Ducks’ end but can’t create anything. Shortly after, the Ducks pick up another penalty as Dostal trips Joe Veleno. It’s another power play for the Red Wings and they desperately need to score on this one. They need to get one to make the comeback far less daunting. The Red Wings get control early and are moving the puck well. Gostisbehere passes it over to Kane in the right circle. He then makes a gorgeous pass to DeBrincat across the ice who one-times it AND HE SCORES!!! A RIP PAST DOSTAL AND IT’S 4-2 DUCKS!!!
Wow, the Red Wings needed that. Kane picks up his second assist of the game as the birthday boy breaks his goalless drought. Gostisbehere picks up another assist as well as he continues his excellent offensive season. The goal is also DeBrincat’s 400th career point so a cool milestone for the birthday boy. A couple of minutes later, we get offsetting minors again. Ryan Strome picks up a cross-checking penalty and Michael Rasmussen picks up a rough. We’re back to four-on-four which you’d have to think favors the Red Wings right now.
Oddly, the best chance of the four-on-four belongs to Ben Chiarot. After some dancing around the zone by Kane, he gets the puck to Chiarot who drives to the net and gets a great look, but Dostal makes the save. After the four-on-four, the Red Wings keep full control. It ends with Gudas picking up a holding-the-stick penalty and sending the Red Wings to another power play. This is huge as the Red Wings already have full momentum and have controlled the puck so well in this third period. Let’s see if they can bring this within one after the media timeout.
They start with control and Kane gets a nice look from the right circle, but Dostal makes the save. After some struggles setting up again, DeBrincat gets a great look from the left circle but hits the outside of the post. He then gets another look but Dostal makes another good save. It’s the last chance they get with the man advantage and there’s now just 5:30 left to play in the game, still down 4-2. Shots in this period are 10-4 in favor of Detroit. A minute later, the Ducks once again get a high stick and it appears that Christian Fischer is bleeding on his left eyelid. And sure enough, the Red Wings will return from the final media timeout with a four-minute power play.
Gostisbehere gets a great chance early as he fires a slapshot that Dostal makes a great shoulder save on. They pull Reimer so it’s six-on-four with just under four minutes in the game. I don’t know how I feel about pulling the netminder this early when you have a double minor active and you’re giving the other team chances at an open net with no risk of icing punishment. They control the puck very well and are tiring out a Ducks team that can’t get off the ice. Gostisbehere feeds DeBrincat on the right circle WHO BLASTS A ONE-TIMER PAST DOSTAL!!! HIS SECOND OF THE GAME AND THE SCORE IS 4-3 DUCKS!!!
The officials are checking to see what time was left on the double minor when the puck crossed the goal line. If it goes in with more than two minutes left, the Red Wings get two more minutes left. It looks like there might have been 2:01 remaining but the officials call it with 2:00 left meaning the second minor started and it ends the power play. I think that Ken and Mick are under the belief that if there was 2:00 left that means it’s still in the first penalty but I don’t think that’s the case. Either way, we’re back to even strength after DeBrincat’s 15th goal of the season makes it a one-goal game.
The Red Wings wait to pull Reimer until the 1:25 mark. The Red Wings dump it in and Dostal goes for a goalie goal and he nearly does it. It just misses wide and hits the side of the net, but that means it’s an icing with just over 1:10 to go. The Red Wings get control after the faceoff and have control but can’t find a look. Then, a bad pass around the boards means the puck ends up out of the zone. The Red Wings then end up offside and the draw goes all the way down. They never get control again and that’s the game. 4-3 Ducks is the final and the comeback falls short.
Conclusion
Well, the Red Wings once again can’t overcome a slow start. They were down 4-0 and that’s just too much to overcome most nights and tonight was one of them. The Red Wings had full control for the entire second half of that game. They outshot the Ducks 12-4 in that third period and they had chances to tie the game. The call to end the double minor will be controversial but if that puck crossed the goal line at 2:00 and not 2:01, then that’s the right call if I understand the rule correctly. Either way, don’t give up four goals in the first 22 minutes of the game to one of the worst-scoring teams in the NHL and you don’t have that problem.
Shoutout to Alex DeBrincat who broke his seven-game goalless drought with two tonight. Shoutout to Gostisbehere and Kane who both had two assists tonight. But there’s not a lot else to praise from tonight as a combination of bad defensive zone positioning, turnovers, and not-great goaltending put them in too big of a hole. We’ll see what’s going on with the goalie situation when the team heads to Winnipeg, but based on the way he got hurt, my guess is Husso could be out for a while and with Lyon listed as week-to-week, we will likely see either Hutchinson or Cossa up from Grand Rapids for the foreseeable future. Have a great night everyone.
