Cam I get a witness? The church-like theme is all that comes to mind for the miracle of Detroit’s win. Outshot more than 2-1 (43-20), Florida had more shots in the 3rd period than Detroit had in the game. Still, the Red Wings get a ‘W’ and the Panthers have to be shaking their heads.
The power play. Detroit goes 3 for 4 and Florida goes 0 for 3. The first two goals by the Red Wings were quickly answered and shades of the San Jose game were made vivid again. Marco Kasper’s tally gave some breathing room and Cam Talbot (along with 21 blocked shots) stole 2 points in regulation.
In the pregame, I wrote something to the degree of “win, lose or OT point I want to see the team play an improved game”. Florida has a glut of talent and they outworked Detroit. Detroit came out with a win. This is where the line is walked: celebrate the win, but recognize the issue. For two straight games the team has been outworked and outshot. This time, badly. Cam Talbot is likely not buying his own post game steak tonight.
It will be interesting to see and hear the responses on this one. The team knows how unlikely this result is with the zone time and SOG the Panthers had. Still, you want to enjoy the moment. Larkin gets his 20th on an empty net, Kasper had a beautiful goal that the captain assisted on. A 3 point night for Larkin, and a .953 sv% for Talbot. The power play numbers are still ridiculous for now. They just eclipsed the 52% that had seemed to be done with against the sharks by hitting 75%.
Let me know your thoughts. How do you draw the line on this one? Take the ‘W’, enjoy it but address the lapses in practice? Either way, this wasn’t the post game write up I was expecting.
1st Period goals:
*all Panthers early, Gus puts the cats on the power play. Wings kill first 1:40 then draw a penalty for some 4 on 4 for 20 seconds
At 8:47 the Wings power play strikes as Berggren gets his 7th on the year. Some decent passing with Tarasenko and Gustafsson led to JB scoring on just the 2nd shot of the game for Detroit. 1-0
It took 2 minutes and 13 second for Florida to tie it up. 1-1. Deja vu all over again as they say…
Shots: 11-6 FLA
Score: 1-1
2nd Period goals:
2nd verse same as the first. Larkin scores on the power play. Quick passing play from Debrincat from the side of the net to Kane up high to Larkin at the bumper. 2-1 DET
Another power play, another goal. At 13:44 it’s Kane’s turn. Impressive snap shot from the top of the right faceoff dot picks the corner perfectly. Waiting with bated breath to see if this holds for more than a minute. 3-2 Detroit. Raymond gets his 30th assist and Seider gets his 23rd.
A very welcome surprise as Kasper adds to the lead almost exactly 2 minutes later grabbing his 5th of the year. Larkin gets the puck in the zone and makes a hard stop, hands off to Kasper who drives straight for the net and sends home a beauty. This kid’s work is showing up on the board, very cool to see. 4-2 Detroit
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