We Celebrate the Red Wings Youth Movement, But Old Guys Delivered Sunday

A game between the Detroit Red Wings and the San Jose Sharks moves naturally to a discussion about how youngsters are carrying their hopes for improvement.

GM Steve Yzerman’s promotion of 20-year-olds Axel Sandin Pellikka and Emmitt Finnie added a layer of energy to his roster this season. San Jose’s increasing reliance on 19-year-olds Macklin Celebrini and Sam Dickinson, plus 20-year-old Will Smith, clearly makes the Sharks far more competitive.

But when the Sharks and Red Wings played Sunday, it was the old guys who decided the outcome.

Thiry-six-year-old forward James van Riemsdyk and 37-year-old goalie Cam Talbot were the difference in the end. Talbot was perfect in the overtime and stopped four shots in the shootout. That gave van Riemsdyk the opportunity to score the game-winner in Detroit’s 3-2 shootout win against the Sharks.

“It’s never an easy win in this building. And you know, you’re going to have to come in, compete, limit their chances off the rush and grind out a win here, and that’s exactly what we did,” Talbot said. “Got a couple of big goals, a huge one from Reims in the shootout, and we’ll take it and move on.”

The win guaranteed the Red Wings (9-4) will own a winning record on their five-game road trip. They are 3-1 on the trip heading into Wednesday’s final game in Vegas.

Finale Against Golden Knights

If the Red Wings could beat the Vegas Golden Knights, this road trip would certainly suggest the Red Wings’ hope of ending their nine-year playoff drought is realistic.

The Red Wings haven’t played perfect road hockey on their Western Conference swing. Far from it. They’ve had some slow starts and haven’t always stayed on task to play the way they wanted to. The Red Wings have given up some late goals. That includes Sunday when Dickinson scored his first NHL goal with 3:05 left in regulation. That tied the score 2-2.

“Thought we kind of had a mixed bag to start,” Detroit coach Todd McLellan said. “We weren’t playing the type of game that we wanted to play. We were getting a little bit cute, stick handling a lot in the offensive zone. Second period, started to throw stuff towards the net, and it opened up for us a little bit.”

The Red Wings haven’t found the consistency they crave but have played well enough on most nights. They are clearly more competitive than last season. They have had players step up, like van Riemsdyk by being the only player to score in the shootout.