The Detroit Red Wings defeated the Edmonton Oilers by a score of 3-2 in a shootout on Thursday night. Dylan Larkin scored the game-winning goal on the second attempt for the Red Wings in the shootout. This was the first of four games the Red Wings will play on the West Coast heading into the NHL, pausing its schedule to play the Four Nations Faceoff. However, the team did not pick up any ground in the chase for a Wild Card spot in the Stanley Cup playoffs.
“From the 2nd and 3rd on, we played a pretty solid road hockey game,” Larkin said about the Red Wings’ game in Edmonton.
Larkin has the second most points on the Red Wings behind Lucas Raymond, who I recently wrote is playing like a superstar as of late. In 51 games played, Raymond has 56 points, while Larkin has 48. Raymond had four points in a recent game against the Los Angeles Kings. This is not the first time that Raymond has tried to drag the Red Wings into the playoffs. When making their playoff push last season, Raymond had seven goals and five assists in the Red Wings’ last 10 games.
This nearly changed as the Red Wings were eliminated from the playoffs on the final day of the 2023-24 season. The Washington Capitals defeated the Philadelphia Flyers in overtime. This may have been the downfall of the former head coach of the Red Wings, Derek Lalonde. General manager of the Red Wings Steve Yzerman was familiar with Lalonde when they were both in the Tampa Bay Lightning organization. Unfortunately for Lalonde, he lost the locker room throughout the course of the 2024-25 season.
The Red Wings are currently two points out of the second wild card spot behind the Boston Bruins and Columbus Blue Jackets. This would have been unthinkable under Lalonde. The Red Wings fired Lalonde in his third season as head coach of the team. Lalonde never led the Red Wings to the Stanley Cup playoffs. The Red Wings replaced Lalonde with Todd McLellan, who coached three different teams prior to the Red Wings, while Lalonde had no head coaching experience in the NHL prior to taking the Red Wings’ job.
In 17 games under McLellan, the Red Wings have a record of 12-4-1. Five Red Wings ranked in the top 10 in scoring in the NHL early on in McLellan’s tenure as head coach. Raymond was among these Red Wings. “For me, the biggest thing is the sense of belief,” McLellan said recently. “How we got to believing we can play with anybody, I’m not sure. We just started chipping away at different things and working at it.”
The Red Wings will face the Calgary Flames on Saturday as they continue their road trip. The Flames have a record of 25-18-7 and are in a wild card spot in the Western Conference. This is just the start of the Red Wings’ road-heavy remaining schedule. The Red Wings will play 18 of their 31 remaining regular season games away from Little Caesars Arena, where they have a record of 15-11-2.
ITR 39: Conference Finals – Inside The Rink
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