Detroit Red Wings

Red Wings Do It Right Against Philadelphia, But It Still Ends Wrong

Published

1 year ago

January 21, 2023

Lucas Raymond scored his 15th goal of the season and almost netted his 16th in the closing minutes. Carter Harter made a big save to preserve the Flyers' win

DETROIT — With three seconds remaining in regulation, Philadelphia Flyers goalie Carter Hart made a dramatic pad save against Lucas Raymond that summed up the frustration the Detroit Red Wings felt in a 2-1 setback to the Philadelphia Flyers.

“How that puck did not go in,” Detroit coach Derek Lalonde said. “Not only did he get a pad on it, he flexed his pad to keep it out. That was pretty impressive by the Hart kid. His whole night was.”

That would have been the tying goal on a night when the Red Wings strong defense gave them a chance to win.

Lucas Raymond cuts the #Flyers lead in half, giving his team a chance late in the third!#LGRW | @ThinkFordFirst pic.twitter.com/kndkawv9R8

— Bally Sports Detroit (@BallySportsDET) January 22, 2023

“We certainly feel we played good enough to win tonight,” Larkin said. “The effort level is not the issue. It’s just when we’re on our game we need to capitalize, we need to make teams pay. We’re up 3-1 in Arizona and we don’t put it away. We got chances tonight and we don’t put it away. We need to start. That’s the maturing and the growing as a team. We need to find ways to put teams away.”

Lalonde said Hart was “amazing.”

“We had good traffic,” Lalonde said. “I thought the way he was seeing it. We generated some tips that were just going wide. One I had a perfect view in the second period. Point shot, we had a tip on it, it’s going right in and he finds a way to elevate his shoulder and get a piece of it. Just one of those nights when we ran into a world-class performance in net and we left a couple of plays out there.”

The Red Wings pumped 31 shots on Hart, had another 31 blocked by the Flyers, pushed back against an aggressive Philly group and played the game the way Lalonde wants them to play it.

And they ended up with nothing to show for it.

Mistakes Hurt

“The frustration of we do it right all night and one little breakdown, two little breakdowns and (they are in) back of our net,” Larkin said.

The game was scoreless until Scott Laughton scored at 9:01 of the third period, and Noah Cates added a second at 13:23. Raymond scored his 15th of the season with 43 seconds remaining and then came close at the end.

“That’s a fine line in this league,” Larkin said. “They’re fighting for their lives over there, too, and it hurts, it really stings tonight.”

The Flyers are adjusting to coach John Tortorella’s style and are 9-3 in their last 12 games. They are playing the hard-to-play against style that Lalonde also would like to see his team play consistently.

“Unfortunately, they were the first team to make a play in the third and we were the first team to make a slight mistake,” Lalonde said.

Larkin’s line, which included Raymond and Dominik Kubalik, was on the ice for both Philadelphia goals.

“We’re never gonna play a perfect game but we gotta play complete and pretty darn close to perfect,” Lalonde said. “We can’t leave plays out there and we left a couple out there tonight.

The Red Wings were coming off an impressive 3-2 win against Vegas, and were looking to start a win streak. Instead, they head into Tuesday’s game against the San Jose Sharks trying to get back in the win column.