Detroit Red Wings show signs of life in chaotic Week 10

Dec. 14, 2024
Maple Leafs @ Red Wings
4-2 Red Wings win
SOG: 25-26 Red Wings
PP%: 50% - 0% Maple Leafs

The Red Wings return home to take on the Toronto Maple Leafs in an Original Six classic matchup. Talbot would end up reinjuring himself at practice the day before, so Jack Campbell would be called up to backup Ville Husso, and Johansson would be taken out for Justin Holl on the third pair.

The first period started, and the Red Wings go to the powerplay after Max Pacioretty would try to cripple Alex DeBrincat by going knee-on-knee less than a minute into the game. DeBrincat would go down the tunnel but return to the bench soon after, and nothing would come out of the powerplay. This game would consist of a lot of back and forth between these two teams, with both goalies making incredible and timely saves at the start. Thankfully, the Red Wings would strike first when Jeff Petry scored his first of the season, or so I happily thought, but the evil doers at the NHL decided that it went off Rasmussen, and now that stat line reads as a Michael Rasmussen Goal (5) assisted by Jeff Petry (4) and Joe Veleno (2). About 3 minutes later, it would seem that the Maple Leafs would even thing up, but the Red Wings would challenge for offsides and would win to keep that score at 1-0 in favor of the Red Wings. Both teams would continue to trade chances, but the Red Wings would hold on to the 1-0 lead heading into the second period.

The second period was when the Maple Leafs realized that they were supposed to be the better team between the two and kicked things up a gear. Thankfully, the Red Wings' defense and Ville Husso were up to the task of holding the Maple Leafs off until Berggren would take an incredibly stupid cross-checking penalty that would cost the Red Wings when they would score in a way that very few can do to tie it up at 1-1. Again, both teams would go back and forth, trading chances and saves, with Ville Husso especially coming up with some massive saves this period to keep the game tied. At least it was tied until Moritz Seider (4) would score with 18 seconds left off a beautiful play from Patrick Kane (8) and Andrew Copp (6) to take the 2-1 lead late in the second period.

The third period started, and just over a minute in Matthew Knies tipped in a Mitch Marner shot to tie the game at 2-2. But the hockey gods smiled upon us this day as we got another Jeff Petry goal (1), which is technically his first of the season as he joined the rush and buried a J.T. Compher (11) rebound to give the Red Wings the 3-2 lead. Tyler Motte, I feel, also should've gotten a point here due to none of this being possible without him driving the net with the puck after blowing past a Maple Leafs defender. After this goal, I got a bit worried because I started to see the team let off the gas a bit and start looking like they were going to park the bus with a 1 goal lead again. Thankfully, while they didn't necessarily press for offense, they didn't sit back and let one of the most offensively lethal teams in the league shell Ville Husso for 10 minutes and instead played aggressively to clear the puck and force turnovers and bad decisions on the Maple Leafs. The Maple Leafs would eventually pull their goalie, but the Red Wings and Ville Husso would hold firm, and with 2 seconds left, Lucas Raymond (12) would hit the empty net goal assisted by Dylan Larkin (12) to add insult to injury for the Leafs. The Red Wings would win with a final score of 4-2.

This game was fun to watch if you were a fan of either team, but especially if you were a Red Wings fan. The Red Wings haven't given much of a reason for fans to stay tuned into their games for most of the season, win or lose. But between the 5-on-5 offense showing up again and Ville Husso's performance, this team is showing signs that they could still be the team we saw last season. Also, I do not care what anybody says. That puck did not go off of Rasmussen. Jeff Petry should've had two goals this game, and nobody can convince me otherwise.

Next week the Red Wings will face the Philadelphia Flyers again at home as well as the Montreal Canadiens twice in a back-to-back with travel. If the team plays like they did against either the Sabres or the Maple Leafs, I see no reason why they shouldn't go 2-1 this week

Read my Week 9 review here.