Red Wings thoughts: Detroit's lack of 5-on-5 scoring a season-long issue

New York Times

02-04-2025

The story of the Detroit Red Wings' night Tuesday can be summed up by the final 30 seconds of two games played more than 1,000 miles apart.
In St. Louis, where the Red Wings were trying to kick-start a late-season push for the Eastern Conference's final wild-card spot, they couldn't close out a late 1-0 lead over the Blues, giving up the tying goal with 29 seconds left in regulation and then falling in overtime. And in Montreal, where the Canadiens are holding down that very wild-card spot, Nick Suzuki secured a late comeback against the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers, first tying the score with nine seconds left, then winning it in overtime.
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Flip those outcomes, and Detroit would have been back within a point of the postseason cutline. Instead? With just eight games remaining, the gap is up to four.
It was a cold reminder that every second matters at this time of year, especially in a playoff race this packed. And though the Blues are the NHL's hottest team — winners of 10 straight — it's not going to get any easier for Detroit to right the ship, with the Carolina Hurricanes and Florida Panthers coming to Little Caesars Arena this weekend.
Do the Red Wings have one more push in them? Five thoughts:
1. It doesn't hit quite the same on the heels of a loss, especially one with such high stakes, but are the Red Wings starting to find their defensive game?
St. Louis had its chances, to be sure, but holding the red-hot Blues off the board for the first 59 minutes came on the heels of a 2-1 win over the Boston Bruins — a much weaker team, to be sure, but an effort in which Detroit had hardly anything up the whole night.
Granted, the deciding goal Tuesday came off a play on which Detroit's top defenseman, Moritz Seider, pinched up in overtime but didn't come up with the puck, springing a two-on-one the other way. Seider skated hard to try to get back in the play, but by the time Robert Thomas found Cam Fowler, it was too late.
That's a final play Seider will likely want back, but the effort to hold that scorching St. Louis team to two goals was nonetheless notable. It's the kind of hockey that teams need to be able to play at this time of year. Red Wings coach Todd McLellan speaks often of games being a race to three goals, and the defensive side has largely held up its end of things these last two games.
Of course, without the win, that might be of little solace.
2. Another issue with losing by a 2-1 score: Detroit still isn't generating enough goals at five-on-five, which has been a season-long problem.
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The Red Wings entered the night ahead of only the Nashville Predators and Calgary Flames in goals per 60 minutes at five-on-five, at just 2. That won't go up after scoring just once Tuesday.
Detroit went 0-for-3 on the power play Tuesday as well, but that unit has been so good this season, and it's not reasonable to expect it to deliver every single night. Some of the damage has to come at even strength. And though there were chances — Dylan Larkin had a prime one trying to go around an outstretched Jordan Binnington — the only one that found the net was J.T. Compher's go-ahead goal early in the third.
J.T. COMPHER IN FRONT! pic.twitter.com/tZKko8tdkV
— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) April 2, 2025
There are concerns with the scoring depth, to be sure. It's one of the primary issues general manager Steve Yzerman will have to figure out this summer. But to get no goals from either of the top two lines is a hard way to win in the NHL, no matter what time of year it is.
3. The Jordan Kyrou goal that tied the score late is probably one Cam Talbot would want back, but it's hard to fault Talbot too much on a night when he stopped 35 out of 37 shots.
After a massive late-game save to beat Boston and a good relief effort against the Ottawa Senators, Talbot looks like he has retaken control of the Red Wings' net going into the final two weeks. But he's 37 years old; how much can Detroit feel confident in playing him? The Red Wings will have a couple of days before their next game, against Carolina, but that's followed by four games in six nights against the Panthers, Canadiens, Panthers (again) and Lightning, with three of those on the road.
It's a gantlet, and managing the net for that stretch won't be easy. We've seen Detroit struggle with this for years now, including choosing to start Alex Lyon for a third game in four nights, with travel, against the Senators last week. He had to be pulled for Talbot early in the second period, after the damage had already been done.
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It'll be interesting to see how McLellan approaches some similar decisions on the horizon.
4. Compher's goal gave him 4 points in his last four games, and after a quiet season offensively, he could use a strong finish. His 19 goals last season (his first in Detroit) were a career high, and his 48 points weren't far off one, either. But it's been a real dip this year, as Tuesday's goal brought him to nine on the year (and 30 points).
Some of that is shooting percentage — his career average (13.1 percent) is right in the middle of his 10.2 percent mark this season and his 17.6 percent showing last season — but some is also a new kind of usage. Compher has played much more in the bottom six under McLellan than he did for Derek Lalonde, and if he could produce some offense in that role down the stretch, it would help give some reassurance to what Detroit can expect from him.
5. Detroit's top prospect, defenseman Axel Sandin-Pellikka, won his SHL playoff game Tuesday, sending his team, Skellefteå, to the next round. His next series begins Friday, and even if his team were to lose in a sweep, it will now play through at least April 10.
With the Red Wings' last regular-season game scheduled for April 17, that means the chances for Sandin-Pellikka to get some games in Detroit at the end of this season are getting pretty remote.
Seeing a few games of Sandin-Pellikka wouldn't have altered this season's outlook much, but it would have been a good litmus test of his readiness for next season. At a minimum, one would think his puck-moving could be one way to help Detroit's need for more even-strength offense.
(Photo of Dylan Holloway and Ben Chiarot: Jeff Le / Imagn Images)