DETROIT – The Detroit Red Wings will look to close out the 2023 calendar year with their third straight home win when the Boston Bruins visit Little Caesars Arena on Sunday evening for the annual New Year’s Eve game.
It will be an early 5 p.m. puck drop for the fourth meeting of the season between Detroit and Boston, with broadcast coverage on Bally Sports Detroit and the Red Wings Radio Network (97.1 The Ticket in Detroit).
The Red Wings ended a two-game losing streak with a 5-4 overtime win against the visiting Nashville Predators on Friday. Lucas Raymond buried the game-winner with 2:47 remaining in overtime, in a game that featured a combined nine lead changes and ties.
Boston, the defending Presidents’ Trophy winner and the current leader in the Atlantic Division with 48 points, will be on a short turnaround after defeating the New Jersey Devils, 5-2, on Saturday night for its second straight win.
Alex Lyon is scheduled to be Detroit’s starting goaltender for the second consecutive game, according to Red Wings head coach Derek Lalonde.
Outside an eight-minute stretch in the second period of Friday’s game that led to a pair of goals for Nashville and a momentum-stealing 3-2 lead heading into the third period, Lalonde was pleased with his team’s effort, most notably in the defensive zone.
“Our first 32 minutes and the last eight minutes of the second, where it’s kind of been our identity of late, where we’ve put together some pretty good hockey, pretty responsible hockey, and those last eight minutes, we gave them two freebies,” Lalonde said. “All the sudden, we’re trailing going into the third, but I give our guys credit, especially the way things have been going lately, to compete and find a way in the third. So, a positive, but we still need to take some steps here.”
Along with snapping their two-game losing skid against Nashville, the Red Wings also scored at least five goals for the sixth time in December. Detroit is now 13-0-1 this season when scoring five or more goals, a feat it has already accomplished twice against Boston.
On Nov. 4 at Little Caesars Arena, Boston jumped out to a 2-0 lead, before Detroit scored five of the game’s next six goals, including three unanswered, in the third period of an eventual 5-4 win. Just 20 days later (Nov. 24) at TD Garden, the Red Wings pulled away in a 5-2 victory after getting off to a quick start with a 2-0 lead.
In the first meeting of the season between Detroit and Boston, the Bruins recorded a 4-1 win, including a successful penalty shot and an empty netter by David Pastrnak in the third period.
Above all, Lalonde has been pleased with his team’s compete level through this season’s first three games against Boston, which he says has been instrumental in earning a pair of regulation wins.
“You have to against them,” Lalonde said following Saturday’s practice at Little Caesars Arena. “They're such a deep, well-rounded team."
Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin, who centered a line flanked by Raymond and David Perron against the Predators, has scored twice against Boston this season. He has posted four points in Detroit’s past five games, and according to Lalonde, appears to be hitting another offensive stride.
“I think his last two, three games look like the Larks of old. When he can drive lines,” Lalonde said.
Pastrnak enters Sunday’s contest with a team-high 48 points this season, including 22 goals. Brad Marchand has collected 32 points with 13 goals and 19 assists. Jeremy Swayman and Linus Ullmark have teamed to produce one of the NHL’s stingiest goalie tandems, with a .921 save percentage that leads the league and a 2.59 goals-against average that ranks fifth.
Alex DeBrincat’s three-point night against Nashville on Friday pushed his season total to a team-high 37 points (17 goals, 20 assists), while Larkin collected his 30th point of the season on a short-handed goal to open Detroit’s scoring in the first period.
