The Free Press’s Helene St. James posted a morning news column in which she discusses the Red Wings’ concerns about both goaltending and their atrocious penalty-killing unit:
The other [issue] is that it doesn’t matter who is in goal if the Wings can’t get their penalty kill sorted. On Sunday, the Vancouver Canucks scored twice during overlapping power plays en route to a 5-4 victory in overtime. Now the Wings head to Boston for Tuesday’s game against the Bruins bruised by two losses that both can be blamed on the penalty kill. It gave up two less than a minute apart in the second period, both to Jake DeBrusk; the first during a 5-on-3 Vancouver power play and the second during a regular one.
“Five-on-three, they get a good tip on it,” Lalonde said. “Then the second one, it’s just a missed clear. Those are the frustrating ones. Because a lot of it has not been structure of late. We miss an easy clear and then we get outmuscled at the net. Here we are, giving up two.
“That wasn’t structure today. It was a missed clear, and I mean, Lucas Raymond is going to be an All-Star-type player, and he misses a clear. We’ll give him the message, but that’s just execution. It’s the frustration of where the penalty kill is at. It’s finding a way to sting us.”
The Wings gave up three goals during penalty kills in Friday’s 5-4 loss to the New Jersey Devils, and needed overtime to salvage a 2-1 game against the Calgary Flames on Wednesday after giving one up late during a penalty kill.
“It’s just the details,” Dylan Larkin said after Sunday’s mishaps. “You give a power play like that a 5-on-3, it’s not good. They have special players over there. I think we just keep battling, and we have to stick together on it. I thought we did a good job limiting their chances, but it’s the details again. We have to dig ourselves out of that hole on the penalty kill and it’s from the guys in the room.”
Continued (paywall)
