Detroit asked serious questions of the New Jersey Devils for 60 minutes in the sides' season opener Thursday evening, but the Red Wings' effort fell short in a 4-3 defeat in Newark
On the opening night of a new season, in a hostile environment at Newark's Prudential Center, facing an opponent that begins its season with thoughts only of the Stanley Cup, the Detroit Red Wings tested the New Jersey Devils for sixty minutes, but too many penalties and too much New Jersey star power proved insurmountable in a 4-3 defeat.
With the third period not quite half over, a five-minute stretch of hockey encapsulated the evening's effort from both sides. It began when dogged defense from Jake Walman smothered Jack Hughes, the Devils talismanic center. The frustrated 22-year-old delivered a slash to Walman's heels, earning a slashing minor.
On the ensuing power play, the Red Wings' passing reduced the New Jersey penalty kill into disarray, and, after a diving Moritz Seider kept the play alive, Alex DeBrincat pounced on a loose puck in the high slot.
The Farmington Hills-raised sniper calmed and then fired the puck in a single fluid motion, delivering a shot too quick and too true for Vitek Vanacek—who was excellent all evening in the crease for the Devils—to see, let alone stop.
Devils 2, Red Wings 2, not quite nine and a half minutes to play.
However, just as Detroit appeared to have captured momentum on a lightning paced, back-and-forth evening of hockey, David Perron was whistled for slashing Hughes, a minute and two seconds after the DeBrincat equalizer.
The Red Wings survived the ensuing power play, but with 4:23 left on the clock Dougie Hamilton restored the Devils' lead with a point blast. Detroit had won the preceding face-off but failed to clear, and Hamilton made them pay.
Three minutes later, an Erik Haula empty netter sealed the Red Wings' fate, despite Robby Fabbri's best effort at a desperation comeback, scoring with 34 seconds to play to leave the final score at 4-3.
It was an evening on which Detroit went toe to toe with one of the league's best and most dynamic teams, and the Red Wings didn't just hang around. For long stretches, especially in the early going, they took the game to New Jersey—stacking positive shifts atop one another and posing problems through a combination of crisp passing and persistent forechecking. Confronted with one of the NHL's fastest teams, Detroit looked every bit as quick.
Yet the end result was a regulation defeat. Zero points in the standings. 0-1-0.
The Red Wings could hardly have gotten off to a stronger start to the evening. In immediate succession, Dylan Larkin's line, then J.T. Compher's line, then Andrew Copp's line forced play to the offensive zone and stayed there. To punctuate the early flurry, Klim Kostin struck the post with a powerful wrist shot two and a half minutes in, skating in off the rush from his off wing. Detroit accounted for the game's first five shots, before the Devils got a chance on Ville Husso's net, a bad angle bid from Hughes.
Near the frame's midpoint, Daniel Sprong struck the iron once more—this time on the power play with Curtis Lazar in the box for tripping DeBrincat. Though it didn't produce a shot on net, the best chance of the period may have come with about 30 seconds to play when Lucas Raymond and Compher connected on an exquisite passing sequence to leave Raymond with an open net to shoot out, but the Devils defense intervened.
Despite the quality chances and near misses, the Red Wings hit the locker room for the first intermission with the game scoreless but having outshot New Jersey 14-6. With the benefit of hindsight, it's hard not to look back on the period as a missed opportunity to put the Devils into a more serious discomfort.
In the early going of the second period, New Jersey was the more dangerous team. The Devils' second line of Nico Hischier between Dawson Mercer and Timo Meier asked serious questions of Husso and the Detroit defense, but they too were unable to deal a decisive blow.
For 30 minutes, it was a high octane, energetic affair without any goalscoring. 12:14 into the second, Daniel Sprong changed that when he benefited from a fortuitous bounce that turned a Vanacek poke check into a caroming goal—Sprong's first as a Red Wing and the Red Wings' first of the season. The winger wore a sheepish grin as he skated back to the bench to receive his congratulations. Though it was lucky, there was a sense that Detroit earned its fortune because of its strong forecheck.
Detroit's lead proved short-lived, however, when Hughes answered with a power play goal barely a minute after Sprong's opener.
It was a superstar's goal from Hughes—picking an infinitesimal corner from below the goal line. Unique though Hughes may be as an offensive talent, it was also a goal Husso would probably want back, given the location it was shot from. To add insult to injury, Larkin's stick hand been knocked from his hands in the build up to the goal without the officials intervening.
Five minutes later, Hughes would strike again, and for the second time, it was a goal that showed his special ability with the puck on his blade but also reflected some measure of fallibility from Husso in net.
At the end of the second, Detroit trailed 2-1. In the third, DeBrincat delivered a spark, but Hamilton, then Haula extinguished those flames, and the Red Wings found themselves on the wrong end of the season opener.
In the end, it was an evening that delivered markers of progress and promise but also familiar and unwelcome signs of work that must still be done.
From the optimistic perspective, night one provided evidence of the Red Wings' newcomers delivering an immediate impact.
Sprong and DeBrincat did exactly what they were acquired to: scoring goals. Compher, Justin Holl, and Christian Fischer played hard short-handed minutes in holding the Devils to one power play goal in six tries.
Compher also helped the Red Wings solidify the face-off dot, with the team claiming 56% of the evening's face-off and the center himself winning at a phenomenal 63.2% clip. Shayne Gostisbehere did great work as a progressive presence from the Detroit back end, providing the team with much needed offensive thrust from the defense corps.
The Red Wings traded punches with a team that projects to be a force in the Eastern Conference, and they looked every bit as though they belonged.
However, on the pessimistic side of the equation, the unavoidable conclusion is that, at least on this occasion, all those efforts were insufficient to push Detroit into the win column. That Hughes—a number one overall pick, the product of the kind of lottery luck the Red Wings haven't found—played an instrumental role in orchestrating his team's victory makes that conclusion sting a bit extra.
Still, the nice thing about losing on opening night is that it is just one game and two points that have slipped away, and there are 81 chances at redemption with 162 points left to play for.
The Red Wings will have their chance to strike back Saturday evening, when the Tampa Bay Lightning come to Little Caesars Arena for Detroit's home opener.
