Red Wings End Season On A Sour Note

It was a fitting, if unsatisfactory, ending to the season for the Red Wings, who gave up a game-tying goal with 1.8 seconds left in regulation, then lost to the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-3 in overtime in their season finale Thursday night.

Scott Laughton. who torched the Red Wings for four goals while with Philadelphia earlier in the season, scored the game-winner off a shot that bounced off the boards behind goalie Cam Talbot to decide things.

“It’s a disappointing night to finish off a disappointing year, and a lot of games like that,” Dylan Larkin said. “Especially with how we had the lead and we talked about it after the second period, too. There’s something to play for to get the 40 wins and big for our team, and we just didn’t do that. And it’s kind of a story of this season.’

Coach Todd McLellan said it was too early to look ahead to next season, but added “We had the potential to win a game, played pretty good game and our game management skills were horrendous and it came back to bite us. And you think of the number of times we’ve talked about recovering from negatives, recovering from getting scored, on managing a game, and it’s still showing up. So lots of work to do. It may be good that we ended this way actually, because it’s something we bring up maybe day one of training camp.”

Talbot, who was a late addition to the starting lineup, was strong in goal, and he mostly kept Toronto at bay while the Wings went out to a 3-1 lead deep into the game.

An Unlikely Comeback

Auston Matthews got Toronto on the board first, but Austin Watson tied the game a little over a minute later.  Justin Holl and Alex DeBrincat scored in the second period , and it stayed 3-1 until Toronto’s Philipe Myers scored early in the third period and Chris Tanev tied it with 1.8 seconds left.

Laughton put the Wings out of their misery 56 seconds into the extra period.

The Wings got a bit of a scare when Lucas Raymond crashed heavily into the boards. He returned for one shift, and then was done for the night.

“It’s not going to be long-term damage or anything like that, but it made no sense to put him back into the game,'” McLellan said.

DeBrincat finished with a team-high 39 goals and said he saw progress this season, despite the disappointing result.

“It’s frustrating, whether it’s a meaningless game or not,” he said  “It sucks to have a 3-1 lead and give it up, obviously losing in overtime. So, I think we did some good things tonight. I think there’s a lot of good things to reflect on the season and obviously not good enough. So a lot to learn from as well.  I think we are better and come back next year with better game management skills and a lot of things that will be better.”