The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan filed a day-after-the-game column discussing the Red Wings’ state of mind after the trade deadline and the team’s 5th consecutive loss, a 5-2 defeat at the hands of the Washington Capitals on Friday.
Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin was blunt in addressing both issues:
“The message is the message” captain Dylan Larkin said after Friday’s defeat. “We didn’t do a whole lot (trade-wise), but it’s also hard. It’s honestly been hard to follow because of our game and the back-to-back (games). You look at it, you look at what’s going on around the league, and it’s pretty wild with all the big teams loading up. It is what it is right now. We’ve got a group in here that we believe can win, and we just got to start doing it.”
Along with the Wings’ five-game losing streak, they’ve only won twice in the last nine games (2-6-1) and they desperately need to win to change course quickly. Monday’s game in Ottawa, which is just above Detroit in the standings, is obviously huge. But at this juncture, the Wings just need a victory against anyone.
“We just got to get a win, get off the schneid, find a way to win and then continue to find ways to win, not find ways to lose,” Larkin said. “We’re not scoring enough. We’ve got to get to the hard areas.”
With all the losing, the Wings’ confidence appears to be a bit shaken.
“Absolutely it is,” Larkin said. “That’s why I continue to say, ‘Just find a way to win a hockey game.’ It’s not going to get any easier down the stretch with our schedule. You can’t waste good starts like that (Friday) and Talbs (goaltender Cam Talbot) played really well. We just turned the puck over and he had two-on-ones and breakaways coming at him. It’s unacceptable.”
The Red Wings still have the toughest remaining schedule in terms of quality off competition, but even after a meager trade deadline performance, coach Todd McLellan told Kulfan that the Wings will look to Petr Mrazek and Craig Smith to bring a spark to the team…
“I haven’t even talked to the players yet personally,” McLellan said. “They’re both older guys. I would imagine they probably have families that they have to get situated in Chicago or else get them to Detroit. So, that’s the first thing we’re going to do. Then, we’ll sit down with them and explain how we’re going to use them and then we’ll practice. Sometimes that injection of new bodies can bring a lot of energy to a hockey club and I’m hoping that happens in this case.”
Or, as Patrick Kane put it:
“A lot of that stuff is out of our control,” forward Patrick Kane said. “We kind of focus on what we’re doing on the ice. We haven’t been playing as well lately. We’ve played well some games even though we’ve lost. They (Mrazek, Smith) are valuable pieces that we added to our team. Nineteen games left in the year, we have no choice, we have to get ready for the next one.”
