The Detroit Red Wings suffered a frustrating 5-4 overtime defeat at the hands of the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday evening, and then had to travel that same night to New York for a tilt against the Rangers not 24 hours later.
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What ultimately transpired at Madison Square Garden on Sunday evening was enough for head coach Todd McLellan to praise his players’ effort as the best overall team game of their centennial campaign.
“Obviously, we took one on the chin yesterday and were looking for some of that resilience,” McLellan said. ‘We saw that in our group, and I thought that was our best overall team game for a full 60 minutes. We checked for our chances, didn’t have to play with a lot of carelessness or recklessness, and found a way.”
Lucas Raymond scored the game-winning goal for the Red Wings late in the third period, breaking a 1-1 tie and helping Detroit move to within a point of the top spot in the Atlantic Division standings.
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Alex DeBrincat remained hot with his third goal in the last two games, breaking a scoreless tie in the second period. But following a controversial delay of game penalty to Moritz Seider, the Rangers struck on the power-play courtesy of Mika Zibanejad.
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Former Rangers goaltender Cam Talbot made 18 saves on the 19 shots that he faced, while Jonathan Quick, who hadn’t lost against the Red Wings since 2018, stopped 40 shots.
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Talbot, who watched as the Red Wings lost their 4-1 lead against the Sabres on Saturday evening, backstopped them to a critical victory in the same building that he called home during the first several seasons of his NHL Career.
“Obviously, nobody was happy last night,” Talbot said of Detroit’s setback on Saturday. “I’ll leave what we said in the dressing room to the guys that were in here last night, but we weren’t happy with the way we closed that one out. And tonight, we closed this one out the way that we should have. That’s what good teams do. They respond and bounce back, and that’s what we did tonight.”
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