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Wings embarrassed 6-3 on home opener by Pittsburgh |
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Multiple thoughts on this and trying to walk the razor’s edge on what awful defense combined with pushing Lyon out of the tandem for Husso after a “strong preseason”. The official narrative seems to sound like this: Husso was hung out to dry on the first 3 goals and the 4th was just awful.
Gustafsson had multiple drop passes in his own zone to no one. He lost a lot of defensive battles. Malkin, full credit, undressed the entire squad on ice leaving a teammate wide open in front of the net. (Also congrats to the big man for hitting 800 career assists.). It was already the concern of many here, but the blue line was awful. Mo made some good plays, and apparently hits hard enough to make people angry about it. Edvinsson made some rookie mistakes but may well have been the 2nd best Detroit defenseman (not an endorsement or compliment). Petry took some incidental shoulder to chin and you could watch him crumble. His bell was definitely rung.
Now we can enter the “it’s only game 1” phase. By the 3rd period I sincerely hope that if Yzerman has truly been talking to someone about a defenseman, he was back on the phone. Maybe that’s as big an impetus for sitting Lyon. They have a spot in the lineup and Nashville, who had the biggest (opinion) offseason in the league is on the way with Stamkos now wearing the mustard. In South Park terms, this could be an extended stay for Mr. Hanky to stay on the ice.
The plus side - the first period. Detroit’s top line was creating chances. Debrincat had 2 goals on the night. Pittsburgh was far better in front of their goalie and their goalie was, well, far better. Tarasenko’s post power play goal was a beauty, and he made some good plays. After the first, there just seemed to be extended periods of shutdown.
Full honesty, my friend texted me right before puck drop with “I have a bad feeling about tonight”. I responded with, “I feel like i know less about this team than any version during the rebuild”. So, where does Detroit go from here?
Well, it’s game 1. Even though it’s early in the season I’d throw Copp on waivers and bring Kasper up. Nashville could be an ugly affair, so it’s doubtful work done tomorrow can shore up the D. This wasn’t the start Detroit needed. Win or lose, it was 2 periods of an awful watch. If they truly want to move forward the blue line needs an injection and the team defense overall needs to come together. The team looked lost, and that’s never a good look.
Let me know your thoughts. It’s only one game, the team needs to mesh, but there seem to be some glaring issues that many of you were concerned about going into the season. The most structure seemed to be on the first unit of the power play. D zone coverage saw a lot of missed assignments and bad communication. If you saw something different, always glad to hear the other side.
1st Period Detroit goals:
at 3:46 Raymond sent a cross ice feed to Debrincat who slammed home the seasons first goal. 1-0 Detroit
Penguins tied it up with 4:58 left in the period. Gus doesn’t look great defensively with a drop pass to no one that turned into that goal.
Shots: 13-7 DET
Score: 1-1
2nd Period Detroit goals:
Just 2:55 in Pitt scored off an icing faceoff. Eddy missed his guy on the rebound. 2-1 Pitt
A minute later Pens score again after Malkin undresses the Wings.
At 5:28 Penguins just wristed a shot that saw Husso just get embarrassed and pulled. 3 goals in 2.5 mins. D not giving support.
At 12:32 Tarasenko scored, just after a power play expired, as the newly acquired forward took a pass from Seider and ripped a shot from the left faceoff dot far side. 4-2 Pitt
Just over a minute later O’Connor Was again alone in front of the net and regained the 3 goal lead. Never mind, goal overturned. Hope this was a wake up call for the team.
Shots: 24-20 DET
Score: 4-2 PITT
3rd Period Detroit goals:
Penguins get that 5th goal back as Edvinsson went to the box giving Pittsburgh a power play. 5-2 PITT
Debrincat gets his 2nd of the night at 8:13 as Detroit had a brief 5 on 3. A rebound found the winger with a wide open net. 5-3 PITT
3 goal lead restored by Kevin Hayes. Husso/Talbot in tandem with the garbage defensive play isn’t going to work. Get Lyon in net. Pitt has 6 goals on 23 shots.
Shots: 32-28 DET
Score: 6-3 PITT
Detroit Red Wings Blogger • 
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