Things haven’t exactly been going the Detroit Red Wings’ way recently.
Take Thursday night in Columbus, for example. The Red Wings battled back to take the lead in the third period, only for a Blue Jackets shot to go off Detroit defenseman Albert Johansson and into the net for the tying goal with 1:31 remaining in regulation. Detroit ended up losing 6-5 in a shootout in the opener of a season-long, six-game trip.
The Red Wings, who are 1-3-2 over their past six games, will look for some better bounces Saturday when they stop in Seattle to face the Kraken.
“I feel like the last couple years of these games, they’ve always been kind of crazy games,” said veteran Red Wings forward James van Riemsdyk, who played on the other side of the rivalry with Columbus last season. “I liked the way we stuck with it. … Usually, when you’re leading at the end of the game like that, you’d like to try to find a way to get the two points but I thought we played resilient and stuck with the process even if things didn’t go our way. I liked that part of our game.
“That fighting spirit, of playing no matter what the score is, that is a really good quality for teams to have. I think we’ve shown that this year … Nice to get at least a point out of this and start the road trip off that way, so we know we definitely can play a more complete 60 minutes.”
Patrick Kane and Lucas Raymond each had a goal and an assist for the Red Wings. It was Kane’s 359th career multipoint game, passing Mike Modano for the most by a U.S.-born player in NHL history.
“I think after the second (trailing 4-3) if you told us we would have got a point and taken it to overtime, obviously we always want two points, but that would have been good for us,” Kane said. “But to get that one-goal lead and in the third it would have been nice to finish it off and get the two points.”
The goal was Kane’s fourth of the season and the 496th of his career. It snapped a nine-game goalless drought for the 37-year-old.
“I feel like I’ve been getting some good looks,” Kane said. “It’s probably just the way to do it, right? You attack, shoot through their defensemen and find a way to get a shot on net. Good to see it go in, for sure.”
The Kraken have lost four in a row (0-3-1) after a 9-4 defeat Thursday in Edmonton.
“It just feels like we go either one way or the other. We’re either really dialed in defensively and not scoring goals, or we’re giving up six or seven goals and getting our own as well,” said Kraken forward Jared McCann, the franchise’s all-time leading scorer. “It’s frustrating, we have to dial it in here and be better leaders for our team and I think it starts with me, Matty (Beniers), and ‘Ebs’ (Jordan Eberle).”
The Kraken’s special teams gave up five goals.
“Their power play scored four and we gave up a short-handed goal when the score was 3-2, and we had our own opportunity to get back into the game, because we’re not aware of somebody behind us and it ends up in a breakaway,” Kraken coach Lane Lambert said. “Mistakes, and I didn’t think our goaltending was great … If you add it all up, it equals nine (goals).”
