Red Wings' Alex DeBrincat Erupts For 7 Points in 4 Games After Scoring Slump
After a slow start to the season, Detroit Red Wings winger Alex DeBrincat has erupted onto the scoreboard, proving why he remains one of the NHL’s premier offensive threats. The winger went scoreless in the first eight games of the year, leaving fans and analysts wondering when or if he would find his rhythm. That question has been answered emphatically over the past week.
DeBrincat has now scored in four straight games and recorded three consecutive multi-point performances, fueling a five-game point streak. Over the last seven days, he has tallied four goals and three assists for seven points across four games, ranking him among the hottest players in the league. He trails just Ottawa’s Drake Batherson, who leads the week with nine points, including four goals and five assists.
Quick hands Cat!
Overall this season, DeBrincat has recorded four goals and a team-leading ten assists for 14 points in 12 games, second only to captain Dylan Larkin’s 17 points in the same number of contests. The 26-year-old forward is building on one of his best seasons in years, coming off a 39-goal, 31-assist campaign for 70 points, which marked his highest goal output since the 2021-22 season when he scored 41 goals.
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Consistently a point-per-game producer, DeBrincat has regularly hovered in the 70 to 80 point range. If the Red Wings maintain their current hot streak, he has a real shot at challenging his career-high 78 points from 2021-22. With his scoring touch back and his playmaking ability on full display, DeBrincat is quickly reasserting himself as the engine of Detroit’s offense.
Unfortunate reality might be setting in for Harrison Brunicke
The Pittsburgh Penguins dropped their Saturday matinee to the Winnipeg Jets 5-2 in which they started slow and could never recover in time. But there was more than just a slow start and a defeat to one of the Western Conference's best teams, that was a tough pill to swallow.
The Penguins will have to make a tough decision soon on if they should send 19-year-old defenseman Harrison Brunicke back to his junior team or keep him in the NHL. But after Saturday's game, it feels like that decision might have been made already.
In the contest, Brunicke just generally looked lost in his own zone and was the direct cause of the Jets second goal of the game which came early in the first period. Brunicke was doing his best to block a cross-crease pass and did not get his stick down in time. So, Jets forward Brad Lambert had a backdoor tap-in to make it 2-0 Jets early in the first.
Defenseman like Brunicke are going to want to do everything they can to get their sticks down and in position to block the cross-crease pass. Brunicke did not and the result showed. He also did not have inside positioning on Lambert so Lambert was able to box him out and score the goal.
It definitely seems like with the way head coach Dan Muse has been scratching Brunicke and playing him every now and then, that sending him back to his junior team is becoming inevitable. That kind of load management does not bode well for his chances of staying with the Penguins.
It might be ideal for him to get one more year in juniors and then be fully ready next season. That is for Muse and general manager Kyle Dubas to decide, but the answer seems like it might be in the cards for Brunicke.
