Thursday night, the Detroit Red Wings went toe-to-toe with the Rangers, but New York came away with the extra point in overtime.
Let’s extract eight observations from the latest Detroit defeat.
#1: Fourth straight loss. The Red Wings have now lost four in a row. They have just two in their last ten. It’s full on tank time.
#2: Defense still suspect. Perhaps the least surprising outcome of the night: Detroit’s defense was not great. A few mistakes by Red Wings defenseman led directly to goals (cough cough, Filip Hronek), and they did Alex Nedeljkovic no favors between the pipes.
#3: Goaltending still not great. Sure, Nedeljkovic had a few impressive saves, and wasn’t helped at all by the Wings defense, but he finished with an .853 save percentage. The Red Wings still haven’t gotten consistency out of Nedeljkovic (or their backup, for that matter).
#4: Moritz Seider was fantastic. That’s enough negativity for now – let’s shift our focus to some positives. For starters, the Red Wings rookie defenseman was excellent again. Earning two assists, Seider impressed with hits, decision making and passing. Just another excellent performance under the rookie’s belt.
#5: Jakub Vrana still putting up points. We’re still waiting for Vrana to hit that scoring wall. It hasn’t happened yet. He ripped a rocket of a one-timer against the Rangers, scoring his seventh goal of the season. Vrana has seven goals and two assists in just 11 games played. The Czech winger entered the season as the Red Wings started their spiral – it would’ve been fascinating to see how well Vrana would’ve played when Detroit was winning.
#6: Power play scored twice. One of the biggest surprises in Thursday’s loss was just how solid the power play look. The unit scored twice, once off the stick of Vrana and the other from Tyler Bertuzzi. Special teams in general haven’t been great this season, so it’s always refreshing to get a performance like this.
#7: Raymond hit 50 points on the season. Seider isn’t the only rookie impressing in Detroit. With an assist against the Rangers, Raymond officially has 50 total points on the season. While he isn’t quite as hot as he was in the opening months, he’s still been excellent.
#8: Beginning of April isn’t terrible. The first few weeks of April shouldn’t be terrible for Detroit, as the schedule gets just a bit easier. The Wings play teams like Ottawa and Columbus in the coming weeks – certainly good competition, but not anywhere near the likes of Tampa Bay or Pittsburgh. This could be an opportunity for the Red Wings to right the ship a bit.