The Detroit Red Wings last night picked up their fifth straight win with a 6-2 win over the Calgary Flames. That game last night was the third game in which Detroit scored six goals, and the fifth they scored five or more. The offense has been solid right out of the gate, with the Red Wings averaging five goals a game, and they have the second-best power-play in the whole league with 39.1%; it was first going into last night’s game, but they went 0/5 on the man advantage which dropped them 11%.
The success has been mainly due to Alex DeBrincat and Dylan Larkin. DeBrincat has been a huge offensive boost, and it looks like Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman acquiring him and giving him a contract extension is worth every penny. To start the year, DeBrincat leads the league in points and goals with 12 points and eight goals; last night, DeBrincat scored a hat trick to give him his sixth, seventh, and eighth goals to start the year. Last season, DeBrincat needed 27 games to score seven goals; in his 40-goal season, it took him 13 games to score seven goals; this season, it’s taken him just six games to score eight goals. He also has recorded a point in every game except one, which came on Saturday against his former team, the Ottawa Senators. DeBrincat also ranks third in the league in plus/minus with a plus seven. Larkin, who centers the top line playing with DeBrincat, is reaping the benefits of having the goal scorer playing alongside him as Larkin is second in the league in points with 11, and he leads the league in assists with eight; he has assisted on four ofDeBrincat’ss eight goals, and DeBrincat has assisted on two ofLarkin’ss four goals.
The two are also finding success on the power play as they have combined for 11 points, with Larkin scoring two goals and adding five assists, while DeBrincat has two goals and two assists on the man advantage. The combo of DeBrincat and Larkin saw added success when Lucas Raymond was moved to the top line to play with the duo, and when Raymond plays alongside them, he has four of his five points coming on a goal and three assists. It is a long season, and a lot can change, and players can get cold, but as it stands right now, DeBrincat is on pace for 164 points and 109 goals, while Larkin is on pace for 150 points and 109 assists. That will change, but the start of the season has been a lot of fun to watch and a big reason why the Red Wings are off to such a good start and have fans thinking about playoffs for the first time since 2015-16.
They have three games this week, with Saturday being a big test of how good this team is. On Tuesday, they will play the Seattle Kraken. On Thursday, they take on the Winnipeg Jets. On Saturday, they will head to Boston to take on the Boston Bruins, who right now are the only team in the Eastern Conference ahead of the Red Wings, as they have the same point total. Still, the Bruins are yet to lose a single game; that could change ahead of Saturday, but that will be an ultimate test to this team and seeing how the success translates against one of the best teams in the league at the start of 2023-24.
