MLive’s Ansar Khan posted a column discussing the Red Wings’ 3-0 loss to the Montreal Canadiens last night, noting that Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill and defenseman Danny DeKeyser were completely dissatisfied with their team’s effort against the struggling Canadiens, who still sit at 3-and-8 after last night’s game vs. 4-4-and-2 Detroit:
“You have a chance to come out and have a great third period against a team that’s come off a West Coast trip, that lost a player early with (Jonathan) Drouin, and we didn’t come close to mustering the effort we need to have in order to win the hockey game,” Blashill said. “I think we’ve worked hard to develop an identity as a team that’s hard to play against, and tonight we weren’t.”
The Red Wings have lost twice in 10 days to a struggling Canadiens club (3-8-0), getting outscored 9-1.
“It’s a tough building to play in. It’s a momentum building,” DeKeyser said. “They came out right from the first shift and kind of tilted the ice. We weren’t able to really push back at all. We didn’t have enough shots, didn’t get enough traffic in front of the net, made it too easy on them.”
The Red Wings last week came back from 0-2 deficits to defeat Washington and earn a point in an overtime loss to Florida. That same urgency was lacking on this night.
“We had a whole bunch of players not even close to what they’re capable of, so we didn’t create any pressure on their D at all, in the third especially,” Blashill said. “We didn’t create a lot of chances. In the third we had zero. To me, it’s inexcusable. We got to find a way to make sure we’re way better than that.”
Continued; here’s hoping that, this year, anyway, the players heed their coach’s words.
