Larkin-less Red Wings Fall 7-2 to Avalanche as MacKinnon Line Takes Over
Without Dylan Larkin, the Detroit Red Wings fell 7-2 to the Colorado Avalanche as Nathan MacKinnon and his linemates dominated
© Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports - Larkin-less Red Wings Fall 7-2 to Avalanche as MacKinnon Line Takes OverDetroit coach Derek Lalonde accepted the reality.
Midway through Wednesday night’s game against Colorado, Lalonde fielded a question from TNT analyst Darren Pang as to how his team could stop Nathan MacKinnon. Already three points into a night in which his line contributed to five goals, MacKinnon left little left to prove. Lalonde — never shy about praising opponents' stars — joked that the way to stop MacKinnon would be to put six or seven guys on the ice to slow him down.
There might’ve been a little truth in the humor, but even such extralegal measures were too late to make a difference. Detroit (33-23-6 overall) dropped its third straight game in an ugly 7-2 loss to Colorado (39-20-5), in large part because MacKinnon, Artturi Lehkonen and Mikko Rantanen crawled all over its defense. Without their best player in Dylan Larkin to boot, the Red Wings couldn’t muster enough to offset an unstoppable Avalanche attack.
"They're gonna get their looks, I just don't like the missed coverage, net front," Lalonde said postgame. "You could tell they had it going tonight. This is tough to find a matchup on the road, they just keep putting them out there. So I think we got overmatched and overwhelmed a little bit tonight."
Beating Colorado and its league-leading offense was always going to be difficult for the Red Wings. Doing so would have to come by being opportunistic. On that front, Detroit got just about as good a start as it could ask for. Just shy of two minutes into the game, the Red Wings’ power play took the ice and took the lead thanks to a goal by forward Robby Fabbri. With no one attempting to remove him from a tight screen against Avalanche goaltender Alexandar Georgiev, Fabbri collected a strong pass from forward Alex DeBrincat and redirected it into the net on his team’s first shot of the game.
Once Fabbri scored, though, Colorado took over for a long period of time. Led by its dominant first line, the Avalanche lived up to their mascot by smothering Red Wings goaltender Alex Lyon with shots. Less than four minutes after Fabbri’s goal, one of those shots found twine off the stick of defenseman Cale Makar.
While Makar scored the goal, it was MacKinnon’s vision that made the play work. The chance grew from a seed when MacKinnon beat Detroit up ice and manipulated the gap between Jake Walman and Moritz Seider as Rantanen lugged the puck north. The usually-sound defense pair struggled to set up in the aftermath of an ensuing Rantanen shot attempt, and MacKinnon flipped the sheet on them by passing the rebound cross-ice toward Devon Toews and Makar.
By the time the Red Wings mustered their next meaningful chance, the shot counter favored Colorado 12-2, illustrating the Avalanche's control of the game’s early 5-on-5 play. A fair portion of those were of the high-danger flavor, to boot.
But Detroit proved resilient, and much like Fabbri’s early goal, it found a way to dig in and capitalize on its chances. On an offensive zone faceoff play, forward David Perron whacked in a fourth-shot flurry attempt for the 2-1 lead at 13:30 in the first period. In what proved to be a theme in the first period, the Avalanche defense failed to protect the net front off a faceoff play, and Perron made it pay.
This set in motion a revitalized attack from the Red Wings that outshot the Avalanche 7-2 until the end of the period, featuring a heavy hand from DeBrincat and forward Patrick Kane at even strength and on a period-spanning power play. This stood as perhaps the most significant stretch of offense from Detroit all game.
Meanwhile, it was the Avalanche who made the most of their opportunities, as MacKinnon scored a one-timer five seconds into a first-period power play. The Detroit attack dwindled in the second period, mustering just five shots on goal, almost entirely from the perimeter. The third saw a similar outcome, though with a sprinkle of slot shots in the mix.
"You put their best players on the ice that much on a power play ... touching the puck that much — it's not a recipe for success," defenseman Ben Chiarot said after the game.
MacKinnon and his linemates, meanwhile, heated up. They combined for the 3-2 goal midway through the second period, as Seider covered the back post and left Lehkonen wide open in front. He redirected the puck for Colorado’s first lead 8:49 into the second period. By the end of the period, their line helped facilitate two goals for Makar to complete his first career hat trick. All told through three periods, the Lehkonen-MacKinnon-Rantanen trio combined for 20 out of 54 shots on goal for the Avalanche, as well as nine points.
That it took half the game for the Avalanche to earn a lead illustrates how well Lyon played early on. He made a number of highlight reel saves, including some in sequence, to keep Detroit in this game. Outstretched pads and a well-placed glove located some of the unrelenting high danger chances that MacKinnon’s line created, as well as other Avalanche chances including a Jonathan Drouin breakaway.
But against a deluge so strong, the Red Wings needed more than just Lyon’s heroics. And after giving up the 5-2 goal near the end of the second period, Lyon himself got the hook at the second intermission as James Reimer played the third in relief. The Avalanche piled on two more goals for good measure — including the first of rookie Jean-Luc Foudy's career — but the game was already largely decided by the play of MacKinnon and his compatriots.
Perhaps having Larkin in the lineup might’ve changed their fate, but Detroit’s effort against the Avalanche came out flat all around. While it’s hard to fault a bad game against one of the most talented teams — and lines — in the NHL, the outing shows a lot to improve on these next two weeks without Larkin. Defensive positioning, forechecking and board battles showed as glaring weaknesses in Denver, as did the quality of offensive zone possessions.
Maybe six or seven skaters could’ve stopped MacKinnon, like Lalonde joked about. Maybe even Larkin would’ve changed the outcome. But Detroit had neither Wednesday night, and the Avalanche had nothing to fear.