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Detroit Red Wings

Red Wings Lighting Red Lamps at Astonishing Pace

Detroit is second in the NHL in goals despite not having a single player among the NHL’s top-30 point producers

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5 months ago

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Alex DeBrincat, detroit red wings
Alex DeBrincat, top point producer for the Red Wings, rates 38th in NHL scoring.

The red lamp behind the other team’s net is getting quite the workout this season when the team shooting at that net is the Detroit Red Wings.

Through 28 games, the Red Wings are second in the NHL in goals per game, netting 3.79 goals on average. Only the Vancouver Canucks (3.83 goals per game) rank ahead of Detroit among the 32 NHL teams.

To put an exclamation mark behind how impressive that scoring pace is, the last time the Red Wings finished a season averaging three or more goals per game was in 2010-11. That season, they averaged 3.13 goals a game over the 82-game campaign. Interestingly, they were also second to Vancouver (3.15) that season.

The last time Detroit led the league in scoring was 2008-09, which was also the most recent season in which the Red Wings were playing in the Stanley Cup final. They averaged 3.52 goals per game that season.

It was another historic Red Wings squad that was the last to average more goals in a season than the current club is scoring. During Detroit’s record-setting 62-win seaosn of 1995-96, the Red Wings were scoring a 3.96 goals per game clip. That season, only Pittsburgh (4.41) and Colorado (3.98) would score more often.

Team Effort Pacing Red Wings Offense

It truly is the epitome of a team effort when it comes to goal scoring and the Red Wings. Eighteen different players have tallied a least one goal for Detroit this season.

Three players – Alex DeBrincat (13), captain Dylan Larkin (11) and Lucas Raymond (10) – are into double digits in the goals column. In total, 13 players already have accounted for at least five goals. Yet their leader in points is DeBrincat with 26. That ranks him 38th in the scoring race.

A number of Detroit’s younger players are on pace for career-highs in goals. Raymond, for instance, is on a 30-goal pace.

“Keeping plays alive,” Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde said of reason for the uptick in Raymond’s offensive game. “He’s playing north, he’s playing assertive with his game, he’s winning battles.

“You add two, three, four more battle wins within a game, that’s some more touches, some more offensive looks, obviously some confidence. Really good player for us.”

Defenseman Moritz Seider, with five goals, has already equaled last season’s output. He’s two tallies away from the career-best seven goals he scored while winning the Calder Trophy in 2021-22.

With seven goals, center Joe Veleno is also just two away from the personal best of nine he registered last season. And winger Jonatan Berggren has scored in successive games since his Monday recall from the AHL Grand Rapids Griffins.

The injury losses of Larkin (11), J.T. Compher (six) and Klim Kostin (two), along with the suspension-enforced absence of David Perron (seven) hasn’t even put a dent into Detroit’s offensive outburst. In two games without that quartet, the Red Wings scored nine goals.

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