One piece that was going to be part of the Red Wings’ rebuild was dealt Monday, but many others remain in Detroit.
And some of those young cornerstones of the rebuild gave Wings' fans plenty of optimism playing against the Carolina Hurricanes later in the evening.
Adam Erne and Filip Zadina (power play) scored goals 2 minutes 10 seconds apart early in the third period, and goaltender Jonathan Bernier stopped 36 shots, as the Red Wings defeated Carolina 3-1 and completed a two-game sweep of the Central Division leading Hurricanes (27-10-4).
Sam Gagner added an empty net goal with 55 seconds left to clinch the victory.
The Wings (15-23-6) surprised many people around the NHL – and likely inside the Wings’ locker room – by trading forward Anthony Mantha to Washington for forwards Jakub Vrana and Richard Panik, a 2021 first-round pick and 2022 second-round pick.
Vrana and Panik will be at practice Wednesday and play in Thursday’s game at Little Caesars Arena against Chicago.
Mantha was expected to be a core piece of the Wings’ rebuilding after signing a four-year contract last summer.
But a disappointing season made him available in trade, and Washington’s offer – keyed by the two draft picks – made for an offer general manager Steve Yzerman couldn’t refuse.
Still, players like Erne, Zadina, Michael Rasmussen (who assisted on both goals), Filip Hronek, and others are taking steps forward, and keeping the rebuild on track.
Erne gave the Wings a 1-0 goal just 24 seconds into the period.
Rasmussen carried the puck around the Hurricanes net and fed a pass across the crease to Erne, who jammed his 11th goal past goalie James Reimer.
Carolina challenged the goal for offside - and it was close - but the goal was called good after replay.
A Hurricanes delay-of-game penalty gave the Wings a two-man advantage for 47 seconds, and just after the two-man advantage expired, Rasmussen fed Zadina open near the hashmarks and Zadina snapped a one-timer past Reimer for his fifth goal at 2:34.
Carolina's Nino Niederreiter cut the lead to 2-1 at 13:54 of the third period.
These final days before the trade deadline are always a tough time around the NHL.
The Wings had dealt defensemen Jon Merrill (to Montreal) and Patrik Nemeth (to Colorado) last weekend.
But many other Wings were rumored to be in trade discussions, and the Wings have played some of their worst games the last several seasons right around this date on the NHL calendar.
It’s not an easy time in any locker room.
“Anybody that doesn’t think there’s added stress at this time is probably being foolish,” coach Jeff Blashill said. “There’s certainly stress of the unknown. It’s a hard thing on people and not me necessarily personally, but for the individual players and not knowing for sure what will happen.
“Then as a team, what our team will look like (after the deadline).
“Uncertainty is a hard thing for humans to deal with. I don’t know that we’ve played particularly well over the last couple of years when we’ve gotten close to the trade deadline and part of that is the stress involved in it and the distraction involved in it. The thing I have to get through to our team is we have to focus."
Blashill was going to prepare for this game like any other.
“Just normal, my game day routine, a normal game day,” Blashill said. “I’m not going to watch the streams. Steve will let me know if anything is going on, and other than that, I’m focusing on coaching a hockey game as I normally would.”
So Blashill likely got a surprising alert regarding Mantha just like everyone else.
But the roster that remained for the Wings played quite impressively, including killing all four Carolina power plays, a key part in this victory.
