Notes: Lions OC Ben Johnson visits Red Wings, offensive explosion ensues.

Although the club is in the summer, Detroit supporters continue to show their gratitude and respect for the 2023 Lions’ accomplishments throughout their deep playoff run. The last time we checked in on how Detroit Lions fever has spread to other sports arenas in Detroit, there were “Jared Goff” shouts at Little Caesars Arena during a pro hockey game leading up to the NFC Championship in January. On Saturday, the worlds of professional hockey and football collided once more when Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson was invited to kick off the game between the Detroit Red Wings and the St. Louis Blues.

The home squad destroyed the visiting St. Louis Blues 6-1 after a four-goal first period. The Red Wings scored their opening goal 33 seconds after the puck dropped and led 3-0 barely five and a half minutes into the game. According to WXYZ Detroit’s Brad Galli, head coach Derek Lalonde (an admitted supporter of how the Lions are operated) made a nice joke during his post-game press conference about the good karma of having Ben Johnson in the building: “There’s good karma there.” You may probably credit the Lions for 6-8 points this year.

Everyone had a nice time, and the Jared Goff chants appear to have returned as well. Our own Erik Schlitt was watching, and the shouts returned sometime in the third quarter (as corroborated by The Athletic’s Max Bultman). I assume almost everyone had a wonderful day, however at least one Detroit Lions player may have been disappointed with how the Red Wings smashed the Blues. The Red Wings’ official Twitter account looked back into the video archives to when Moritz Seider and Lucas Raymond attended Lions training camp in August 2023 for a truly deep cut.

It turns out that a specific second-team All-Pro rookie tight end from the St. Louis region acknowledged to Seider and Raymond (who combined for three assists in Saturday’s blowout win) that he used to root for the Blues as a kid:

On Thursday, our own Meko Scott and Morgan Cannon talked about the 2023 defence and found areas for development. Watch the complete 30-minute analysis on our official Pride of Detroit YouTube channel: