After today’s practice at Little Caesars Arena, Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde and captain Dylan Larkin spoke with the Red Wings’ media corps, and when they spoke with MLive’s Ansar Khan, they discussed the Red Wings’ league-worst penalty-kill:
“Really frustrating,” [Lalonde] said. “The structure looks a little bit better but literally every chance we’ve given up has gone in. Last night we gave up three chances and all three went in. Overextended on two of the three goals and they end up in the back of our net. Three weeks ago, we were able to rep it in practice and I thought it gave the PK a little spark. Hopefully, it will again tomorrow.”
They need to find the right balance between being aggressive and not overextending themselves.
“The frustrating part of it is even last night, for 70 percent of our penalty kill we did some good things, but the 30 percent end up in the back of our net,” Lalonde said.
It’s all about details, Dylan Larkin said.
“We know what we’re doing … our details aren’t good enough, and we’re letting goals slip, and there’s all different ways,” Larkin said. “It’s hard to say that we’ve done a decent job with the numbers and where we’re at, but it’s not all doom and gloom with the penalty kill. It’s just mental lapses. It’s just goals that are going in in the last 10 seconds, and we have to clean things up and be better, more detailed for the full two minutes.
“That’s why it’s important to get clears and get fresh guys out there. The emphasis — 15, 30 seconds, get a clear, get off. We don’t do that well enough and it costs us. When you’re tired, you’re giving the other teams’ best players looks and they want you to run around and tire yourselves out.”
Continued (paywall)
