The Detroit Red Wings look far removed right now from the team that was stuck in an 0-3-1 rut without one or both of their top forwards in Dylan Larkin and Tyler Bertuzzi last week.
They’ve since rattled off three straight wins, the most recent coming last night against the high-powered offense of the visiting Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers. Two goals from Russian forward Vladislav Namestnikov powered the Red Wings, who got another key performance in net from Alex Nedeljkovic.
Needless to say, hockey is fun when you’re winning, and the fans react as such.
“The arena was buzzing, the fans were great,” Namestnikov said afterwards. “We kind of let them come back, but for sure it was a fun game to watch for the fans.”
“The mood is good,” Namestnikov continued. “Even when we were losing everyone was in good spirits. Everyone believes in each other; we have a good team. When we roll four lines it’s hard to play against us. We want to be that team that when teams come in here, they say, ‘Wow, it’s hard to play against these guys.’ Hopefully we can keep rolling and keep winning.”
Dylan Larkin took advantage of a miscue behind the net from rookie goaltender Stuart Skinner, scoring his first goal since returning to the lineup and increasing his squad’s lead to 3-0. However, Edmonton would make things interesting with a goal in the final minute of the 2nd period followed by McDavid scoring just moments into the third.
Detroit’s defense didn’t allow the duo of McDavid and fellow star Leon Draisaitl to do anymore damage, holding on to preserve the win. Defenseman Moritz Seider sealed the win by hitting the open net for his second career goal.
The Red Wings will host another high powered offense in Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals tomorrow at Little Caesars Arena.
– – Quotes via MLive
