Detroit Red Wings' power play leads to 5-1 loss to Penguins

Monday’s home game offered plenty of opportunity for the Detroit Red Wings to work on their power play – and they mostly flunked.

It was a busy evening for the Wings, who fielded one squad at Little Caesars Arena in a game against the Pittsburgh Penguins that had been rescheduled from Saturday, when plane issues forced a postponement, while another squad was in Buffalo to play the Sabres.

The Penguins were without their top players, but they hustled to score early and the Wings’ failure to ignite on man advantages left them on the losing end of a 5-1 final.

The squad in Buffalo took a 3-2 lead with two goals in the third period before giving up a goal to Buffalo’s Graham Slaggert that eventually sent the game to overtime. The Sabers scored in overtime to win, 4-3.

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With the Detroit Lions in action at Ford Field, there were more empty seats than occupied ones at LCA, but fans who showed up did get to see a Wings team heavy on NHL regulars or promising prospects.

Lucas Raymond cut Pittsburgh’s lead to 2-1 when he converted on Detroit’s fifth power play midway through the second period. Cam Talbot made 9 saves through two periods, with 2021 first-round pick Sebastian Cossa taking over as scheduled in the third period. He gave up a goal on the first shot he faced, with Noel Acciari scoring off the draw 41 seconds into the period. Acciari scored again at 10:33.

Vasily Ponomarev scored into an open net with 1:49 to play.

Prime time

Patrick Kane made his preseason debut, playing on a line with newcomer Vladimir Tarasenko. Both are natural right wingers who shoot left, but at least to start, Tarasenko played left wing. Kane, however, was ready to switch if needed. “I told him, I have no problem going over there and playing left if he’s uncomfortable,” Kane said. Both Kane and Tarasenko are longtime NHLers, so it speaks to how highly the Wings think of 2023 first-round pick Nate Danielson that he was chosen to get a look as their center. “He’s been great,” Kane said. “He’s got a lot of skill. Looks like he plays both ends of the rink very well. Very cerebral player.”

Special teams looks

The Wings went on their first man advantage less than five minutes into the game, but weren’t able to even generate a shot on net, despite being able to field two units with multiple NHL regulars: Dylan Larkin was with Kane, Alex DeBrincat, Lucas Raymond and Erik Gustafsson, and Moritz Seider were with Tarasenko, Jonatan Berggren, Nate Danielson and Carter Mazur. A second power play materialized when Berggren made a nice move to split a couple of defenders and zero in on goal, but Alex Nedeljkovic made the stop. (That was one of just two shots Nedeljkovic saw and saved in 13 minutes, as he appeared to suffer an injury and was replaced by Joel Blomqvist.) Berggren drew a penalty on Drew O’Connor, but again the Wings looked disorganized. A third power play ended when Mazur was called for interference, and that’s when the Penguins – without Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin & Kris Letang – showed how to use a man advantage: Valtteri Puustinen had the puck in front of the net and fed it to O’Connor, who popped it in behind Cam Talbot at 5:35 p.m.

The Penguins stuck it to Detroit again early in the second period during the Wings’ fourth power play, when O’Connor outmaneuvered Seider and fed the puck to Lars Eller, who made it 2-0. It took a fifth power play, during which one of the Penguins lost his stick, for the Wings to finally convert.

Meanwhile in Buffalo

The Wings’ other squad was at KeyBank Center in Buffalo, with Grand Rapids Griffins head coach Dan Watson and his staff behind the bench. There weren’t many NHL regulars in that group – Alex Lyon and Alex Chiasson were among them – but the Sabers lineup was pretty much their minor leaguers, as the NHL-version Sabers are in Europe for the Global Series. Michael Brandsegg-Nygård, the Wings’ first-round pick this year, scored his first goal of the preseason a minute into the game. Lyon gave up two goals on 22 shots faced through two periods; Jack Campbell took over the net for the third period. Elmer Söderblom scored in the third period to tie the game. Defenseman William Lagesson pulled the Wings ahead, 3-2, midway through the third period.

Contact Helene St. James at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @helenestjames. Read more on the Detroit Red Wings and sign up for our Red Wings newsletter. Her latest book, “The Franchise: Detroit Red Wings: A Curated History of the Red Wings,” will be available October 2024. Her books, “On the Clock: Behind the Scenes with the Detroit Red Wings at the NHL Draft,” and “The Big 50: The Men and Moments that made the Detroit Red Wings” are available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Triumph Books. Personalized copies available via her email.