Missed Chances Haunt Red Wings in 4-0 Loss to Visiting Rangers

"I don't know if I've been in a more frustrating hockey game, [and] I've coached 30+ years," said Detroit Red Wings head coach Derek Lalonde, unable or unwilling to mask his emotion after a 4-0 home defeat to the New York Rangers.  "It is what it is.  We missed some execution in some areas.  [I] don't like either of the penalties we took in the first, [and] one ended up in the back of our net...We literally could be sitting here with an 8-1 win, and we lost 4-0."

The Red Wings dominated the shot chart 37-24.  Per Natural Stat Trick, at five-on-five, Detroit doubled their guests in high-danger chances (14-7) and created nearly a full expected goal more (2.96-2.05).  None of that mattered where it counted however, as the Red Wings failed to cash in on their early chances, before a familiar Ranger formula of special teams and goaltending stole control of the game.

Detroit was excellent out of the gate in the first period.  On the opening shift, Dylan Larkin set up Alex DeBrincat for a glorious backdoor chance off the rush, only for New York goaltender Jonathan Quick to turn aside the chance with his pad.  Before the period was five minutes old, Patrick Kane broke through neutral ice for a partial breakaway, but his chance sailed just wide of Quick's blocker and the far post.  Later in the period, the Red Wings' top line enjoyed an extended stay in the offensive zone on a sequence in which Quick had lost his stick, but Quick still denied their only clear chance—a five-hole hunting blast from Ben Chiarot.  Moritz Seider hit the cross-bar.  It was a start in which Detroit played the exact sort of hockey it aspires to, but it didn't yield a goal.

"We didn't spend time in our zone," assessed Lalonde of his team's process.  "We were clean out of our zone.  We had pace through the neutral zone.  This is a phenomenal 1-3-1 [neutral zone] team, and I don't know if they set it up once."  Likewise, Kane saw his team playing the game it wanted, in everything but the end product.  "I think we were breaking out of our end really well and creating odd-man rushes, and when you get odd-man rushes, you're able to get second and third pucks and...create some zone time off that too," he said. "That was a good part of our game: the breakouts, the entries leading into offensive zone play."

Just over 13 minutes into what had otherwise been a dream start, Simon Edvinsson turned the puck over, then tripped Mika Zibanajed in his effort to recover.  That penalty would prove the game's inflection point, the moment that forced Detroit into regret at its profligacy regarding the surplus of early chances.  Seven seconds into the ensuing Ranger power play, Chris Kreider deflected home an Adam Fox point shot, and New York took a 1-0 lead.  The Red Wings played one of their best periods of the season and ended it trailing all the same.

Detroit's penalty kill has now conceded five times in three games against the Rangers this season and three times in the last two games (including both game-winning goals).  For all the nuances that might inform a successful PK, the Red Wings' reality down a man at the moment is black and white.  As Lalonde put it, "bottom line is, they're going in, and we gotta stop the bleeding."

In the second, Detroit continued to stack quality shifts together, move swiftly to the offensive third of the rink, and create serious looks once it got there.  However, Quick remained impenetrable, despite the Red Wings' best efforts in testing him 19 times during that period alone.  Then, in the final two and a half minutes of the frame, utterly against the run of play, the game slipped from a one-shot margin to three as Jimmy Vesey and Artemi Panarin found the net just 48 seconds apart, rendering the third all but academic.

"Even after the 2-0, you felt good about it, then that third goal was a back-breaker there," said Lalonde of the late second period outburst.  "We're on a back-to-back, all four lines are rolling, the power play just came off a two-minute shift in which they generated a lot, so you need to win a shift there, eat 50 seconds from our fourth line.  Unfortunately, it ended up in the back of our net.  The whole process was a bit of a gut punch...It's just one of those nights. "

Quick's best save of the night came midway through the third, stretching across the crease to deny Jonatan Berggren with his blocker after Vladimir Tarasenko's two-on-one feed for Berggren appeared to leave the goaltender no hope at a stop.  The evening's result was no longer in doubt, but the stop struck the game's defining chord one last time: Everything right for Detroit, but the finish.

There may be positives to glean from the process, with nights of such voluminous chance creation scarce for the Red Wings 14 games into the season.  As Chiarot said, "It's been not the easiest for our team to score early on in the season, so a game like that, hopefully we can build off it."  However, with their record now 6-7-1, building will have to happen fast.  "We're sitting here under .500," said Lalonde.  "It doesn't feel good. You have to eat it and look at the standings, but our process of late has been pretty darn good. That's the really frustrating part."

Detroit will get its first chance to pull back to .500 on Wednesday evening in Pittsburgh against the Penguins.

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