3-2 OT Loss to Edmonton Shows the Red Wings Can't Keep Up Their Defensive High-Wire Act

DETROIT, MI—It was about 20 minutes to nine local time when Leon Draisaitl—celebrating his 29th birthday—made the result (a 3-2 Edmonton overtime win over the host Red Wings) official, but it was an outcome Draisaitl's Oilers had been building to since the top of the hour.  From the time the puck dropped on the third, the period's terms and its eventual result were clear.  In its passivity and willingness to defend, Detroit invited a pressure it couldn't ward off from the visitors en route to a late blown lead and eventual defeat.

For the fourth time in the last four games, the Red Wings gave up more shots than they took.  Tonight's shot margin (32-27) was actually less severe than any of the previous three.  Detroit scraped together wins in the first two of those games, fueled by some combination of raw emotion and goaltending, but after taking one point from a possible four this weekend and two straight losses (albeit one in overtime), there can be no doubt: The Red Wings defensive high-wire act is unsustainable, and Detroit can't and won't win much of any consequence as long as it plays this much defense.

"I thought the first period was really good: Generated a lot of looks, I think our forecheck was good, we had good gap.  Second was okay, and then the third, we were just too busy defending," assessed Andrew Copp from the post-game podium.  "I think we weren't thinking about getting that next goal.  We were just kinda hold off and hold off.  Against a team like that, you keep giving them O zone possessions, they're gonna break through at some point.  Obviously we wanna be defensively responsible, but we gotta continue to attack a little more and try to get some O zone time.  The best way to defend is by playing in the offensive zone."

Copp's initial point is an important one.  The Red Wings would've suffered worse on the shot chart if not for an excellent first period in which they outshot the visitors 13-5.  The period was more fluid and more connected than any of Detroit's previous nine had been, and it offered proof of concept of an effective brand of simple forechecking hockey to which the Red Wings' roster is well-suited.  Detroit left the first period with a 1-0 lead, thanks to a J.T. Compher goal that showed the Red Wings at their best: hard work below the goal line from Copp to a win a puck, a quick bump pass from Patrick Kane to Compher in the slot and a decisive finish.

Though they aspire to defensive solidity (an admirable goal), the Red Wings need some measure of forward thrust for defense of any kind to matter, and that thrust was scant at best for the final two periods of Sunday's action.  "Guys are trying to be responsible, right?" noted Kane after the game, when asked whether the defense first approach stemmed from mentality or something different.  "Guys are trying to play smart defensively, but there's still ways to make it tough on them by playing in the offensive zone, not giving them easy pucks back or easy possession, holding onto it, keeping it below the goal line."

Edmonton began to flip the game's script in the second, building slowly to a Draisaitl goal at the period's 8:46 mark.  Copp, however, answered 42 seconds later, with some simple offensive hockey (a Jeff Petry point shot into a deflection from Copp).  The Red Wings managed to carry that 2-1 lead into the third, but their passivity caught up to them in the form an Evan Bouchard equalizer 10 minutes and 47 seconds into the final period of regulation.

In the third, were it not for yeoman's work from Detroit's penalty kill and Cam Talbot in net, Detroit wouldn't have made it as far as overtime.  "He fought through traffic very well," Copp observed of Talbot. "I think you saw that a bunch in the third. They had a lot of around the net scrambles kind of, where he battled really hard."

When overtime did come, Draisaitl delivered the kill shot in just 18 seconds, the only possible conclusion to the pressure the Red Wings invited upon themselves with their late-game defensiveness.  With their contentment to protect a lead rather than extend it, Detroit afforded the Oilers' top gunners far too much time to tie the game, and while there might be a small positive in taking the overtime loser's point, the road to that outcome makes clear a need for better and more.

"We had a great first," said Kane.  "And it's nice when we're playing hungry like that, on top of them, excited to play with the puck, not thinking about defending.  Instead, just taking it to them, and we gotta get that more in our game, especially when we have a lead.  Throughout this year, we've seen it multiple times where we have a lead, and we're just kinda playing defense.  It's just tough to defend like that all the time.  It wears on you energy-wise.  It's so much easier to play offensively with the puck in their end, offensive possession."

Detroit did manage a point against a team that very well could wind up the last one standing in June, but the fact remains that Detroit's process right now—namely its incessant tolerance of time spent in the defensive zone—isn't good enough to make it to the end of April.

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