The Detroit Red Wings followed up a turbulent summer with a shutout loss in their season-opening game, and one stat told a lot of the story.
Detroit opened the season with a 2-0 loss to the New York Rangers, but that doesn’t tell the full story of what went wrong. While the Wings looked good at times, winning 55 percent of their faceoffs and landing 29 body checks, they didn’t execute anywhere near enough offensively to get on the board.
When you look at their shots-on-goal total, it’s easy to see why. The Red Wings ended the game with one more shot on net (22) than the Rangers, who had 21. But 11 of those shots came in the first period. Detroit outshot New York in the first frame, 11-8, but it was all downhill from there.
In the second period, the Wings landed nine shots. In the third period, when they needed to increase their sense of urgency, Detroit landed two measly shots on goal, and that can’t happen to a team looking to put one of its worst summers in recent memory behind it.
Red Wings Already Facing A Major Issue One Game Into The Season
While the Wings were missing Dylan Larkin for the opener and saw Patrick Kane return to the Chicago Blackhawks last summer, it’s not like they entered the game missing playmakers and scorers.
Lucas Raymond and Alex DeBrincat played first-line minutes, as did Andrew Copp, who showed he was a fair playmaker last season. Viktor Arvidsson saw 16+ minutes, while Moritz Seider and Justin Faulk logged over 25 and 21 minutes of ice time, respectively.
The Wings had players perfectly capable of getting the puck to the net or putting themselves in position to get pucks to the net. Going forward, Detroit can’t afford to record just two shots on goal in a game where they held well enough to allow just one goal — a power-play goal — in the first 40 minutes.
Red Wings Couldn’t Take Advantage Of Rangers’ Goaltending Change
Igor Shesterkin, who made headlines when he scored a goalie goal on Thursday, took the night off. Dylan Garand, who played in just three NHL games before Friday night’s shutout win, got the nod and his first-career shutout.
With the Rangers failing to score in their season opener before landing five goals on the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday and then swinging back around to land just 21 shots on goal against the Red Wings, this should have been a godsend for Detroit.
Instead, the Wings are left wondering what went wrong in a season opener that gave them every chance to win. Even worse is the fact that the Wings had 20 shots through the first two periods, which put them on pace to land 30. There was hardly a worse way to let this one slip by, falling flat in the third at home against a rookie goaltender.
If there’s any hope at this point in the season, it’s that the Wings have 83 more games to get this right. The next time they land 20 shots against an inexperienced goaltender in the first two periods, they should have a plan of action that will prevent a repeat of what we saw on Friday.
One Red Wings Stat Stands Out From Season-Opening Loss to Rangers