Saturday night in Detroit was first and foremost the night when Connor Garland cemented his status as a fan favourite.
That’s the big picture takeaway, even if it didn’t really matter in terms of the result. Vancouver came away with the 3-1 loss, largely because Thomas Greiss put in an incredible performance.
The way Greiss and a young Detroit Red Wings team gutted out a tough win should be the game story, but unfortunately, this one devolved into farce. Like Nate the Great’s descent into darkness on Nelson Road in Season 2 of Wyatt Arndt’s favourite series, it was compelling but just a little forced.
The origins of a stilted, strange, penalty-filled third period trace back to earlier in the week, when the Red Wings’ best player, Dylan Larkin, was injured by Tampa Bay Lightning forward Mathieu Joseph in a textbook piece of boarding.
Larkin wasn’t just injured, though; he also suspended for a game because of the way he reacted after the hit. Nursing a justifiable sense of grievance, the Red Wings approached Saturday night’s game with a chip on their shoulder, and the crowd at Little Caesars Arena did, too. Every hit was responded to, treated like some atrocity.
It gave the game a weird vibe.
So when Oliver Ekman-Larsson hit
