Inside Alex DeBrincat's torrid start to '23-24 for the Red Wings There could be no doubting J.T. Compher's value to the Detroit Red Wing line-up through his first nine games with the team, but often it was a subtle value. In his tenth game as a Red Wing, Compher made his brilliance obvious even to the least discerning eye. He assisted on Lucas Raymond's overtime winner, the culmination of a sublime passing sequence—the precise sort it would take to beat an imperious Ilya Sorokin in the Islander crease—but that was just the encore to a performance that had been building all evening. Oct 30, 2023; Elmont, New York, USA; Detroit Red Wings left wing Lucas Raymond (23) celebrates his winning goal with left wing J.T. Compher (37) against the New York Islanders during overtime at UBS Arena. [https://thehockeynews.com/.image/c_fit,h_600,w_600/MjAxODczNzQyOTE2MjMyODA5/usatsi_21778894.jpg] Oct 30, 2023; Elmont, New York, USA; Detroit Red Wings left wing Lucas Raymond (23) celebrates his winning goal with left wing J.T. Compher (37) against the New York Islanders during overtime at UBS Arena. Compher swung the game late in the second period, only for it to slip free of Detroit's grasp. He proceeded to cap a warp speed comeback by giving the Red Wings their first lead in nearly a week. When that lead too drifted away, Compher helped orchestrate Raymond's winner, allowing his Red Wings to skate off the ice victorious, having halted their skid at three. Though Compher swung the game in the second, it wasn't smooth and periodic like a pendulum. This game was a raft without a paddle, floating down a flooded river through a narrow canyon. It flowed in one direction only to be buffeted without warning in the other. Detroit's hopes found temporary safety in an eddy, only to be ripped back into the main flow. At last, Compher and Raymond combined to steer their team away to sweet relief, dry land, and overtime victory. That chaotic spiral didn't last sixty minutes. Instead, it began with a shade under nine to play in the second. Compher, having just pulled up upon gaining the offensive zone, side-stepped Cal Clutterbuck's attempt to bury him in open ice. Clutterbuck went flying over Compher's left leg, crashing into the boards. He came up irate—with Compher, with the officials, with the universe. Not even a minute later, Compher was at the heart of Detroit's best shift of the night with help from Daniel Sprong, Michael Rasmussen, Moritz Seider, and Jake Walman. Shot, retrieval, shot, retrieval, shot, retrieval, and one last chance off a rebound for Compher. He didn't score, but he absorbed a cross-check from Alexander Romanov to send Detroit to the power play. Momentum wore the Winged Wheel; there could be no doubt. However, just as the Red Wings appeared to charge toward the game's first goal, Casey Cizikas nabbed a short-handed tally—outpacing an exhausted Seider, late in his shift, then slipping a shot past Ville Husso. It came entirely against the run of play, but the Islanders led after 40 minutes, and 1:05 into the third, the situation grew more dire for Detroit. Noah Dobson scored on a seeing eye point shot, and the Red Wings looked destined for another defeat. Instead, in the span of a minute and 40 seconds just before the third's midpoint, Detroit leveled the score. First, it was Daniel Sprong on a pretty toe drag release he might have learned from Alex Ovechkin in his days in Washington [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCnqzUOx-Iw&ab_channel=SPORTSNET]. Then, it was Jake Walman with the help of two Islanders screening Sorokin. 2:08 later, Compher gave the Red Wings their first lead since the third period against the Seattle Kraken last Tuesday. The veteran center made a clever play to get lost in coverage by slipping around the net, where he received a crisp, pinpoint pass from Seider and re-directed it home. Detroit's lead lasted less than five miuntes before Bo Horvat scored a power play goal as the clock showed 4:11 to play. Echoes of that game with Seattle set in—a comeback turned to a blown lead by a late power play goal, which in turn became an overtime defeat. Regulation ended at 3-3, and, in truth, a point would've felt cause for contentment, if not celebration at the end of a trying two-game road trip, but thanks to Raymond and Compher it was more. Forty seconds into overtime, Sorokin robbed Alex DeBrincat, who fired a point-blank one timer off a Dylan Larkin feed, only to be denied. The save made it seem as though no shot was beyond Sorokin's save radius, but Raymond soon disproved that theory. The Swedish winger played a give-and-go across the offensive zone to Compher. Compher feigned a shot for just long enough to capture Sorokin's attention, only to return for Raymond, who made decisive work of the lay-up presented to him. Raymond shook his fist and screamed in triumph as he was hugged by Compher then mobbed by his teammates. The Red Wings wouldn't need to resign themselves to one point; they'd fly home with both. And, in the end, fine though the margins may be, 6-3-1 looks better than 5-3-2, and won the last one feels a lot better than lost four straight. THE SILKY MITTEN STATE Be sure to check out THN Detroit's new podcast: The Silky Mitten State. I'm joined by Connor Earegood of The Michigan Daily, College Hockey News, and THN's new NCAA site. We'll be chatting Red Wings, college hockey across the state, and anything else related to hockey in Michigan that catches our attention. Be on the look out for a new episode every Friday. You can find full episodes on either Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/episode/4n6fWHelEvY8wMWSfqyEvn?si=bf71d4123a46445d] or Apple Podcasts [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-1-red-wings-back-down-to-earth-checking-in/id1714096531?i=1000632936511]:
