The Detroit Red Wings have become masters of suspense. All but one of their last 13 games has been decided by one or two goals.
More often than not, they have left the rink disappointed. The Red Wings, who host the Philadelphia Flyers on Wednesday, are 5-5-3 during that span. That included a string of five consecutive defeats, two in overtime.
They came away with a much-needed 4-2 victory over Toronto on Saturday that was essentially a one-goal game — Lucas Raymond scored an empty-netter in the closing seconds.
“Again, I may sound like a broken record, but what is a little bit frustrating in our big picture is that five-game stretch, and our process and underlying numbers, they are easy to pick apart when you’re winning and not as easy to pick apart when you’re losing,” coach Derek Lalonde said. “Whatever the reality is, the bottom line is finding ways to win games. We need to slip some of those tight games, and we’ve done that in two of our last three to get some traction here.”
Defenseman Jeff Petry scored his first goal of the season against the Maple Leafs. That game began a stretch in which Detroit plays seven of eight at home for the remainder of the month.
“Looking at the big picture before Christmas break, we had five games and we set a goal,” Petry said. “Our goal was to make sure we start off right with a win. We did what we needed to do (Saturday) to get the win. It’s a good start for the week ahead.”
Philadelphia recorded a 4-1 victory over Detroit two nights earlier as Scott Laughton had a career night. Laughton scored all of the Flyers’ goals, including a pair of empty-netters to secure the win.
The Flyers, like the Red Wings, haven’t played since Saturday. They’ve lost four of their last six, including a 4-1 decision to Minnesota on Saturday.
Samuel Ersson has started at goaltender for three of the last four games since returning from a lower-body injury.
“(Saturday) was a step forward in some areas where I’m trying to make some work on, but obviously when you get the loss there’s definitely other things that you want to keep working at,” Ersson said. “I’ll keep going here.”
A big topic of conversation after Monday’s practice revolved around the first line of Sean Couturier, Joel Farabee and Travis Konecny. While Konecny leads the team with 15 goals and 36 points, coach John Tortorella has been disappointed with their defensive play.
“I think they’ve been awful defensively,” he said. “They’ve been brutal. They make me dizzy, they spin so much in our end zone. They need to stop in our end zone. Once rush coverage is over, and we haven’t grabbed the puck, and we’re in the corner — it’s called arrivals. I always talk about arrivals; how you arrive on that rush coverage is key to coverage.
“It’s key to getting (the puck) back,” Tortorella added. “If you’re spinning all over the place, no one knows where you’re going to be. No one knows if you’re going to be the first man, the low man, or you’re going to be covering the point. That’s where your defense ends up playing in between. … But they’re smart enough people and they’re good enough players that they’ll rectify that.”
–Field Level Media
