Bounce back! ... and Raymond’s hat trick

Dave Bartkowiak Jr., Digital Managing Editor

Published: October 24, 2021 at 10:17 PM

Tags: RW Newsletter, Newsletter, DRW Newsletter

It’s pleasing to see the Red Wings show resilience this weekend. They fell apart Saturday night in Montreal, but bounced back with an aggressive win Sunday night in Chicago.

And Lucas Raymond, the 19-year-old rookie, earned his first NHL hat trick against the Blackhawks. That was pure fun.

Resilience

The Red Wings were led by their top line Sunday night -- Bertuzzi, Larkin and Raymond -- here’s what that boxscore looked like for them:

Well done. Tyler Bertuzzi is clearly such an important piece to this roster. The Red Wings are a different group with him in the lineup. They showed up with urgency after traveling straight from Montreal to face a winless Chicago team, and they got the job done, 6-3.

This was far from a perfect game for the Wings. There were some moments of defensive breakdown, again, and some penalty trouble, again, and they went 1/8 on the man advantage. But the Red Wings were moving their legs much better Sunday night, and they took care of business on offense.

Raymond’s hat trick was done in style. Again, he’s 19.

A couple notes:

Jeff Blashill made the right call to challenge a goal in the 3rd period. Phew. I know that’s risky when you’re already on the penalty kill, but I think it was quite obvious the goalie’s pad was pushed into the net along with the puck.
Alex Nedeljkovic then completely robbed Alex DeBrincat of a goal to keep it 6-3 midway in the 3rd period, helping himself to his first win of the season and as a Red Wings goalie. Very nice to see him get the W.

Here’s the full game recap: Raymond gets hat trick as Red Wings beat Blackhawks 6-3