from Ted Kulfan of the Detroit News,
It was beginning to look grim for the Red Wings.
Here they were Thursday in San Jose without a victory on a road trip that looked ripe for the taking, in terms of multiple victories, and suddenly, they were either trailing or tied at various times of the game.
The prospect of heading into Columbus Saturday without a victory looked entirely possible.
But, as they've shown at times this season, this roster does respond when challenged.
The Wings rallied twice Thursday, defeated San Jose, 7-4, and left California with a needed victory.
They head into Columbus with a chance to still make this a good, if not great, road trip with a victory.
"We found a way to get a win here," said David Perron, who had a goal and two assists for the Wings. "It's like Newsy (coach Derek Lalonde) talked about, and all of a sudden our record looks better, it's good to get two points and we get a chance to (have) a good road trip.
"We almost buckled, but we didn't, and we stayed strong."
continued ($)
from Kevin Allen of Detroit Hockey Now,
Scoring is up this season in the NHL. Teams are averaging 3.18 goals per game. If that scoring rate continued for the season, this would be highest scoring rate since 1993-94. That was the season Sergei Fedorov totaled 54 goals and 66 assists to win the Hart Trophy.
Before the goal explosion in Northern California, the Red Wings team offensive numbers were anemic. Going into their West Coast road trip, 20 different teams were averaging three goals per game. The Red Wings were not among those teams. In fact, they had scored three or fewer goals for 11 consecutive games before Thursday....
The productive game against the Sharks raised Detroits goals-per-game average to 3.12. That ranks the Red Wings 16th in that statistical category. But even after the big night, the Red Wings are tied for 21st with 32 goals 5-on-5.
The Red Wings scoring deficiency have been problematic throughout the rebuild. They were last in the NHL in 2019-20 with 2.00 goals-per-game average. Detroit was second-to-last the following season at 2.23 and 25th last season at 2.77.
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