The bump is over. Ironically, Chiarot watched another goal go in but scored Detroit’s only tally after Raymond made some fantastic plays in front of the net to find the D man who seems to be regressing badly (and not from a high level).
Soderblom’s callup certainly showed some jump in the 4th line, but the scoring has hit drought levels (while the fans are likely hitting draught levels). The 1 consolation point is certainly better than none, but the problems remain. A patchwork roster that is stitched together with bad “stop gap” signings and waiting for young players to step up.
To Philly’s credit, shots on net are hard to come by. That’s a Tortorella trademark. In the case of Detroit, the players seem to have gone right back to deferred passes which leads to the following thought. Split up Kane and Debrincat. When it’s not clicking, those two just overpass and give up opportunities. It’s near maddening. The point of keeping Copp in and sitting Veleno still baffles a bit as Copp couldn’t cash in with a beautiful chance. Depending on cap space next year, a buyout may be a welcome option.
On the positive, Edvinsson continues to grow and has some fantastic skating ability. A spin move off the half wall led to a shot for the big D man. Regardless, a 3 game slide (or 2.5 I guess in terms of points) comes at a bad time. The saying goes, “you can’t make the playoffs in the fall, but you can set yourself up to miss them”. Detroit had the near impossible task of turning around at a time when Montreal, Ottawa, now New York, Tampa all have had turn around or pickups, however you want to call it.
It’s disappointing, but still nice to see the coach willing to make a change and it bears consideration that another alteration could be made at some point. The Red Wings 7-2-1 would normally be a fantastic set of results. The problem comes from waiting too long to make a change that several of the fans had been calling for.
Regardless, move forward and get ready for the next game. The team didn’t get any power play time tonight and Kane took an unnoticed stick to the face. He’s starting to look run down again. Kasper remains a bit of an anomoly. He puts in the work, and some shifts looks really good and some just looks lost. While there are several player rumored to be available, this feels like another season where Detroit has played themselves out of being on the receiving end. It won’t be another Bertuzzi/Hronek type loss but it’s not an inspiring time for the office to spend on an upgrade.
Let me know your thoughts. Thanks to all who stop by. Again, not to go on about it, if you get a chance stop by the new Strings’nPucks channel. Trying to build subs and be able to support the ability to continue to follow the team and find some serious and some fun topics. With messages (literally) going all over the world it looks like another player interview will be coming up in the next few weeks. I’m reattaching the Alex Cotton interview below. Great young man, very kind with his time, and a fun conversation.
1st Period goals:
No first period goals. Lots of uninterrupted play.
Shots: 8-6 PHI
Score: 0-0
2nd Period goals:
At 5:21 Philly ended the stalemate. 1-0 Flyers. Chiarot unfortunately has another one where he watches it go in
Shots: 14-11 DET
Score: 1-0 DET
3rd Period goals:
30 seconds into the 3rd Raymond made some nice puck handling plays in front of the flyer net and got Chiarot the puck for a quick shot. 1-1
Detroit Red Wings Blogger • 
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