Abel to Yzerman

Abel to Yzerman

The Wings Are Still Learning What It Takes To Close Out A Game

01/22/2022 at 9:15am EST

from Ted Kulfan of the Detroit News,

These are the types of games the Red Wings are still learning to finish, grab the victory, and move on to the next game.

They proved Friday they're still grasping how to do those things, and it cost them a point in the standings.

Dallas tied the game late in regulation, then won it overtime on Roope Hintz's power-play goal, giving the Stars a 5-4 overtime victory.

"We played good at times, but just costly mistakes at costly times," forward Dylan Larkin said.

Hintz was alone in front of goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic and tapped in Joe Pavelski's pass for his 17th goal. The Stars got on the power play when Robby Fabbri tripped Hintz, giving the Stars the four-on-three advantage in overtime.

Stars forward Jason Robertson, who played his youth hockey in the Detroit area, tied it 4-4 at 18:57 of the third period, sending the game into overtime.

It was a frustrating way to give away a point, given the Wings had played well enough to claim a victory.

"We played a real good game, we have to find ways to win those kind of games," coach Jeff Blashill said. "It's part of the process we're going through here, learning how to win and we played way too good not to win."

continued

from Kevin Allen of Detroit Hockey Now,

Not Ned’s Night
By all forms of measurement, Alex Nedeljkovic has had a quality season, but he was leaky against the Stars. Dallas scored its first goal on a Ryan Suter shot that inexplicably squeezed through Nedeljkovic from a poor angle. From that point on, Nedeljkovic wasn’t as stingy as he has been most of this season.

“Ned’s been great for us, and he’ll be the first one to tell you a couple of those he could have had.” Larkin said. “That happens in a long season. We rely on him big-time but we had a great mentality that we were going to get those back.”

The Detroit Red Wings have become accustomed to Nedeljkovic calmly making the big save. Didn’t happen in this game.

Line Shake-up Working
Blashill’s recent decision to move Tyler Bertuzzi to the second line to play with Pius Suter and Robby Fabbri continues to pay off. All three of those players scored against the Stars. Bertuzzi had a three-point game, his third consecutive multi-point game since the switch occurred.

“That Suter line has become just as dangerous as the Larkin line,” Blashill said.

That line pumped nine shots on goal. “(Bertuzzi) has brought Suits and Fabbs to another level,” Blashill said. “That’s what good players do.”

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Welcome to Abel to Yzerman, a Red Wing blog since 1977. No other site on the internet has better-researched, fact-laden and better prepared discussions than A2Y. Re-phrase: we do little research, find facts and stats highly overrated and claim little to no preparation. There are 19 readers of A2Y. No more, no less. All of them, except maybe one, are juvenile in nature. Reminding them of that in the comment section will only encourage them to prove that.

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