Detroit Red Wings suffer disappointing finish to a promising Week 8

Every game it gets harder and harder to recap these games. While I understand the Detroit Red Wings need to play this incredibly boring style of hockey to have a chance at winning any of them, it's hard to describe and recap them. But here I go.

This week, the Detroit Red Wings took on the New York Islanders, Calgary Flames, and New Jersey Devils, going 2-1-0. This was a far cry from when they went 1-1-1 against the San Jose Sharks, New York Islanders, and Boston Bruins.

Patrick Kane was ruled out for the games against the New York Islanders and Calgary Flames. Ville Husso would also get recalled from the Grand Rapids Griffins to serve as the backup to Cam Talbot after Alex Lyon tweaked something in the morning practice before the game against the Calgary Flames.

The Good, the Bad, and the very meh

Nov. 25, 2024
Game 21
Red Wings @ Islanders
4-2 Red Wings Win
SOG: 21-29 Islanders

Starting Goaltenders: Alex Lyon v Ilya Sorokin

This is another Detroit Red Wings versus New York Islanders game. I know you can already guess how this goes, but I'm here to break it down as best as I can. Thankfully, this is the last time these two teams meet this season. This would be the first game Patrick Kane would miss with an injury, meaning Joe Veleno is back in the lineup, and Tyler Motte gets his shot in the top-six as the second-line right-wing. Albert Johansson would be brought back into the lineup instead of Erik Gustafsson.

The first period started, and holy crap, the New York Islanders came out ready to play. They were the play for the first five minutes, with the Detroit Red Wings struggling to sustain pressure. The pressure from the New York Islanders would result in a goal by Anders Lee at 15:25. The New York Islanders would continue to apply pressure to the Detroit Red Wings, but thankfully, one of the Detroit Red Wings' few bouts of sustained pressure paid off when Moritz Seider (2) would score at 6:35 with a fantastic slapshot off a great feed from Andrew Copp (3) and Christian Fischer (2). Unfortunately, 30 seconds later, carrying most of the play, captain Dylan Larkin decided that Simon Holmstrom didn't need to be skating and went to the bad boy box for tripping. The Detroit Red Wings penalty kill came through to keep the game tied at 1-1. This score would remain for the rest of the period as nothing else of note happened.

In the second period, the Detroit Red Wings came out with a purpose. They spent a good amount of the period in the New York Islanders' zone. Unfortunately, they weren't able to convert with that pressure. The New York Islanders would manage to break out of their zone, and some good passing allowed Kyle Palmieri to bury a tipped pass after some awful positioning by Ben Chiarot and some not-so-great net-front defense by Jeff Petry. The Detroit Red Wings would try to get the goal back, but this would turn into a normal Islanders game where they largely sit back and muck up the center of the ice to not allow much in the way of breakouts. The period would end with a score of 2-1 in favor of the New York Islanders.

The third period was where the true face of the New York Islanders showed up. Mucking up the middle, allowing few offensive breakouts for either side, and did not allow much-sustained pressure. This went on for nearly 12 full minutes. Twelve minutes of full-on nothing hockey. Thankfully, a tripping penalty would send the Detroit Red Wings to the powerplay in which Larkin (12) would score. He was assisted by Justin Holl (2) and Johansson (1), who would record his first NHL point to tie the game at 2-2. The Detroit Red Wings took the momentum and ran with it as two minutes later, Lucas Raymond (5) would deflect the puck off of a Simon Edvinsson shot (7) and Seider (10) to make it 3-2 with six minutes left. The New York Islanders would apply some good pressure against the Detroit Red Wings with the goalie pulled. Fortunately, Edvinsson (3) would get the puck and send it the distance to get the empty net goal to make it 4-2 with three seconds left in the game and would ultimately be the final score.

This was a normal New York Islanders game. Not much offense happened in this game, as we all expected. But thankfully, the Detroit Red Wings five-on-five goal scoring was able to show up and get the job done. Lyon became the first Detroit Red Wings goalie to sweep a season series since the 1988-89 season, and Raymond and Larkin say hot. Johansson getting his first NHL point is just the cherry on the cake.