With the playoffs firmly in their sights, the Detroit Red Wings embarked on their trip to Western Canada with a tough bill of teams to play. I was feeling optimistic — the Oilers were coming off of a shutout loss at the hands of the struggling LA Kings, and Detroit was riding high from an OT win against Vancouver. Despite playing decent hockey through the first 40 minutes, the wheels would fall off in what I deem the “turd period,” which I have to credit our friends at Pride of Detroit for inspiring me to use such verbiage.
Let’s get into what transpired Tuesday night…
1st Period
Good start for Detroit with some pressure in Edmonton’s zone. Eventually it seemed like the Wings were caught with tired legs and got quickly hemmed in a times. The Oilers opened scoring when Detroit got anchored into their own zone. Leon Draisaitl would pick up the goal, and up to this point — things had been going well for Ville Husso. He made a handful of big saves, but would end up leaving the game with an apparent lower-body injury that occured during the first goal.
Enter Alex Lyon.
Edmonton would follow up with another goal, this time from Cody Ceci. Kind of a weird goal, Ceci’s shot deflected off Moritz Seider’s foot — no chance for Lyon to react in time.
Only one power play in the first period and it was thanks to Leon Draisaitl that Detroit got the chance. Tremendous work from the Wings would lead to Alex DeBrincat’s 19th goal of the season, especially Patrick Kane with the ridiculous cross-ice pass:
2-1 after 20 minutes.
2nd Period
Edmonton loosened up out of the gate and Detroit had several big chances to tie the game up. Alex DeBrincat stood out with a few scoring chances of his own. A setback would arrive just after the halfway mark when Evan Bouchard was left alone to slip it past Alex Lyon. Seider made a case that he was held by Connor McDavid prior to the goal, and if you ask me… He had a point. Seemed that Edmonton got away with more than one offensive zone penalties. No matter though, it’s 3-1.
Detroit is back on the power play with just under nine minutes left to go.
It took Detroit about 10 seconds to shrink the deficit — and just over a minute after Bouchard’s goal. Joe Veleno found himself sweeping up the garbage in front of Stuart Skinner to pick up his 10th goal of the season. A real nice play spawned from an offensive-zone face off:
Fast forward a few minutes and it’s Patrick Kane scoring the game-tying goal on a wide-open net. All the hard work was done by Perron and Compher:
Wings once again showing guts. The game is tied 3-3 going into the third period.
3rd Period
Full disclosure on my behalf: I drifted off into snoozeland during the second intermission. Turned out to be a good use of time, it seems.
It took Edmonton less than a minute to regain the lead, and that would basically seal Detroit’s fate. Connor McDavid went on an absolute playmaking rampage, with four assists in the final frame alone. After achieving a 4-3 lead over the Wings, Edmonton would score three unanswered goals before Detroit could get back on the board, with less than five minutes left. It was David Perron who picked up Detroit’s fourth goal:
Couple of minutes later, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins would throw salt on the wound and score Edmonton’s eighth goal of the night, leading to a final of 8-4.
Detroit played pretty well most of the game if we’re looking for a moral victory here, but it’s hard for me to look at any game positively when you let up eight goals. Between that and losing Ville Husso to a lower-body injury, the start of this Western Canada trip is grim… and it won’t get easier as the Wings are in Vancouver next. Time to regroup.
