Game Notes: Red Wings Stare Down Lightning for Shutout Win

DETROIT—On Saturday night at Little Caesars Arena, the Red Wings toppled the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning 2–0, with a second period goal from rookie forward Marco Kasper and a 28-save shutout from goaltender Cam Talbot enough to secure a hard fought divisional victory.

Detroit outshot its guests 13–7 in the scoreless first period, but even with that lopsided shot counter, there was a sense that the Red Wings had to weather an early storm. Detroit created some decent chances but didn't sustain much zone time. While the Lightning weren't generating much volume, the chances they did create were dangerous—generally opportunistic and emerging in transition, as if to exploit the Red Wings' desire to set up camp in the offensive zone.  Some of the best Tampa chances didn't even show up on the shot chart at all, including a wide open net for Anthony Cirelli off the rush, which he missed entirely.

"Tonight, we were a little bit frustrated," said coach Todd McLellan after the game.  "I could feel it on the bench after the first period.  We had some chances, and it wouldn't go our way, and we had to come in and talk about it's okay, that's a pretty good period against a good team...Let's relax and play."  That they did, keeping up the advantage in terms of shots and eventually making it manifest on the scoreboard on the road to the win.

"We took advantage of a team that played last night, went 11 [forwards] and seven [defensemen] and really ran their big guys hard, so they were still effective at the end of the night, but I thought we defended well," added McLellan.  "Penalty kill came up big, and your goaltender has to be one of your better players most nights, and I thought Talbs was that tonight."

The Game in One Quote

In that sentiment, Talbot spoke to the sense that Detroit's Saturday victory had a much different flavor to Thursday's over the Canadiens.  At the risk of turning to a cliché, it was a playoff style game against a proven commodity, and the Red Wings thrived in that environment.

Entering tonight's game, Detroit had only won once under McLellan without scoring four or more goals (a 3–2 OT win over the Ottawa Senators Jan. 7).  Of course any team is bound to have a better record the more it scores, but Saturday did represent something different for McLellan's Red Wings, a victory they had to grind out rather than romp through.  For that effort, they deserve full marks.

Observations

Detroit Fights to Painful Victory

There was plenty of extracurricular animosity between the Red Wings and Lightning Saturday, including a five-a-side scrum after the final horn of the second period that sent two Bolts and a Wing to the box to open the third.  However, the sequence that best encapsulated Detroit's path to victory came between the whistles and on the penalty kill.

In the second period, with Kasper in the box for a hooking minor against Nikita Kucherov, JT Compher blocked a Victor Hedman point blast and came up hobbling but undeterred.  Though clearly feeling the after effects of the shot in the leg that had absorbed the blow, Compher kept killing.  Moments later, Simon Edvinsson got in front of another Hedman slapper, and he too clearly felt the shot's sting.  Instead of relenting to the formidable Tampa PP with two visibly ailing killers, Justin Holl simply blocked another shot, this time from Kucherov, and the puck wound up in the netting, allowing Detroit to change.

Compher was back to the ice before Kasper's minor expired and Edvinsson joined him just after.  On the shift coming out of his liberation from the box, Kasper scored the game's decisive goal.  That pattern of pain as a path to goalscoring recurred on Michael Rasmussen's empty-netter to clinch the game with 28 seconds to play.

Rasmussen recovered a loose puck in the defensive zone, chipped it out to neutral ice, retrieved it, then tucked it into the empty net on a breakaway.  In pursuit, however, Kucherov gave a whack to Rasmussen's ankles as he struck Tampa's death knell, sending the six-foot-six forward tumbling into the net.  Rasmussen needed significant help from Detroit's training staff to make it back to the locker room, though McLellan said after the game, "I think things are okay from what I've heard."

"We lost...5–1 in Tampa...We had 40 shots on goal, they had 20, and that was a burn through night because we were so poor around the net, and we didn't pressure [Lightning goaltender Andrei] Vasilevskiy," McLellan observed.  "Tonight, we outshot a team, but we had some intensity around the net.  There was some battles, there was some scrums, there were secondary chances at both ends.  So...I think when you look at the shot total, you have to look at the impact the shot total had on the game."

That "intensity around the net"—both offensively and defensively, and certainly including with a willingness to absorb pain along the way—helped see the Red Wings to victory Saturday night.

Talbot Earns Redemptive Shutout

"We were debating on who we were gonna start, and I've been around Talbs enough to know that he probably wanted to start after what happened in Tampa," McLellan revealed, alluding to Talbot being pulled last weekend against the Lighting after conceding five goals in two periods.  "And it wasn't on him by any means.  We had a good game the other night and [I] just had a gut feeling this was what he wanted, and he had an opportunity and took advantage of it."

Talbot stopped all 28 chances that came his way, then was quick to defer credit to the defense in front of him for his success.  "That's a team that's got a lot of pedigree over there, winning pedigree," the goaltender said of his competition. "They know how to pull out these tight games...We blocked a lot of shots from the top, did a great job boxing out and letting me see most of the pucks tonight, and sometimes you just have to weather the storm and get a lucky bounce and we did a little bit of all that tonight."

While Talbot did get a good deal of help from the team in front of him as well as a few squandered opportunities from the Lightning, Tampa also put 15 high-danger chances up (per Natural Stat Trick), and none of them could beat Talbot.

Facing what was by no means an easy workload, Talbot was outstanding Saturday to earn his second shutout of the season.  If he was indeed in need of redemption after his previous performance against the Bolts, suffice it to say he got it.

Kasper & Johansson Continue to Impress

It feels as though I've been highlighting one or both of Marco Kasper and Albert Johansson after every game lately, and while I don't want to restate the same praise ad nauseam, they were impossible to ignore again Saturday night.

As noted above, Kasper scored the game-winner for the Red Wings, doing so on a deft twirling deflection off a JT Compher feed to the net front.  McLellan praised the "heavier" and "direct" game Kasper has played since being promoted to the top line next to Dylan Larkin and Lucas Raymond, and, even if the goal came with a mixed line following a penalty kill, those traits were on display.

"You look at the goal he got tonight, I know he wasn't on the ice with Larkin in that case, but he got in on the forecheck, we kept a puck alive, he got himself free...he went to the net," McLellan pointed out, while also stressing that Kasper wasn't just benefitting from his line mates, those line mates are also benefitting from him and his work rate.  Kasper himself earned a reward for taking a hard route to the net.

Meanwhile, Johansson played a career high 20:49.  He started shifts in the defensive zone against Nikita Kucherov, something that would've been unthinkable under Detroit's previous coaching staff, and he looked very much at home.  In the third period, after Tampa forward Jake Guentzel took an extra whack at Talbot following a wrap-around attempt, it was Johansson who intervened immediately.  In keeping with the evening's theme, he had to absorb a bit of pain for doing so in the form of jabs from Guentzel, but he also showed off the "fierceness" McLellan lauded in him after the win over the Habs Thursday,

Per Natural Stat Trick, Johansson played 18:25 at five-on-five, and in those minutes, he earned a 66.25% share of on-ice expected goals, plus Detroit outscored the Lightning 1–0.  He also led the Red Wings with seven shot blocks.  Based on his present form, it's awfully hard to imagine Johansson coming out of the lineup when indeed Jeff Petry does get back to full health.

Bookmark The Hockey News Detroit Red Wings team site to stay connected to the latest news, game-day coverage, and player features. Never miss a story by adding us to your Google News favorites.