The Red Wings faced off against the New York Rangers in Madison Square Garden for an Original Six 100th Anniversary matchup, Centennial uniforms included. But in the matchup of two teams with a century of history behind them, the Red Wings felt like little brother. By the end of the second period the score was tied 1-1 and the Red Wings had outshot the Rangers 28-12. Yet at no point did it feel like the Red Wings were in control of the matchup.<\/p>\n
When Alex Debrincat<\/a> (really Lucas Raymond) opened up scoring for the night, beyond the a little musing on who would really get credit for the goal at the end of the match, most of the time was instead spent waiting for the inevitable moment when the Red Wings would give up a goal to tie things back up. However, the Red Wings were ultimately able to persevere and pull out the win behind an impressive effort from Raymond<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Breaking it Down<\/p>\n Mo Seider, who has had a rough week, got called for a strange delay of game penalty that led to a Rangers goal just under two and a half minutes after the Red Wings opened up scoring in the second. Seider has had turnovers in each of the last two games that led to breakaway chances for the opposition and hasn\u2019t quite been at his best this season. However, given the rotational cast behind him on the blue line, Seider has plenty of runway before fans should start wondering if something is actually wrong. Axel Sandin-Pellikka<\/a>, on the other hand, had one of his stronger games I\u2019ve seen this season. Early in the first period, it looked like Sandin-Pellikka dropped to one knee as he was skating backwards to poke the puck out on a Rangers rush opportunity.\u00a0 His work on the power play has also been key.<\/p>\n The Red Wings\u2019 first goal came on the man advantage halfway through the second. Sandin-Pellikka and Patrick Kane kept the puck in the offensive zone for much of the power play, and Raymond\u2019s shot from the circle managed to bounce through Johnathan Quick\u2019s pads just far enough for Debrincat to tip it over the line. The Rangers responded soon after, with Mike Zibanejad getting one in after Cam Talbot got caught looking the wrong way after the puck bounced up and over his shoulder. There wouldn\u2019t be any more scoring until late in the third period when Raymond finally got in the goals column on the score sheet<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Power Play Mostly Power-less<\/p>\n The Red Wings had 5 power play opportunities in New York, maybe due to a Rangers squad missing its head coach.<\/a> They converted on one of them, and that includes the back to back power plays they had in the third period. Both of those stayed largely in the Rangers zone. Both of them led to no points. Luckily, that 1\/5 won\u2019t lower the Red Wings season PP conversion rate by too much. But even at even strength when Marco Kasper and J.T. Compher had breakaway chances with no defenders in sight, neither was able to seal the deal. The Red Wings offense has lacked potency this last month, but resurgences by Raymond and Debrincat this last week will hopefully spark more offense from the lineup.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n For Old Times\u2019 Sake<\/p>\n