MLive’s Ansar Khan took note of Red Wings coach Todd McLellan’s comments made after the Red Wings’ 4-1 loss to the Dallas Stars:
“Right now, I think we’re a reactive team when a couple of weeks ago we were proactive,” McLellan told FanDuel Sports Network following Sunday’s 4-1 loss to the Stars. “We were getting after it and now we’re waiting to see what happens and reacting to it. We’ve got to fix that, and we will.”
The Red Wings (21-21-4) wrap up a challenging four-game trip Tuesday in Philadelphia (21-20-6), where they are 2-18-2 in their past 22 (7 p.m., FanDuel Sports Network).
“We obviously don’t feel good about ourselves right now, but we got a chance to play in Philly,” McLellan said. “Obviously, the team hasn’t played really well there lately, so we got an opportunity to break that streak and come home at .500 in a real tough trip.”
The Red Wings have scored only one goal in each of the past two games, but on Sunday, McLellan was more concerned about the other side of the puck. Two bad periods cost them – they allowed three goals in a span of 3:42 early in the second period at Tampa Bay and three goals in 8:52 in the first period at Dallas.
“The start that we had tonight, it’s hard because the team plays the price for a few individual errors,” McLellan said. “It reminds me a little bit of the San Jose game (6-3 loss Jan. 14). We start that way and put ourselves in a hole. We’re not a four-goal team. We talk about playing to three and if we would have kept it at that level maybe we had a chance, but I look at it more from the defensive side of it, the disastrous mistakes we made that ended up in the back of our net.”
The Red Wings are 8-4-0 since McLellan took over. The power play, despite going 1 for 9 over the weekend, has been potent, converting at nearly 42 percent during this stretch (18 for 43). The penalty killing continues to struggle (16 for 25, 64 percent).
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