The Detroit Red Wings dropped two points in their match-up on Saturday. They were unable to snatch up a win in Music City, but it was certainly not due to a lack of effort. The Red Wings were looking for a win and giving it their best efforts, but this one turned into a bit of a dogfight, with Nashville coming out on top.
It turned into a stand-off between the two goalies. Detroit Red Wings goalie Alex Lyon and Nashville Predators goalie Juuse Saros both played exceptionally well. Neither team was able to score a goal until about 55 minutes of the game clock had expired. With just over 5 minutes left in the game, Nashville was able to score first.
The Red Wings fought but could not find an answer for Saros, who was seemingly making stop after stop after stop. The Red Wings had 22 shots on net, but Saros stopped them all. It was not a shortage of chances either. There were only 22 shots on the net, but the Red Wings had some quality scoring chances.
Patrick Kane and Dylan Larkin had a couple of quality chances on the rush; Kane was making things happen and creating scoring chances but could not score. The Red Wings had some offense rolling for them, but a quality performance for the Predators in net made it tough.
Detroit Red Wings shut out, but not due to lack of effort.
The Red Wings' offense was quality, likely leading to the issue and blame being placed on Lyon. But Lyon was not the problem. He put together an exceptional performance of his own between the pipes. Frankly, Lyon nearly pitched a shut-out of his own.
As mentioned above, the first and only goal was scored with just over five minutes left in the entire game. The Predators pushed hard on the Red Wings, putting together a barrage of scoring chances. Finally, Filip Forsberg was able to catch Lyon on a good angle and sneak one by him, giving the Predators the lead.
That was all she wrote. But all in all, this came after a barrage of a handful of shots from Nashville. They finally got one past Lyon. However, Lyon was able to make 31 saves on the day, playing well and handling some big scoring chances from the Predators. It looked like the Red Wings' defense could have tightened things up at times, but all told, it was not a bad game.
The result could have been better, and Detroit needs every point they can get, so this one hurts. But it's not as dreadful, knowing that the Red Wings were definitely in this game, and Lyon had a quality bounce-back game between the pipes, even in a loss.