Landon Ferraro makes NHL debut in Red Wings’ win

By Stefan Kubus –

DETROIT – Landon Ferraro made his NHL debut Tuesday night against Original Six rival Toronto. He played 7:47, recorded one shot and two hits.

But what made it especially memorable is that his father, longtime NHLer and current TSN analyst Ray Ferraro, was on-hand to witness it in the building he played his final NHL game.

“At the end, all the guys put their sticks up, I just took an extra second looking around,” Ferraro said. “There’s a lot of Maple Leaf fans out tonight, but at the same time, Detroit fans were real loud and real excited at the end, so that’s probably what I’m going to remember most.”

Ray played his final NHL game at Joe Louis Arena in 2002, when Detroit knocked out his St. Louis Blues in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. With Landon’s debut, the torch has officially been passed.

After speaking with the media post-game, Landon and Ray met off to the side in the Red Wings’ locker room to have a father-son moment and discuss the 22-year-old’s first experience in the NHL. Ferraro was the seventh Red Wings player to debut this season, marking the most since the team had 14 players do so back in the 1990-91 season.

The most noteworthy part of his debut was the 1:45 he saw on the penalty kill, an area that he knows he’s going to have to excel in order to crack the Red Wings roster full-time next season.

“It shows that they have confidence in me, they can count on me on the PK,” Ferraro said. “That’s where I’m going to have to earn my ice time and earn a spot, so it was nice to get a feel for it tonight.”

Ferraro – taking the place of scratched Teemu Pulkkinen – played with Cory Emmerton and Brendan Smith on an experimental fourth line. Once Ericsson went down, Smith moved back to play defense again in the third period with Kyle Quincey, while Danny DeKeyser moved up to play with Niklas Kronwall.

“I thought Landon did real good out there in the first game and he played a big part in our PK tonight, too,” Red Wings forward Gustav Nyquist said. “He killed some big penalties out there.”

Head coach Mike Babcock complimented his penalty killing abilities, too, citing how important it was with regulars who see time on the PK currently out. In addition to his penalty killing, Babcock said Ferraro’s speed was a real factor he liked in his game.

“I liked his speed. He’s got to get stronger, obviously, but he was quick.”