Red Wings Notebook: Missing Edvinsson; Kane Finding Game?

One of the adages of professional sports is that a team appreciates players like Simon Edvinsson even more when they aren’t in the lineup.

That’s probably true this morning as the Detroit Red Wings do a self-examination of a 4-3 home loss to the Montreal Canadiens. The absence of injured Simon Edvinsson undoubtedly played a role in how the game unfolded. The Canadians had gone 31 consecutive games without generating 30 shots in a game. But they managed 33 shots against a Red Wings team without one of their top pairing defensemen.

The game was particularly frustrating because Detroit had won three of four coming in. The Red Wings were 7-0-2 against Montreal in their last nine meetings.

The Red Wings called up defenseman William Lagesson (100 games of NHL  experience), but didn’t use him Friday night.

That could change tonight when the two teams play in Montreal. Detroit’s bottom pair D men Erik Gustafsson and Albert Johansson were both minus-2 Friday. The Red Wings played Johansson under 10 minutes last night. Johansson is a rookie, but the hope was that he could simply provide the steady defensive play he showed in Grand Rapids. But he’s minus-5 in 16 games.

Meanwhile, with Edvinsson gone, the Red Wings played Moritz Seider 27:17. Bottom line: the Red Wings’ margin for error is so small that losing 6-foot-6 Edvinsson is a major factor.

Kane Scores Again

After going nine games without a point, Patrick Kane is starting to play like he did last season. He scored against Montreal to give him goals in back-to-back games and four points in three games. He has 10 shots on goal in those three games

Kane found room with a shot when there appeared to be no room.

“Exciting finish,” Detroit coach Derek Lalonde said.  “Obviously they had some looks trying to get them out in some certain situations, provide some offense. So unfortunately the tying goal found them again. And I do not want that group to get in a trading goals scenario because you’re going to have up and down play.” 

Kane’s goal was the 476th of his career, tying Joe Pavelski for the fifth-most among U.S.-born skaters in NHL history behind Mike Modano (561), Keith Tkachuk (538), Jeremy Roenick (513) and Joe Mullen (502). It was his 88th career game-tying goal, tying Mullen for the third-most by a U.S.-born player in NHL history behind Tkachuk (110) and Modano (105).

Ice Chips

The expectatation would be that Alex Lyon would start tonight in the second game in two nights…Joe Veleno  (2-1-3) and Michael Rasmussen (2-2-4) both have three-game points streaks…Despite their anemic 2.69 goals-per-game average, the Red Wings have scored 20 goals in the past five games…Ville Husso gave up six goals in his first start for Grand Rapids since he was returned to the AHL team.