In one of the stranger games of season, the Detroit Red Wings failed to mount a successful comeback against the Chicago Blackhawks, who skated away with a 8-5 victory. Let’s take eight observations from the loss.
#1: What was that? After racing out to four goal lead, the Hawks nearly blew it, letting the Wings score three straight to make it a one goal game. Then, Detroit collapsed, as Chicago scored two straight. But the Wings response, scoring two more goals to bring the game within one again. Chicago finally pulled away with a late goal and an empty netter. What a strange game.
#2: Defensemen were terrible. The Red Wings defensemen had one of their worst nights of the season. Consistently turning the puck over, making unnecessary errors and looking out of sorts in the defensive, Detroit’s defenders shoulder most of the blame for the defeat.
#3: With one notable exception.. Moritz Seider was excellent, Detroit’s best defenseman by a long shot. He notched his fourth goal of the season, slapping one in on the power play.
#4: Guelph Storm line continuing to show up. Three of Detroit’s goals came from the second line, as Tyler Bertuzzi, Pius Suter and Robby Fabbri found the back of the net. The Guelph line has actually played really good hockey of late, even if it hasn’t resulted in more winning.
#5: A rough night for Alex Nedeljkovic. Neddy gave up four goals on 16 shots and was pulled in the second period. After propping the Red Wings up for the first stretch of the season, Nedeljkovic seems to be regressing to the mean a bit.
#6: Well, the power play scored. It’s not a great sign that one power play goal is newsworthy, but with how bad the man advantage has been recently, any sign of success is noticeable.
#7: The penalty kill wasn’t great. As the season has progressed, Detroit’s power play has trended downwards, while the penalty kill has trended up. But the unit looked out of sorts against the Blackhawks, giving up two power play goals on three attempts.
#8: And the team is cold again. For two games they’re excellent, and for three straight they’re terrible. Kicking it off with the overtime loss to the Dallas Stars, the Red Wings are now on a three game losing streak. Inconsistency is becoming a concerning trend throughout the season, and it looks like Detroit has gone ice cold.