Penguins/Red Wings Recap: Pens drop final contest in 2024

It wasn’t a glamorous ending to the last game of the season for the Penguins in Detroit

Pregame

Marcus Pettersson is back in the lineup and Alex Nedeljkovic starts his second game in a row for the first time in a long while for the visiting Penguins.

First period

The pregame TV coverage mentioned how Detroit would want to start strong for their new coach Todd McLellan in his third game behind the bench after a lackluster effort last game. That proved to be correct, the Red Wings were shot out of a cannon early and it took the Penguins a long time to even get a shot on goal.

The Red Wings struck early for the game’s first goal. Anthony Beauvillier coughed up the puck in the offensive zone and the new defense pair of Pettersson and P.O. Joseph got caught letting Jonatan Berggren behind them. Bad mistake, a nice stretch pass puts him in alone and it’s a 1-0 game.

The Pens survive the early push — and importantly — do not fall behind by another goal. They find an equalizer from Drew O’Connor scoring his first goal since the sixth grade picnic (assuming said picnic was held on October 18th) on what was a brilliant stickhandling exhibition from Cody Glass to set the play up for O’Connor to one-time from the right side. 1-1.

All tied up after 20 minutes, the Pens did a nice job settling into the game after Detroit wanted to put an emphasis on starting strong.

Second period

Glass takes a penalty early in the second and the Red Wings strike on the power play. It’s always amazing to see how much Alex Debrincat and Patrick Kane can stretch out a power play horizontally from how wide they can setup and still snap the puck around. Puts a lot of stress on the opponent and the Detroit duo does it again when a pass from the Cat gives Kane a ton of time and space to step into a shot from the top of the right circle. 2-1 DET.

The rest of the second is kinda a meh stretch for the Pens. They’re hanging around in the game but not impressing too much. Well, Nedeljkovic is doing his part, including this tremendous blocker save.

Trouble abounds when Erik Karlsson takes a puck to the face. He goes down in a heap and is bleeding around the cheek/lip area but is able to return in the third period.

Third period

Roles reverse from the second period, this time it’s the Red Wings taking any early period penalty and the Penguins scoring on the power play. Karlsson fires the puck on net, O’Connor is in front and cleans up the rebound after being dumped to the ice. This guy didn’t score a goal in two and a half months and now has two goals in just over the span of a period, what a world.

Just when it looks like the Pens might be surging towards a result, the game turns. Karlsson goes to the penalty box, Erik Gustafsson hammers a puck off the post, Nedeljkovic makes a valiant effort to sprawl back for the puck but can’t stop it from trickling in with J.T. Compher there to help it along the way. 3-2, Red Wings back in front with only 5:34 left in regulation.

Pittsburgh pulls the goalie with about 1:30 to go. Doesn’t work, Detroit seals the deal with an empty netter to send the Pens to a loss in their final game of 2024.

Some thoughts

• Tough luck loss in this one. There were a couple of sequences where the Pens had prime chances but couldn’t put one in. One sequence where goalie Alex Lyon was swimming in his net and Beauvillier had a lot of net to shoot at sticks out.
• The PK has been a huge factor in the Pens’ post-Thanksgiving turnaround but got caught in this one, killing only one of three Detroit power plays. Sometimes there are nights like that.
• More an observation than a finger point of blame, but the Pettersson-Joseph pair was on the ice for all of the three DET goals scored with a goalie in the net. Here’s to state the obvious that we won’t be seeing that combination longer than absolutely necessary.
• Huge night for O’Connor, as mentioned in the last recap he was pretty visible in the previous game and tonight finally breaks his almost half-season long goal drought with not one but two of ‘em. Nice for him to get off the schneid.
• Felt bad for Nedeljkovic in this one. Moneypuck had xGF at 3.5 - 2.0 in favor of Detroit when Compher scored the eventual GWG. Nedeljkovic battled hard, stopped more than his share and gave his team a chance.
• Which is aggravating since his GSAA on the season ranks among the lowest of all NHL goalies. That’s the irony of hockey sometimes, when the goalie who hasn’t played the best all year stands up tall and deserves a better fate, that of course is the game that his team doesn’t provide him with too much support. Next game, watch Nedeljkovic give up four goals on a 3ish xGF and the Pens score five for him.

Dull note to end 2024 with, Pittsburgh gets a few days off before their road trip shifts south to Florida on Friday.