A pretty lethargic first period for the Wings and they were down 2-1 after twenty minutes.
A much different second period as Detroit dominated the play and led 3-2 at the second intermission.
In the third, Detroit scored early to make if 4-2 but the Sharks scored two goals in less than three minutes to tie the score at 4-4.
Mo Seider scored his first of the year with just over six minutes to play to make it 5-4, then Pius Suter made it 6-4. Kubalik added an empty net goal and the Wings win 7-4.
Below watch a pregame interview with coach Lalonde, a great save by Ville Husso and the Detroit goals.
added 1:44am, post game talk added to the comments along with the game highlights...
comments right now are going through but not appearing like they should, will be addressed in the morning.
from Ted Kulfan of the Detroit News,
David Perron, who had a goal and two assists, found Seider near the dot and Seider whipped a shot past Sharks goaltender James Reimer giving the Wings a 5-4 lead at 13 minutes 54 seconds of the third period.
"I saw a little bit of open ice and the (defenseman) stepped out on me and I kind of used it as a screen," Seider told Bally Sports Detroit afterward. "I'm really happy it went in the back of the net."
Getting that first victory on this trip, before it ends Saturday in Columbus, was crucial.
"Really important," Seider said. "We wanted to finish positive on this road trip and it was a big step toward that goal. Guys competed hard. There were some tough bounces and unlucky goals, but we stayed with it and fought all the way back and got the W."...
"Really proud of the group," coach Derek Lalonde told BSD. "We got thoroughly out-competed in the first period that led to some of our issues. Probably of the nine periods we've been on this trip, that (first period) was probably our worst period. But I give our guys a ton of credit for bouncing back. Our best period was that second period, we established a forecheck and we started winning battles.
"Then again at 4-4, our was game was fine. Unfortunately, a couple lost faceoffs led to goals but we stuck with it. It was a resilient group and a real good win."
more
from Bob Duff of Detroit Hockey Now,\
more on the game
DETROIT - The Detroit Red Wings today assigned center Austin Czarnik to the American Hockey League's Grand Rapids Griffins.
Fun third period, I did not even fall asleep:) A lot of good things happened in this game, a lot of bad things, but very important win in the building we normally lose.
Ill keep saying this because I dont get many original thoughts, after all Im no pharmacist.
Yzermans FA signings this summer have been a huge lift to the team. They come with about $30M AAV price tag, which we were lectured that Chris Ilitch would never do because he is a cheapskate. Well, that wasnt the case, it was a matter of timing and who was available. $30M seems cheap for the combined contributions of team leading scorer Kubalik (2.5), Perron (4.75), Husso (4.75), Chiarot, Maaattta et al. Copp was the most expensive and longest pick up and on the surface one of the least productive so far, but well see over time.
The team roster had a major facelift.
Some of the young players weve seen on the ice the last couple of years hoping they would grab their piece of cheese will find themselves on the outside as others will be given their chance and also the shrinking number of opportunities to get visibility in the NHL lineup.
The Detroit Red Wings payroll is the 5th lowest in the NHL (source: Capfriendly if you don't believe it). The Wings are not in a bottom 5 market. Thus the owner is being cheap and under investing in product even by business profit standards. You can point to the additional spending this year that moved them from bottom 3 to bottom 5--but they aren't spending in line with market size nor are they committing to LT contracts (only 2 they have are Copp & Chiarot with Larkin probably to come). That shows you how cheap Chris was in prior seasons while waiting out his father's expensive contracts.
Looking back over the time Chris Ilitch has owned the team shows the extent of the issue. Adjusting for contracts that were signed prior to ownership transfer exacerbates the issue. You can see the payroll declines as those contracts Mike signed expire. I can go through the numbers without those prior contracts being adjusted:
22-23 cap floor 61.0M, Wings payroll 77.7M (28th of 32), Cap ceiling 82.5M
21-22 cap floor 60.2M, Wings payroll 70.2M (30th of 32), Cap ceiling 81.5M
20-21 cap floor 60.2M, Wings payroll 73.9M (28th of 31), Cap ceiling 81.5M
19-20 cap floor 60.2M, Wings payroll 80.0M (19th of 31), Cap ceiling 81.5M
18-19 cap floor 58.8M, Wings payroll 86.4M ( 1st of 31), Cap ceiling 79.5M
Make the adjustments for Z's $6.1M, Nielsen's 5.25M, DeKeyser's 5M, Green's 5.4M, Abdelkader's 4.25M, Errorsson's 4.25M and you see what Chris was responsible for spending.
if you look at the Tigers the same thing is present:
'22 cheapest 30.2M (Orioles), Tigers 116.0M (18/30), League average 134.5M, High 234.4M (LA)
'21 cheapest 35.9M (Pirates), Tigers 80.4M (23/30), League average 119.7M, High 235.4M (LA)
'20 cheapest 23.9M (Orioles), Tigers 43.1M (22/30), League average 58.9M, High 110.9M (NYY)
'19 cheapest 53.4M (TB Rays),Tigers 98.0M (20/30), League average 124.9M, High 202.9M (Boston)
'18 cheapest 68.5M (Oakland),Tigers 129.9M (19/30), Average 137.9M, High 235.7M (Boston)
Now consider the 2018 team was down 50M from his father's spending and 5 players on that team accounted for 83.8M of that 129.9M in spending (Miguel Cabrera, Jordan Zimmermann, Victor Martinez, Ian Kinsler and Blaine Hardy). You see Chris Ilitch's philosophy at work.
Better yet subtract Cabrera's annual $30M (which is $32M in '22 & '23) plus Zimmermann's 25M in '18, '19, and '20 and you again see Chris Ilitch's philosophy.
So show me some numbers when the Wings or the Tigers spend to their market size (for the Wings that would be around 8th and the Tigers around 12th). Until then yes, proven by numbers Chis Ilitch is cheap.
once again, Reimer comes through for the Wings.
early doubts about Perron have been dispelled, next up is Copprelax.
now what about Bert? looking for that killer Dman..package?
Wings remain in search of that elusive 60 minute effort..
I say give Bert around 7 games, he looks really rusty right now. Hopefully he can score a few before the trade deadline to maximize a return for him.
I am concerned with how bad their 5on5 possession numbers are and the percentage of scoring chances they are giving up versus the scoring chances they are getting (per Natural Stat Trick). Last nights game they were 42% CF%, 42% FF%, 43% SOG%, 36% SCF% (36 to 20), and 27% HDCF% (16 to 6). It looks like their goalies are bailing them out and they are scoring more on their limited HD chances than they are giving up on the HD chances against them. With last night's numbers they'd lose 4 out of 5 games so I'm glad Reimer was awful last night; good for us. I saw a video image that said the Wings had 17 chances while the Sharks had 14 but Natural Stat Trick said (5 on 5) the Wings had 20 chances while the Sharks had 36! Who is reporting on this, the team PR staff?
The point is, I don't see any improvement of these relative numbers even with all the new offensive and defensive talent. The team structure seems to be designed to give up more possession than they get by suppressing our possession to cover defensively. That seems to be evident in that last year's vs this year's xGA/GP is about 2.21 vs 2.16 (a slight improvement in numbers) while the xGF/GP is 1.91 vs 1.60 (a serious regression in numbers).
All in all, when I see improvement in these underlying numbers then I'll believe they are improving. New structure, new players, I'll give them time. But, I think the numbers are showing they have quite a ways to go.
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