DETROIT—The Red Wings kids were more than all right in Monday night’s 5–2 win over the Los Angeles Kings.
22-year-old Lucas Raymond continued to blossom as a bona fide superstar, scoring to provide his team with an emphatic response just 35 seconds after it conceded a disastrous own goal, then adding an assist later in the game. 23-year-old Elmer Soderblom scored his first goal of the season, giving Detroit its first lead of the night by burying a rebound late in the second period. 20-year-old Marco Kasper scored a decisive third period insurance goal, then clinched the win with an empty net goal in the game’s dying seconds.
But, by the time the final horn sounded and the Red Wings surrounded goaltender Cam Talbot to celebrate, the happiest kid—and the one who’d brought smiles to each of his teammates’ faces—was the oldest: 31-year-old Dominik Shine.
Shine had to wait 31 years and 462 AHL games with the Grand Rapids Griffins for Monday’s opportunity, one he confessed after the game he’d given up believing would come. Nonetheless, with nine minutes and 50 seconds of ice time, two shots, two takeaways, a blocked shot on his very shift, Shine became the oldest Red Wing to make his NHL debut since Vaclav Nedomansky on Nov. 18, 1977.
He’d played less than all his teammates but the only stat that really concerned him was the outcome. “That’s what I wanted for this,” Shine said, a mix of shock and euphoria registering on his face. “To come out with a win and have everyone in that locker room happy. You can’t ask for anything more than that.”
Under ordinary circumstances, a win over a legitimate Stanley Cup contender to complete a perfect three-game home stand would be sufficient cause for celebration, but, on Monday night, for everybody but Shine himself, the evening’s joy had far more to do with the presence of the oldest rookie on the ice than the victory itself.
“He earned the contract, he earned his way here, and he earned his keep tonight,” coach Todd McLellan said of Shine, though he admitted he didn’t so much as know the player existed as recently as that morning. “We’re pretty excited about winning that game, but we’re really excited that he was part of it.”
In accordance with the fact that Shine had begun to doubt whether this night would ever come, there hadn’t been time to plan for Monday night’s debut. He was on the way to buy a pair of skates for his son Cooper when he got a call—the call, really—from Detroit assistant general manager Shawn…