Red Wings’ Win Over Rangers is the Best of the Season

The Detroit Red Wings traveled to New York City on Thursday night coming off of a 7-4 loss to the Minnesota Wild on Monday, in what was the first of a very rough stretch of games in the month of February. It was going to get no easier for Detroit in Madison Square Garden — an Original Six battle against the 31-13-4 Rangers in one of the toughest road environments in the league.

That didn’t seem to bother the men in Red and White, though.

On the back of a Pius Suter shootout winner, Detroit garnered a massive 3-2 win in front of the Ranger faithful. It was a game filled with ferocious offense, outstanding goaltending, and one of the nuttiest penalty shot competitions you’ll ever see.

A huge win for the Winged Wheelers it was — but it might be even more than just ‘big’. In my opinion, this victory is the best of the season for Detroit thus far.

Nothing about the win can be mentioned before the absolutely stellar play of Detroit netminder Thomas Griess, who stopped 37 of 39 Rangers shots in regulation/OT and surrendered only one goal against six Ranger shooters in the skills competition. Griess is now 6-0-1 against the Blueshirts in his career, and 4-0 at Madison Square.

Plenty of chances were to be expected out of the Rangers with the poor defensive track record of the Wings this year. However, Detroit rose their offensive attack to match that of New York. They threw just about everything they had at Igor Shesterkin, who like Griess, was outstanding. The goals in regulation were scored by Troy Stecher (his first goal of the season in just his ninth game) and Dylan Larkin (his 26th of the year, good for 7th in the league). Quality chances were also had by Tyler Bertuzzi, Robby Fabbri, Lucas Raymond, and Filip Zadina, among others.

There’s so much to be excited about as a Red Wings fan after this victory — even the things that don’t show up on the stat sheet. Case in point, Dylan Larkin’s play in OT on Artemi Panarin.

In the middle of a hectic, back-and-forth 3-on-3 period, Artemi Panarin was sprung down the middle of the ice by an incredible pass from his goaltender. He skated toward Griess on what looked like a sure 1-on-1 chance, and what could be a very disappointing loss for the Wings.

Until #71 had his say on the matter.

Larkin turned on the burners to chase down Panarin from behind, tying up his stick before he could get a good shot away. The puck trickled just past the net, and play continued.

Not much of anyone questions why Larkin wears the C for Detroit, but if anyone ever does, show them this play and they will question no longer. Being the Captain of the Detroit Red Wings under Steve Yzerman means you have to play a good two-way hockey game, and Larks has been doing a wonderful job of that this season.

Other memorable moments in the game were Mo Seider’s reverse hit on Chris Kreider and Robby Fabbri’s slick deke and near-goal within the first minute of play.

With all of that said, this win in simple terms is why I think it’s Detroit’s best of the campaign at this point: It was a high level road performance against a contending team in a tough environment. This is the kind of game that the Red Wings squads of the last 3-4 years would have almost surely lost — usually completely folding under the pressure. But not this year’s team. And that’s what takes this win to even another level.

Of course, this bunch has taken their lumps (7-3 loss to Colorado, 7-4 losses to Toronto and Minnesota). The franchise is not completely out of the rebuild woods yet — but this triumph over the Rangers shows that the end is near. After 5 straight seasons of failing to qualify for the playoffs, the foundations of a competitor are being built again.

This is only a preview. A preview of the kind of meaningful, intense, good Red Wings hockey we’re going to see more often than not soon.

(All stats and game info pulled from NHL.com)