The Detroit Red Wings followed up an atrocious 6-1 loss to the Dallas Stars on fan appreciation night, nonetheless, Monday with a 4-1 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes Tuesday evening. It was always going to be tough sledding for the Red Wings up against a 50-win Hurricanes team, but to make matters worse, Detroit was without Dylan Larkin due to a lower-body injury. Larkin, 26, leads the Red Wings with 32 goals and 79 points over 79 games.
With Larkin out of the lineup, head coach Derek Lalonde elected to roll with 11 forwards and seven defensemen.
Detroit also recalled goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic on an emergency basis to start, following Ville Husso and Magnus Hellberg being shelled by the Stars. Hellberg allowed three goals on five shots before being pulled, and Hellberg allowed three on 17 shots in relief. Some fans felt that Husso might be bothered by a lingering injury following his awful outing on Monday. In an article by Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press, Lalonde noted that Husso is healthy but not sharp.
“I think there’s alluding this is injury-based,” Lalonde said after Monday’s 6-1 loss. “He’s healthy. His game is just not sharp. We’ve seen him when he looks sharp, and this last week, it was tough for him. He’s shown us really good hockey, but this is an unfortunate stretch.
“His last couple starts, I don’t think it’s what he is.”
It would have been a colossal, unforgivable mistake if Husso hadn’t been fully healthy, and the Detroit Red Wings were playing him with nothing to play for. I am happy to see Helene put that notion to bed.
The Detroit Red Wings lost 4-1 in Carolina.
Similar to what happened to Detroit on Monday by the Stars, the Hurricanes took it to the Red Wings early and often. Carolina had Detroit hemmed in their zone for what felt like an eternity to begin the first period, which led to Stefan Noesen opening the scoring at 2:46 of the first period. It was Noesen’s 13th goal of the season.
Carolina struck again at the 7:50 mark of the first, thanks to a Jordan Martinook tally. It was Martinook’s 13th of the year as well. The Red Wings were discombobulated in the defensive zone. Three players were caught sleeping (Moritz Seider, Gustav Lindstrom, and Andrew Copp) and left Martinook alone at the size of the net, and Brady Skjei found him with a tremendous pass.
The Detroit Red Wings did show a little bit of life in the second period when defenseman Robert Hagg scored his second goal of the season. Hagg crept in from the left point as Joe Veleno circled the goal and provided the defenseman with a solid feed in the circle. Hagg snapped a quick shot stick side to get the Red Wings on the board.
The Hurricanes revived their two-goal lead roughly four minutes later thanks to a point shot that deflected off Veleno in front and past a helpless Nedeljkovic from veteran defenseman Brent Burns. It’s Burns’ 16th goal of the season. The 37-year-old Burns has been just as advertised in his first season with Carolina recording 59 points through 81 games, which follows a 54-point campaign with the Sharks a year ago.
The lone goal in the third period was an empty netter from Jesperi Kotkaniemi to make it 4-1 Carolina. The Red Wings went 0-2 on the power play and 1-1 on the penalty kill but couldn’t muster much offense in Carolina. Jake Walman had a glorious opportunity late while in on a two-on-one with David Perron but was turned away by Antti Raanta. Detroit was outshot 28-21 in the contest.
The Detroit Red Wings will close out their season on Thursday in Tampa Bay.