Detroit City Wire

The Detroit Red Wings were defeated 5-1 by the Chicago Blackhawks at Little Caesars Arena on Sunday, despite outshooting their opponents 46-20. The Red Wings struggled with special teams play, losing both the power play and penalty kill battles.

“We didn’t get in and get established on the power play,” said Detroit head coach Todd McLellan. “We had a tough time entering the zone. I think we lost eight or nine face-offs, so all of a sudden you keep starting in your zone. One of their strengths is their stand and length on the PK. Then all of a sudden, guys get frustrated and they don’t do what they need to do or what they’re supposed to do.”

Goaltender John Gibson made 15 saves for Detroit, while Arvid Soderblom set an NHL career-high with 45 saves for Chicago.

“I thought we played a pretty good game overall,” said forward prospect Nate Danielson, who made his NHL debut with four shots on goal and over 15 minutes of ice time. “We outshot them by quite a bit but just need to capitalize on our opportunities.”

Chicago took an early lead less than one minute into the game when Connor Bedard scored from the right face-off circle after receiving a pass from Artyom Levshunov. The Red Wings tied it up four minutes later as captain Dylan Larkin scored off a rebound following Lucas Raymond’s shot.

In his sixteenth game this season, Larkin leads Detroit with 19 points from nine goals and ten assists.

“Tonight, we had chances,” Larkin said. “It’s a mentality. It’s going to the net with a purpose, shooting for a purpose, grabbing the goalie’s eyes with purpose to create rebounds and second chances by making it hard on him. I don’t think we’ve been making it hard on goalies, driving to the net and creating scrums.”

Detroit had an opportunity late in the second period after Tyler Bertuzzi drew a double-minor penalty but failed to convert during the extended man advantage.

“It was big because they’d already scored on you, two of theirs, at that point,” McLellan said about not capitalizing on the power play opportunity. “It was big. You could feel potential momentum coming. Going into the break, you’d hope that the guys were excited. They were a little bit down. We’re still working on the thing between the ears about staying up and sticking with it.”

Bertuzzi added another power-play goal for Chicago early in the third period before Andre Burakovsky scored into an empty net late in regulation. Oliver Moore sealed Chicago's win with his first career NHL goal in the final seconds.

“I thought [Arvid] Soderblom did a good job of batting stuff past us sometimes,” McLellan said. “We were in tight, so give the goaltender credit for that, but I still think we could be a lot harder to play against defensively but certainly offensively.”

Looking ahead, Detroit will attempt to end its three-game losing streak when hosting Anaheim at Little Caesars Arena Thursday night.

McLellan explained why Danielson was recalled: “We have been struggling offensively. Nate, had he not been hurt in Training Camp, I think he would have started with our team based on where he was when he did get injured. He worked hard to stay healthy, had an upper-body injury and was able to keep his legs going. That didn’t go away, and he’s had a pretty good start in Grand Rapids. We wanted to see him now so we can make some decisions, perhaps on some other players. For him, for his first game, I thought he did some real good things on the ice.”

Larkin addressed Detroit’s recent struggles with special teams: “I don’t want to make too much out of it. It’s not good enough right now, but we have a good power play. We have the personnel there. We’ve showed it. Not just over a few games, but over years. We’ve showed that we can be good. We just got to figure it out.”

On Danielson's debut performance Larkin added: “I thought he got more comfortable as the game went on. We know Danny well. He’s been in the organization for a while. Big congratulations to him and his family, and something that’s well deserved. When he came up and came into the lineup today, guys were happy for him. We know he’s got skill and can skate.”

Danielson reflected on any nerves before his first NHL appearance: “I wasn’t too nervous this morning, but definitely leading up to game time. First shift was a little bit nervous, but then settled in pretty good after that.”