Red Wings thoughts: What can an ‘ugly' win in Utah do for Detroit?

New York Times

25-03-2025

SALT LAKE CITY — The Detroit Red Wings can't afford to be picky right now. Not after losing nine games out of 11, and certainly not with their hopes of breaking an eight-year playoff drought hanging on by a thread.
But on Monday, that certainly was put to the test. Detroit had only two shots on goal in the first period against the Utah Hockey Club. They finished the second with a mere five. And yet, by the end of the night, they were staring up at a 5-1 win in a game that was far from a pretty watch.
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'I thought it was ugly from both sides,' Red Wings coach Todd McLellan said afterward. 'The conditions were pretty rough — slushy, snowy, puck bouncing all over the place. There was times in the game where I thought that hurt us and times in the game where it helped us. They couldn't connect on some plays as well. But, found a way to stick with an ugly night, opportunistic scoring — maybe scoring on chances that aren't even chances.
'We've been on the other end of this a few times, so we'll take it, and we'll move on.'
Indeed, the Red Wings' slide through late February and March has come with its share of games where Detroit was left feeling it deserved better. They lost at the Stadium Series in Columbus despite outshooting the Blue Jackets, 46-21. They lost in Ottawa, 2-1, despite peppering Linus Ullmark for 49 shots.
So, no, the Red Wings aren't going to be picky about this win that saw them manage just 14 shots on goal but still pulled them back within three points of the Eastern Conference's final wild card — although with Columbus winning in overtime Monday, it didn't change their place in the standings.
Still, it's not a game Detroit will be looking to remember, either.
'It's probably one we're going to throw out,' McLellan said.
But that doesn't mean there aren't a couple of key takeaways from it — starting with a potentially interesting storyline in net.
1. The game got off to about the worst possible start for the Red Wings, when multiple Utah players collided with starting goaltender Petr Mrázek on the same play, just 90 seconds in. Mrázek immediately pulled himself, thrusting backup netminder Alex Lyon into the game. Lyon hadn't played since the last time Detroit played Utah on March 6.
That's a tough spot to be in, having not played in nearly three weeks, and when Utah scored just two minutes later on a power-play blast from Dylan Guenther (one of the players who crashed into Mrázek), there was every opportunity for the game to get out of hand.
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Instead, though, Lyon rallied quickly and was Detroit's best player the rest of the night. He stopped 16 of 17, including robbing Nick Schmaltz with his glove later in the first period and a blocker save to deny a Lawson Crouse breakaway in the second.
He was the biggest reason Detroit managed to lead 2-1 after two periods, despite only five shots on goal in the first two periods combined.
'He was outstanding,' forward Austin Watson said. 'Especially early, coming in there. A couple power plays, dangerous power play, he made a couple really, really big saves early coming in there that kind of helped set the tone for us.'
Lyon was asked after the game about the trade deadline when the Red Wings added Mrázek — who immediately jumped Lyon on the depth chart — and he answered graciously, saying, 'My mentality (is) I'm here to help the team win. It's my job. I take pride in being a professional. So, you just gotta get in the right frame of mind, and so that's just what I'm going to continue to do and take it day-by-day and just fight as hard as I can.'
He certainly did that Monday, in the toughest of circumstances.
McLellan ruled out Mrázek for at least Tuesday's game in Colorado. Cam Talbot is more likely to get the start Tuesday, on a back-to-back, but could Lyon get the net more consistently down the stretch? He's certainly gotten hot before.
2. Lyon was probably the biggest reason for this, at least early, but Detroit's much-maligned penalty kill came up pretty big on Monday, killing off four out of five opportunities.
Coming off a game in which Vegas had gone 2-for-2 on the power play, the Red Wings needed a night like that — especially with Utah scoring on its first power play.
'Honestly that first one, I thought that was a hell of a pass, and they can really zip it around,' Lyon said. 'But I think we did a great job tightening up, and it's a very, very dangerous power play with a lot of skilled players, so yeah it's maybe just something to build on.'
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'Fixed some things after the Vegas (game), some pressure points,' McLellan added. 'We were obviously better tonight than we were in Vegas the other night.'
Is that repeatable? We'll see. An 80 percent penalty kill should be plenty attainable (that would be good for 14th in the NHL), but Detroit is at just 69.3 percent for the season. That number is the worst in the league, and third worst on record since the stat began being tracked in 1977-78.
It's hard not to wonder where the Red Wings would be right now with just that 80 percent figure for the year.
3. To me, the biggest question coming into the game was how Detroit would respond to a challenge from McLellan after the Vegas loss.
'We talk about wanting to be in the playoffs, but we're not sure we always want to be in shooting lanes, we're not sure we want to do some things,' McLellan told reporters Saturday night. 'And I'm not saying everybody, just picking and choosing. Do we really want to do it around the net? Do we really want to get hit by a puck? Do we want to do the board work when its hard? If the answer is yes to that, from everybody, then we have a chance. If the answer is yes to those questions from 85% of the players, we don't. And it's as simple as that.'
McLellan brought that same theme up Monday morning.
'I'm not going in there and saying we need nine of the next 12 points to get in,' McLellan said. 'That's not how I'm going to approach it. I'm going to go in and say, 'Hey, we've got to win more board battles, we've got to get in shooting lanes, we've got to be better around our net, we've got to be sharper on our line changes. We need to win more of the face-offs than we lose. Simple stuff, that all leads in to a potential win.'
McLellan also clarified that he feels those things are 'not necessarily effort-related, they're commitment related,' saying the team has had effort, but the commitment component — 'really selling out to get it done' is where he wanted to see more.
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One game may or may not be enough to evaluate that — especially one played in the conditions Monday's was — but Utah only getting four shots on goal in the third period does seem to speak to a message received.
'Crazy commitment,' Lyon said. 'Crazy. Especially in the third period. I don't know that they had a real quality opportunity, and it just shows the commitment of this team.'
The key, of course, will be carrying that over. Detroit is now going into a harder environment in Colorado, on the second night of a back-to-back — the kind of situation where they'll need that commitment more than ever. With only 12 games left, there's not much time for inconsistency.
4. The feel-good moment of the game came on Detroit's third goal, a Watson redirection in the high slot that fluttered over Karel Vejmelka for Watson's first goal as a Red Wing. Watson is a hometown kid, from Ypsilanti, whose last NHL goal came on New Year's Eve, 2023.
Austin Watson with one of the wildest redirected goals you'll see 🫨 #LGRW pic.twitter.com/RQDgELAG8u
— NHL News (@PuckReportNHL) March 25, 2025
He signed with Detroit after taking a professional tryout invitation to training camp, but has spent almost the entire season in the AHL. Like most of the game, it wasn't a Picasso — but it counted all the same.
'That feels really good,' Watson said. 'Obviously being a Michigan kid and scoring for the Red Wings is pretty special. But just this year in general, being down in Grand Rapids for the majority of the year and kind of grinding and waiting my turn, and to be here this time of year, battling with these guys and to get rewarded like that — it definitely feels good.'
5. The Red Wings' lone highlight-worthy goal of the night belonged to Elmer Söderblom, making his return to the Red Wings' lineup after missing the Vegas game due to injury.
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The 6-foot-8 Swede had a perfect finish on a 2-on-1 pass from Vladimir Tarasenko, wiring it past Vejmelka to tie the game early, less than two minutes after Utah opened the scoring.
That goal kept Detroit in it and was a good sign from the forward, who had gone through a quiet stretch even while playing on the Red Wings' top line. If he can bring some offense to the third line, where he was slotted Monday, it could go a long way toward deepening Detroit's lineup.
At this point in the year, with only 12 games remaining and still four teams between the Red Wings and the final wild card, that still may not be enough to overcome Detroit's miserable March. In all likelihood, it won't be.
But Söderblom emerging as a third-line scorer would nonetheless be important for the Red Wings in the bigger picture, so seeing him produce in these games — and in that manner — is notable.
Now, as with the rest of the Red Wings, we'll see if he can keep it up against a gantlet of a closing schedule.
(Top photo of Detroit goaltender Petr Mrázek after a collision in the first period in Utah: Rob Gray / Imagn Images)