The Red Wings blocked a goaltender's worth of shot attempts in Saturday's win over the Nashville Predators. These blocks come at a high bodily price, one that Detroit will have to pay for more and more as the season progresses.
The Detroit Red Wings blocked 31 shots in Saturday night’s 3-0 win against the Nashville Predators. That’s just one fewer than their goaltenders faced on an average night last season. In essence, they got a goaltender’s worth of saves off the pads and sticks of their skaters.
Such successful shot blocking is a testament to the defensive buy-in and sacrifice of the Red Wings, but it comes with big costs. Shot blocks, well, hurt. And blocking that many has its consequences in the way of bumps, bruises and assorted battle scars throughout the season.
“It’s kind of funny when you're out there because you're so focused on trying to make the playing and blocking the shot that even if it hurts, it still feels good mentally. “Like, ‘OK I did my job,’ ” said defenseman Justin Holl, who blocked four shots Saturday in his season debut. “But obviously you'll have some bumps and bruises.”
These blocks came from a variety of sources. Eleven out of 18 skaters recorded at least one. Defenseman Moritz Seider led with seven. Defensemen Ben Chiarot and Simon Edvinsson blocked four and three, respectively. Among forwards, Joe Veleno's three blocks paced the group. Even scoring winger Alex DeBrincat, not known as a particularly strong defender, made two blocks. All of these players paid up to help out Talbot.
This all begs the question: How sustainable is a 31-block night? As much as the Red Wings’ defense can be happy to have pitched a shutout, having to block 31 shots in a game requires them to go through a lot of pain and potential injury risk. Right now, both are necessary when Detroit sees 87 shot attempts, as the Predators took Saturday night. But the next step is for the Red Wings to whittle down those shot attempts so they don’t have to block so many.
Even if the Red Wings limited the amount of attempts that reached Cam Talbot, who pitched a shutout for his seventh NHL team Saturday, they still would rather deny attempts in general. By denying shooting lanes, possessing the puck and staying on top of opposing skaters, Detroit can limit the attempts it faces. In other words, improved defensive play can take away the need to lay out in front of a shot to begin with.
To Detroit coach Derek Lalonde, he acknowledges that the volume of blocks probably isn’t sustainable from a health standpoint, but he also recognized that Saturday’s outing was a unique game in the quantity and quality of the Predators’ chances.
“I can compliment our team on how many Grade-A looks we didn't give up, but the shot volume — you take that any time as an opposing team,” Lalonde said after Sunday’s practice, an optional one with just 10 participants. “They were in the high 80s on shot attempts; they almost doubled us. A lot of that is they spent half a period, almost 10 full minutes, either on a goalie pull or power play, a man up, and they were chasing a game. It's that balance all the time — you appreciate the willingness to block shots. It really helped us last night. But if you give up volume like that, you need to block shots like that, so you'd like to cut down on that volume and that zone time.”
In the meantime, the Red Wings can get by blocking a lot of shots. Two games into the season, the wear and tear of eating that much rubber hasn’t caught up with them. And if the team is spending money on today’s best equipment, players might as well use it — and hope the puck actually hits their pads.
“These guys don't have the padding that I do, and they're putting their bodies on the line,” Talbot said after the win. “There were some huge ones throughout the entire night, a lot on the PK, 6-on-5. I mean, they were just diving in front of everything tonight. The dedication and sacrifice from the guys in front of me won the game tonight.”
How long will the Red Wings’ bodies be able to keep making those sacrifices? The risk of so many blocks is that injuries are bound to happen. But until that happens — and until the defense improves enough to deny those shots to begin with — expect more blocked shots. Maybe even another goalie’s worth.
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