Did the Detroit Red Wings improve at all in Week 7?

Nov. 21, 2024
Game 19
Islanders @ Red Wings
1-2 Red Wings Win
SOG: 23-31 Red Wings

Starting Goaltenders: Alex Lyon vs Ilya Sorokin

The Red Wings get to come back home to take on the Islanders in their second meeting of the season. The Red Wings look to break their three-game losing skid, while the Islanders look to break their two-game losing skid. Lyon would look to bounce back from his bad game against the Ducks. And yes, this game was as exciting as we all expected it to be.

The first period started with the Red Wings actually having some energy and controlling the play for most of the first five minutes. Unfortunately, a good shot from the point and a perfect tip by Simon Holmstrom would give the islanders a 1-goal lead. Thankfully, the Red Wings wouldn't let off the gas, but Sorokin was on his game. So, nothing else happened during this period.

The second period was exactly like the first. Except neither team could find much in the way of sustained pressure in the offensive zone. And no matter how hard I try, I can't find anything worth talking about in this period.

The Third period started, You guessed it, exactly like the first two periods. Both teams couldn't get much-sustained pressure aside from a few decent breakouts and some quick setup plays. Both Lyon and Sorokin played near perfectly all game. However, one broken stick later, you have Jonatan Berggren (3) charging up the ice and snipping the hell out of the puck, assisted by J.T. Compher (4) to make it a tied 1-1 game with five minutes left. The Islanders would continue to try and drag the game to overtime with their same defensive style that's famous around the league for creating some of the least watchable hockey games in existence. Thankfully, it wouldn't work because they forgot that Lucas Raymond (3) is, in fact, still him. He would also snipe the hell out the the puck to put it past Sorokin after an incredible effort from Dylan Larkin (5) along the boards to get it to Raymond at at the hash marks to make the game 2-1 with 52 seconds left in the game. Simon Edvinsson (6) would pick up the secondary assist. The Red Wings hold the lead and win 2-1 in regulation, once again denying the Islanders any loser points.

This was more or less your standard Red Wings v Islanders game. Not a lot of offense on either side and while there was a good pace all game. There wasn't really anything happening. Just a bunch of meaningless back-and-forth between the two teams, with none of them generating much of anything most of the time. Along with Lyon making some big saves redeeming himself from the Ducks game. This game gave me some slight feelings of last season's gritty, never-give-up team. It also feels good that the Red Wings haven't contributed to the Islanders' loser point collection that they'll ultimately use to sneak into the playoffs and then get bounced in the 1st round again by either Carolina or the Rangers.