Both the Free Press’s Helene St. James and MLive’s Ansar Khan posted articles this morning which discuss the Red Wings’ overall play thus far, as well as last night’s 2-1 victory over the Buffalo Sabres.
St. James wonders whether the 5-5-and-1 Red Wings can kick themselves into gear without the services of Shayne Gostisbehere and David Perron, suggesting that the team’s uneven performances aren’t acceptable–and I think that the fan base would agree with that:
“We’ve done some good things, but it hasn’t been consistent enough,” veteran Patrick Kane said. “Sometimes you’re trying to find your way as a team. There’s different things that go on throughout the game, whether it’s penalties or momentum. I think sometimes when we have momentum, we can keep it a little bit more. Other times when we’re chasing, I think we can kill their momentum quicker.”
Coach Derek Lalonde has pointed to some improvement in underlying numbers, like rush chances against. But as it stands now, the numbers that matter — wins and points — don’t favor the Wings competing for a playoff spot. That needs to change, and pretty much every skater needs to show more. There have been spurts of that next level of play, but not nearly enough of it.
“We’d like to seek some 60-minute consistency,” Lalonde said. “It’s something we’re battling through, all 12 [forwards, all six [defensemen]. There are signs of it being good. Hopefully we can start playing more consistent, 60-minute games.”
MLive’s Ansar Khan discusses the team’s play as it applies to last night’s 2-1 victory over the Sabres:
“We’ve had flashes of this,” coach Derek Lalonde said. “That’s a quality win. That’s a really good offensive team. The power play was good. Penalty kill, two for two. And I liked our third. I still think we probably can make a few more plays in the third. But a lot of positives tonight.”
It starts with Talbot. He made some keys saves early in the game when the Sabres were pushing. His only blemish was Alex Tuch’s shorthanded breakaway goal that opened the scoring at 11:39 of the first, after Tuch stripped the puck from Larkin at center ice.
“Truly the difference maker,” Larkin said, “Got us two points and unbelievable stops all night. Pretty perfect game. I put the one goal against on myself and turning that puck over, pretty unacceptable. And he was there for us. The rest of the guys, everyone blocking shots.”
Larkin made amends by scoring twice in the second – at 7:49 after Patrick Kane swatted the puck away from defenseman Mattias Samuelsson and at 14:38 on a pass from Alex DeBrincat.
“I wanted that goal back as much as (Larkin) did,” Talbot said. “You get a turnover like that, you want to be the guy to bail him out, so I wanted to pick him up. Was upset at myself that I wasn’t able to do that, but I felt good the rest of the night. Guys played great in front of me. But this guy (Larkin) is hard on himself after the first and really picked the boys back up in the second period and buried a couple. That’s just what you want your leader to do.”
Yesterday night’s victory over Buffalo was a “good start” for a November in which the Wings will play 12 more times, including back-to-back slates of 3 games over the course of 4 nights–both this week vs. Chicago, Toronto and New York, and next week at Pittsburgh, then Anaheim and Los Angeles (with the Wings finishing up their 4-game road trip against Jake Walman and the San Jose Sharks).
This month’s results will determine whether the team can succeed with its present lineup and present coaching staff, or whether the team will need to make changes in order to reset before things get too bad to salvage.
The Wings have also been incredibly lucky that, aside from the Florida Panthers, nobody’s been able to break away from the Atlantic Division’s morass of mediocrity yet:
With Toronto, Ottawa, Detroit and Buffalo hovering around .500, and the Sabres and Habs struggling a bit, the Wings will have many opportunities to get some practice in (as they don’t play again until Wednesday) before settling into a game-every-other-night schedule for three-and-a-half weeks, from November 21st until December 9th.
That stretch should test the Wings’ moxie as well, as we can expect some injuries to pile up and some streaks of play to become established against what are no longer any “easy” games. In today’s NHL, there just aren’t any more “gimme the points” games.
By the time Christmas comes some 23 games from now, we’re going to know what kind of team this Red Wings squad really is.
Here’s hoping that the Red Wings dig in and start winning some games on a consistent basis…
And if they don’t, that GM SY and the Wings’ front office choose make sure to address the Wings’ deficiencies with a mixture of recalls from Grand Rapids and some substantive, decisive trades.
We’ve already seen that the team is going to look different then because of the management’s decision to make room for Marco Kasper and Albert Johansson in the lineup, and we’re going to see more moves as injuries and player performances merit.
It all starts with a tough stretch of 6 games over the next 7 away from Little Caesars Arena, and the tests continue from there.
