So far so good for the Detroit Red Wings.
In their regular season debut, Detroit managed to go on the road and upset the Nashville Predators 5-3 behind Luke Glendening‘s game winning goal at the 9:24 mark in the third period.
The story of the night though was the production of that Red Wings top line of Anthony Martha, Dylan Larkin and Tyler Bertuzzi which was responsible for four of Detroit’s five goals. Bertuzzi got things started for Detroit in the first period before Anthony Mantha made it 2-0 not long after when he lit the lamp with this beauty as he was getting taken down to the ice.
Larkin opened up the scoring in the third once again giving the Red Wings the lead and Bertuzzi added his second of the night on an empty net to seal the win for Detroit.
Speaking of Bertuzzi, his four points (two goals, two assists) matched the most for Detroit in a season opener which was last done by Mike Green on October 5, 2017 against Minnesota when the Red Wings defenseman notched four assists.
Mantha finished with one goal and two assists for three points while Larkin finished with one goal and one assist for two points.
Now I don’t want to get ahead of anything here, especially considering one win shouldn’t overshadow the reality that is the Red Wings are probably still going to be in for another rebuilding year. A rebuilding year that’ll result in being on the outside looking in when it comes to the playoffs.
However, at the same time we also shouldn’t diminish the reality that the Red Wings top line of Mantha, Larkin and Bertuzzi has an excellent combination of size, speed, and talent that’ll be able to be matched with any opposing top line on any given night.
Sure, the trio’s success should be expected but is also a relief when you factor in the chance of high end talent sometimes just being able find their groove in the NHL. That kind of shit will hamper any rebuild and is something the Red Wings probably don’t have to worry about at this point.
