How personnel changes have improved the Red Wings PK

As the first period of the Red Wings' Saturday night tussle with the Boston Bruins drew toward its conclusion, Jake Walman took exception to what he perceived as a high hit from a forechecking David Pastrnak. He shoved the Bruins' talismanic sniper once, then twice, and before long a scrum had broken out.

Walman's partner Moritz Seider got in on the fun, relishing the opportunity to wrestle a Bruin or two to the ice. Both Walman and Seider were sent to the box for their roles in the affair, while only James Van Riemsdyk had to serve time on the Bruins' side of the fracas.

Detroit trailed 2-1 and would be heading to the penalty kill, but you wouldn't know it from the delight emanating from all corners of Little Caesars Arena. By the end of the night, the home team gave its fans even more reason for good cheer, handing Boston its first regulation loss of the season in a 5-4 result.

Nov 4, 2023; Detroit, Michigan, USA; Detroit Red Wings defenseman Jake Walman (96) hits Boston Bruins right wing David Pastrnak (88) during the first period at Little Caesars Arena.

The Red Wings had perhaps been hard done by to find themselves two goals down before the game was 10 minutes old. It had been a solid start against the Atlantic-leading Bruins, but Van Riemsdyk pounced on a rebound that Ville Husso fumbled after what looked a harmless shot from Pastrnak, then a composed Matthew Poitras out-waited Husso for a pretty goal that had Boston in the catbird seat early.

However, from the moment Walman took umbrage with Pastrnak's hit and Seider arrived on the scene—not just as his defense partner but as his tag-team partner as well—momentum wore red and white, even as the visitors led for most of the game into the third period.

"Love the pushback," said Derek Lalonde, when asked about the physical and even chippy nature of the game. "They're a team that plays with swagger. They're a team that plays with an edge, and I thought we had some pretty good pushback tonight."

Moments before Walman and Seider's scrum, Lucas Raymond gave the home crowd its first reason for excitement with a power play goal.

David Perron received a pass out of mid-air and settled it with his skate onto his blade, before sending a no-look cross-ice pass that bisected the Boston penalty kill, leaving Raymond with a clean look at Linus Ullmark in the Bruin crease. Raymond gathered the puck, dusted it off, then beat Ullmark to the short-side.

When the horn sounded on the first, Boston still had its 2-1 lead. The difference in the game was the swiftness and composure with which the Bruins dealt with impending danger in the own zone at five-on-five compared to sloppiness in the Red Wings' checking and goaltending.

Nonetheless, as Lalonde pointed out, Detroit was pushing back, and the combination of Raymond's goal with Seider and Walman's physicality gave the feeling that at worst the game was tied.

Jake Walman made that feeling reality with a one-timed blast of a Seider feed, leveling the game at two 9:59 into the second period. Entering the night, Boston had conceded just one power play goal in ten games. Against Detroit, the Bruins gave up two before the game was halfway done.

The Red Wings continued to threaten their guests in the moments after Walman's goal, but Charlie Coyle scored a counter-attacking goal completely against the run of play not quite four minutes after the equalizer. It was another goal in which Detroit's defensive coverage was exposed; on this occasion, the Red Wings failed to track back to their checks in transition, and Coyle found himself wide open at the back door for a lay-up.

That 3-2 lead would hold through intermission, and once again, Detroit found itself in the dressing room trailing, despite having played commendably.

With the Red Wings in need of a jolt to spark them from valiant effort to triumph, the team's captain delivered. Late in an extended shift, Lucas Raymond carried the puck across the red line.

A two-on-two was developing, but with all four attacking legs weary, a dump-in and line change seemed imminent. Instead, Raymond led Larkin into offensive zone with a pass, and the Detroit captain held Parker Wotherspoon at bay with his body positioning, before beating Ullmark to the short side.

"That was a big one, and not a lot of guys have the juice left in their legs at the end of a long shift to do what he did," said J.T. Compher after the game. "And it speaks to how in shape he is but how competitive he is, and for our captain to step up there and get a big goal, you feel it on the bench."

Larkin's goal sparked a run of three Red Wing tallies in five minutes and 15 seconds. The second came from Perron who fanned on his initial shot attempt after an impressive sequence of offensive zone passing, only to bury his own follow-up, giving Detroit its first lead of the night at 4-3.

From there, Compher and Andrew Copp combined to provide what would prove a vital insurance marker. Copp set up an excellent Compher chance, which struck the crossbar, only for Copp to bury the rebound. With 9:26 to play, Detroit led 5-3.

That lead was called into jeopardy by Pastrnak, who notched a power play goal of his own with 5:49 to play off a pretty toe drag release, but the Bruins' attempts at a last gasp comeback were foiled by penalties.

With Ullmark off for the extra skater, Pastnark went to the box for tripping with 2:28 to play, then Coyle joined him for holding 16 seconds later. The resulting 5-on-3 salted the game away, but not before Larkin and Hampus Lindholm were assessed misconducts for a post-whistle skirmish and Brad Marchand was sent off as well for cross-checking and roughing.

It was an unconventional means of closing out a fierce game against the Atlantic's leaders and defending champions but an effective one. The final horn sounding left Detroit at 7-4-1 and made Boston's first regulation loss of the season official.

"It's definitely nice to give the Bruins a loss, but I think we just have to keep building, playing the right way," said Perron after the game. "And I felt like our third period was our best definitely, and I thought our first two weren't bad either. But honestly, we just gotta keep pushing. It's one win."

Perron is of course just one more game and two more points (and that it's always great to beat Boston), but it was hard not to read more of a statement into the victory. After being caught out by the Bruins last Saturday and in the early going tonight, these Red Wings punched back, and when the dust settled on the showdown, they left the ring with their arms in the air.

"The belief never wavers, and I think that's important," summated Compher. "Not to just stay in games, but to get rewarded for playing 60 minutes full and not giving up on games. It was really a good effort."

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