A seven-goal second period from Columbus dooms the Red Wings in their second game in Traverse City. Here's everything you need to know about the 10-7 defeat
Perhaps it's appropriate that on an autumnal Saturday, the Detroit Red Wings played a game to a football scoreline. Unfortunately, the Wings came out on the wrong end of a 10-7 result to the Columbus Blue Jackets in their second game of the Traverse City Prospects Tournament.
It was a game that looked like exactly what it was: a pre-season prospect exhibition. Penalties abounded, there were oceans of space available to both teams in transition, and an obvious gulf emerged between the game's top players and some of the un-drafted invitees.
Entering the tournament, I wondered how Detroit might match up with Columbus' newly drafted talisman: third overall pick in the 2023 Draft Adam Fantilli.
On Saturday afternoon, Fantilli was overwhelming. His speed, hands, physicality, and finishing touch were all on full display in a three-goal, two-assist performance for the Blue Jackets.
The results of these prospect tournament games are mostly trivial, but, with Detroit having now dropped its first two contests, there will be an added sense of urgency Sunday afternoon when the Wings prospects take on Toronto in the final bout of the event.
Recap
For Red Wings fans, the game got off to a bad start before puck drop, when Carter Mazur was revealed to be inactive after suffering a lower body injury during Detroit's first game of the showcase with Dallas. Fortunately, Mazur's injury sounds minor, and his absence appears precautionary.
On the ice, Detroit enjoyed a strong first period. Riley Sawchuk got the ball rolling with a clean snipe off a partial breakaway, forcing his opportunity by pressuring a Columbus defenseman at the point to spring himself.
To put Detroit ahead 2-0, a Jackson DeSouza centering pass deflected off a Blue Jacket stick and in, before a streaking Amadeus Lombardi found Alexandre Doucet in the slot to make it 3-0.
However, before the horn sounded on the opening period, Fantilli offered a preview of the Columbus onslaught to come—receiving the puck in neutral ice, dancing through the slot, then beating Sebastian Cossa with a devastating backhand.
2020 second rounder Cross Hanas made it 4-1 early in the second with a power play goal (once again with help from a fortuitous deflection in the slot), before the Blue Jackets erupted for seven straight. Three of those seven came on the power play with a fourth coming with an extra attacker for a delayed penalty. Hanas managed to stop the bleeding in the period's dying breaths, burying a loose puck amidst a net-front scramble to leave the score at 5-8 through two periods.
6-foot-8 Elmer Soderblom scored to make it 6-8 early in the second, and the sides would continue to trade goals until Fantilli completed his hat trick with an empty netter, sealing the 10-7 result.
Film Study: Cossa and Doucet in Focus
In a game with 17 goals, it's unlikely any goaltender could cover themself in glory, but just how concerned should Red Wing fans be by a disappointing effort from Sebastian Cossa between the pipes?
In 27:40 of work, Cossa managed just 15 saves on 21 shots for a lowly .714 save percentage. To be sure, it was a night when Cossa didn't have much by way of support from his defense, but there was also reason to believe the 20-year-old netminder was far from the top of his game.
Throughout the three periods, this was a wide-open game with precious little to speak of by way of neutral zone structure. Instead, the two sides traded blows in transition throughout the afternoon, with Columbus separating itself through its power play efficiency. Still, even within a hostile environment, it was hard to escape the conclusion that Cossa was not exactly razor sharp.
For an example of this dynamic, let's take a look at Jordan Dumais' early second period PPG, which made the score 4-3 Detroit.
The Blue Jackets scored on two of their three power plays against Toronto in their Traverse City opener, so clearly Columbus' prospects haven't taken long to find some chemistry with the man advantage.
On the Dumais goal, Fantilli wins a draw cleanly, and Columbus is quick to get set up and force the Detroit PK into discomfort. Dumais and Denton Mateychuk work the puck quickly from the left flank to the right to set up a Fantilli one-timer chance.
Formidable though Fantilli is as a shooting threat, his eventual chance is not exactly a premium one. He is beyond and outside the dots, and the pass he receives from Mateychuk doesn't travel so far as to force Cossa to push all the way across his crease. Though there is some traffic in the slot, Cossa appears to get a clean look at the shot, but still he surrenders a generous rebound, which goes straight to Dumais.
Even setting aside the initial challenge with rebound control, Cossa's ensuing effort to stop Dumais' chance again shows signs of rust. It would be a difficult stop, and his defense does him no favors in failing to mark the Halifax Mooseheads forward in the slightest, but Cossa is neither fluid nor quick in his bid to snare Dumais' chance.
In the end, it was that sort of night for Cossa. He made a few impressive saves (most notably, a first period breakaway stop on Mateychuk), and he had to operate in an offense-happy environment, but it's difficult not to walk away at least a bit disappointed in Cossa's performance.
For a more positive takeaway from yesterday's game, let's take a look at an impressive Alexandre Doucet effort from the second period.
Doucet was an intriguing player at development camp. He had obvious offensive gifts: skill with the puck and a great sense of how to create space for teammates and himself without the puck. His QMJHL resume tells a similar story: 115 points in 70 games split between Val-d'Or and Halifax last season.
However, players of Doucet's profile (un-drafted but with excellent production in junior) tend to top out as prolific AHL scorers. There are only so many premium scoring roles in an NHL lineup (i.e. top six, top power play unit), and it's challenging to solidify a long-term roster spot as a bottom six scorer. So, if Doucet wants to have a chance to earn an NHL roster spot, he will need to show competence on the defensive side of the puck. Against Columbus, Doucet offered a brief example of just that.
On this sequence, Doucet arrives late to the scene off a line change, with Columbus already threatening in the offensive zone. Doucet correctly identifies the greatest danger—a wide-open Adam Fantilli, menacing in the slot—and hustles to neutralize that threat, intervening before Fantilli can get a premium chance.
Doucet's work isn't done though. He does a nice job of controlling and protecting the puck, then evades Fantilli to start the breakout by sliding a pass to an open Andrew Gibson.
Even after all that work, Doucet keeps playing with pace and aggression, skating with verticality as he receives a return feed from Gibson and transports the puck through the neutral zone. This is a reliable for creating transition offense: recover the puck, get off the wall, switch sides, and attack. Eventually, Doucet dishes to Lombardi, who gets a decently threatening transition chance out of the sequence.
It's a simple play from Doucet, more about effort than anything else, but if he can continue to turn defense into quick offense in that manner, he might wind up more than just a Grand Rapids scorer for the Detroit organization.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hqO6TAq2_I[/embed]
Sound Bites
After the game, head coach Dan Watson was predictably non-plussed by his team's performance.
“Our start was fine, then the second period certainly got away from us,” Watson said. “The emotional side of it—some undisciplined penalties—their power play certainly made us pay for those undisciplined penalties. The consistency in our compete wasn’t there tonight.”
Of Cossa (whom Watson coached in Toledo a year ago), Watson said, “I thought he battled hard in the first period. Then you could see the way some of the goals given up — it wasn’t all on him, certainly, but it’s trying to find that consistency from game to game. It was a tough one here for him.”
Cross Hanas, meanwhile, emphasized that Cossa's disappointing effort was inextricable from the performance of the skaters in front of him.
“I went up to him in the second intermission and let him know it’s all right. Stuff like this happens," Hanas said. “There’s always going to be a game like this. We kind of didn’t do our part. We him on the penalty kill a lot. He faced a lot of shots early in the second period. It’s nothing that’s just his fault. It’s the whole team’s fault. I just told him, ‘You’re good, man. We’re sorry we put you in that situation.’ I know Coss, he’ll be good. He’ll be ready to go for the next time he’s in net.”
For Cossa and the Red Wings, the chance to rebound will come early Sunday afternoon with a 2 PM appointment with the Toronto Maple Leafs to close out the Prospects Tournament.
