After last night’s 3-2 loss to the Nashville Predators, the Red Wings’ coach and players spoke with MLive’s Ansar Khan, with coach Blashill, Henrik Zetterberg and Justin Abdelkader stating that Detroit won’t stop trying to win games:
“My job is to coach and try to win hockey games,” Blashill said. “I’m a huge believer in controlling what you can control. I don’t control anything to do with (trades). All I control is our effort and how prepared we are and how hard we play.”
He doesn’t expect a letdown just because the front office is trying to dump contracts for futures.
“There better not be,” Blashill said. “Our goal is the same as it was at the beginning of the year, so regardless of what happens tomorrow, the next day, our job is to compete like crazy, work like crazy.
“As I said to the guys today, regardless of what happens, we got good enough players to win hockey games, so let’s go win. Let’s make sure we play with a chip on our shoulder that way.”
Said Zetterberg: “The guys in this locker room have not given up, so I don’t think I have to talk to anyone in here.”
Zetterberg made that comment with some anger in his voice, and Justin Abdelkader told Khan that the team’s got to maintain a professional demeanor:
“We just got to go out and continue to play hard. I think we’ve done a good job of that lately,” he said. “We’ve got to try to cancel out all the noise and just focus. We’re paid to come out and work hard and give our best effort each game.
“It is a business. You’ll see guys moved all over the league. It’s unfortunate we’re in this position again and we’re going to be sellers. Whatever group is on the ice, we got to go out, fight and battle and try to win each game.”
