Red Wings-Sharks wrap-up: the streak is over, and the work of the coach-and-players marriage begins

The Red Wings’ 6-3 loss to the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday ended the team’s 7-game winning streak with an embarrassment of mistakes and missteps as the Sharks swept the season series with Detroit.

The Red Wings now face a difficult 4-games-in-6-nights road trip through Florida, Tampa Bay, Dallas and Philadelphia, and they’ll head off to their road test after more than a few lessons taught by coach Todd McLellan at tomorrow’s practice.

For the Sharks, who scored on their only power play–and scored shorthanded goals on both of Detroit’s power plays–the game was a “statement-making” win, as well as the end of a 3-game losing streak, as they told the San Jose Mercury News’s Curtis Pashelka:

William Eklund, Mikael Granlund, Tyler Toffoli, and Mario Ferraro all scored third-period goals to help lead the Sharks to a 6-3 win over the Detroit Red Wings at Little Caesars Arena to open a five-game road trip.

Eklund and linemate Macklin Celebrini also had two assists each, and goalie Alexandar Georgiev made 25 saves for just his second win in a Sharks uniform.

The six goals the Sharks scored were the most in any one game since Nov. 29 when they beat the Seattle Kraken 8-5 at SAP Center.

“We’ve had a lot of games where we only score two or three goals,” Celebrini said. “So it feels good to see it go in the back of the net, and we were getting (offense) from everyone.”

Jan Rutta and Nico Sturm also scored for the Sharks, who continue their road trip on Thursday against the Columbus Blue Jackets.

The Sharks led 4-2 midway through the third period before the Red Wings scored off a set play on a faceoff against Celebrini’s line with Toffoli and Eklund. Dylan Larkin controlled the draw against Celebrini inside the Sharks’ zone and quickly got the puck over to Lucas Raymond, who beat Georgiev to cut San Jose’s lead to one at the 9:56 mark.

The Sharks responded just 61 seconds later. Celebrini put a shot toward the net inside the Red Wings’ zone, and after a scramble, Toffoli collected the loose puck and beat goalie Ville Husso with a sharp-angle shot to restore the Sharks’ two-goal lead.

“We wanted to get on them right away,” Celebrini said. “We just kind of wanted to answer because we know that wasn’t good enough on that (Red Wings) goal.”

Celebrini told NHL.com’s Dave Hogg that the Sharks’ plan was to go after the Wings from the start:

“We knew how hot they were and how dangerous they are,” Celebrini said. “We stayed focused the whole game and when they answered, we responded the right way.”

Said San Jose coach Ryan Warsofsky of Georgiev: “He was really good tonight. You could tell he was tracking pucks and he made some huge saves. His game has been trending in the right direction, and I’m glad he got rewarded with a win.”

…

Jan Rutta gave San Jose a 1-0 lead at 1:45, scoring off a long rebound after Husso’s save of Will Smith’s shot.

“We knew Detroit was coming in pretty hot so we wanted to get a good start,” Rutta said. “I think that goal set the tone for the first period.”

Nico Sturm made it 2-0 with a short-handed goal at 17:41, beating Husso after Eklund drew three defenders before sending Sturm in alone.

“I saw the three guys and when I turned my back, I saw Nico coming,” Eklund said. “He made a heck of a play on the breakaway.”

But Red Wings coach Todd McLellan saw the game very differently:

“I thought our third period (on Sunday) against [the Seattle Kraken] showed up in the game tonight,” Detroit coach Todd McLellan said. “We were sloppy in that third and we gave up quite a bit. We started tonight’s game the same way.”

…

“This was a disappointing night for our group — a new experience for us in our few weeks here,” McLellan said. “I’m anxious to see if we carry this with us, or do we respond?”

McLellan continued while speaking with Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen:

“Disappointing night for our group,” McLellan said. “New experience for us in our few weeks here. We’ll have a good skate tomorrow, and then I’m anxious to see how we do we carry this with us or do we respond? And if we respond and we do the proper things? I don’t know if we’ll win or lose, but we’ll give ourselves a chance. And if we don’t, then we got a lot of work to do, and I’m excited about seeing that.”

What we are all learning about McLellan is he gives honest about what’s happening with his team. This was the first time McLellan saw Villie Husso play.

“I would say that he probably has to find a way to make one of those saves,” McLellan said. “I don’t know which one. And you asked me the question, I gotta answer. I got to tell you that. But if you think, or anybody in here thinks that game was on the goaltending, it sure wasn’t. “

Honesty is part of McLellan’s coaching style. Just like in the game against Seattle, McLellan didn’t like what he saw from his team against the Sharks.

“(The players are) on the bench and they’re watching things happen, and they can hear coaches barking and they’re saying the same thing,” McLellan said. “And then the next group goes out and does the exact same, behaves the exact same way. So to me, that tells me they weren’t sharp, they weren’t alert, they weren’t prepared to adjust. So that’s how I felt tonight. We lost the special teams battle. Gave up two goals in the first minute of the period, minute and a half of a period. We were ready to have a push in the third period. We won the draw, and arguably two of our best players can’t connect on a pass, and it’s in our net. Just not sharp enough.”

And there’s this…

Tuesday’s loss, coupled with the Columbus Blue Jackets’ 3-2 shootout win against Philadelphia, leaves the Red Wings four points out of the Eastern Conference wildcard spot heading into a road trip where winning games will be a challenge. There are five teams within four points of the Blue Jackets who are on a five-game winning streak.

Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff also noted that McLellan benched Justin Holl, who had a very rough outing, halfway through the 3rd period…

“I’m not going to sit up here and BS for him,” McLellan said. “He had a terrible night and that’s just the way it is.”

Holl’s defensive zone turnover led to Jan Rutta’s goal that opened the scoring at 1:45 of the first period. His giveaway in the third period was leading to Tyler Toffoli’s goal that put the Sharks ahead 5-3 with 10:57 to play.

Holl didn’t play another shift the remainder of the game. McLellan was asked post-game if that was sending a message to the veteran defenseman.

“Well, sending a message,” McLellan said. “He sent himself a message. I think that’s pretty obvious. So whether he got on in the last five minutes or not, it really doesn’t matter. He knows he can play better. And I’m telling you before I’m going to tell him, but I am going to tell him that tomorrow and that’s up to him to fix. I know he’s a better player than that.”

The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan also took note of McLellan’s comments…

“For the first time we sagged a little bit. It was almost like we were entitled to win and when it wasn’t going for us, it was just a little bit of a sag. Human nature, but something we have to fight through.”

The Wings (20-19-4) now embark on a true test, a rugged four-game road trip to Florida, Tampa, Dallas and Philadelphia. Four games in six nights against three Stanley Cup contenders and a Philadelphia team right in the mix with the Wings for a wildcard spot.

“I’m anxious to see do we carry this with us or do we respond,” McLellan said. “If we respond and do the proper things, and I don’t know if we win or lose, but we’ll give ourselves a chance, and if we don’t, we have a lot of work to do. I’m excited about seeing that.”

And both Moritz Seider and Vladimir Tarasenko, who scored 2 goals, weighed in…

“That’s kind of killing momentum,” said Moritz Seider of coming within one goal, but quickly giving it back. “We work real hard to get that goal back and kind of give it back to them in the next couple of shifts. It’s something we have to learn.”

…

Simon Edvinsson worked the puck down to near the goal line and lifted a shot that goaltender Alexandar Georgiev didn’t corral, with Tarasenko driving to the net and batting in the rebound. It was Tarasenko’s first goal since Dec. 1, ending an 18-game drought.

“It’s hard to talk about points when you lose a game,” Tarasenko said. “It was a nice stretch for us but now we need to recover. It’s always nice to find some goals but a different feeling (when you lose).”

Tarasenko continued while speaking with DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills…

“It’s hard to talk about points when we lose a game,” said Vladimir Tarasenko, who scored two goals for the Red Wings (20-19-4; 44 points) to record his second straight multi-point game. “It was a nice stretch for us, but like [Moritz Seider] said, we need to recover. It’s always nice to have points and goals, but if a team doesn’t win it’s a different feeling.”

But Seider was somewhat defiant:

“I think we can beat any team in the League,” Seider said. “Why not start in Florida with a good start for the road trip? Set ourselves up, feel good about ourselves and then go to work in the other cities as well.”

Mills posted his usual end-of-recap bank of comments…

McLellan on the areas he the Red Wings need to tighten up: “We talked a lot about playing faster east-west in our end, so that means going from one side of the rink to the other, and we didn’t do it. The last goal, we got beat off the wall. They changed sides behind the net, slung it to the crease area and we’re late. The pace of defending and offense wasn’t there. The teal team had better pace to their game in those areas and it cost us.”

McLellan on Husso’s night: “I would say he probably has to find a way to make one of those saves. I don’t know which one…But if anybody in here thinks that game was on the goaltending, it sure wasn’t.”

Seider on what he thought was missing on Tuesday: “We over-complicated the game in the first period, then just chased the game a little bit. After 10 minutes, we realized playing easy and simple is a lot more effective than playing east-west hockey. Got some good, tough shots on net and made the goalie work. Obviously, felt a lot better then a rough break in the third. But I think it’s just a bump in the road. We’ll fix that and get ready for a good road trip.”

Seider on if he felt Detroit played a little too loose as their winning streak went on: “Maybe, yeah. That could be one of the reasons, but overall, I don’t think we should be that concerned. I know we are a good team. We’ll shake it off, go to work tomorrow in practice, make sure we’ll tighten things up and get ready for a good road trip.”

And The Athletic’s Max Bultman weighed in, too, suggesting that the Red Wings’ “honeymoon period” under coach McLellan ended with Tuesday night’s loss:

In the grand scheme, one loss is not a Doom’s Day scenario here. This was a winnable game, to be sure, but teams have off nights — and no one is immune from seeing bad habits creep in after a long winning streak.

What was notable, though, was hearing the shift in tone from McLellan — another signal that the honeymoon period was over.

That was clearest in how he talked about Holl’s night. In addition to Holl’s turnover on the first goal, he had another particularly bad giveaway in front of the net that led to the Sharks’ fifth goal with 9:03 remaining, and he didn’t see another shift after that. I asked McLellan if he was trying to send a message with that.

“He sent himself a message,” McLellan said. “I think that’s pretty obvious. You can march him in here and — I’m not going to sit up here and B.S. for him — he had a terrible night. And that’s just the way it is. So, whether he got on in the last five minutes or not, it really doesn’t matter. He knows he can play better, and I’m telling you before I’m gonna tell him, but I am going to tell him that tomorrow. And that’s up to him to fix. I know he’s a better player than that.”

To McLellan’s point, I don’t think that will be anything Holl is surprised to hear. Nor will Ville Husso likely disagree with McLellan’s comment that he “probably has to find a way to make one of those saves” after he let in five on 23 shots — though he added at the end that if “anybody in here thinks that game was on the goaltending, it sure wasn’t.”

Some of that is just the nature of talking after a loss instead of a win — with more bad than good to discuss. But the more fiery messaging stood out nonetheless.

And as Detroit gets set for a four-game road trip, things aren’t going to get any easier.

The Red Wings will go next to Florida, Tampa, and Dallas — three Stanley Cup contenders — before finishing their trip against a tough Philadelphia team. Looking bigger picture, they now have the toughest remaining schedule in the league, with a combined opposing points percentage of .588. Things are about to get tough.

So after three weeks of injecting life back into their season, that means it’s now time to find out if the Red Wings are ready for what comes after the honeymoon.

If the Red Wings can put Moritz Seider’s tone to good use, and McLellan’s lessons to what is the hockey version of “pen and paper”–on-ice usage–then perhaps the honeymoon being over means that the real work of the marriage can begin.

Multimedia:

Highlights: Sportsnet posted a 10:18 highlight clip…

NHL.com posted a 10:14 highlight clip:

Post-game: NBC Sports California posted a clip of William Eklund, Macklin Celebrini and coach Ryan Warsofsky’s post-game comments, and you can watch the Sharks’ “victory speech” on Twitter if you wish: