Throughout the course of a season, there are benchmark moments that define success or failure and one of those on the positive side of the ledger was achieved by the Detroit Red Wings Saturday.
Down 4-2 to the Nashville Predators with less than 12 minutes remaining in regulation time, the Wings dug deep and rallied to win 5-4 when Gustav Nyquist snapped one past Pekke Rinne on a clear-cut breakaway just 1:41 into overtime at Joe Louis Arena.
“I think that was a great third period for us,… said Detroit forward Dylan Larkin, whose team-leading 11th goal launched the comeback. “It had a little bit of everything – special teams, and some good five-on-five play.
“It started in the second and we kind of took over that game. That’s a huge team win. Everyone is fired up. What a feeling it is in the locker room.…
Down 3-1 in the second period, Tomas Tatar gave the Wings their first injection of life when he tallied on the power play with 2:56 left in the middle frame.
“That goal on the power play was obviously huge for us,… Tatar said. “We started to believe that we could come back. Obviously it’s a lot of character in this room and we proved it again. Right now we’re playing for each other, you know, and we’re having fun out there.…
After Larkin’s goal narrowed the margin to 4-3, Justin Abdelkader got his ninth of the season on the power play with 2:23 left in regulation play and the Wings went to overtime for the eighth time in the last 10 games and the 11th time this season.
“I feel like everything is working out right now,… Tatar said. “We’re all doing the good habits. We battle for each other and look like a really good team right now out there.…
The Wings have now collected points in 10 successive games.
“I thought it was great character by our guys,… Detroit coach Jeff Blashill said. “I thought we did a good job of staying patient and just staying with it. I thought we just kept coming and coming and coming really the second half of the game.
“Winning breeds confidence and losing does the opposite. I think we’ve got a good leadership group that makes sure we stay level-headed and continue to try to get better but winning certainly breeds confidence.…
OT Warriors The outcome was Detroit’s NHL-leading seventh overtime victory.
“I think we kind of figured out the strategy and we have a pretty good record when it comes to overtime,… Larkin said. “I think that just speaks to our depth and our offensive abilities and great goaltending.
“The three on three’s a lot of fun. You don’t want to see games go there every time but we feel pretty confident with those.…
They Shoot And Score Struggling to score and to even generate offensive-zone time earlier in the season, Detroit has now potted 15 goals in its last three games and 20 over its last five, an average of four red lights per night in that span.
Blashill feels it is another sign of how this team is growing and improving.
“I think some of that is we’re just a better team than we were earlier in the year,… Blashill said. “I think we’ve grown lots of a hockey team, some of that is health, some of that is improvement. I just think we’re a better team and as a result we’re staying in the zone longer.
“Now when we’re staying in the zone longer we’re creating chances. When we first started creating zone time we weren’t necessarily creating, now we’re creating lots of chances. Our guys are doing a good job of getting pucks to the net.
“I think the biggest thing is we’re generating real chances.…
A Big Plus Plus-two on the night, Larkin improved to an NHL-leading plus-19 rating on the season.
“I’ll give you two things on the plus-minus,… Blashill said. “One thing about plus-minus that I don’t like is that it includes empty-net goals. I don’t think it should. I think it can really skew the stat. But I still put stock in the plus-minus.
“I still think it means something if you’re out there when you score a lot and not out there when you get scored on a lot. I put more stock into our scoring chances plus-minus – we keep track of a plus-minus based on scoring chances – but that doesn’t mean that the regular plus-minus doesn’t count.
“Larkin has found a way to be out there when we’ve scored lots of goals. There’s a huge differentiation and that speaks highly of how he’s played. He’s been out there for lots of goals and not many against. For some reason, even if he makes mistakes he seems to find a way to maybe make up for it. And then he’s obviously creating lots as well.…
Larkin’s goal was his 11th even-strength tally of the season, tying with Vladimir Tarasenko of the St. Louis Blues for the NHL lead in that department.
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