The Detroit Red Wings have become experts at creating close games. Out of their last 13 games, only one was decided by more than two goals.
Unfortunately, they haven’t had the best luck. The Red Wings are 5-5-3 during this stretch, which included five straight losses, two of which were in overtime.
However, they did manage a crucial 4-2 win over Toronto on Saturday, which was almost another one-goal game. Lucas Raymond scored an empty-net goal at the end to seal the victory.
“Again, I may sound like a broken record, but what is a little bit frustrating in our big picture is that five-game stretch, and our process and underlying numbers, they are easy to pick apart when you’re winning and not as easy to pick apart when you’re losing,” coach Derek Lalonde said.
“Whatever the reality is, the bottom line is finding ways to win games. We need to slip some of those tight games, and we’ve done that in two of our last three to get some traction here.”
Defenseman Jeff Petry scored his first goal of the season against the Maple Leafs, and that win started a stretch where Detroit will play seven of eight games at home this month.
“Looking at the big picture before Christmas break, we had five games and we set a goal,” Petry said. “Our goal was to make sure we start off right with a win. We did what we needed to do (Saturday) to get the win. It’s a good start for the week ahead.”
Philadelphia defeated Detroit 4-1 two nights before, with Scott Laughton having a career night. He scored all of the Flyers’ goals, including two empty-netters.
Like the Red Wings, the Flyers have also not played since Saturday. They’ve lost four of their last six games, including a 4-1 loss to Minnesota on Saturday.
Samuel Ersson has started in goal for three of the last four games since returning from a lower-body injury.
“(Saturday) was a step forward in some areas where I’m trying to make some work on, but obviously when you get the loss there’s definitely other things that you want to keep working at,” Ersson said. “I’ll keep going here.”
A big topic of discussion after Monday’s practice was the first line of Sean Couturier, Joel Farabee, and Travis Konecny. While Konecny leads the team with 15 goals and 36 points, coach John Tortorella has not been happy with their defense.
“I think they’ve been awful defensively,” he said. “They’ve been brutal. They make me dizzy, they spin so much in our end zone. They need to stop in our end zone. Once rush coverage is over, and we haven’t grabbed the puck, and we’re in the corner — it’s called arrivals. I always talk about arrivals; how you arrive on that rush coverage is key to coverage.
“It’s key to getting (the puck) back,” Tortorella added. “If you’re spinning all over the place, no one knows where you’re going to be. No one knows if you’re going to be the first man, the low man, or you’re going to be covering the point. That’s where your defense ends up playing in between. … But they’re smart enough people and they’re good enough players that they’ll rectify that.”
