DETROIT—On Friday night at Little Caesars Arena, the Detroit Red Wings beat the Chicago Blackhawks by a 5–3 final score for their sixth straight victory. After a back-and-forth first period ended at 1–1, the Red Wings asserted control over the game in the second and re-took the lead thanks to a Lucas Raymond power play goal. Early in the third, Andrew Copp and Albert Johansson scored two minutes and seven seconds apart to stretch Detroit’s lead to 4–1, allowing the Red Wings to absorb a scare in the form of two late Teuvo Teravainen goals before Marco Kasper clinched the victory with an empty net goal.
Brian Bradshaw Sevald, Imagn Images
The Game in One Quote
“They should be, they’ve done a good job. And tonight’s power play goal—It was just work, there was nothing fancy, there wasn’t puck movement or anything like that. It was just a simple retrieval, strip, and attack, and that’s a good sign. It would’ve been nice to score another one. I know we’re getting greedy though, but we had some good looks, and it would’ve put the game out of reach a little more.” —Todd McLellan, asked whether his power play is playing with a lot of confidence
With Lucas Raymond’s third period goal, Detroit made it seven straight games scoring on the power play. As McLellan named in the quote above, it’s a unit brimming with earned confidence, and it’s been the top unit doing the bulk of the damage: Raymond, Dylan Larkin, Patrick Kane, Alex DeBrincat, and Moritz Seider.
McLellan also pointed out that Friday evening’s goal showed a different gear to the man advantage. While the passing sequence from Kane to DeBrincat to tee up Raymond was impressive, the goal didn’t come from beautiful play in the offensive zone; it came from hard edge as the Blackhawks looked to exit. From there, Detroit got to attacking, and the confidence manifested in the ease with which they dissected a scrambling Chicago penalty kill for the goal.
A one-for-four night actually falls short of the Red Wings’ season percentage on the PP, but what’s undeniable is that the unit has been a source of momentum throughout the present winning streak, and even when it didn’t score Friday, it helped Detroit rack up a commanding advantage in shots on goal, forcing the Blackhawks onto their heels over the course of the night.
Stat of the Game: 17–2
On the subject of commanding advantages in shots, the Red Wings outshot their guests by a rather staggering 17–2 margin in the second period Friday. That came after a first period in which Chicago had a 5–4 edge in shots and the score was tied at 1–1.
In the first, the Blackhawks’ aggressiveness vertically—particularly from some of their speedier forwards like Frank Nazar, Connor Bedard, and Taylor Hall—posed problems for the home team, who found themselves in a more open, trading chances type of game than they would like against a struggling opponent like Chicago. In the second, Detroit managed to cut out those rush chances against and exert firm control over the game.
As McLellan explained it, “Start wasn’t what we wanted. I’m not sure that the players—and that’s probably on me for not really them to understand how Chicago was gonna play. I thought we got burnt a few times with some stretch stuff coming out of their end. Obviously the [first period] goal: two-on-one early, but they adjusted in the second and did a good job of taking that away from them and then getting aggressive again in the offensive zone, playing most of that period there certainly helped us.”
The Red Wings only scored once in the second despite that massive advantage, but the onslaught primed the pump for two goals in the first half of the third and the eventual victory.
Observations
Johansson Scores First NHL Goal
From an emotional perspective, the clear highlight of the night came in the third period, when Albert Johansson scored his first career NHL goal. It came after some industriousness along the wall from Kasper, then a perfectly placed backhand pass from Raymond who found an activating Johansson at the back door. After the game, Johansson summed up the moment succinctly: “I will remember that one forever, and unreal pass by Lucas.”
His coach pointed out that there’s nothing quite like a first career goal. “Any time a young man scores his first goal in the league, everybody’s so excited: bench, trainers, coaches, and certainly Albert,” McLellan said, before pointing out it was more than just the goal that appealed to him about Johansson’s performance. “Over and above the goal itself, he had really good instincts to go to that hole, but I just think he’s been playing better…Every period it’s got better for him. Confidence is growing. He’s doing exactly what he needs to do so that we understand him as a player and feel good about him. So goal great, confidence even better.”
One source of that confidence comes from familiarity. Since folding into the lineup under McLellan’s leadership, Johansson has skated in a second pairing role besides Simon Edvinsson. (Under the previous coaching staff, he tended to play third pair minutes with either Justin Holl or Erik Gustafsson). McLellan explained that the idea behind that pairing (which emerged from Jeff Petry’s injury) was to leave the other two partnerships undisturbed, allowing Johansson to slide into Petry’s place with Edvinsson. The added benefit came in the form of that familiarity, with Johansson having played significant minutes beside Edvinsson last season in Grand Rapids. It will be interesting to track his role/usage once Petry does return to full health.
Kasper Grows into First Line Role
On Friday, Marco Kasper skated his first full game in a top line role beside Lucas Raymond and Dylan Larkin. “Marco plays with a lot of speed,” Raymond said, in praise of the rookie. “He’s a real good smart player. He also likes to get into the dirty areas and comes up with a lot of pucks, so it was fun to see him out there tonight.” The set up on Johansson’s goal showed that dirty area work in action, before Kasper was rewarded for his work for others with the empty-netter at game’s end.
“I think he’s looked really good,” assessed McLellan. “As far as having him out there [defending the one-goal lead late], he played the whole game against really good players, so I have no problem playing him in the last minute. He’s quite a responsible player. Sometimes maybe too defensive, but the good thing is he found a way to score. Now I know it’s an empty-net goal, but sometimes that does wonders…I think Kasp has some real good offensive instincts. He had great chances tonight…He’s put himself in a position to finish, and now it’s just that last part, and it’ll come.”
There were moments at which you could see Kasper’s lack of chemistry or familiarity with Raymond and Larkin, including a three-on-one chance on which they seemed almost on top of one another. Kasper probably isn’t best suited to playing the sort of rush game we’ve seen Raymond and Larkin thrive with, but that doesn’t mean he can’t help that line in other ways.
On Friday, he seemed to get better as the game progressed, and you could see the peak of Kasper’s value in the plays he made in the defensive zone to win back possession, as well as the work he put in down low in the offensive zone both on the forecheck and cycle. I don’t think Kasper is destined to spend his career as a top-liner, but he made clear Friday that he can have a positive impact in that role if called upon to fill it.
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