Raymond Runs Riot as Detroit Buries Vancouver 5-2

Lucas Raymond put up 2 goals and an assist for 3 points, and Detroit scored three times in a four-minute first-period window to effectively end this game before it started. The Red Wings walked out of Vancouver with a 5-2 final, and it wasn't nearly that close.

Detroit wasted no time setting the tone. Raymond tipped one past Kevin Lankinen at 4:18 of the first — assisted by Albert Johansson and Michael Brandsegg-Nygård — and that first goal proved to be the turning point, shifting the score margin from even to 1-0 in Detroit's favor. Less than two minutes later, William Wallinder snapped home his second of the season at 6:04, with Raymond and Brandsegg-Nygård picking up the assists, and suddenly it was 2-0. Vancouver got a brief foothold when Elias Pettersson ripped a slap shot past Michal Postava at 7:02 — assisted by Filip Hronek and Jonathan Lekkerimaki — but that lasted all of 114 seconds. Raymond answered with a backhand at 8:56, Viktor Arvidsson and Alex DeBrincat assisting, and just like that it was 3-1 Detroit after a first period that looked more like a scrimmage than a road game.

The story of the night was Detroit's ability to suffocate any Vancouver momentum before it could breathe. Brandsegg-Nygård finished with 2 assists, Arvidsson added 2 assists, and Raymond's fingerprints were everywhere — on the scoresheet and on the pace of the game. Lankinen made 26 saves on 31 shots, which looks like a goaltender doing his best in a losing cause rather than a performance that cost his team anything. Postava, meanwhile, was barely tested — 7 saves on 8 shots, 1 goal allowed — which tells you everything about how lopsided the shot volume was.

Michael Rasmussen added a tip-in at 14:58 of the second to push it to 4-1, and Emmitt Finnie's wrist shot at 4:00 of the third made it 5-1 with Arvidsson picking up his second assist of the night. Lekkerimaki gave Vancouver something cosmetic to point to — a wrist shot at 10:37 of the third, assisted by Marco Rossi and Zeev Buium, to make it 5-2 — but by then the outcome had long been decided. Lekkerimaki finished with a goal and an assist for 2 points, which appears to be the lone bright spot in a Vancouver performance that fell apart in the opening eight minutes and never recovered. Detroit looks like a team that came in with a plan and executed it with uncomfortable efficiency.