The Detroit Red Wings were less than four minutes from collecting two points and a win at home.
Instead, they learned a lesson that cost them a point, and a degree of pain.
There can be no let-up this time of year, which has been hammered home to the Wings the last two Marches, and came to light again as they worked hard enough to build a two-goal lead on Wednesday, March 4 at Little Caesars Arena only to let the Vegas Golden Knights score twice in the final 10 minutes of regulation and again in overtime, leaving the Wings on the short end of a 4-3 final.
“It’s so tight this time of the year and we know it better than anyone,” Lucas Raymond said. “Every point is a big point.”
The Wings (35-20-7, 77 points, third place in Atlantic Division) are in good enough shape that even if they go just .500 the remaining 20 games, they’ll reach 97 points, a plateau that in the past has meant entry into the playoffs. But blowing a cushy lead in the third period isn’t playoff-style hockey.
“I thought we played two games,” coach Todd McLellan said. “We kind of played the first half of the game and then we played the second half. The first half was excellent. We were aggressive, we were direct. A lot of pucks went to the net and we were able to get stuff back and maintain some O-zone time. Then in the second half of the game we started pulling up and playing cross-ice too much. It never went to the net. They defended well and defended easier than they had to in the first, and it came back to bite us. We thought we were going to check our way to the points and it ended up costing us. It better be a lesson learned.”
The point was scant consolation after putting themselves in such a good spot. And then they had to endure a scare near the end, when Dylan Larkin was crosschecked from behind by Brayden McNabb into Colton Sissons, snapping back Larkin’s head. He went to the room with 1:45 to play, but was able to return for two shifts in overtime, and was on the ice when Tomáš Hertl ended the game.
“Dylan is sore, I’m sure,” McLellan said. “Sore and obviously not very happy with the outcome. He’ll get looked at by the training staff and we’ll get an update.”
In December 2023, Larkin was punched in the head and cross-checked during a game against the Ottawa Senators, leaving him momentarily unconscious on the ice. Larkin suffered a neck injury April 20, 2021, when Dallas Stars forward Jamie Benn pushed his stick into Larkin’s spine after a faceoff.
But as McLellan pointed out, “he was able to come back and play, which is a good sign.”
Less encouraging was how the Wings played. They scored three straight goals in the first period, from Emmitt Finnie, Simon Edvinsson and Alex DeBrincat, but as the game wore on, they sagged.
“We let our foot off the gas a little bit,” DeBrincat said. “Didn’t get enough shots in that, didn’t get enough O-zone time. Flicking pucks out of the D-zone and just kind of trying to weather the storm. Good teams will make you pay like that. We’ve got to come out in the third and stick to our same game that got us there. Play in the O-zone and kind of kill the clock that way rather than sitting back, letting them attack the whole time.
“We have to find a way to finish off those games when we’re up by two in the third. Good teams win those games, so we’ve got to keep working to get to that point.”
Contact Helene St. James at hstjames@freepress.com. Read more on the Detroit Red Wings and sign up for our Red Wings newsletter.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Red Wings learn painful lesson about March Madness
Reporting by Helene St. James, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
