The Red Wings have very little to play for at this point. Mostly for each other, for the fun of the game, whatever blah blah blah. They had a chance to not get swept by the Ottawa Senators Tuesday night one goal simply won’t cut it. I’m running out of cliches or quirky ways of writing “another dumpster game from Mr. Dumpster Man and his Dumpster Boys.”
The Red Wings had plenty of chances to control the game, but they just didn’t do that in the first period. To sum it up quickly: The PK looked good, PP looked not good and Thomas Greiss kept things together until the Senators scored with just a few ticks left on the clock. The power play looked particularly frustrating. Plenty of chances to make something happen but the team seemed to be focused on passing the puck. It wasn’t all bad stuff in those first 20 minutes, though. No, we got some pretty good Moritz Seider content:
Seriously, though. The goal from Ottawa late in the first period was a killer. Thankfully, Bally Sports brought on Tigers catcher/outfielder Eric Haase on for an in-game chat. That was a delightful experience. Mickey Redmond seemed to like him a lot. It was cute as hell.
Despite squandering their first chance on the power play in the second period, they actually managed to put together a game-tying goal via special teams. It was created thanks to what I think was an intentional play from Moritz Seider:
It seems like the guy (20 years old) used the boards and got Tyler Bertuzzi all alone. You don’t see many players with the ability to pull that off. Maybe it was luck, but I don’t think so. Seems like Mo knows. Lucas Raymond picked up the secondary assist on this tally.
Anyway, enough fun. It was a few minutes later that Ottawa connected on a planned play between Michael Del Zotto and Drake Batherson. No chance for Thomas Greiss to pick up on this one:
I haven’t mentioned Michael Rasmussen enough. His improvement over the last couple of weeks has been a sight for sore eyes. Maybe he’s not on the scoresheet, but he’s doing good things in all of the right places. He’s been magnificent at drawing minor penalties and it seems like he’s starting to grow into his abilities. Good to see.
You would expect more of a push from the Red Wings in the third period. I just didn’t see it. You got more great play from Moritz Seider and Jake Walman on the backend. There wasn’t much to show despite some scoring chances. I mentioned Rasmussen’s strong play as of late.. I have to compliment his line mates as well. Joe Veleno and Oskar Sundqvist have played decent hockey.
The final score of this game doesn’t tell the story entirely. Ottawa picked up two empty-net goals late in the third period. Both of them coming from Tim Stützle.
Look at the bright side. There are now less than 10 games left in the season. The Red Wings will try and play hockey again Thursday night on the road against Carolina.