The Red Wings are moving into a new building for the 2017-18 season, making this the Blues’ next-to-last trip into Joe Louis Arena, barring some postseason play.
Which is fine with the Blues, since the closest thing the NHL still has to an old barn is a place where the weird seems to happen. Blues coach Ken Hitchcock has seen more than his share. “I don’t remember much good happening here,” Hitchcock said before the game. “I remember Scottie (Bowman) cheating on every line change. I remember that. That’s my favourite memory, how come there’s always extra players on the ice. That’s what I remember. ... Anyplace I can start new here, I’d like to start new. I don’t have a lot of good memories here.”
You can add to those memories the Blues’ 2-1 win over the Red Wings on Wednesday that produced maximum points probably with maximum anxiety. Ty Rattie put the Blues up in the first period and the Blues carried that lead into the third period, where Dmitrij Jaskin, who had been a healthy scratch the past two games, made some nice moves through the Detroit defense to score his third goal of the season. Brian Elliott stopped 29 shots, missing a second straight shutout in Detroit by two minutes. The Blues have won three straight and five out of six with two games to go until the All-Star break.
The Blues had to feel snakebitten even before the game, and it was their own doing. The Blues, who are a few weeks away from getting most of their injured players back, played with just five defensemen because of a paperwork error. Carl Gunnarsson was ready to return after missing four games with an upper body injury, but because of what general manager Doug Armstrong termed a “miscommunication in the staff,” he wasn’t taken off injured reserve in time to be active for the game. Meanwhile, Colton Parayko had missed the morning skate because of the flu and wasn’t well enough to take the ice, leaving the Blues one defenseman short. Instead, they suited up 13 defensemen.
“That falls on me obviously,” Armstrong said.
Hitchcock mostly dealt with the shortness on his blue line by double shifting Kevin Shattenkirk and Alex Pietrangelo, letting them eat up the extra minutes. And with 13 forwards, Hitchcock didn’t use Ryan Reaves very much; he looked in the morning like he would be the healthy scratch for this game.
The game predictably started as a mad scramble for the Blues, who were rotating their five defensemen through six spots and were constantly chasing the Red Wings. But by midway through the period, they were able to settle things down and play on fairly even terms.
The Blues scored first. Pietrangelo, who logged 10 minutes 17 seconds of ice time in the first period, took a shot from the right point that hit the thigh of Rattie and redirected past goalie Petr Mrazek. It was Rattie’s third goal in four games since he was recalled from Chicago during the team’s glut of injuries, and only one of those goals has gone in with a stick. Rattie got his first NHL goal with a shot that redirected off his thumb.
The lead almost didn’t last long. Less than 10 seconds later, Pavel Datsyuk kicked the puck on an angle past Elliott and with an open goal in front of him, managed to send the puck across the crease and off the far post. The puck got to Detroit’s Darren Helm, who had another crack at it, and his shot was blocked. The Blues were able to make it to the intermission up 1-0.
And it stayed that way after the second, though not without at least one close call. Gustav Nyquist took a shot on a Detroit power play midway through the period that Elliott slowed. The puck slipped through his pads but slid to a stop in the crease, a few inches shy of the line, and he fell backward on it to freeze it. With 3 minutes to go in the period, Henrik Zetterberg took a centering pass as he came in on goal but the puck was too close to his skates and his shot from close range went wide.
The Blues had some chances too, with Alexander Steen sliding a puck to a charging Paul Stastny but his deflection went right into Mrazek. Vladimir Tarasenko kept the puck in a two-on-one with Patrik Berglund but his shot was stopped by Mrazek.
The teams traded chances again in the third, with Tarasenko having a good look at the Detroit net only to have Mrazek get his glove on it, then Detroit came back down and Elliott stuffed Kyle Quincey at the post.
In the third period, Jaskin took a pass from Backes, cut between three Detroit defenders, switched the puck from his backhand to his forehand, deking Mrazek and putting the puck into an open net with 7:47 to play.
Detroit scored with 2:13 to go on a power play after Steen was called for elbowing. Detroit pulled Mrazek for a 6 on 4 and about 10 seconds later, Zetterberg scored to make it 2-1. The Blues challenged the goal, feeling that Justin Abdelkader had interfered with Elliott, but the goal stood. Detroit pulled Mrazek again after winning the faceoff, but Dylan Larkin was called for hooking Pietrangelo with 57.6 seconds to play to force Mrazek back into the net and give the Blues a power play and they ran out the clock.