There has been a recurring theme as the Detroit Red Wings have written themselves a five-game winning streak: Not pretty, but pretty enough.
It’s been quite the transformation for the team that limped home from a winless four-game trip in mid-November, aching for confidence and reaching for the identity they remembered from training camp.
They used a three-day break to refresh themselves and, as rookie defenseman Moritz Seider put it, “decided to be great.” That’s led to a season high on the swagger meter as the Wings take their 12-9-3 record up against the Nashville Predators on Tuesday.
Sunday was a chance for a little respite after grinding out a 4-3 victory in overtime Saturday against the New York Islanders.
“It wasn’t our best game,” Seider said, “but we have that swagger now, and that confidence in our abilities to stick together and win those games somehow.”
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That echoed what Dylan Larkin said Tuesday after the Wings won at Boston, which came after home victories against the St. Louis Blues and Buffalo Sabres, and was followed the next night by a home victory against the Seattle Kraken. To coach Jeff Blashill, who has emphasized the Wings’ need to finish close games, that’s a sign of growth.
“Two things I like when I hear that is, one, our guys understand that we have to keep getting better, and they’re not satisfied… our game isn’t nearly perfect and we need to keep striving for that perfection,” he said. “But with that said I do think you can work and compete yourself past mistakes, and I think we have done that.
“And I think that’s part of grinding out wins — part of it is staying with it, part of it is stepping up in big moments and we’ve had all those things, whether it be a goalie or a player making a big play in overtime — guys have stepped up in big moments.”
Saturday it was Seider, against Buffalo it was Lucas Raymond scoring in overtime; against the Blues it was Alex Nedeljkovic stealing the third period. Nedeljkovic has a .938 save percentage since Thanksgiving Eve, Raymond has three goals, Seider has four points, and Larkin and Pius Suter each have five points.
The stretch from Oct. 27 through Nov. 20 was demanding, featuring 14 games including three sets of back-to-backs. There were two four-game trips; the Wings went 1-3 on the first, 0-3-1 on the second.
When they regrouped after the second jaunt, Seider said, “We just came to practice, decided to be great the next day, and now we’re here. We just come here, have a lot of fun, a great time, every single day in the locker room. The atmosphere has been great. We just enjoy being around each other and building chemistry.”
How the victories have come, he said, is less important than the fact they have come. “Nobody is asking about how you win, if you look back to the season, it’s just a matter of how much games you won. Now we’re doing a really good thing, just collecting points on a nightly basis.”
The last two victories have come without Tyler Bertuzzi, who is in COVID-19 protocol and, per Blashill, expected to miss at least three more games. Seider noted that, “Bert is a big loss for us, and we just hope he’s doing OK and we’re already looking forward to having him back.”
When the Wings were without Bertuzzi for three games in Canada, because his unvaccinated status means he cannot travel under current border restrictions, they went 0-3. That didn’t reflect well on the improved depth this season, so winning these past couple games has been important.
“Tyler has been a big piece of our lineup and we’ve played better this stretch than that Canadian trip when we didn’t have him,” Blashill said. “I think that hopefully speaks to growth in some of those players. There’s always ebbs and flows in a season, but ultimately you have to be able to win with the next man up; otherwise you’re not going to win, because you’re going to lose people — especially now with COVID, it’s just the reality of it. The organizational depth is critical.”
Contact Helene St. James at hstjames@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @helenestjames. Read more on the Detroit Red Wings and sign up for our Red Wings newsletter. Her book, The Big 50: The Detroit Red Wings is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Triumph Books. Personalized copies available via her e-mail.