It was an emotional night for the Red Wings as they returned to the Joe for the first time since the passing of Mike Ilitch. They wore patches honouring him and ‘Mr. I’ was painted on the ice in front of their bench. Before puck drop the Wings played a video tribute to Mr. I on the scoreboard as well. Overall, they did a nice job remembering his extraordinary and well lived life.
According to several sources on Twitter, there were 18 scouts in attendance for this game. Must be close to the trade deadline!
First Period
The Wings gave up an early goal to Barbashev thanks to some defensive confusion between Nielsen and AA.
The Wings’ play was sloppy at best in the first half of the period. They had too many defensive lapses and struggled to control the puck in the offensive zone.
In the second half of the period they got some life back and had a few shifts of sustained pressure in the Blues’ zone and some good chances on goal. They got a penalty at the 13 minute mark which threatened to steal their momentum, but they killed it off and did an excellent job shutting down the Blues.
The Wings kept piling up the shots against the Blues but failed to score. They actually outshot the Blues in the second half of the first.
They had five giveaways in the period, three of which were attributed to Brendan Smith. He’s certainly not putting on a good show for the scouts!
Score: 1-0 STL
Shots: 9-7 DET
Second Period
The Wings didn’t do themselves any favours in the beginning of the second period, getting a penalty right off the bat and sending the Blues to a power play. Tarasenko set up shop at the left hashmark, which made me really nervous, but the Wings killed the penalty off. Mrazek was really sharp early in the period, making some timely saves including a nice glove flash on Barbashev from midair.
The Wings went on the PP at the 5 minute mark but had a hard time setting up in the Blues’ zone. To the Blues’ credit, they did a nice job of taking away space and passing opportunities for the Wings.
The Blues got their third PP of the game in the second period but the Wings and especially Mrazek held them without a goal.
The Wings tried to keep up with the Blues this period but still didn’t have too much sustained pressure in the Blues’ zone. Uncharacteristically, Larkin was held to zero shots on net. The good thing is that the score remained 1-0, thanks to some crafty saves by Mrazek and 3 blocked shots by Ouellet.
Score: 1-0 STL
Shots: 23-15 STL
Third Period
Just like in the second period, the Wings started the third by getting a penalty within the first minute (Jensen for holding). The Wings’ PK stayed a perfect 4-0 for the night.
Seconds after, the Wings headed to their third power play of the game. Berglund took away a great scoring opportunity from Tatar in front of the net and was sent to the box. The Wings had a good PP, generated lots of chances but missed the net several times. Zetterberg alone notched 4 shots on goal.
Despite a much better pace of play, the Wings remained unable to generate enough chances on net to shake Hutton.
Mrazek was pulled with 1:42 remaining in the period and the Wings spent the majority of that time in the Blues’ zone. Despite several mad scrambles and pile ups in front of Hutton, somehow the puck continued to stay out. Schwartz got the empty netter with 12 seconds left and sealed the game.
The Wings get shut out for the eight time this season.
