Alex Lyon and Robby Fabbri lead the way as Detroit hands the Devils their first shutout loss in 101 games
Alex Lyon and Robby Fabbri lead the way as Detroit hands the Devils their first shutout loss in 101 games
Over the course of 72 seconds late in the first period on the eve of Thanksgiving at Little Caesars Arena, the Detroit Red Wings enjoyed a cornucopia of goals, a just reward for a brilliant period of hockey.
Gone were the sleepy starts of recent weeks, gone was the need to chase the game for a team that had been outscored 11-3 in its last 11 first periods.
It was replaced by a fast and purposeful start Wednesday night, with Detroit playing perfectly to the identity it has described since the first day of training camp: Staying above the opponent, playing fast and hard on the forecheck, taking swift advantage of the resulting turnovers.
The Red Wings did it for nearly 17 minutes before the payoff came, but once the first goal arrived, two more soon followed. By the end of the first, Detroit led 3-0 and wouldn't look back en route to a resounding 4-0 victory.
Lucas Raymond started the onslaught in a sequence that served as a neat encapsulation of his team's performance, illustrating why the Red Wings earned the feast they eventually received.
J.T. Compher forced a turnover in the neutral zone, Detroit's sound structure leaving the Devils devoid of options. Raymond raced in on Vitek Vanacek's net for a two-on-one rush with Robby Fabbri accompanying him.
Raymond sent a cross-ice feed for Fabbri, who returned the favor to the young Swede, allowing Raymond to finish the play with a powerful wrist shot over Vanacek, rendered powerless by the passing play.
The PA announcer hadn't finished reading out the goal and assists before Dylan Larkin added a second off an Alex DeBrincat feed—another goal born from the Detroit forecheck forcing a turnover. DeBrincat pounced on a loose puck in the midst of a sloppy New Jersey breakout and slipped a pass to Larkin at the back door, with the Detroit captain sneaking a backhand through Vanacek to make it 2-0 just 20 seconds after Raymond's opener.
The Red Wings would have to wait just 52 seconds for a third, once more a Devils turnover setting a Detroit odd-man rush in motion and once more the hosts punishing their guests for being afforded that chance.
Joe Veleno led the rush, feeding Daniel Sprong with a centering pass. Sprong's shot was blocked but fell straight to the stick of Fabbri, who deposited it past Vanacek.
41 minutes and 50 seconds remained in regulation, but the game's narrative was fixed: The Red Wings' neutral zone structure proved impassable for New Jersey, and Detroit's efficiency off the rush late in the first was enough to establish an intractable advantage. And, on the rare occasions when the Devils found an opportunity for themselves, Alex Lyon stared down the chance and turned it aside.
"I think we took space," assessed coach Derek Lalonde from the post-game podium.
"We didn't give them easy rushes. They did have some three-on-two looks, but we had some back pressure, and then we were just committed in the scoring area. We ate some pucks, didn't give up second looks. And I think a really calm Alex Lyon. There's a couple times they had some zone time, and he would eat a puck, no rebound, face-off. And then we can get a little rhythm to our game."
By the end of the night, Lyon needed to make just 16 saves to earn his second career shutout. It was the first time New Jersey had been shutout in 101 games when Alex Nedeljkovic earned a 17-save shutout in a 3-0 win for the Red Wings in April of 2022. It wasn't just that Lyon only had to stop 16 shots to earn the shutout but also that the few Devils chances that came his way were seldom of serious quality.
"I think we just stuck to what makes us successful from the drop of the puck on," said Fabbri. "And Alex was there to make the saves when he had to. It was an all around, top to bottom, full team effort tonight, and we play like that, we like our chances every night."
"The whole year he's been grinding and staying ready and he's proven that tonight," Fabbri added of Lyon. "We're all really happy that he got in there and he did so well. It's huge for the group."
Perhaps the most notable play of Lyon's night came five minutes into the second. Jack Hughes—New Jersey's most dynamic attacking player—snuck behind the Detroit defense and had a chance at a breakaway, only for a cool-headed Lyon to step up and sweep aside the loose puck Hughes was pursuing, negating the opportunity.
Four minutes later, Moritz Seider added the Red Wings' fourth goal of the night. It was a simple sequence, with Detroit establishing possession in the offensive zone, working the puck from low to high, getting bodies to the net, and firing a point shot—as rudimentary as hockey can get in the offensive zone.
Seider's shot took a defletion off a Devil on its way past Vanacek, and the Red Wings owned a 4-0 lead before the game was halfway through.
In the final moments of the period, the Red Wings had one last chance to put an authoritative stamp on the game.
Larkin went to the box for slashing with 2:26 to play in the second, and the Devils power play, which entered the night as the league's best, had the chance to salvage just enough momentum to put the game's outcome in doubt before intermission. Instead, the Red Wings delivered a clean kill with the best chance of the power play coming via an Andrew Copp short-handed break as the minor expired; there would be no comeback, nor momentum for the visitors.
Detroit took its 4-0 lead to the dressing room, then, as Lalonde put it, "the third just kind of played itself out." There was one more penalty to kill (a David Perron tripping minor), but the game was in little doubt. In the final 20 minutes, New Jersey managed to put just two shots on Lyon's net, and the Red Wings completed the shutout. Lyon—who has now held his opponent scoreless in five of the six regular season periods he's played as a Red Wing—was the star, but it was a true team win.
If the NHL axiom that to make the playoffs you must claim your spot by Thanksgiving is true, Detroit—now 9-6-3 and the would-be eight seed in the East if the playoffs began today—has done the job it needed to. Sure, the playoffs remain months away, and today's positioning counts for nothing come April, but you wouldn't know it from the raucous crowd's delight upon the sounding of the final horn at Little Caesars Arena Wednesday night.
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