DETROIT — The Detroit Red Wings I missed an opportunity on Sunday evening.

There is no real way around this problem, after leading 2-1 on the Edmonton Oilers past halfway through the third period. Take into account that the Red Wings were playing at home, and this is a game you should probably win – even against one of the NHLThe truly elite teams. Detroit didn’t spend a single second of the game trailing. But they still went home with just one point, after Leon DraisaitlThe overtime game winner gave the Oilers a 3-2 victory.

Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde chose to see things a little differently. It was the second straight game (and last of a three-games-in-four-nights streak) for the Red Wings with trips up the middle. It pitted two of the best players in the league, Draisaitl and Connor McDavid. Indeed, all this makes for a difficult match.

“That’s a very good point given the circumstances,” Lalonde said. “It’s a really good week.”

And considering the week overall, which saw the Red Wings pick up 5 points in four games, there might be something to that.

But sometimes the macroeconomic view can be misleading in its own way. And on a night where Detroit dictated the play for the first 20 minutes, then managed to maintain that lead for the next 30 minutes, an overtime loss was nonetheless an unsatisfying result.

“We were too busy defending, I think. » Andrew Copp said. “I think we weren’t thinking about achieving that next goal. I think we were just trying to wait and wait. Against a team like that, you keep giving them O-zone possessions, they’re going to break through at some point. So obviously we want to be responsible defensively, but we have to continue to attack a little more and try to gain time in the O zone. And the best way to defend is to play in the offensive zone.

Copp, for his part, had a hand in both Red Wings goals – scoring by scoring a goal Jeff Petry point shot in the second period, just 42 seconds after the Oilers tied the score at 1-1 and earned an assist. JT Compherby winning a board battle at the bottom.

And even if the overtime point will give the Red Wings some sort of consolation in the standings, this performance from the trio of Copp and Compher, alongside Patrick Kanelooked like Sunday night’s most interesting bright spot: a forward lineup with some potential stamina.

Throughout the season, the Red Wings have shuffled their lines aggressively, looking for something that works. They’ve used largely the same combinations throughout the preseason, but since the start of the season, they’ve yet to really settle on a group of lines that look like they could (or should) stick around.

Injury and illness are part of that, as the Red Wings have already faced both during this young season, but the results have paid the price: Detroit has been outscored in all but one game this season, and in five of their nine matches. , with a margin of at least 14.

Of course, some line shuffling is inevitable in the NHL – teams and players ebb and flow, injuries are almost constant, and as a result, there are very few lines that truly last for long periods of time. The Red Wings are no exception.

But the degree of line mixing that Detroit tried early in the season was remarkable. The question coaches face essentially boils down to whether to let a line stay together to try to create chemistry, or shake up something that hasn’t worked in favor of something that might. When the flow of the game is this unbalanced, it becomes a real dilemma.

And while the Red Wings surely would have liked to get more than one point in their two-game weekend (they lost 5-3 to the Sabers in Buffalo on Saturday), the lines they used in Sunday’s overtime loss to the Oilers constitute perhaps the most complete line Detroit has seen this season.

The first line was nothing new: a trio of Alex DeBrincat, Dylan Larkin And Lucas Raymond this brings together Detroit’s top three forwards and generally represents the majority of their offensive threat. The line didn’t score on Sunday, but it certainly wasn’t without its chances: DeBrincat hit a post, Raymond found it all alone at the back door on another chance and Larkin finished tied for the lead. team with four shots on goal.

The Red Wings’ top line, comprised of Dylan Larkin, created numerous chances against the Oilers. (Brian Bradshaw Sevald / Imagn Images)

The second line was the biggest experiment, putting Copp in the top six and on the wing – far from the bottom-six checking center job he spent most of his time in Detroit – next to Compher and Kane. Along with added defensive responsibility up top, on a line that has received a heavy dose of Draisaitl, Copp’s size and intelligence play well against Kane, who is more of a perimeter playmaker at this point in time. his career.

This more offensive role on the wing is something Copp played earlier in his career, but he hasn’t had the opportunity to do it much in over two seasons in Detroit.

“I want to contribute offensively, I think that’s a big part of my game,” Copp said Sunday. “I think becoming a wing today is a big part of who I am: being able to play in the lineup, being able to play center, both wings, both special teams, it’s a little bit who I was.”

And by placing him there, it also allowed Detroit to place a veteran scorer Vladimir Tarasenko next to the young people Marc Kasper And Jonathan Berggren on line 3. Tarasenko started the year with Compher and Kane, but early on that line struggled a bit defensively and didn’t catch up offensively. By placing Tarasenko with Kasper and Berggren, it gives these two young players a solid veteran to play with and alleviates some of the competition Tarasenko faced while keeping him with talented players.

That trio didn’t get on the scoresheet on Sunday, but they had an expected goal share above 60 percent, according to Evolving Hockey, indicating they had the best end of scoring chances when they were on the ice. In fact, with this setup, every Detroit forward finished the game with an expected goals share above 50%. It’s a small sample size, and it will ring a little hollow in defeat, but it shouldn’t be discounted for a group that has looked questionable even in some of its wins so far this year.

And even though Copp’s move left a vacancy in the team’s more traditional line of play with Michael Rasmussen And Christian Fischer, Joe Veleno came into this spot and showed up well, using his size and physique and adding some extra speed.

Now the question is: will it hold? Detroit had Tyler Motte Sidelined with an upper body injury for over a week now, he will be back before too long. Detroit will then have to make a decision with Kasper, who started the year in the AHL in Grand Rapids. There are sure to be other injuries at some point as well, and wins and losses can often dictate coaches’ patience with a particular set of combinations. The Red Wings will next play undefeated Winnipeg Jets Wednesday.

But even after a loss — and a disappointing one, at that — the way this particular lineup worked against a loaded Oilers team felt like the real silver lining of the losing weekend.

Detroit is no longer able to count moral victories while trying to end an eight-year playoff drought. The Red Wings are a team that needs answers and something that can help them build momentum early in the season.

And on Sunday, it looked like they might have found that — if they were willing to stick with it.

(Top photo by Andrew Copp: Brian Bradshaw Sevald / Imagn Images)