Patrick Kane caps a come-from-behind Red Wings win over the Avalanche in another home victory marking further progress toward the postseason
Patrick Kane caps a come-from-behind Red Wings win over the Avalanche in another home victory marking further progress toward the postseason
Grinning from the post-game podium, Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin explained a phenomenon he and his teammates have observed over the last few months at Little Caesars Arena. "We call it the Kaner effect," he said. "You notice that the top of the upper bowl is full every night...It's just a lot of fun right now." Some 15 minutes earlier, Patrick Kane (of the eponymous Kaner effect) had put the end punctuation on a 2-1 overtime victory for Detroit over the visiting Colorado Avalanche.
At three-on-three in the extra session, Larkin wheeled across the top of the offensive zone to gain speed, then took a hand-off from Ben Chiarot—racing now toward the net before dropping a no-look pass for Kane. Kane hammered a shot past a helpless Justus Annunen in the Colorado net. He turned straight toward Larkin, in deference to the speed and vision of the set-up, before being mobbed by his teammates.
As the group celebration dispersed, Kane raised an arm, urging the fans to reach even louder decibel heights. Somehow, the already frenzied LCA crowd complied. Kane has showed his gifts as an orchestrator throughout his tenure with the Red Wings—which began only in mid-December, but on Thursday night, he played a different role, as assassin, bringing the fans to their feet by breaking the Avalanche's back.
Three-on-three overtime has trended toward a cautious emphasis on possession and control at the expense of chance creation and chaos, but Thursday's overtime took on a different character.
"Once there's one breakdown, the odd-man rushes can start flowing the other way if the other team doesn't convert," observed Kane. "It seemed like there was a couple odd-man rushes, breakaway...I think it's fun for the fans and fun for people watching when the overtime's like that." It's safe to say the man nicknamed Showtime for the way he's made a career of thriving in clutch moments made certain overtime was fun for the fans Thursday. The combination of the decisiveness and the sincere willingness to play to the crowd coming together to form the Kaner effect.
Though, of course, it must be said that like any sociological phenomenon the Kaner effect Larkin described is about much more than one individual. It was Kane and Larkin's skill that delivered the final blow to see off Colorado, but it took four lines, three defense pairs, and 30 saves from Alex Lyon to get through 63 minutes and 42 seconds while allowing the Avalanche only one goal. Kane played the star, but it's a team not just an individual that has a fan base cheering and dreaming of the future.
"There's goals out there that we couldn't find last year," said Derek Lalonde, when asked about the impact of a player of Kane's arrival. "We find that throughout all the guys. Of course, Kane, DeBrincat, and some additions like that—Sprong, but it's just again—that depth and maybe quote unquote that star, we are finding some of those goals. I can't tell you how many times last year we would leave a game feeling really good about our team game and we were on the one-goal bad side of it."
In that sentiment, Lalonde alluded to the two-part truth that has generated such renewed fervor in Detroit. First, in 25 games, Kane has been better than even the most optimistic prognosticator could have anticipated, proving his decisiveness in big moments once more Thursday night. And second, the Red Wings' ability to be in a position for Kane's heroics to win the day is a byproduct of the rest of the lineup. Kane said as much himself:
"The depth is the biggest thing. And that's how you win in this league. Every team that I've been a part of that's won, we had depth, and you didn't know whose turn it would be that night to step up and be the hero."
Depth means that when Colorado takes a 1-0 lead into the third period, there is no need for panic. "We stick to our game. We don't need to chase the extra goal. It's gonna come if we do things correct," said Lalonde. And that goal came—from Larkin—12 minutes into the third to tie the score at one, where it would remain until Kane's winner.
That winner ended an evening billed as "Hockeytown Heritage Night" at Little Caesars Arena, with scoreboard graphics, novelty giveaways, and intermission highlight packs all turning back the clock to the glory days of the Red Wings-Avalanche rivalry of the late 90s and early aughts.
However, by night's end, the hockey gods had smiled on Detroit with more than just an overtime victory. The Lightning, Devils, and Islanders all lost in regulation, leaving the Red Wings in the first wild card slot, six points north of the playoff cut line if the season ended today. And with the promise of the first ever playoff game at LCA closer than ever, the Red Wings are ready to move on from stories about what used to be and toward something new.
When asked what he might have taken away from last season's ultimately fruitless playoff push, Larkin answered, "One thing I've worked on is to let go of the past. We got a lot of new guys in this locker room. It's not the same as 2019...We've got a lot of guys that have worked extremely hard all season and sacrificed a lot, and we have good players in that room that wanna write a new story."
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