Patrick Kane and Alex DeBrincat once were a prolific scoring duo for the Chicago Blackhawks. Now, that tandem is lifting the Detroit Red Wings back into the race for the Stanley Cup.
The Red Wings will look to extend their winning streak to seven games when they host the Seattle Kraken on Sunday afternoon. Concurrently, Kane and DeBrincat will be trying to send their point streaks to seven games.
Kane has collected four goals and seven assists during that span, while DeBrincat has five goals and five assists.
Kane re-signed with Detroit on a one-year, $4 million contract but the future Hall of Fame enshrinee got off to a slow start. Kane had just five goals in his first 30 games.
“It’s huge,” forward Lucas Raymond said of Kane’s hot streak. “He’s a big part of our team, and when Kaner’s going, he’s a really good player. Everyone knows that.”
So is DeBrincat, who now leads the Red Wings with 18 goals. Raymond, who had a goal and an assist in the Red Wings’ 5-3 win over Chicago on Friday, has 17. So does captain Dylan Larkin, who saw his four-game goal streak snapped against the Blackhawks.
Detroit is 6-1-0 since Todd McLellan was named head coach. McLellan said he believes his new team has more to offer.
“We’ve won six games but really haven’t put together a true 60-minute effort,” McLellan said. “We’re still in waves, up and down. But the ability to go grab momentum now, they understand they can do that by doing certain things, which is a good sign.”
The Wings were energized by Albert Johansson’s first NHL goal, which Raymond set up. Johansson, a defenseman, was playing in his 20th game.
“I’ll remember that one forever,” Johansson said. “Unreal pass by Lucas.”
The Kraken will be playing the second game of a back-to-back. They snapped a four-game losing streak with a win at Buffalo, 6-2, on Saturday. Seattle trailed 2-0 after the first, tied it in the second and scored four times in the third.
Kaapo Kakko had a pair of third-period goals. He scored one goal in his first nine games with the Kraken after being traded by the New York Rangers.
“(Coach Dan Bylsma) obviously made it pretty clear that (our first period) wasn’t good enough, which I think everybody could agree with,” said forward Oliver Bjorkstrand, who also scored. “We had to find another step in our game. I think we responded well. And we have to play hockey like that more often. So tomorrow, we have to find a way to start that way…get a lead and build off of that instead of coming from behind.”
Seattle is still four games under .500 and trying to claw back into the playoff picture. The game on Sunday will be the middle contest of a five-game road trip.
“It’s playoff hockey for us right now; we’re trying to win as many games, collect as many points as we can,” said center Chandler Stephenson, who recorded two assists on Saturday. “It doesn’t really matter who we’re playing. We’re just trying to keep distractions away and just trying to focus on us.”
–Field Level Media
