When frustration is not a waste of time

I was incredibly relieved to hear Moritz Seider, J.T. Compher and coach Derek Lalonde crack a little bit in terms of their stoic facades last night, revealing the underlying frustration that lies beneath the Red Wings’ 0-3-and-2 record of late.

Coach Mike Babcock used to say, “Frustration is a waste of time,” and that may or may not be true, but the concept that a team and its players cannot or should not embrace a the motivation that comes from acknowledging negative emotions…

It’s kind of robotic, and it yields robotic results in terms of teams, players and coaches who continue to insist that they need to “trust the process” when it’s evident that their process isn’t working.

If this year’s Red Wings team is to turn around its 10-13-and-4 record, it’s going to have to not only embrace its work ethic and resolve, but also the emotions that the team is feeling.

It finally sounds like the Red Wings are willing to acknowledge that what they’re doing right now hasn’t facilitated successful results, and therein lies a kernel of hope…

Hope that the Wings will embrace the changes they need to make to their play in order to stop the losing streak and restart the team’s 2024-2025 season, starting with game 28 against Buffalo on Monday.

Now the 11-13-and-3 Sabres’ 5-2 loss to Utah on Saturday has the team’s fans ready to revolt against GM Kevyn Adams, and the Sabres are on a six-game losing streak, so the Red Wings are going to be heading into an incredibly hostile environment on Monday, with an opponent that will be absolutely desperate to break its winless streak.

But the first part of solving a problem is admitting that you have a problem, and that’s where the Red Wings’ acknowledgment of frustration and disappointment with how their season has gone thus far is in fact a beacon of hope.

Last week, Dylan Larkin said that the Wings have to play as if nobody’s coming in to save them, and that may be true, so it’s imperative that the Wings re-embrace their work ethic and the fundamentals of their game going forward.

It’s going to take hard work and the initiative to plain old out-hustle and out-grind their opponents in order to take the looming 2-game road trip (and then the home-heavy remainder of the team’s December schedule) and utilize it to prove that the current players and coach Lalonde and his staff can still earn their pay and earn their keep…

And there is nothing wrong with embracing a little anger in order to achieve their goals. Babcockian logic suggests that stoicism is the way, and that there’s no reason to play with a chip on your shoulder, but I happen to believe that too much “robot hockey” and “trusting of the process” can be absolutely deadly to a team’s hopes of playing competitive hockey in January, never mind February, March or April.

As Red Wings play-by-play broadcaster Mickey Redmond suggested, the Wings probably have a window until the end of December to turn their ship around without requiring significant intervention from their management group in terms of changing player personnel and coaching staff…

So perhaps the best thing the Wings can do is take their frustration and utilize it to give them the kick in the ass that they need to motivate themselves to recommit to the fundamentals of playing sound hockey.

Here’s hoping that embracing frustration, and using the energy it creates to facilitate change, actually works.