Overall, the Detroit Red Wings felt they put forth a solid effort Tuesday against the New Jersey Devils.
In fact, if it wasn’t for a couple of brief moments where they got into the holiday spirit of gift giving, perhaps the result might have even gone in their favor.
Instead, a 2:12 span in the first period in which Detroit surrendered three goals and a colossal failure by defenseman Jakub Kindl in the final frame ended up costing the Wings two points, as the Devils handed them a 4-3 defeat.
“You can’t afford to give up goals on basically what I would say are give them chances or gifts,… Detroit coach Jeff Blashill said. “We had a couple of obvious gifts tonight, the first one and the fourth one.…
The opening goal came when Devils forward Kyle Palmieri ripped a shot wide of the Detroit net but into the lively Joe Louis Arena boards. It rebounded right in front of the Wings net and while every Detroit player on the ice stood by and admired the ricochet, Palmieri raced in and whacked it past Jimmy Howard, the first of three New Jersey goals on three shots in a span of 2:12 that chased Howard from the game.
The Wings battled back and were down 3-2 in the third period when Detroit goalie Petr Mrazek corralled a puck and fed it to defenseman Jakub Kindl. Instead of making a simple bank shot off the boards and out of the zone, or rimming the puck and reversing it to the open side of the ice, Kindl made a high-risk pass attempt into the slot area to teammate Riley Sheahan.
New Jersey’s Tyler Kennedy got a piece of the pass with his stick and forced a turnover that resulted in Sergey Kalinin’s game-winning goal.
“I thought it was unfortunate,… Blashill said. “I thought Jakub Kindl played a great game outside of that one play. But those were certainly two that you can’t give away.
“If you have two gifts it’s really hard to win in this league against a good team.…
Howard Hooked For the first time all season, the Wings switched goalies in mid-game due to performance. Howard allowed three goals on six shots.
“You never want to see that but then I really don’t think you can blame him on the goals either,… Detroit captain Henrik Zetterberg said. “Coach probably just wanted a little momentum swing. He put Petr in there and he came in and played well.…
Seeking to change up the flow was in fact Blashill’s motivation for the move.
“You have to switch the momentum,… Blashill said. “Jimmy’s been real good for us all year but you get into those spots and you make decisions and we decided to make that decision.
“I thought we did lots of good stuff. I really did. I thought we were engaged, I thought our intensity level was good.
“We gave up four on 17 shots and I’m not saying that’s all on the goaltending. It means you made some big mistakes. If you limit teams to 17 shots, you’ve got to win lots of those games.
Sheahan The Sniper Every so often, Detroit center Riley Sheahan will uncork a piece of high-end skill that makes you wonder why he doesn’t put up more points over the course of a season.
On his third-period goal, Sheahan danced around two New Jersey defenders and snapped a wrist shot past Devils goalie Cory Schneider.
“He has a good shot and you saw that was almost out of nothing,… Zetterberg said. “He sniped it, so it’s good to see.…
Blashill believes that Sheahan has more to give in terms of numbers, but doesn’t feel that Sheahan’s productivity is something that should be measured strictly by those terms.
“He’s extremely responsible defensively,… Blashill said. “The other area where Sheahan doesn’t show up on the score sheet but he has a huge impact on the game is net-front presence. He’s been great.
“I think he does contribute offensively even when he’s not necessarily pointing. But he’s an above guy. He’s very responsible in his own end. I think that’s what makes that a good line combination (with Tomas Tatar and Gustav Nyquist).
“I think there’s more offense there from a production stand point, he thinks there’s more offense there from a production standpoint. But a guy like him doesn’t need to get tons of points to have a great impact on the game because he’s such a good two-way player and he’s such a load in the offensive zone and such a net-front presence.…
Larkin Targeted On two different occasions, Detroit rookie Dylan Larkin, who scored his team-leading 13th goal Tuesday, was taken out hard by Devils defenseman John Moore, and Blashill was upset that the game officials didn’t call anything on either occasion, feeling the teenager was being targeted for abuse by the Devils.
Certainly the second hit by Moore, where he shoved Larkin from behind and into the boards, was unnecessary and a borderline situation where it wouldn’t be shocking if the league looked further into it.
“I think that’ll be a continued challenge for him,… Blashill said of the physical punishment Larkin received. “He’s going to have to make sure he keeps his focus. I think we’re going to have to continue to do a good job of defending him. And I think referees throughout the league have to know that young stars in the league, when they get targeted, they’ve got to make sure they do a good job of calling penalties, even if they’re close, because we don’t want our young stars in the league getting targeted.
“We don’t want lots of fighting anymore, so we better make sure we look after them a little bit that way. So if it’s close, let’s make sure we look after them.…
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