A week ago, the Wings lost 1-0 in regulation to the Flyers off a fluky own-goal. This game was the exact opposite of that performance.
1st Period
It’s Detroit’s first game back at full strength (at least with the skaters). The chemistry shows with the offense, which is loaded up top with a line of Larkin, Kane, and DeBrincat. Walman is the 7-D on a night where we’re rolling 12/6, so we’ll see how that turns out. His play lately has warranted a night to sit, but so has the play from lots of guys who are still getting regular minutes.
The offense clicks quickly and it’s not long before the Wings are on the board. 4-and-a-half minutes in, Larkin takes a feed from DeBrincat re-entering the Flyers’ zone and rings one off the far post. Kane is streaking in and catches the rebound on his stick for what’s basically an empty-net goal. It’s 1-0 good guys and it feels good to start on-time.
4 minutes later and it’s showtime again. Holl fires a slap-pass to a net-front DeBrincat and gets it squarely on-target. Point blank on Carter Hart, with everyone thinking “shoot”, DeBrincat feeds Kane lurking around the back of the net. Hart is playing DeBrincat so aggressively that Kane has basically another empty net and it’s 2-0 Wings.
Philly showed signs of life though (or did Reimer just show signs of no life?). 45 seconds after Kane’s second, Zamula hits Farabee with an outlet pass. The Wings’ aggressive forecheck that helped with goal #2 now bites them as Philly has a 2-on-1 against Määttä, who misplays and tries to take the puck carrier instead of blocking the pass. Farabee dishes to Brink when Määttä commits, who puts it easily past Reimer. Lead cut in half, 2-1 only 9 minutes into the game.
An action-packed period wasn’t over yet. With Sanheim in the bad-boy-box for holding Larkin, Raymond and Seider get a bit of perimeter movement going before Seider threads a needle toward Fabbri at the net-front. Sprong is cutting in front though, and tips the puck just past Hart for a powerplay goal that probably happens anyway if he goes literally anywhere else. What a weird change of pace to have TWO guys in a scoring position! 3-1 Detroit.
Riding the momentum and an obviously shaken Philly squad, Raymond gets Veleno the puck and he streaks in on Hart. Joey V. tries a point-blank shot, and Hart makes the save and covers up, but the puck squirts out. Compher crashed the net when Veleno went in, and Hart plus his defenders are all shifting with Veleno as Compher gets the loose puck. He whacks it in, and it’s 4-1 Wings.
Surely now it’s time to ride a 3-goal lead into the intermission, right? NO! Setting up in the Philly zone, Kane puts a slap-pass off the boards just to the side of the net. All eyes are on Larkin net-front as Gostisbehere collects the pass and puts a sharp-angle shot past Hart with only about 20 seconds left in the frame. Surely, this game is effectively over.
2nd Period
Just gotta play some defensive hockey now, right guys?
Philly is NOT about to make the same mistakes from the first period. Tightening up, they find a hole in the Wings’ defense about 3 minutes in. After several failed attempts by the Wings to disrupt play and clear the zone, the Flyers get set up and Sanheim rips a shot from the blue-line. Couturier is net-front and tips a rising shot back down and past Reimer, who tried to be snappy with his glove but couldn’t adjust to the tip. The Wings want it called back for a high stick, but the goal stands and it’s 5-2.
Mickey Redmond is a prescient gem of a human. The announcers started calling out the previous Flyers’ goal and Mick says Detroit needs to buckle down and keep their defensive composure, and that’s the exact moment that the Wings have their next lapse in defensive composure. It’s almost an exact repeat of Philly’s previous goal, but with Frost tipping a wide Sanheim shot back in on net this time. Two shots from Sanheim, basically uncontested by Rasmussen and then Kane, find their way into the back of the net after Chiarot and then Petry can’t take care of their men net-front and I am, along with the rest of the Res Wings fanbase, ready to scream.
Thankfully, the Wings buckled down for a bit after this bad start to the period. A powerplay comes in favor of the Wings, only for it to be spoiled by an interesting interference call against Gostisbehere. He collects an additional 2 minutes for barking at the refs, which they deserved but also rightly won’t take. Thankfully it amounts to nothing and the rest of the period passes as the score remains 5-3.
3rd Period
A 2-goal lead is the most dangerous lead in hockey, and if there’s one thing you can’t trust this Wings squad with it’s dangerous situations.
Stop me if you’ve heard this one already tonight: a Flyers defender (Laughton this time) fires an uncontested shot to the net that gets tipped in for a goal by Hathaway. This time it’s Gostisbehere who doesn’t commit to his man fast enough, giving Hathaway time and focus to tip the shot. I’m getting really mad about how we concede the front of the net as the Flyers are now within 1.
The Wings manage to hold on for another 10 minutes before Philly finds a way to strike again. Farabee fires a shot into traffic that finds its way to Reimer, who fails to corral the puck. He can’t locate the rebound, but Laughton can after sneaking away from Gostisbehere and tucks it neatly in behind Reimer to tie the game.
It only took another 90 seconds for the collapse to be complete. A weak shot off a zone entry hits Reimer in the chest and drops, and again he fails to control it. With the puck working its way thru his pads, Chiarot stops in front of Reimer and stares at him instead of staying on his man. Gostisbehere also eases up, only darting to the net when he realizes Reimer doesn’t have full control. It’s too late though, as the puck squeaks out from a frozen Reimer and two Flyers are there to collect it. Tippett sweeps the puck in and Detroit is now down 6-5 after starting with a 5-1 lead.
Dylan Larkin is full-on Not Taking This Crap. Carrying the puck into the zone, looking to make something happen, Larkin fires at the net from behind the goal line to make some chaos. Instead of chaos, Hart hasn’t squared-up to the post and Larkin’s shot finds its way into the net to tie the game at 6s with only 4-and-a-half minutes left to play.
Overtime
With so many defensive lapses in the game, it was tough to not pucker whenever Philly touched the puck. But the Wings held strong, and could’ve ended the game in the bonus period themselves had Hart not made a fantastic stop on a 2-on-1 with only seconds left. To the shootout we go.
After blanking DeBrincat and Couturier, Raymond scores on Hart as Brink fires his attempt over Reimer and the net. With the game on his stick, Kane gets in close and snaps his attempt past Hart so fast that I’m still wondering how he can release that quickly. Credit for the game-winner will go to Raymond, and the Wings finally collect 2 points after a truly tragic skid of games.
Takeaways
This team can both find and give offense in bunches. Kane adds a big spark of creativity and finishing, and is making a lot of doubters look silly, but this team honestly needed a defensive addition of a similar caliber more. Couple the defensive woes with a goaltender that wasn’t controlling rebounds (tough to fault Reimer for not stopping tipped pucks) and even a 4-goal lead isn’t safe.
Gostisbehere, Chiarot, and Petry all had lapses in defense that gave Philly time and space to score. One of them needs an extended sit. I’d honestly prefer two of them to sit, but with how the D is constructed right now I’m not sure that’s possible. Määttä also left the game with an injury and did not return, but while many are hopeful that will lead to an Edvinsson or Johansson call-up I think it’ll lead to Lalonde & Co leaning on these vets even more. This team needs an injection of physicality on the blue-line, and games will continue to be scary until they get two more guys who can keep the net-front clear (or at least clearer than the opposition free-for-all it seems to be now). Seider can’t be out there on every pair.
The Wings visit the Devils tonight before starting their holiday break.
LGRW
