On a chaotic Wednesday night at Little Caesars Arena, the Red Wings find joy in transition to beat the Flyers 6–4

DETROIT—Before this morning's pre-game skate, the consensus in the Red Wings dressing room was clear: The evening's game against the Flyers could not be a repeat of last week's 4—1 loss in Philadelphia, in which Detroit "just played sloppy," as Alex DeBrincat put it, affording the Flyers a surplus of rush offense.  

One minute and six seconds into Wednesday's game against Philadelphia at Little Caesars Arena, the Red Wings appeared doomed to repeat last week's sins—allowing Travis Konecny to leak behind them for a breakaway goal on the very first shot Alex Lyon saw in his return from injury.  However, instead of yielding to the old pattern, Detroit re-wrote the script—finding its own joy off neutral zone takeaways and rush offense on the way to a 6–4 victory.

Patrick Kane scored the winner for the home side at the 7:22 mark of the third period, burying a wrist shot off a marvelous Moritz Seider stretch pass that led Kane seamlessly into the attacking third.  "Well last game I had a similar play, and I missed the net to the far side," Kane said post-game, when asked about the sequence.  "I've come down that wing a few times in my career and scored going short side, so sometimes that play happens once or twice in a row and you get redemption the second time."  Though he was only referring to a personal redemption, the notion applied just as well to his team's second look at the Flyers in six days.

Even with six goals on the evening, the Red Wings have scored fewer goals than every other team in the Eastern Conference, but, per JT Compher (who scored Detroit's first of the night on a first period power play), the early season offensive lethargy didn't detract from confidence.  "In the room we know that we're capable of scoring more," Compher said.  

Finding that offense Wednesday night was a matter of turning Philadelphia's style of play—which had vexed the Red Wings a week ago—back around against the Flyers.  As Kane explained, "They play aggressive, right? So if you can find ways to make a play or two out of your end, you can create—We had some two-on-ones tonight. We had a two-on-oh. So you get those opportunities, you wanna execute too."

Of Detroit's six goals, four (including the empty-netter) came via the rush.  Kane teed up a DeBrincat one timer in the second period.  Joe Veleno buried a Christian Fischer feed to convert on the two-on-oh Kane alluded to (which could've been a three-on-oh had Fischer and Veleno chosen to use Marco Kasper who'd broken in behind the Philadelphia defense just behind them).  Kane got the Red Wings back in front in the third in transition, and with just over a minute to play, Lucas Raymond sailed unencumbered from the red line in off a Dylan Larkin feed to deliver his second empty-netter in as many games to clinch the victory.  Each rush turned a takeaway into a red light.

Detroit's performance wasn't perfect.  The Red Wings needed every last drop of rush offense they produced because, even after the initial sting of Konency's goal, they couldn't entirely cut out Philadelphia's counter-attacks.  As coach Derek Lalonde put it, "as a group, we probably could've managed our game a little better."  Nonetheless, Lalonde was pleased with his team's overall effort, pointing to the way Detroit limited their guests' offensive volume.  "We had four shots we gave up in the first," he noted. "We held them to under 20 shots. We'll take that game any night. Obviously, we didn't make it comfortable...but of course, we'll take that game."

Compher had been asked whether the defensive performance had been an attempt to ease Lyon (who finished the night with 15 saves on 19 shots) back into action.  "We want to do that every game," he replied.  "We want to play in their zone, and that's the best way to play defense: When we're playing in the O zone and rumbling around and making them earn everything they get."

"Rumbling" is an appropriate word the evening.  It was not a performance of surgical precision from the Red Wings, but it was a night of persistence, and, as a result of the evening's labor, for perhaps the first time all season, there is a sense of momentum on Detroit's side.  

"I think that we stayed resilient and kept the focus where it needed to be," Compher added, of the two Flyer goals scored less than two minutes apart in the early third period. "It would've been easy to get away from our game, but we kept it simple and stayed aggressive and pushed till we got one."

They got the one they needed from Kane, then the clincher from Raymond, which got them a third win in four games.  If they can keep rumbling a while longer, the playoff aspirations that felt nothing short of fantastical by mid-November might just re-appear on the horizon.

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