Buffalo ain’t got shit on these Hot Wings.
Coming into today, the Wings were on a three-game win streak with a playoff berth in sight. From top-to-bottom, Detroit played their best game against the St. Louis Blues (also a WC team) and showed no mercy. Let’s get straight into what would end up being a complete ass-whooping by Steve Yzerman’s Detroit Red Wings.
1st Period
I am not sure when the Red Wings played such a lopsided period. This was a 20-minute-long beatdown from the Wings. It took the Blues almost 10 minutes to register their first shot on goal, but the Wings managed to score three times in that span of time. It started right out of the gate with Patrick Kane picking up his 11th of the season, just 33 seconds into the game!!!
A little over four minutes after Kane’s goal, it was Lucas Raymond and Michael Rasmussen on a 2-on-1, which converted to Moose’s 12th goal on the season. Great pass from number 23:
‘Bout a minute later, and after St. Louis took a timeout to address the shitstorm they were going through, Robby Fabbri picked up a goal on a flubbed play that resulted in the puck bouncing off of him:
St. Louis started to push back a little but it seemed that whenever Detroit got its top line out on the ice, the Blues were on a sinking ship. Tremendous shifts from Larkin, Kane and DeBrincat. Eventually St. Louis would draw a penalty. Detroit’s PK unit took care of that, but give Alex Lyon credit… He made a couple of huge saves, and was given some help when Brayden Schenn went PINGO on a wide-open net.
Here come the Red Wings again — drawing a penalty late in the period to set up Alex DeBrincat for his 20th goal of the season.. Just a nasty snipe from the Cat:
4-0 Detroit after 20 minutes.
2nd Period
More momentum for Detroit in this period. It would lead to a 5-on-3 chance for the Wings. Didn’t work this time and David Perron had a number of whiffs that should have been great scoring chances/goals. Credit to the Wings though, despite missing out on the chance for another PP goal, the team looked locked into the game.
St. Louis would manage to score its first goal, and you won’t friggin’ believe it — it was rookie Zac Buldoc picking up his first-career NHL goal… ON HIS BIRTHDAY.
No matter. The Wings tightened up and fired up the buzzsaw again. Some five minutes after Buldoc’s goal, JT Compher picks up his 14th of the season thanks to a heads-up play from Lucas Raymond:
About a minute-and-a-half of play later, Patrick Kane finds his old buddy Alex DeBrincat for his second goal of the game:
Despite a goal from St. Louis, it’s still all Wings in this game. 6-1 after 40 minutes.
3rd Period
The third period went exactly how you would want it to go. Detroit clamped down on the Blues and put them into submission. A late power play for St. Louis wound up with nothing to show, and Alex Lyon would close it out from there.
FINAL: 6-1, RED WINGS WIN!!!!
What else is there to say? The Detroit Red Wings are playing at the highest of levels right now as we round into the home stretch of the regular season. They needed two points today and they got them — effortlessly.
Wings are back to work tomorrow in Chicago. Reimer gets the start. LGRW!!!
