While the Detroit Red Wings found themselves in an extremely uncomfortable position in the opening period of Saturday night’s tilt against the Toronto Maple Leafs at Little Caesars Arena, they made sure that it wouldn’t go the way of their disappointing season opener earlier in the week.
Despite trailing by a 2-0 score at the end of 20 minutes, the Red Wings rallied to take the lead by the end of the second period en route to what was a 6-3 triumph for their first two points of their centennial campaign.
Scoring the first of what would be two go-ahead goals on the night was future Hall of Fame forward Patrick Kane, who roofed a one-time shot past a sprawling Anthony Stolarz after a sneaky cross-ice pass from teammate Alex DeBrincat.
Kane had positioned himself at the side of the net and went completely undetected by everyone except DeBrincat, who sent him a perfect tape-to-tape feed.
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Afterward, Kane chalked up the assist to being, as he called it, “pure chemistry”.
“That’s just pure chemistry right there,” Kane said of DeBrincat’s assist. “Him turning the corner, and trying to lose yourself behind some of their D, he made a great pass. He put it right in my wheelhouse, and I just had to get good wood on it and put it on net. It was a great play by him.”
It’s a chemistry that dates back to when both players were members of the Chicago Blackhawks, where they spent five seasons as teammates and were often involved in scoring plays with one another.
DeBrincat had a huge hand in Kane choosing to sign with the Red Wings as an unrestricted free agent in December 2023, and the friendship between their sons hasn’t hurt either.
Head coach Todd McLellan not only notices their on-ice chemistry, but is keenly aware of how much both players simply love the game.
“You can start on the ice or start off the ice, I’ll start off it,” McLellan said on Sunday. “It’s the joy of the game, they both love playing and they’re both competitors. We’ve talked a lot about Kaner still being young and hungry and excited to be at the rink.”
“Cat is just like that too, so the two of them have the joy for the game. As far as the connectivity on the ice, they’ve played together for so long and had various levels of success doing what they do that when it’s the simple play, they can make it. But when it’s garbage time and something odd is going on, they have a pretty good idea of where someone else is, and their release point.”
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While the Detroit Red Wings found themselves trailing by a 2-0 score in the opening 20 minutes of play of Saturday evening’s game against the visiting Toronto Maple Leafs, they put in the work to make sure they didn’t suffer the same fate as their disappointing 5-1 setback on Thursday against the Montreal Canadiens.
While DeBrincat has traditionally been the shooter and Kane the setup man, it worked perfectly in reverse against the Maple Leafs.
“One is a passer, and one is a shooter,” McLellan said. “We saw it the other way last night, so they do a good job of reading off each other.”
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