Red Wings Becoming Goalless Wonders

In one sentence defenseman Ben Chiarot was summing up what life has been like for the Detroit Red Wings so far during the 2024-25 NHL campaign.

“It’s been not the easiest for our team to score early on in the season,” Chiarot said.

You think?

Saturday, the Red Wings did everything but score in a 4-0 home-ice loss to the New York Rangers. They put 37 shots on net. There were a plethora of scoring chances created.

Zone time, open looks, Grade A scoring opportunities.

All of the above.

Yet at the end of the night, the Wings couldn’t put a single puck behind Rangers backup goalie Jonathan Quick.

“I don’t know if I’ve been in a more frustrating hockey game,” Detroit coach Derek Lalonde said. “Tonight was just flat out like put it in the open net.”

Patrick Kane hit a post. Dylan Larkin hit a post. Larkin and Moritz Seider each missed a wide-open net. Both Kane and Vladimir Tarasenko had Quick at their mercy with glorious chances and thudded the puck into him.

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“I had a wide-open chance there in the slot,” Kane acknowledged. “Tried to go five hole. Larkin hit the post.

“I thought the zone time and looks were fine tonight.”

Should Red Wings Be Optimistic Or Alarmed?

Yes, it’s good that they were creating chances galore. What’s not so good is that over the past six periods, while facing two backup goalies, the Red Wings have lit one red lamp.

Should they be optimistic that if they keep creating chances like they were on Saturday, the goals are going to come? Or should the Wings find the fact that they are creating chances and pucks aren’t going in to be an alarming scenario?

Saturday, it was the guys you’d want getting those gilt-edge chances. And none of them went into the Rangers net.

“I think what we can take away is that we created a lot tonight and obviously you gotta find a way to produce and get pucks by the goalie, but you gotta be happy with what we created,” Kane said.

My goodness, Jonathan Quick 😳 pic.twitter.com/F1AhONzllx

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) November 10, 2024

With 75 goals from last season departing over the summer months, goal scoring figured to be at a premium for this team. Saturday was marking the eighth time in 14 games and the fourth occasion in five games in which the Red Wings were scoring fewer than three goals. It’s tough to win consistently when you’re needing to hold the opposition to one goal in order to succeed.

Also of concern is that for the fourth time in five games, Detroit was failing to register a single five-on-five goal.

The top forward unit of Larkin (nine), Alex DeBrincat (six) and Lucas Raymond (one) has come through with 16 goals. The other three lines simply must step up and contribute more offensively.

“Obviously we have Larkin and Debrincat and Raymond producing at a high rate right now,” Kane said. “We need to help those guys out with some secondary scoring.

“So it’s on the rest of us to get it done.”

If they can’t, then the Red Wings are done. On that chance you can be certain.