A second period got away from the Red Wings in Calgary, and John Gibson had to absorb the brunt of it.
After Detroit had already been stung by a Joel Farabee goal in the opening frame, the game was tied 1-1 early in the second when J.T. Compher and Andrew Copp teamed up for a hard-working answer.
Copp won the sequence from the left side dot, sending the draw toward the net. Compher chased it down and got a shot attempt on goal, Devin Cooley turned that aside, and Copp was right there at the far post to poke in his second goal of the season and first since Oct.
The deadlock didn’t last long. The Flames punched back with three goals in the period, all before Detroit could settle in.
Former Saginaw Spirit standout Zayne Parekh started the surge with a power-play wrister for his first goal of the season and sixth of his NHL career. Roughly 9 1/2 minutes later, Ryan Strome added a snap shot that beat Gibson cleanly, and less than 90 seconds after that, Matvei Gridin buried another snapper on the power play.
That sequence decided it. Gibson faced 10 shots in the second and allowed three goals, a stark turn from Thursday night in Vancouver, when he saw only five shots over two periods and stopped four in Detroit’s 5-2 win over the Canucks.
The 4-1 loss at Scotiabank Saddledome snapped Detroit’s six-game point streak and left the Wings at 4-4-3. It also kept them from fully stepping into the mix in the crowded Eastern Conference wild-card race. At 11 points, they sit one point behind a cluster of four teams - the Washington Capitals, New York Islanders, Montreal Canadiens and Florida Panthers - tied for the second and final wild-card spot.
Saturday was also Detroit’s final game at the Saddledome, the building that opened for the 1983-84 season and will be replaced by a new arena for the 2027-28 arena. The Red Wings finished their regular-season run there with a 30-33-2-2 mark.
Detroit now closes its four-game Western Conference road trip in Edmonton on Monday at 9:30 p.m. on Detroit SportsNet. The Oilers, 8-2-1 and tied for first in the Pacific Division entering Sunday, are coming off a 7-2 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Leon Draisaitl scored both Edmonton goals, with Connor McDavid assisting on each one. McDavid’s two helpers pushed him to an NHL-best 33 points - eight goals and 25 assists - through 11 games, a pace that projects to 252 points over 84 games, which would top Wayne Gretzky’s NHL record of 215 from 1985-86, though that mark came in an 82-game season.
After Edmonton, the Red Wings return home Thursday to face the Chicago Blackhawks, then host the St. Louis Blues on Halloween afternoon.
In Other News...
Red Wings Already Have A Goaltending Problem They Cant Ignore
The Red Wings points streak came to an end with a regulation loss to the Calgary Flames, and the spotlight quickly shifted back to a problem that has been hanging around the crease. John Gibson was beaten for four goals, a rough night that only added to the concerns around Detroits goaltending, where the margins are starting to look awfully thin.
The issue is made worse by the absence of backup Daniil Tarasov, who is injured and unavailable. That leaves rookie Michal Postava as the only other goaltending option behind Gibson for the games ahead, a setup that gives the Red Wings very little room to breathe if the losses start piling up. [Read more 🡒]
Dylan Larkin Rumors Now Leave Red Wings Fans Wondering What Was Lost
Reports that the Devils were poking around on Dylan Larkin briefly stirred up a familiar kind of unease for Red Wings fans, the sort that comes whenever a star name enters the rumor mill. Detroit has built too much of its present and future around Larkin to treat his status lightly, and any discussion of a trade involving him naturally leads to the bigger question of what a franchise center might actually return if a deal ever got serious.
New Jerseys move for Connor Hellebuyck has now made that path look far less likely, but the speculation around the fit had already opened the door to a bigger what-if. If the Devils had stayed in the chase, the Red Wings might have been looking at a package built around Dawson Mercer, Nick Bjugstad, a first-round pick and more draft capital, which is exactly the kind of return that makes the original rumor linger even after the trail goes cold. [Read more 🡒]
Red Wings Trade Pitch Hinges On One Huge Quinn Hughes Question
The idea of Detroit making a major swing for help on the blue line has always sounded bigger than a standard deadline rumor, and this one is no different. A hypothetical proposal has the Red Wings looking at Minnesota defenseman Quinn Hughes and forward Yakov Trenin, with the cost centered on Simon Edvinsson, Nate Danielson and a 2028 first-round pick. It is only a speculative framework, not a confirmed negotiation, but it does underline how aggressively a team can be positioned when a top defenseman is involved.
The real sticking point is the same one that shadows almost any blockbuster involving a pending free agent: what happens after the trade. Detroit would need a level of comfort on Hughes' future before even entertaining the price, because surrendering that much young talent and draft capital makes little sense without some assurance the move is more than a short-term rental. Minnesota's interim GM has also not shown any interest in moving Edvinsson, which leaves the entire pitch feeling more like a thought exercise than a transaction ready to happen. [Read more 🡒]