Yesterday afternoon in Nashville, in a clash of desperate sides with just one win between them entering the action, the visiting Detroit Red Wings claimed a 5-2 victory over the Predators. Let’s take a moment to review the action from a sorely needed Detroit victory.
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The Game in One Quote
“Everything gets magnified early in the season when there’s such a small sample size, but you never really wanna lose two in a row, definitely don’t want to lose three in a row. So it was good to right the ship a little bit and get a good feeling back in the room for a big game on Tuesday.” -Andrew Copp
The two points were of course critical for a team that knows all too well the precarious margin between playoff teams and also rans, but Saturday’s victory was as much about vibes as anything else for the Red Wings. Perhaps more specifically, as Copp’s assessment alludes to, the win was about the spiral Detroit warded off by claiming those two points. Arresting the negative momentum from the home-and-home sweep at the hands of the Rangers was pivotal, and the Red Wings got it done. However, in that last sentence, Copp also points to the fact that the relief Detroit achieved Saturday is temporary, and the Red Wings will have to re-earn that peace Tuesday night on Long Island, when they take on the New York Islanders.
Number to Know: 4.34
-There was lots of chaos built into yesterday’s game: lead changes, the energy of Marco Kasper’s debut (more on this in a moment), and ambient desperation made manifest in post-whistle extracurriculars as the game progressed. With all that in mind, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that Alex Lyon was excellent in net for Detroit. He made a spectacular save to deny Steven Stamkos at five-on-three, but even that remarkable stop almost obscured the overall strength of his performance.
Per MoneyPuck, Nashville accrued a 4.34-4.11 advantage in expected goals over the course of Saturday’s game, and that’s even with two Red Wing empty netters boosting their total. Lyon was excellent in holding the Predators to two goals amidst that pressure. It doesn’t necessarily suggest he must immediately supplant Cam Talbot as Detroit’s primary option in goal, but it is at the very least, an…