The Detroit Red Wings had a chance to do something special Monday night. They had a chance to take a step, maybe even a bit of a leap, and start the season with three straight wins.
That’s something they haven’t done since the 2015-16 season, which just happens to be the last time they made the playoffs.
It was also a chance, after beating the subpar Montreal Canadiens and New Jersey Devils, to test themselves against a quality opponent like the Los Angeles Kings, who posted 99 points last season and even without Drew Doughty should have closed out the Edmonton Oilers in Game 6 in the first round of the playoffs.
The Wings almost did it. They almost matched a feat that harkened back to those heady days of a quarter-century of never missing the playoffs.
And yet, they still did something important in Monday’s 5-4 overtime loss that signaled a change in this team. Even during the miscues and mistakes, the bad bounces against a better team, the Wings played their game and gave themselves a chance.
No, they won’t start out with three straight wins this season. But they will start out 2-0-1, earning five of a possible six points, and showing commitment to the style they want to play.
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“I’d say good first weekend of hockey for us,” Dylan Larkin said. “Just the way we played wasn’t perfect, you know, all the time throughout the first three games here. But the way we approached every period, every game, I thought there’s a lot of positives.”
It was Larkin himself who defined the kind of hockey coach Derek Lalonde wants his team to play when he made one of the greatest defensive plays you’ll ever see a forward make. After the Wings pulled goalie Ville Husso while down, 4-3, Larkin saved an empty-net goal by Viktor Arvidsson when he dove and poke-checking the puck away from behind by extending his stick between Arvidsson’s feet.
It brought the crowd at Little Caesars Arena out its seats and gave the Wings renewed resolve with the extra attacker that led to Oskar Sundqvist’s goal that sent the game to overtime with 41 seconds left. Phillip Danault’s redirected OT winner off Filip Hronek’s skate was the difference for the Kings, who continued to demonstrate their offensive capability and have scored 13 goals in two straight wild road wins.
“Awesome,” Lalonde said of Larkin’s play. “It was an amazing play. Never gave up on it. I just think it’s a good message for everyone the entire game.
“We just we couldn’t get momentum off our goals. I think three times after we scored they seem to score like immediately after. But to come back three times to score late, to trail a game in third and get a point, pretty good sign.”
It felt like a missed chance for Lalonde to see his team win another game that it certainly could have won. The Wings’ play wasn’t precise at times and sloppy at others in the offensive and defensive zones. Husso wasn’t sharp, allowing five goals on 36 shots.
Yet, we have to understand two things about this game. The Kings are clearly better. Maybe not by miles, but they are obviously better and certainly sharper on offense and on the power play, which looked organized and purposeful compared to the Wings’ power play, which finally got off the schneid with David Perron’s third-period goal but is still only 1-for-17 with the man advantage to start the season.
“The good thing about the power play is it’s been getting a lot of looks,” Lalonde said. “Unfortunately it hasn’t gone in the back of the net. And we tweaked it a little bit. We even got those looks early on. And they hung in there with it and when it mattered they got one late.”
Of course, the flip side to that is the Wings’ penalty kill, which has been outstanding. The Kings went 0-for-6 on the power play and in three games the Wings’ opponents are 0-for-15.
The penalty kill is probably even more important of the two special teams for the Wings. It was a disaster last year, when they were fourth-worst in the NHL. In some ways the PK is an extension of the team’s broader defensive philosophy and commitment, which is where the team has the furthest to go.
Larkin’s amazing play was unforgettable. But there were several more moments against L.A. that showed the team’s renewed defensive commitment. The Kings took a 2-1 lead in the first period when they broke out of their zone and rookie forward Elmer Söderblom didn’t back fast enough to check Adrian Kempe on his goal from the right circle.
Söderblom, whose line checked the Kings’ top scoring line of Kempe, Anze Kopitar and Kevin Fiala, learned his lesson and played better defense the next two periods. He’ll end up on highlight reels for his Trevor Zegras-inspired puck juggling in the second period, but his diving stick lunge to break up a cross-ice pass in the defensive zone shouldn’t be overlooked.
Perron, who had two goals and an assist, lauded Larkin’s amazing poke-check but also the team’s overall defensive effort because he knows what the Wings did Monday wasn’t only about one game in October.
“Just boys giving and putting everything on the line,” Perron said. “And obviously you never know, but the end of the year we might look back at those kinds of plays and they add up for our group. So it was amazing to see.”
Yes, the Wings could have won this game. Maybe they should have. A third straight victory to start the season would have been a clear distinction the team hasn’t had in a while. But even without the victory, the Wings still accomplished something special by proving that sticking with their style is already paying off and perhaps will continue to do so when the games really matter in the spring.
Contact Carlos Monarrez: cmonarrez@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @cmonarrez.