PITTSBURGH – Finding themselves behind the eight ball early in the opener of their three-game road trip, the Detroit Red Wings went on to drop a 5-1 decision to the Pittsburgh Penguins at PPG Paints Arena on Tuesday night.
“I thought we were overpowered along the walls and in front of their net, and that wasn’t just at the start,” Detroit head coach Todd McLellan said. “That was the whole night. And at the other end, we didn’t return the favor very much. We had some looks, most of them were on DeBrincat’s stick, though…But at the end of the night, they were heavier and harder.”
In net for the Red Wings (39–27–8; 86 points), John Gibson allowed three goals on 14 shots in the first period before Cam Talbot replaced him at the start of the second and stopped 15 of 17 shots in relief. As for Stuart Skinner, he made 22 saves between the pipes to help the Penguins (38-21-16; 92 points) complete the sweep of the three-game regular-season series.
“It seems to be a different story every night,” Detroit captain Dylan Larkin said. “That’s a tough one, but I think when you come to the rink, you put your equipment on and it’s hockey, no matter what time of the year. It gets elevated at this time of the year, but you have to make plays and have to want the puck on your stick. Battles become even more important, and I think we’re just dipping our toe in a little bit too much.”
The Red Wings chased the Penguins, who were coming off an 8-3 victory over the New York Islanders at UBS Arena less than 24 hours ago, and the puck for most of the first period. They fell behind 1-0 at 4:10 when Rickard Rakell – on Pittsburgh’s first shot of the night – buried a wrist shot through traffic from the high slot.
Then at 12:04 of the opening frame, shortly after Anthony Mantha scored from inside the left post against his former club to make it 2-0 at 8:34 and before Egor Chinakhov lit the lamp to extend it to 3-0 at 18:02, Jacob Bernard-Docker and Connor Dewar dropped the gloves.
“I thought the first couple shifts actually weren’t bad, then, yeah, one ends up in the back of the net, so it looks like it was a bad start,” Andrew Copp said. “I thought our team talk was good. All our prep was good…The third [goal] was probably the backbreaker that deflected, kind of a bad bounce.”
Following an offensive-zone face-off he won in the left circle and just five seconds into Detroit’s first power play of the night, Larkin cut the deficit to 3-1. The 29-year-old captain pushed the puck behind him to the high point for Patrick Kane, who went to the top edge of the opposite circle and fired a shot that was initially stopped by Skinner but produced a big rebound at the far post for the taking.
The goal gave Larkin his fifth consecutive 30-goal season, tying him with Gordie Howe and Brendan Shanahan for the second-longest such streak in Red Wings history, and sixth overall in the NHL. The Waterford, Mich., native is just the fifth player to register six career 30-goal seasons while donning the Winged Wheel, joining an exclusive club consisting of Howe (14), Steve Yzerman (11), Sergei Fedorov (9) and Shanahan (7).
“One, we give him credit for slugging through it,” McLellan said of Larkin, who missed seven consecutive games from March 8-21 because of a lower-body injury. “It’s clear he’s not 100 percent, the way he’s skating. Yet, there’s some situations he has to play better in. If you’re going to put the gear on, you have to be real good and positionally sound. So, we expect that from him. We’ll have to manage him a little bit with situations and minutes, but when he is out there, we have expect the best for him.”
