The Red Wings traveled to Chicago to face their bitter rival, the Chicago Blackhawks, on Sunday night and began the game with a very conservative attack. It only took less than three minutes for the Hawks to gain an early one goal lead when Red Wings’ defensemen, Kent Huskins, put the Blackhawks on the first power play of the game.
While many fans began to think that the game may be a blowout, the Red Wings kept composure and were able to hold the Blackhawks to a one goal lead heading into the final period.
The Wings began the third period with intensity, and Johan Franzen was able to tie the game for the Wings within the first couple minutes, which eventually sent the action-packed game into overtime with a score of 1-1.
This was the second OT game for each team so far this season, and both were successful in getting the overtime win. It was a different story for the Red Wings in this overtime though, as Nick Leddy scored the game winning goal midway through the overtime period, giving the Blackhawks their sixth win of the season.
Although the Red Wings went 0 for 6 on the power play, they were able to make it a close game and challenge the undefeated Chicago Blackhawks. The Blackhawks improved their impressive record to 6-0-0, while the Wings drop to 2-3-0 and are looking for a way to develop much needed team chemistry during the shortened season.
Not only are the Wings one of the worst teams in the league at converting on the power play thus far, they’ve also allowed 8 goals on 25 attempts of defending the power play in just five games this season.
Although it’s apparent that the Wings are missing their retired captain, Nick Lidstrom, Henrik Zetterberg is adapting to his new role as the captain and is allowing the Wings to improve each game.
After the steamrolling loss to the Blues on the opening day of the season, the Wings have played competitively so far this season and are just a few changes away from becoming a dominant team again.
You’d think that after the tough games that the Wings have started their season with, their season would get easier, right? Wrong. The Red Wings play the St. Louis Blues twice in their next five games, and also play the Dallas Stars and Columbus Blue Jackets for the second time this season within a week.
Although the Wings have a tough road ahead, the young talent of Damien Brunner and the leadership of Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk will help get the Red Wings back on track, and hopefully end with bringing the Stanley Cup to Detroit.