The last time the Detroit Red Wings played in Madison Square Garden earlier this month, they dug themselves a hole to the tune of five goals in the first two periods before coming back to score three goals in the third. It was “too little too late” against the New York Rangers, who are one of the top teams in the NHL, and Detroit ended up taking the loss. The Red Wings needed to start on time this game and play like they have been since returning from Sweden for a chance to extend their win streak to four games. Unfortunately, it did not happen.
Detroit Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin did not play in New York and is considered day-to-day with an injury. You could tell the captain was not on the ice in the first period. The Red Wings looked out of sync with lots of missed passes and opportunities. They survived the period without giving up a goal, which was huge.
The player most responsible for this survival was Ville Husso, as he was under siege during the Rangers’ first power play. The referees made survival even more complicated with some questionable penalties called on the Wings and some obvious calls missed on the Rangers.
The Detroit Red Wings tried to survive the game in the loss to the Rangers.
In the second period, the Red Wings continued to survive, coming out strong and playing a better game by controlling the puck and getting some decent time in the Rangers’ zone. Unfortunately, poor passing bit them as a picked-off pass in the neutral zone led to Artemi Panarin scoring a goal on a helpless Husso.
The Red Wings ended up on the power play again, and it was looking pretty sad with the first unit not coming up with much at all. As the two minutes were winding down, Moritz Seider pulled a rabbit out of his hat and blew a point shot past Igor Shesterkin for the equalizer.
Then, right after that goal, the Red Wings were bouncing the puck around in the slot, just trying to survive, when Jonatan Berggren put the puck on Robby Fabbri’s stick and scored the second goal 23 seconds after the Seider goal.
New York certainly didn’t lay down. They came back hard and pushed to tie up the game. Things got hectic, and Husso helped the Wings get through the rest of the second period without giving up another goal. He made some huge saves to keep the lead for the Red Wings.
Husso was definitely helped out by the team with some very timely blocked shots by what seemed like everyone on the team. Some great chances for the Rangers were stopped by all the blocked shots. All those blocked shots helped the Wings continue to survive in this game.
Trying to survive was pushed to the extreme in the third period when Lucas Raymond appeared to grab a defender’s stick and pull it into his face! It wasn’t apparent right away, and a double minor was called. The penalty was then reviewed, and they called off, stopping the power play for Detroit.
The Red Wings continued to block shots and try their best to hold on to their one goal lead with lots of blocked shots and solid goaltending by Husso. Their luck ran out, and Keandre Miller was fed the puck while wide open and put it right in the back of the net to tie up the game. The Red Wings didn’t let this get them down and continued to push hard to win this game and, at the very least, push this to overtime and get a point.
In the end, the Rangers ended up climbing back on top vs. the Detroit Red Wings.
Unfortunately, the team that ended up surviving in the end was the Rangers. On a broken play, they ended up getting another goal that should have been called back, in my opinion, for being batted in from above the crossbar.
The Red Wings played a gritty game and did their best to survive on a night when they didn’t have their best and were missing Larkin. It was a much better game than they played last time against the Rangers despite all the obstacles they faced.
When you look at the circumstances of missing their captain and the worse-than-average calls by the officials, I’m not upset with the way they played, just the outcome. Detroit’s back in action tomorrow night on home ice against the Chicago Blackhawks.