Two-goal nights from J.T. Compher and Robby Fabbri, along with another impeccable showing from Alex Lyon in goal, propels the Red Wings to a 5-1 victory over the Blackhawks
It wasn't a commanding performance and far from a flawless one, but on Wednesday night at Little Caesars Arena, J.T. Compher led the Red Wings to a 5-1 rout over the visiting Chicago Blackhawks.
Detroit didn't revert to the stingy forechecking game that yielded a three-game win streak over the last week, but it was a bounce back from last night's flat start in New York, and more than enough to see the home team past the lowly Blackhawks.
In his post-game comments, Derek Lalonde referred to the effort as "probably our least detailed game since we came back from Europe, but the good sign is we scored five goals and won."
Nov 30, 2023; Detroit, Michigan, USA; Detroit Red Wings celebrate after the game against the Chicago Blackhawks at Little Caesars Arena. If as a collective Detroit was far from the top of its game over the course of 60 minutes, you wouldn't know it from watching J.T. Compher.
Just two minutes and 29 seconds into the game, with Jonatan Berggren in the box for holding, Compher put his team ahead with a short-handed goal off a feed from his landlord and former University of Michigan teammate Andrew Copp.
However, that initial Red Wing lead wouldn't even last the remainder of Berggren's minor before Lucas Reichel equalized for Chicago. From there, the first proceeded in wide-open style. The two sides traded end-to-end rushes throughout the opening period. Amidst that run and gun environment, Robby Fabbri restored the Detroit advantage as the opening period neared its midpoint on a glorious solo effort off the rush.
With just one hand on his stick, Fabbri swept the puck past Wyatt Kaiser, dancing around the Chicago defenseman and bearing down on Petr Mrazek in the Blackhawk net. With a slick bit of stickhandling, he sent Mrazek in the wrong direction and left himself with a yawning net into which he back-handed the puck.
The Red Wings finished the period with a 2-1 lead, but the traded chances and abundance of opportunities for Chicago in transition were an obvious difference from the recent wins over New Jersey, Boston, and Minnesota.
In those contests, aggressive forechecking and discipline in staying on top of the opponent throttled the game, putting Detroit on the front foot. Even as the Red Wings steadily distanced themselves on the scoreboard, the Blackhawks never wanted for scoring opportunities.
Nonetheless, five minutes and nine seconds into the second, Ben Chiarot provided Detroit with a two-goal advantage when he buried the rebound from an Alex DeBrincat stuff attempt. Compher didn't record a point on the play, but the goal came at the end of a shift in which his line earned a prolonged stay in the offensive zone—with him at the center of the attacking threat—before eventually finding a goal off the rush.
47 seconds later, Compher scored his second of the game, this time on the power play. He'd already found one short-handed, and he was a driver at five-on-five all night in a game in which his team was far from imperious. Then, he capped a tic-tac-toe passing sequence from Lucas Raymond to David Perron and on to his open stick at the back post for a tap-in.
The build-up was more impressive than the finish, but Lalonde lauded the way Compher served as an "anchor" for his power play unit from his position at the net front—providing screens, winning back pucks, and then finishing as the situation called for it.
"You want to help produce," said Compher after the game, when asked about his strong form to begin his Red Wing career, before emphasizing that scoring is far from his sole priority. "Any player that says they don't, they're lyin'. It's part of it, but I pride myself on a lot more than just points." Compher's goal propelled Detroit to a 4-1 advantage that would hold through the second intermission.
The only moment of consequence in what remained of the second came with a bit more than eight minutes to play when Klim Kostin took instant and furious exception to a Connor Murphy hit on Andrew Copp—wrestling Murphy to the ice and having to be pried off the offending Blackhawk by the officials. Kostin earned a ten-minute misconduct, a roughing minor, and a cross-checking minor (though not a fighting major) for his troubles.
Midway through a third that was mostly academic, Fabbri scored his second of the night—this time cleaning up a rebound on the power play—to put his team ahead 5-1.
Chicago remained the more consistent side in applying pressure, but they couldn't find a way past Lyon. By game's end, the Red Wings had earned a 5-1 victory that would've been unthinkable in all of the lean rebuilding years since the franchise's last playoff appearance until this season.
"You look at the game tonight, and our best player was our goalie, and we finished," explained Lalonde. "They out-chanced us; they out-shot us; every underlying category is gonna say they were better than us." To play poorly yet still win in decisive fashion was not in the cards for the Detroit teams of the last five years; instead, those teams were tonight's Blackhawks—full of effort but ultimately toothless.
In those years, a 5-1 victory of any sort would be a season-long high-water mark. Tonight, it felt more lackadaisical than triumphant, and, in its peculiar way, that can be its own sign of these Red Wings' progress.
"We just got the job done, so showing signs of a mature hockey team," summated Lyon.