The Detroit Red Wings won their third straight game, defeating the Los Angeles Kings by a score of 5-2. The win brought the Wings within two points of one of the Wild Card spots in the Eastern Conference.
The story of the game for the Red Wings was the performance of winger Lucas Raymond. The Red Wings forward factored in on four of Detroit’s five tallies. He kicked off the scoring for the team at the end of the first period, and then went on to assist on three goals later on in the game. That includes the game-winning goal scored by his linemate Marco Kasper
The best game of the season for Raymond continued what has become the most productive season of his brief NHL career. Through 50 games for the upstart Red Wings, he has 20 goals, 36 assists, and 56 points. Averaging over a point per game in his fourth NHL campaign, he’s on pace to exceed the 80-point plateau for the first time.
Raymond’s success is just another feather in the cap of their new head coach, Todd McLellan. Between the blossoming of Kasper’s game, the step forward for Raymond, the performance of starting goaltender Cam Talbot, and the surge of scoring from Patrick Kane, this Detroit team has been on a continuous upward trajectory since McLellan took over.
And on the back of Raymond’s performance, the Red Wings are pushing for a playoff spot. With a 24-21-5 record, they sit just two points back of the second Wild Card spot. They are currently chasing down multiple teams in their own division for this spot. The Montreal Canadiens, Tampa Bay Lightning, and Boston Bruins are three of the teams in front of Detroit in the standings.
Despite being out of the playoff picture currently, hope is only building in Detroit. The team is exciting and on the cusp of ending their more than decade long playoff drought.
