Red Wings vs. Canucks: Lucas Raymond's Three-Point First Period Sends Vancouver to Ninth Straight Loss

The loudest cheer of the night at Rogers Arena came at 6:16 of the third period, and it was not for a goal. It was for a shot. Just a regular, garden-variety shot on goal by the Vancouver Canucks, their first since early in the first period, greeted with the kind of sarcastic roar usually reserved for a fan who finally catches a T-shirt.

By then the Detroit Red Wings were long gone. Lucas Raymond scored twice and added an assist in the first period alone, and Detroit beat Vancouver 5-2 on Thursday night to hand the Canucks their ninth straight loss.

Three Goals in Nine Minutes

Detroit came out like a team that had watched the film on Vancouver's losing streak and wanted to add a chapter. "We came out really hot," Raymond said, and that undersells it.

At 4:18, Albert Johansson fired from the point, and Raymond, skating into the slot, got his stick on it between his legs to redirect it over Kevin Lankinen's blocker. Most players would practice that one for a week. Raymond made it look like a reflex.

At 6:04, William Wallinder's cross-ice pass hit Dylan Larkin and came straight back to him, so he improvised from the goal line, banking the puck in off Lankinen's back. Two goals in 106 seconds, and Lankinen was already having one of those nights.

Elias Pettersson gave the home crowd a jolt at 7:02, ripping a power-play one-timer from the right dot under John Gibson's left pad for his fourth goal of the season. It was 2-1, and for about two minutes the Canucks had life.

The Turning Point: Raymond Slams the Door, and the Shots Stop

Then Arshdeep Bains went off for slashing at 8:09, and Detroit's power play made it hurt. Alex DeBrincat flung a puck into the crease from down low on the left side, Viktor Arvidsson got knocked over on top of it, and when it squirted loose, Raymond was there to backhand it into an open net before Lankinen could find it. That made it 3-1 at 8:56, 114 seconds after Pettersson's goal.

That was the hinge. After Pettersson scored, Vancouver did not record another shot on goal until 6:16 of the third period, a gap of almost 40 minutes, according to NHL.com. The Red Wings outshot the Canucks 13-0 in the second period, and Michael Rasmussen made it 4-1 at 14:58 with a deflection in the slot for his first goal of the season.

Detroit even had to change goalies and it did not matter. Gibson stopped four of five shots over two periods but did not come out for the third, and Michal Postava, recalled from AHL Grand Rapids earlier in the day, made his NHL debut. "It's crazy," Postava said. Emmitt Finnie made it 5-1 at 4:00 of the third, taking a drop pass from Arvidsson on the rush and lifting a shot over Lankinen after the goalie lost an edge. Jonathan Lekkerimaki finished a cross-crease feed from Marco Rossi at 10:37 to make it 5-2, but that was cosmetic.

Stars of the Night

Raymond had two goals and an assist, all in the first 20 minutes. According to NHL.com, he is the first Red Wings skater with three points in a road first period since Andreas Athanasiou on Jan. 5, 2017, and he now has five points in his past two games after going pointless in the four before that. "So now he's feeling good, the confidence is back where it should be, and hopefully he takes off," Detroit coach Todd McLellan said.

Arvidsson and Michael Brandsegg-Nygard each had two assists. Finnie has six points in his past five games, and DeBrincat has four points during a three-game streak, per NHL.com. Rasmussen finally got on the board, and J.T. Compher, back in the lineup after missing seven games, per NHL.com, picked up an assist on it.

Postava made seven saves in relief and had the best line of the night about the mock cheers: "I'm just thinking they're grading my save." Every rookie should be this unbothered.

For Vancouver, Lekkerimaki had a goal and an assist, Pettersson scored on the power play in 20:48, and Lankinen made 26 saves on 31 shots. Filip Hronek logged 24:26 and assisted on Pettersson's goal.

Stats That Matter

• 31-13: Detroit's edge in shots. Thirteen shots in a full game is not a stat line; it is a cry for help.
• 13-0: Red Wings shots in the second period.
• 40: Minutes, almost, between Vancouver shots on goal.
• 17-6: Canucks giveaways, a sloppy number for a team already chasing the game.
• 1-for-4: Each team's power play. Detroit's one came at exactly the right time.

What It Means

Detroit improves to 4-3-3 with 11 points and has a six-game point streak (3-0-3), per NHL.com. It was also the Red Wings' first road win of the season, moving them to 1-0-2 away from home, and it came two nights after a shootout loss in Seattle. They visit Calgary on Saturday night.

Vancouver falls to 2-9-1 with five points and is 0-8-1 in its past nine games. The Canucks are 1-4-0 at home, and the frustration is boiling over. "It's the same stuff game after game," forward Brock Boeser said. "But it's embarrassing." Coach Manny Malhotra put it on the room: "There has to be a level of concern by the players to know that it's not good enough, and it's only going to get harder." Next up, Minnesota visits Sunday, bringing former Canucks captain Quinn Hughes back to Vancouver, according to the AP.

The Slow Clap

Every sports movie has the slow clap, the moment a crowd rises to salute an underdog who finally does something right. Vancouver got its version on Thursday, except it was for a single shot on goal in the third period of a 5-2 loss. Postava decided the cheers were for him, and honestly, he earned them more. Nine straight losses in, the Canucks need more than a shot. They need a plot twist.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Game details from the Associated Press and NHL.com; postgame quotes as reported by NHL.com.