DETROIT — At some point, all logic would dictate that these missed opportunities are going to catch up with the Detroit Red Wings.
On yet another night when every active team around them in the Eastern Conference wild-card race lost, Detroit had everything in front of it to at least get a point off the Presidents’ Trophy leaders. Winning a game like that is the kind of outcome that starts to swing a playoff race. Getting even 1 point would keep the wheels moving.
But despite at one point leading the New York Rangers 3-2 on Friday and taking a tie game into the third period on home ice, the Red Wings came up with nothing, losing 4-3 in regulation and letting another chance to move up slip away.
“We played hard. We played good enough to get a point — get 2 points — tonight,” Dylan Larkin said. “I think when you get to this time of year, every time you drop a game, it feels like an opportunity missed.”
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It was. And yet, because of the results around them, the Red Wings once again didn’t lose any ground, either. They did sacrifice their game in-hand over some of the teams they’re chasing, and that could prove important, as Detroit’s 26 regulation wins (the first tiebreaker) trail every wild-card contender except the New York Islanders.
What to make, then, of the loss and the fallout from it? Some thoughts:
1. At this stage in the season, a team in the Red Wings’ position needs to find a way to a point in a game like this, even in a matchup with the NHL’s first-place team.
“We’ve been talking about ‘every play’ and making sure we make every play,” Larkin said. “And we left a couple out there tonight, which makes it hurt more.”
As he continued, Larkin pointed to a pair of plays he might have been referencing specifically: a two-on-one rush in which he tried to make a pass to Simon Edvinsson instead of shooting, and a look on the power play in which he felt he could have made an extra pass to an open Patrick Kane. Perhaps one of those would have been the extra goal Detroit needed, and it’s typical of Larkin’s leadership to point that finger at himself.
But really, the plays that got left out there were once again miscues in the defensive half of the ice.
First, it was a blind, casual backward pass by Austin Czarnik to give the puck right to New York’s Will Cuylle. Alex Lyon is probably going to want the shot back, but that kind of turnover, in that part of the ice, just cannot happen — especially off the stick of Czarnik, who has been in the lineup in these important games because, first and foremost, he typically does not make that kind of mistake.
Entering the game, Czarnik had given up the least expected goals against per 60 minutes of any Red Wings player since March 1. But with that kind of mistake coming less than six minutes into the game, his recent track record didn’t buy him much grace. Czarnik played just 6:07 (10 shifts) Friday, both the lowest of any player on the team.
His line, which included Robby Fabbri and Daniel Sprong, was out there for another goal against too, a backdoor goal for Barclay Goodrow on which no forward picked up Goodrow at the back door. That was just 25 seconds after Larkin had scored to give Detroit a 3-2 lead in the second.
2. Goodrow had two goals, after having two all season entering the game, and both were on plays that could very well come up in Detroit’s film session Saturday. Though the backdoor goal took some wind out of Detroit’s sails, his first might have been even more frustrating for the Red Wings, coming off a faceoff with less than 30 seconds left in the first period.
Goodrow’s line was listed as the Rangers’ fourth line, but it was the difference in the game, and New York seemed to know it — at even strength, Goodrow played more than all but two Rangers forwards (Artemi Panarin and Kaapo Kakko).
“A team like that, with that top six, it’s just hard. You’ve got to check throughout their entire lineup,” Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde said. “Obviously, their fourth line had a really good night tonight. It was the difference.”
3. All of that, of course, is before the final goal that decided the result. And that goal had some layers to it.
Detroit was starting to buzz a bit in the Rangers’ zone when David Perron took a high-sticking penalty in the offensive zone. The Red Wings are light on players who battle the way Perron does, but in that instance and in that part of the ice, it was a killer penalty to take. And the Rangers made them pay.
Defenseman Ben Chiarot recovered the puck in the corner at one point on the kill but wasn’t able to get it cleared, and soon after, Chris Kreider scored the game winner right at the net.
In a January game, the penalty and the failed clear get forgotten fairly quickly. The same could be said for all the mistakes Friday. But this was not just another midwinter game.
“It’s magnified now, it’s every play,” Lalonde said. “This is why it’s really good for our guys to be going through this. It’s just different this time of year. It’s amplified this time of year, and you learn, especially against a really good team. We left some plays out there. Unfortunately, it cost us.”
For it to happen that way, with fingerprints on the deciding goal from two battle-tested veterans the Red Wings lean on in those moments, made the sting even sharper.
4. The Red Wings’ power play ended the night 1-for-3 and probably will kick itself a bit for not finding an equalizer on a late power-play opportunity in the third. But with a new-look unit Friday, it was improved from the showing against the Tampa Bay Lightning earlier this week and is a unit that should be able to do more damage.
The top unit featured Shayne Gostisbehere up top, with Perron and Kane on the flanks and Larkin and Lucas Raymond in the middle at the bumper and goal line. And Detroit leaned on it, going away from a true split and giving that unit nearly two-thirds of the total power-play minutes.
The notable absence there was Alex DeBrincat — and that Detroit split him up from Kane. It’s a decision that can be viewed in a couple of ways. On the one hand, DeBrincat has not scored like the Red Wings need him to lately, and though he and Kane have chemistry, Kane can put Detroit’s other scorers in good positions too. On the other hand, DeBrincat is supposed to be the Red Wings’ go-to scorer, and with rush chances hard to come by this time of year, the power play is where much of his value should come from.
With the way the power play looked Friday, though, the former reasoning looks sound. Perron, Larkin and Raymond had big-time looks that could have easily been goals on the late power play, and a 1-for-3 clip is something Detroit will take most nights. It just wasn’t enough for a win in this one.
5. For as big as every game feels right now, it is striking that the Red Wings are still just 1 point back of the wild-card spot. They’re right there, and games with the Buffalo Sabres (Sunday), Washington Capitals (Tuesday) and Pittsburgh Penguins (Thursday) give Detroit some head-to-head chances to help sort it out.
At this point, it can’t be ruled out that one of these teams is simply going to back into a playoff berth.
But the out-of-town scoreboard has been too friendly of late to keep up this way. And the Red Wings can’t afford for this loop of missed opportunities to continue.
(Photo of the New York Rangers’ Chris Kreider scoring in the third period: Paul Sancya / Associated Press)
