Detroit falls 6-5 in OT to the visiting San Jose Sharks after leading 4-0, spoiling Patrick Kane's Red Wing debut
Detroit falls 6-5 in OT to the visiting San Jose Sharks after leading 4-0, spoiling Patrick Kane's Red Wing debut
It wasn't supposed to end like that. Not with Mikael Granlund scoring the game-winner after just 37 seconds of overtime, the home team's marquee debutant having not taken a shift in the extra session.
There were moments when it looked like Patrick Kane's Detroit Red Wing debut would provide more cause for celebration.
It took only a simple passing neutral zone sequence with Alex DeBrincat on his second shift as a Red Wing, culminating in nothing more than a shoot-in to the offensive zone, to elicit oohs and aahs from the fans at Little Caesars Arena.
Then, through 33 minutes and 40 seconds of hockey, Detroit built a 4-0 lead, and even if Kane himself hadn't gotten on the scoreboard, he'd shown enough flashes of creativity to tease point production in games to come. But the visiting San Jose Sharks were in no mood to yield to the narrative needs of their hosts, instead erasing that 4-0 lead over the final five minutes and 42 seconds of the second.
Early in the third, after a successful Red Wing penalty kill, Kane picked off a pass in the slot, setting himself up with an ocean of space in front of Kappo Kahkonen in the Shark net—a chance to secure the outcome the 19,515 fans in attendance came to see.
Kane stickhandled, then fired a quick wrister. It beat Kahkonen but struck the inside of the post, caroming out of harm's way.
Even then, Detroit scraped out a 5-4 third period lead on the strength of a goal from captain Dylan Larkin, but Tomas Hertl equalized with Kahkonen pulled for an extra attacker and just 1:29 remaining. In overtime, Granlund and Fabian Zetterlund worked their way behind all three Red Wing skaters for the game-winner, casting a bucket of cold water on the excitement Kane had generated.
In truth, Detroit was fortunate to have a 4-0 lead in the first place, and in the end, the Red Wings earned the result they received.
For coach Derek Lalonde, the warning signs were clear long before Klim Kostin scored the game's first goal midway through the second. "The first period, it was alarming how many battles we lost in our D zone, and that's what they did—create some momentum with winning battles," he said after the game.
The normally even-keeled Lalonde was unable to mask his frustration at his team's performance. Instead, he said bluntly, "It's just a casual lack of urgency. You can see the odd-man or the two-on-one developing, and we're just lazy and casual away from the puck, hoping. That's cheating hockey; that's not winning hockey. We got what we deserved tonight."
Lalonde noted that the Red Wings probably should have trailed after the first were it not for the work of Ville Husso in net, who made 14 saves in the game's opening frame. San Jose commanded play in that period—forcing turnovers, creating odd-man chances, and dumping pucks behind to forecheck when necessary.
The early stages of the second looked similar, but then Detroit seemed to find its stride. Kostin got his team on the board by taking the puck off Sharks d-man Mario Ferraro at the top of the crease and tucking a shot past Mackenzie Blackwood (who had started the night in goal for San Jose).
It is not hyperbole to say that what followed Kostin's goal was one of the most chaotic stretches of hockey in the modern history of the NHL.
Three minutes and 46 seconds after Kostin's marker, Michael Rasmussen kicked off a run of three Red Wing goals in 49 seconds. Rasmussen got the first by deflecting a Daniel Sprong shot, then the second by tipping home a Ben Chiarot point bid. Lucas Raymond capped the outburst by sending a Chiarot centering feed into a yawning net.
Not only did Detroit have a 4-0 lead, not only had it chased Blackwood, but also the Red Wings would go to the power play after Marc-Edouard Vlasic was assessed an unsportsmanlike conduct minor in the fallout to Raymond's goal. It seemed the perfect time for Kane to grab his first point with his new team.
Instead, San Jose scored a pair of short-handed goals then a third just after Vlasic's minor expired to bring the score to 4-3 in a span of just 1:42 seconds.
That meant the two sides had exchanged six goals in three minutes and one second, just one second slower than the all-time record for scoring six (which came in a 1981 game between the Washington Capitals and Quebec Nordiques). To make matters worse, Nico Sturm (who scored the third of the Sharks' initial volley) added his second of the period with 23 seconds to play. Husso's strong first period form had evaporated, and Detroit's lead with it.
By the end of it all, the two teams had traded eight goals in 10:32 of game action, and the score was tied at four heading into the third. Larkin provided the home crowd hope that the San Jose comeback was only temporary, only for Hertl (who scored the Sharks' first goal of the night) to re-equalize at six-on-five and Granlund to deliver the death blow in overtime.
As Lalonde said, though they had ample chances to win this game, the Red Wings got the result they deserved based on the sloppiness of their sixty-minute performance. Nonetheless, Kane's debut provided something of a bright spot, even in defeat.
"Overall, I think for me, it was just fun to get out there and play again," he said at his post-game press conference. "Obviously would have been a little bit better getting the win."
"Physical side felt fine," Kane continued. "For me, it's more just getting my timing, understanding the team structure, and then doing what I do when I get the puck, but overall, as far as the first game, I thought the body felt pretty good...You definitely have to build up the timing and the confidence and getting back to trying to take over when you have the puck on your stick...A little bit tentative tonight at times, but overall feel pretty good."
Kane took most of his shifts with DeBrincat and Joe Veleno, but he also skated beside Larkin and DeBrincat at times. There were moments where you could see the rust Lalonde and Kane both described—a failed give-and-go here, a pass catching a teammate wrong-handed there.
But there were also moments at which he showed flashes of the player that made him one of the league's most feared attackers throughout the 2010s: extending possessions in the offensive zone with his vision and passing, creating danger in transition with his old running mate DeBrincat, and—perhaps most encouraging of all—even winning a few pucks back defensively and turning those takeaways into offense.
"He looked very comfortable, assessed Lalonde. Obviously a little rusty and probably [with] a little more polish to his game he could have had three or four points." The coach acknowledged that Kane (who finished the night a -1 in 16:33) played "probably a little more than we expected, but he's comfortable. He looked good. We'll see how he feels physically off this, but that was certainly a positive tonight."
So, in sum, it was a disappointing night from the Red Wings as a unit, but the chaotic nature of the game and the excitement generated by Kane's introduction made the loss a bit easier to swallow. Of course, the much more pressing question—for the individual and the collective—will concern the response to a night with moments of elation but shrouded by prevailing chagrin in the games to come.
How will Kane's newly resurfaced hip feel the morning after his return to NHL action? What will it take for Detroit to buck its troubling trend of third-period collapses?
Kane and the Red Wings (now 14-7-4) will return to action Saturday night at LCA, hosting the Ottawa Senators.
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