The Red Wings got the kind of night they were supposed to get in Vancouver, and they made sure it stayed that way.
Detroit jumped on the Canucks early Thursday at Rogers Arena and cruised to a 5-2 win, with Lucas Raymond doing the biggest damage right away. He scored twice in the first nine minutes, including once on the power play, as the Wings built a 2-0 lead and then carried a 3-1 edge into the first intermission.
William Wallinder, Vancouver native Michael Rasmussen and Emmitt Finnie also scored for Detroit, which improved to 4-3-3.
Vancouver, now 2-9-1, never found much traction. The Red Wings outshot the Canucks 29-12, including a 13-0 edge in the second period. At one point, Vancouver went more than 39 minutes of game time between shots late in the first period and early in the third.
“Good start, good middle and good to the end,” coach Todd McLellan said. “We played the type of game we needed to play.
We checked well and didn't give much and countered well. Overall a pretty good night for our group.”
Raymond’s early burst continued a hot stretch. He has scored three goals over the last two games after going scoreless in the first eight.
“Every game you play in this league is a tough game, it's the best league in the world for a reason,” Raymond said. “They're at home here.
It's a big game, cool game to play in and they have a lot of good players over there. For us, it's just about focusing on our game and building on that.”
He also pointed to the way Detroit controlled the puck and dictated the pace.
“We came out hot and playing with the puck, we had good (offensive) zone time and we got rewarded for it,” Raymond said. “All in all a good game for us and take that with us into Calgary (Saturday).”
Raymond said he’s keeping his focus on the bigger picture as the results have started to come.
“It’s nice,” Raymond said. “As a player and team, you have to look at the process more and when you don't get the results you want, stay with it. I trust myself and it's about building every day.”
Detroit’s only real setback came in goal. John Gibson left after two periods because of a problem with his eye, forcing Michal Postava into his NHL debut for the third period. Postava had been recalled from Grand Rapids on Wednesday night after Daniil Tarasov was hurt earlier in the week, and he arrived in Vancouver earlier that morning.
Postava stopped six of the seven shots he faced.
“Right after the second period, they told me Gibby had some problem with his eye and go warm up and be ready,” Postava said. “It's crazy.
It was good for me because I didn't have time to think about anything. Just warm up and be ready.”
McLellan said there was no update on Gibson after the game, but he was pleased with how Postava handled the situation.
“That’s not the way we planned it,” McLellan said. “I didn't find out until about 10 minutes left in the intermission (about Gibson being unavailable).
Michal was told he was going to play and away he goes. I'm happy for him and congrats you're in the NHL now.”
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