Building blocks

As news breaks that the St. Louis Blues have hired ousted Bruins coach Jim Montgomery…

The Detroit Red Wings lost the special teams battle and plain old ran out of gas in the 3rd period of their 2-1 loss to the Boston Bruins on Saturday night.

When you go 0-for-4 on the power play, give up a power play goal against, and are then out-shot 13-4 in the 3rd period, the stats back up the above paragraph’s two assertions pretty bloody well.

But if we are to talk about the very fragile team that is the now 9-10-and-3, which sits 6th in the Atlantic Division at the 20-game mark…

I know that the Wings got out-shot, out-shot-blocked, out-performed in the faceoff circle and had an ugly 26 giveaways (Simon Edvinsson had 6 of those giveaways), so we’re not talking about the Red Wings’ best effort here.

And I’m not here to be a Red Wings apologist.

Last night’s 3rd period was unacceptable, it sullied the team and coaching staff’s full-game performances, and that’s the bottom line.

But I did see signs of progress over the course of the entirety of the game. Let’s enumerate a couple of those positives:

• For the first two periods, at least, the Red Wings were able to hang in there physically against the Bruins’ big, tough defense;
• For the first two periods, the Bruins’ speed game was neutralized (for the most part) by a Red Wings team that wasn’t firing on all cylinders;
• Despite his status as a 3rd period hero, the Wings did shut down Brad Marchand completely for the first 40 minutes of play, and they blunted David Pastrnak as well.
• The Wings didn’t really have an answer for Elias Lindholm’s faceoff prowess or Charlie McAvoy’s ability to generate offense on the rush…
• But Cam Talbot was excellent in the Wings’ crease throughout the course of the game, and Talbot keeps on giving the Red Wings the chance to win in the vast majority of his starts;
• Vladimir Tarasenko is finally “getting ‘er going,” with Tarasenko taking 2 shots and 6 more attempts in 20:03 played, including a late-game stint with Dylan Larkin and Lucas Raymond;
• While Patrick Kane’s mobility looks hampered right now, he posted 7 shot attempts and even blocked a shot, and compatriot Alex DeBrincat fired 3 shots on Jeremy Swayman and another 5 attempts wide or blocked for a total of 8 shot attempts, so #93’s shot attempt total was the best on the team;
• As my “The Flying Octopus” podcast compatriot Tony Wolak noted on Thursday night, Ben Chiarot and Jeff Petry were downright competent on Thursday, and the duo followed up Thursday’s performance with a downright competent performance on Saturday, stabilizing the Red Wings’ blueline;
• It’s hard to come up with more superlatives to praise Marco Kasper’s grit, hustle and determination as he’s become the Red Wings’ second-line center;
• Of all people, Jonatan Berggren excelled against the B’s big, physical defense, and while his stat sheet was bare, the booger battled his way along the boards and through the “dirty areas” of the ice;
• Between them, Tyler Motte (4) and Michael Rasmussen (3) led the Wings in hits, and the undersized Motte and oversized Rasmussen were both particularly effective in checking roles;
• Andrew Copp of all people had 3 shots and 5 attempts playing on the Red Wings’ “Identity Line” with Rasmussen and Christian Fischer;
• Again, Simon Edvinsson didn’t have his best game, but Moritz Seider was steady enough over the course of 24:22 played;
• And Lucas Raymond’s heating up, having scored a goal and taking 2 shots in 20:15 played. Raymond was tenacious and willing to push and shove in order to battle his way through the B’s defense;
• I was also pretty impressed with Dylan Larkin’s 40-minute performance. He struggled on faceoffs in the 3rd period, when the B’s pulled away, but Larkin ran at 67% on faceoffs over the first 2 periods, and he went 14-and-13 overall.

Now all of those at least somewhat positive and/or satisfactory performances didn’t add up to a strong team performance in the 3rd period. Detroit “ran out of gas” in a big way, and the Bruins’ big, strong and fast offense victimized the Red Wings’ forwards and defense repeatedly.

But the Wings had the puck possession battle over the first 40 minutes of play, the Wings were going toe-to-toe with the B’s over the first 40 minutes of play, and that is why their 3rd period egg-laying was so incredibly disappointing.

The 3rd is on the players and coaching staff. And as the Wings play through this 6-game evaluation period until December 2nd, when their 5-of-6-games-at-home schedule concludes, and things get rougher with a 4-of-5-on-the-road grind…

There’s just not a lot of leeway for the team to play as poorly as they did in the 3rd last night. Detroit’s got to “make hay while the sun shines,” tomorrow’s game on Long Island included.

Last night’s 3rd period underscored how incredibly fragile the Wings’ level of confidence is right now. It illustrated all the bad habits in terms of giving up oodles of shots against, affording the opposition time and space from center ice on in to exploit holes in defensive coverage, and the Wings’ counterattack was not sufficiently tenacious enough to battle its way through the B’s defense.

Detroit looked small and slow against the Big, Bad Bruins in the 3rd period, and between those issues and the fact that the Wings lost the special teams battle so very badly, there are reasons for continued concerns going forward.

Collectively, the Wings weren’t good enough last night, despite strong individual performances. And it is still clear that the Wings may require some personnel changes should the team not turn its ship around by the end of this stretch of mostly-at-home hockey.

There are no real excuses for the Wings’ performance in the 3rd period, and this is just not a period of time where the Wings have the luxury of saying, “Sorry, we goofed.”

But as this team reaches the “quarter pole,” all is not lost.

Even last night’s stinker of a 3rd period doesn’t completely negate the Red Wings’ positives over the course of the first 40 minutes last night. And those positives are what the Wings will have to lean upon as they continue moving forward tomorrow night.

They don’t have any other choice if they hope to keep their jobs, players and coaching staff included.