Axel Sandin-Pellikka & Emmitt Finnie score their NHL 1st as Red Wings beat both Tampa Bay & Edmonton

Axel Sandin-Pellikka & Emmitt Finnie score their NHL 1st as Red Wings beat both Tampa Bay & Edmonton

Today, a lockdown Red Wings Axel Sandine Pelica and EMTT Finny score their first career goals as Detroit beats Tampa in overtime, then Edmonton in regulation to start 5 and one, riding a fivegame winning streak. You’re Locked on Red Wings, your daily podcast on the Detroit Red Wings, part of the Locked On podcast network. your team every day. Welcome back to the Locked On Red Wings podcast. We are your hosts, Brian Fischer and Scotty Bentley and part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. You can find us wherever you get your podcasts. Scotty, we are recording this what about a half an hour after the finish of the Edmonton Oilers game. The Red Wings win over the Edmonton Oilers 4 to2. We have a weekend of great games to cover with the fan base and a weekend full of firsts, too, and great performances. vibes are incredibly high right now with the fan base because because after dropping a dud against Montreal in the home opener, the Red Wings have responded in a big way and are now riding a five-game winning streak, starting the season 5- one with that incredibly tough stretch that so many people were talking about, beating almost all of those teams, three of those, four of those being divisional games. So, we got to talk about all of it. We’re going to start with the Tampa Bay game and do our differencemakers and notable performers there before moving on to the Edmonton Oilers game that is much more fresh in our minds. We’re going to try and do this chronological, but I’m sure there’ll be some mixing and matching in there. But before we can get to any of that, got to talk to you guys today about or got to let you guys know today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Download the FanDuel app right now by visiting FanDuel.com and win $300 in bonus bets if your first $5 bet wins. little amped up right now. So, I’m jumping the gun a little bit on some things. Um, Scotty, let’s rewind the clock. Go back to Friday night. Red Wings two to one overtime winners over the Tampa Bay Lightning in which Axel Sandy and Pelica scored his first career goal in that game. When it comes to difference makers, who you got, man, vibes are just immaculate. I know. So good. I like what an absolutely awesome stretch of hockey. And you know, this this is why this is why after game one, we were like, “Okay, let’s just let’s just see.” Okay, it’s one game. Obviously, it was a dud. It’s not fun. Let’s just see what happens the rest of the way. And obviously that could still be the case, right? Like that we’re only six games in ultimately. like there’s still plenty of hockey left. They’ll go through hot stretches and cold stretches, but um I don’t know, man. This is uh this is just a really really fun stretch of hockey at the present moment and as you mentioned against really good teams as well. Well, and you there’s a very popular saying in every sport, right, about uh starting hot. You can’t lose a championship in insert starting month here in hockey it’s October, right? Um, but you can certainly lose one. So, the Red Wings starting hot here is can go a long way to breaking that playoff drought because if they had started cold, it’s an uphill battle throughout the rest of the season. And they started cold last year and that entire season felt like an uphill battle. Starting out five and one and getting four victories against divisional opponents at that as well and then another one against the team that’s gone to a back-to-back Stanley Cup finals and has the best player in hockey on their team. That’s a huge confidence booster. You know what I mean? I think a lot of a lot of the props goes to a certain few players at least in these this this weekend especially. And that brings us again to that difference maker because which I just didn’t answer by the way. I just like you know what your question sucks. Let me just answer my own question. You’re you’re fine. I didn’t give you an opportunity to riff right off the bat because this is the downside to this too Scotty. Having two great games to cover in one episode is it kind of sucks because we could talk at length about each of these individual episodes separately. But because they’re both great games, we got them. To help with that a little bit, I I will you allow me to cheat. Sure. Okay. You cheat all the time. Great. I am going to have the same difference maker for game one and game two that we discussed today. So, I’m just going to say I think it’s one player and I think that there’s a lot of factors and we will talk about a lot of the notable performances, but I think that there is a very real, if not winning argument that in both of these games individually, Dylan Larkin was one of, if not the best player on the ice. And I I think that it is I I said this in over the summer. I I don’t want us to get Dylan Larkin fatigue. Like it’s just like, oh, he’s been here forever. We know he’s going to put up about a point a game and and you know, whatever. It’s just like we we have to realize a he’s on a I think he’s got a point in every game or he’s on a fivegame point streak at least. Uh brother, he’s on a six-game point streak. 11 points in six games. Well, and he had four against Edmonton. He had he had four on Sunday alone. uh two goals and two assists in that game. But I I think the biggest thing for me was not only is he producing a ton offensively obviously, but defensively he looks fantastic as well. Um on Sunday there was a shift that he had where he goes out there with the top line. They both both teams have opportunities. They go back and forth a little bit. Then Larkin goes for a zone entry, passes it across the ice. This is like six minutes left in the game. Across ice to Lucas Raymond who has removed himself from the ice for a line change. Okay, so he passes it across ice and nobody’s there. His line all goes off for a line change. He starts circling back toward the bench instead of just strolling to the bench and taking his line shift. He then circles back around to be a part of the forch check. goes really hard in the neutral zone toward the puck handler. I forget who had the puck on their stick for Edmonton. Pokes the puck away, then passes it to the new line and then goes off the ice and allows for the line change. Like that kind of stuff is is just that doesn’t end up in in the box score necessarily. And his box score was still the best of either team in both of these games, you could argue. So I I just I I I again I want to make sure it’s really driven home. He had such an unbelievable weekend on both sides of the ice, offensively and defensively, and in both of these hockey games. I think there’s a very real argument he was the certainly the best player on the wings, if not just the most productive player um for all three teams that we’re talking about this weekend. Well, and then too against the Edmonton against the Edmonton Oilers, he was matched up against the McDavid line. Yeah. The entire game, right? They he played 17 minutes of his ice time at five on five against Conor McDavid and came out with a four-point night. So, he had an incredible weekend. Obviously, he has 11 points in six games to start the season. A six-game point streak at that. Almost had a hat-tick in this game. Hit the post. Uh, one fan thought it was a hat-tick, threw his toque on the ice. I love that. It was It was hilarious. He had a great game. My differencemaker, at least for the Tampa game, Scotty, is going to be John Gibson, though. I think that he that was the first time he had played since the Montreal game in which he allowed was it five and 13 or something along those lines. You needed a bounceback performance, especially since you were going away from Cam Talbot who had been playing so well. You needed to give Cam Talba a rest. But there were a lot of people in the Red Wings fan base, not that anyone in the Red Wings organization cares what the fans think, but they’ll say ride the hot hand, ride the hot hand. But Ta Cam Talbet is 38 years old. You have to be able to give him breaks if you want his level of play to stay up that high. We saw it last season. He got worn into the ground. So John Gibson comes in against the Tampa Bay Lightning team which is albeit kind of like Florida was banged up missing Cucherov but the Reds were missing Raymond. So I mean both both teams missing key players and he was lights out. He put a goal saved above expected against the Tampa Bay Lightning of 3.17. He had 31 saves in that game for a 969 save percentage over 60 minutes. right? Like overtime obviously that’s over 60 minutes of ice time too. And I think the G the win against Edmonton was his first win against Edmonton since 2022 I believe they were saying in the broadcast. And he he faced a lot lighter workload in that game against Edmonton. Detroit did not let up off the brakes like they did in the third period of uh the Tampa game. But both goals that he allowed, I don’t think there’s anything you can ask him to do more. That first tip by Philp was nasty. He went from one side of the net to the other on the redirection. And then the second one was a slam dunk back door goal by Leon Dryidle. He faced a lighter workload. He played fine in the second game as well. So John Gibson’s my differencemaker at least for the Tampa Bay game. Uh because Yeah. played great. Yeah. And I I’m I’m right there with you. You know, if I if I wasn’t cheating, then he he would have been in consideration for me, too. Like he that he had a absolutely unbelievable performance. And again, we talked about at the end of last week, like that is that is needed. You, as you just mentioned, Talbett’s been great. We literally saw last season that Talbot can be really really good, even dominant in short stretches, but this is not a guy at his age that you should be relying on over 82 and and should be relying on, you know, every other night or whatever um o over a full season. So, it’s needed. It was great. He was fantastic. He was a a huge reason why this game ended up uh going into overtime and and thankfully the offense was able to pick him up in OT and and get the win. So yeah, uh fantastic performance. Hopefully the first of many for John Gibson in a Red Wings uniform. And who scored the OT winner? Dylan Larkin. Deadlegged Dylan Larkin. He actually talked about it. He was late coming back because he was exhausted. And then the missed opportunity by Tampa rang the puck around the boards right to him for a breakaway and you could see like normally he’d be flying down the ice and it was just his legs you could tell were so heavy but everyone was dead tired but he scored and he ultimately got the game winner. He also had the primary assist on Axel Sandine Pelica’s first career goal. We’ll talk about that at the start of segment two. So stay tuned to Lockdown Red Wings. Got to talk to you guys today about monarch money. 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So, it was just a matter of congratulations for ASP and the first of many for him as well. And I thought as a whole he and the rest of the team played very strong against the Tampa Bay Lightning through the first 40 minutes before they uh played bend don’t break in the third period and were getting caved in. But the first 40 minutes it was a masterclass in the style of hockey they want to play 100% on on both of those fronts. They were dominant to be honest with you in the first 40 and I think they were pretty clearly the better team. Um you you dealt with uh you know a little bit of a getting goalie situation. I I think which we talked about, right? That was bound to happen for Tampa eventually. And yeah, man, I I I completely agree with the third period sentiment as well, which was that they got heavily outplayed and and the ice kind of tilted there. Um, now obviously Tampa was going all out and, you know, on the offensive zone and whatnot and offensive pressure, but it’s another reason why John Gibson was uh, one of our difference makers in this game. So, yeah, I mean, we we’ll take the win anyway we can get it. And I think that it’s just more evidence and proof that this style that they have implemented can work, assuming that they can play it through 60, which again I I think there’s a real argument that uh they did play it pretty darn well through 60 on Sunday and and a plethora of other games already this year. So um yeah, ASP shout out. The the thing that I loved the most about the ASP goal was that it wasn’t a it wasn’t like a softier like a super gimme goal in the sense that it wasn’t uh I don’t know random is that the word like that is how he is going to score like that is his style of play right it’s it’s you know what get the puck maybe just inside the blue line take a couple of steps forward and rip a wister at the net and just see what happens And if there’s a redirect, great. If it falls in front of, you know, the goalie and finds ice, then great. You know, you can have a goal like Finny had on Sunday and and you know, somebody can have a a dirty, grimy in front of the net goal or it can find the back of the net. And I think that that is the you are seeing firsthand, you know, the value that his style of play can provide back there. And I I continue to be impressed with um really just how his transition to the NHL has been and how not only good he’s looked, but uh how good him and Edmonson together when they’ve played together have looked as well. So yeah, it was awesome to see. Yeah. And EMTT Finny I up until the Sunday game, I thought, “Oh, wow. This Friday game against Tampa Bay is the best I’ve ever seen EMTT Finny in his short NHL career.” He was making moves in the neutral zone in the offensive zone to give himself space and time to free up his teammates multiple times and he had several key uh plays on the first penalty kill of the game. He had an aggressive forch check that he won possession and then passed it back to his defender to give the Red Wings possession and kill more time off the clock. Uh on ASP’s very first goal of the of his NHL career, Finny gets the puck in the neutral zone. I think he spins away from some danger and then starts the transition up the ice. So, he didn’t get a point, but the whole play begins with an Emitfinny play. There’s multiple instances in that very first game where EMTT or the very first game of this weekend, the win over Tampa where EMTT Finny was being a huge impact player. And of course, we’ll talk about him more coming up in the Edmonton game. But it’s actually insane that and I was thinking this watching the Tampa Bay or the Edmonton Oilers game near the end of it that the youth we talked about how they can raise the ceiling but they’ve really risen the floor too. And obviously they’re going to run into struggles at some point. I’m sure of it. I know ASP turned the puck over against Toronto that ended up being I think the game tying goal at that time. At that point Wings were able to they’re not going to go 81 and one. Right. Right. There there will be struggles in the future, but early on in the season, they’ve been such assets with their speed, with their energy. Like, they’re out there and they’re playing hard every single shift and it’s catching teams off guard. And part of that is the play style. Part of that again is the praise for Todd McClullen, but a lot of it I think is just like these these the players on this team are bought in. And I don’t think there’s anyone more bought into these play style than the kids who are who are brought up looking to prove themselves and are put in high impact situations. I mean EMTT Finny and ASP started the threeon-ree overtime with Dylan Lin. And granted, Mlullen said that would have been Raymond’s spot if Raymond had been healthy for that game. But the fact that they trust 20 year olds, one of them a seventh round pick. What were you doing at 20, dude? You playing overtime NHL hockey or what? I can’t even get on overtime on the ice for overtime in my beer league game and these 20-year-olds are out there playing NHL overtime minutes to start. Come on, dude. You got you got an EP page. Let’s Let’s be real. I got an EP page. That’s about all I got to show for my hockey career. Scotty, do you have anything else on the Tampa Bay game or should we just go ahead and move on? No, I I actually I think this is a perfect transition. I want to move on because I obviously we’ll start with your differencemaker in this game. But I I think that, you know, one player in that group of of youth and rookies that we didn’t really mention in Friday, I think had a bigger impact maybe on Sunday. I want to talk about MBN a little bit. Um, but yeah, let let’s start with your uh difference maker. That’s what we call it. I forgot the phrase. Well, it’s going to be MFinny, right? I mean, you said Dylan Lens your differencemaker for both games. Obviously, game two even more so than game one because he had four points, two goals, and two assists. A six-point weekend, right? It’s insanity. Like, but EMTT Finny, of course, had a three three-point weekend, including his first and second career goals. the first career goal was just going to and that’s something that’s actually very little has been frustrating me with the Detroit Red Wings this season. But one thing that I wish they did better at is getting to those rebounds because they are a great team so far early in the season at forchecking winning possession. But when it comes to those pucks getting to net there feels like there’s very rarely somebody there to bury home the rebound because it feels like they’re playing that go to the net type game. No one. It seems like sometimes the reason they’re not scoring these goals is because they’re not scoring those second chance opportunities. And EMTT Finny did because that’s something he’s very good at and has been very good at early is going to the net and trying for the redirect. I thought he scored again on Dylan Larkin second goal. I thought Yeah, cuz he was going for the redirection and he’s been doing that over and over and over. getting to the corners, getting behind the net, digging the puck loose, going to the net for the redirect, pounding home the rebound for his first career goal. Uh Dylan Larkin assisted on that one, and then I believe he assisted on Larkin’s second goal, and then of course he got the empty netter. It was a hell of a weekend for EMTT Finny, and it felt like the dam finally burst because he had been putting himself in the right opportunities so much through these first six games. It’s nice to see him finally get rewarded. So yes, against the Edmonton Oilers, my differencemaker is EMTT Finny. the obvious choice. The I I think this is another instance where the I mean similar to the ASP conversation, the the thing that is the most encouraging or even just like the coolest to put it in super simple terms thing about the this performance and about the goal. I mean the empty netter I guess too whatever. But you know the goal that he scored was that that is why he is on the top line. That is the exact style of play that you want him to emulate. That is exactly how you want him to score his goals, right? This guy is presumably going to be on a line with your two best forwards. Okay? I mean, arguably your two best players, depending on who you ask, right? Like he he is going to share a line with your two objectively biggest point producers on the roster. You want him to be the guy that will go into corners and will crash the net and get deep and make sure that if there is a rebound opportunity, if the puck does find itself at the feet of everybody in front of the net or or if you know he does get the the puck on his stick in the crease that he’s able to do something like that. And I think that that is again the the most maybe reassuring is the word I’m looking for. part of that performance is like, “Yes, that is that is literally all we want you to do and and and you’re crushing it.” And he has been crushing it since camp, you know, and and obviously throughout the preseason and now it’s translated to the regular season as well. Man, it is just absolutely beautiful. That 100% is Scott. Let’s head to another quick break. When we return, we’ll talk about other notable performers and things that stood out to us from this game against the Edmonton Oilers. Stay tuned to segment three of Lockdown Red Wings. Got to talk to you guys today about FanDuel. The NFL season is here and FanDuel has an offer you don’t want to miss. Right now, new customers can bet just $5 and get 300 in bonus bets if you win. That’s right. Pick a bet, put down five bucks, and if it hits, you’ll unlock $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. Scotty, I recently was a FanDuel winner myself. Put $10 down on the Detroit Red Wings to beat the Edmonton Oilers. They were home dogs to the Edmonton Oilers who had been playing three games in four days on the second half of a back-to-back on a long road trip. Felt like easy money to me and I clearly was proven right as EMTT Finny and Dylan Larkin popped off to beat the Edmonton Oilers 4 to2. So if you want to capitalize, make a little bit of money out of your sports watching habit. What are you waiting for? Visit fanuel.com to download FanDuel app today and get started. This dude literally just wanted an excuse to talk about how he won a bet. Yes. Well, it adds a little bit of variety to the read, too. So, it’s not the same read every time. Scotty, segment three, locked on Red Wings. Uh, we’re not getting a lot of variety out of these Red Wings because right now they’re just winning hockey games. Cruising. They’re just cruising through the start of the season through a very tough schedule, very tough October. Five- one to start. And Edmonton, much like the game against Tampa Bay, they played suffocating five-on-5 hockey. It was a tired Edmonton Oilers team. And Detroit was relentless with their forche, getting to the Oilers before they were ready to make a decision, forcing turnovers. But this time, they didn’t lay off in the third period. They played hard the entire 60 minutes. And again, I think they came away in this hockey game with a 60% shot share and a 60% expected goal share in this hockey game. They were electric. Yeah. Well, it’s um it was important to do that and to keep applying pressure. At the end of the first period, the shot total was like 9-6 or or 8-6 or something like, you know what I mean? I mean, neither team ca came out the gates and was getting a ton of opportunities. And and I think both teams there there’s reasons for that on on on both sides. one being style of play and one obviously again being Edmonton’s kind of where they’re at in the schedule. So yeah, like this is these are tough teams, man. Like I I there is no oh like they they only won because they only won because the the Panthers are hurt. They’re only hurt they only won because Tampa Bay has some injuries. They only won because Edmonton. like if they lost these games, we’d be, you know, breaking down and criticizing and and talking about what they need to do to improve. Like this is a again, I’m going to use the word reassuring, which I’ve used a million times this episode. It’s just nice to see that there is a new style of play on the ice than we have seen in previous years and it is immediately working like that that that didn’t happen with Lone. It’s not like Lone took over and they were like, “Oh, lowe event hockey and then, you know, they immediately went on some stretch where they were like looked like the comfortably the better team at five on five, you know, for two weeks in a row or whatever.” Right. So, I I think that this is just a scenario where it is I think you use the word refreshing and I think that that’s right. I I think it’s just really refreshing to see the success that they’ve and again six games in they they’ll have cold stretches and we’ll talk about that and and other teams will make adjustments to their adjustments and then you know we’re going to go through the the the grind that is the 82 game season. But um we’re also going to enjoy and celebrate the the start of the year because this is a lot of good teams and the wings look phenomenal, right? It’s not like two years ago where they were almost outsc scoring their problems. Like they’ve found early in the season, again, always use that as a caveat, but early in the season, they found a play style that fits the type of skill that they have and it is working for them. They, you know, the Tampa Bay Lightning, right? If you look at that game overall, the over overall statistics are going to say Tampa Bay was the better of the two teams. They had a really impressive third period. Tampa Bay did that skews the numbers through 40 minutes. Red Wings again at five on five were the better team. I think the Tampa Bay had like.3 expected goals through two periods before they exploded in the third period. Edmonton, the Red Wings were the better of the three. Like this is a team that isn’t just doing it on the power play anymore. They’re not just scoring on the power play to get themselves points and goals and games. They’re playing really well at five on five. And the special teams is no slouch either. The Red Wings only had one penalty against the Edmonton Oilers. They had, I think, two against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Perfect again. They didn’t allow a power play goal again. They have a top 10 penalty kill in the league early on in the season, but we like what was what was signs of growth trending in the right direction every game in which they continue to put up good performances again will continue to trend in the right direction, but it gives you more evidence that they’re not just hot to start this season like they’re playing very good in the PK. And I don’t feel like they’re getting lucky in a lot of these. Like obviously there’s sometimes luck involved like that happens but I feel like the way they’re playing the PK right now is a sustainable way to play the PK if it continues. Now they didn’t have a power play chance in this game and they didn’t score on the power play at all in Tampa, but that almost and scoring power play goals is imperative to winning hockey games, but it’s almost supplemental to five on five scoring. Like you’re going to be better at score winning hockey games if you can score at five on five than being reliant on getting a couple power plays each game. and they have been this is I’m not kidding I’ve been a co-host on this show for I I think this February will be five years and I have quite literally never covered a Red Wings team that has looked this good at five on five play and that’s you know we we can cry about small sample size all we want I’ve never seen a Red Wings team again since I I I’ve been a part of this show be this good at five on five for even a stretch of six games in in my almost five years here like that that is so it it might seem like we’re being overly dramatic or we’re celebrating something small or a small sample size but it’s like this is the most that they have given us in that regard in in a very long time and it’s it’s very nice to watch. And analytically speaking, they’ve only been outplayed in one game, and that’s the Tampa Bay game in which I’m sorry, yeah, the Toronto game in which Cam Talbot stood on his head. Even that terrible Montreal game, that was defensive breakdown after defensive breakdown, which they’ve since cleaned up. They did carry most of the play. They just could not stop shooting themselves in the foot, right, with out of man rushes. But Scotty, um, injuries, you’ve been talking about teams being injured. Raymond did play on Sunday and he actually played a pretty good game for being very clearly still not 100%. Uh he was the third best Redwing according to hockey stats on a very impactful top line. Obviously Larkin and Finny both scored twice. So it’s going to I think helpfully skew Raymond towards the positive direction his two line mates. I think there was and I think it was Pashant or Sean or Max, one of those three guys who have pointed out like there is pro maybe there was like added internal pressure on Raymond to play not internal as in like organization on himself to play with Kane being out who crashed into the B boards hard late in the third period or overtime against Tampa Bay because if both Raymond and Kane are out that really hurts your your not just your five on five play but especially your power play, which of course they didn’t get a power play in that game, but they didn’t know that going in. So Raymond stepping up and stepping back in the lineup was one a giant relief for Red Wings fans because you need Lucas Raymond on the ice. Of course, we would prefer to be 100%. So hopefully with two days off, he can heal up and stay off the ice a little bit, but hoping hoping here that Patrick Kane’s injury is not long time either. Uh as we haven’t heard really anything about that other than he’s getting more look tests done. Yeah, that I mean, you know, knock gunwood, but I I feel like if it was a longterm thing, we probably would have known it a lot like right away. Like, oh, like this is broken or this is, you know, whatever. Like, we’ll see. Yeah, we’ll see. I hope it’s not long term, but we’ll you’ll have to wait and see. Hopefully Raymond has some extra time here to heal up and get back to closer to 100%. Uh, Scotty, we did see some interesting lines on Edmonton because of that, though. Michael Bran Bran Segard got promoted to the second line with Cat and Casper. He looked solid too, man. He had a good game. He did. He had a lot of opportunities to shoot the puck. And I felt like every single one of his shots got deflected or blocked and I’m just like you can feel it from him. He wants that to score that goal. But I like the look MBN gives the top six now or the second line. It does give you two shooters and debrink and MBN. So, obviously, there’ll be some like cast uh chemistry to work out there, but it also makes them significantly better defensively by the by way of having another two-way player. And Debrink, for what it’s worth, has had an incredible season defensively so far. They brought it up on the broadcast, but he actually made several great defensive plays in the first game against the Tampa Bay Lightning this weekend. So, you know, obviously you want Kane to stay healthy and Kane to come back so he can continue to play on that second line. But in the meantime, I think MBN is a good choice to play on that second line. And if they can get some kind of chemistry going and by the looks of the game against Edmonton, there’s that possibility that it’s going to be pretty good. That could be a second line you could be able to deploy a little bit more defensively than you would if you know Patrick Kane were out there. So I obviously best case scenario is Kane’s there because having Kane and MBN is better than just having MBN. Uh but it gives you maybe a different idea of deployments. Yeah. And and depth and versatility, man. That’s that’s again something that this year’s team appears to have and uh something that this or the Red Wings have not had in in at least to this extent in quite some time. Yeah. And then finally, Scotty, they did shake up the bottom six as well. They didn’t just promote MBN to the second line. They broke up the third line alto together, making Comfort the center and I believe giving him was it I’d have to doublech check on the actual lines. Hold on one second so I don’t get these wrong. So you had JT Comfort, Mason Appleton, and Jonathan Bearren as your third line and then you had Andrew Cop, Michael Rasmusen, and JVR as your fourth line. So giving Andrew Cop the fourth line and JT comp the third line, giving you better center depth down the middle because Michael Rasmusen was not cutting it made for both those lines having, I think, a better impact. Again, still not scoring goals, which was an issue. The third line, as good as they were as a matchup line, just had no finishing skill. And Michael Rasmusen again, man, puts himself in the right opportunities, but plays just die on his stick. He had a couple opportunities. Same with Andrew Cop. It’s like oneon-one and just crashed like just like bowling a China just like rashed forward and kind of hope that something happened. Yeah, it I feel bad too because I don’t even think especially with Andrew Cop like I think Andrew Cop’s playing well, but he just has zero finishing skill. Yeah. And if he if he can’t start finding the back of the net when he puts himself in those favorable positions, people are going to continue to turn on him. I’m like, he’s playing good hockey. He just he just can’t score, man. Michael Rasp had a good game, too, and he just couldn’t score. He had a couple huge opportunities, but yeah, we got a new look to the bottom six. I’m okay with it because the bottom six hadn’t really been providing offense because you look at when those goals happened from the bottom six, right? Uh JVR got sprung for a breakaway. That was special teams. No, I don’t know if that was special teams or not. So, you got one goal there, assuming that was five on five play. I can’t quite remember, but both of goals was they happened when he got pushed up to the top of the lineup. Cop’s goal was an empty netter. So, bottom six hasn’t really been providing much offense at five on five. Not that they’ve looked terrible, but that’s why I’m okay with them mixing it up a little bit. Sure. Yeah. And we knew that that third line was going to have some sort of a shakeup, you know, when injury started happening anyway. So, um, yeah. Well, I mean, we’ll keep an eye out for it, but I think the again the silver lining is even if they aren’t putting the puck in the back of the net, they are maintaining the system of getting the shot shares at least when they’re on the ice, right? Like they’re getting opportunities. they’re not there isn’t a line that’s being like completely caved in on a consistent basis um from game to game and and I think that that is that like that’s really what you’re asking for out of your bot. Now, again, you you would love for them to produce more point-wise, obviously, that’s the whole point, but I do think that at least having the confidence that, you know, no matter who’s out there, the system is going to stay intact is reassuring. Through six games, the Red Wings are ninth in the league in expected goals share at five on five. Top 10 team in expected goal share, Detroit Red Wings. Who would have thought? Who would have thought? Scotty, we’ll be back with a new episode tomorrow. Do you have any final thoughts? We ball, baby. We do ball. Same time, same place. It’s your team every day.

What a weekend for Detroit. They beat both Tampa and Edmonton to extend their winning streak to 5 games, capping off a succesful homestand against playoff-caliber opponents. Against the Lightning, the Red Wings suffocated Tampa for 40 minutes and Gibson stood on his head through all 60. Axel Sandin-Pellikka scored his 1st career goal on Friday, and then Emmitt Finnie did as well on Sunday enroute to a 3pt night. Dylan Larkin is also on fire, with 6 points on the weekend and 11 in 6 games to start the year. #LGRW

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