It was a good overall week for the Red Wings in the third week of January, with Marco Kasper looking more like his old self and the rest of the team still playing playoff-calibre hockey. However, the team did have to go into overtime in three of four games to decide things. 

Detroit started the week with a win over Ottawa and completed a three game road trip this week coming out of it with two wins and points in all three games. At home against Ottawa, the Red Wings beat the Senators 4-3 in overtime with Alex DeBrincat getting the game winner in overtime against his old team. 

Looking back on things…

The Ottawa game certainly looked rough at times, with the Senators scoring the first two goals of the contest in the first period. The Red Wings would go on to score three goals in a row to retake the lead going into the third period, but Shane Pinto was able to force overtime by tying things on a power play goal. Lucas Raymond, who has been beginning to heat up in the goal scoring department had his first goal of the week in the second. Raymond has been leading the team in points largely thanks to his 40 assists, however the young winger contributed four goals this week, bringing his season total to 18. (He also had at least one assist per game this week!!) James van Riemsdyk, who has been the best Red Wings free agent addition in recent memory, also had a beautiful between the legs backhand goal.

Starting their road trip in Toronto, the Red Wings and Maple Leafs scored early in the game to knot things up at 1-1 before the end of the first period. Toronto struck first with a goal from Scott Laughton, but Simon Edvinsson was able to get his sixth goal of the season with an assist from Raymond. It was a tumultuous game for Edvinsson and the Wings, as the teams didn’t score again until Dylan Larkin won it in overtime, trading penalties and hits without much changing on the stat sheet. Edvinsson, however, came out of the 2-1 OT win worse for wear with an injury that kept him out of the Red Wings next two games. His status is uncertain, but optimistic coming out of the weekend.

In Minnesota the Red Wings came out to an early lead but largely found themselves unable to maintain it as the Wild would end up coming out on top 4-3 with a three assist night from Quinn Hughes, including on Kirill Kaprizov’s game winner. The Red Wings slotted Travis Hamonic into the lineup for the game, having the veteran defenseman play for the first time in a month. He was credited with an assist, but that’s about the only positive to be found from his play against Minnesota. Cam Talbot was the Red Wings MVP of the game, even if the scoresheet shows this as a loss for him, as he made several saves throughout the game to keep things close. The Detroit goalie hasn’t won in regulation in a month, and a Detroit defense that couldn’t keep a lead for more than five minutes at a time certainly wasn’t helping things. Lucas Raymond also had two goals in the game, leaving him with a goal per game average for the week. 

Closing things out…

Going into their game against the Winnipeg Jets, the Red Wings were hoping to have Edvinsson back but unfortunately were without their big swede on defense. The Red Wings gave a 5-1 trouncing to the Jets on Saturday night. Patrick Kane got one point closer to tying Mike Modano for the all time points lead for American-born players with an assist. J.T. Compher had two goals on the game, and Marco Kasper, who finally broke his goal scoring drought against San Jose last Friday, got another goal to match his October production. Kasper is finally looking like he did in the second half of last year, which almost makes one wonder if he just is a second half performer. 

With the win over the Jets and Tampa Bay’s loss to the Columbus, the Red Wings are back on top of the Atlantic Division heading into the last week of January. They’ve got three games left in the month, and another two after that heading into the Olympic Break starting February 5th. Detroit faces the LA Kings, Utah Mammoth, Washington Capitals, and the Colorado Avalanche (twice).