Lucas Raymond spent that overtime chasing Jack Hughes down the ice. By Wednesday morning he'd been cast as the villain of Detroit's 5-4 overtime loss at Little Caesars Arena.
The winning goal: Hughes collected a pass from Jesper Bratt after a Red Wings turnover in the offensive zone, took off, and beat John Gibson to the blocker side 1:19 into overtime. Raymond was the man chasing him down the ice. The player getting roasted busted his tail trying to save the play. Whoever turned the puck over, it wasn't him.
Nobody pins that giveaway on Raymond by name. It's logged simply as a Red Wings turnover, the whole team's mistake. That's a comfortable way to spread blame around the room, and an uncomfortable one once a fan base has already decided whose name to spit.
People reaching for Raymond's head skip over one thing: a clean breakaway in three-on-three is a save goaltenders get paid to make. Gibson didn't make it. You can be mad about the turnover and still admit the last line of defense exists for exactly the moment the first four skaters mess up. If the standard is stop the puck regardless of the mistake in front of you, apply it honestly, and it doesn't point at a forward hustling back on the backcheck.
The real problem is bigger than one bad pass anyway. Detroit came in at 1-3-1, six games into the season, with one job: climb out of the hole. Alex DeBrincat did his part with two goals and three points, and Moritz Seider set up the third-period tie. Then, once the score was level, the Red Wings played like a team that had already banked the loser point and gone to sleep. They got exactly what that effort earned: 1-3-2, with nothing to show for a four-goal night.
The only group that looked like it wanted the extra point was Emmitt Finnie's line, with Finnie scoring and setting one up and the younger forwards generating something. The rest spent overtime looking poised to win and then not winning.
The officiating complaints are a sideshow. Nico Hischier caught Raymond with an elbow on a faceoff early in the extra period, and it was waved off as accidental while he played the puck. That was before the goal and had nothing to do with it. Reaching for the stripes is just another way to avoid the obvious.
So spare Raymond. The version of this night where he single-handedly threw away a winnable game requires you to ignore the replay and the goaltending. Detroit lost because a breakaway beat its goalie and because the team stopped competing the moment the game was tied. Pin it there.
