The Detroit Red Wings dropped a frustrating 5-1 decision to the Montreal Canadiens last night in the Wings’ home opener, and this morning, a quintet of writers have weighed with more discussion about the Red Wings’ loss.
First, MLive’s Ansar Khan points out that, while the Wings gave up a gaggle of odd-man rushes due to neutral zone turnovers, the team believes that their errors are fixable–but only at a cost:
“You don’t give up two-on-ones; if a D’s down, a forward covers,” [coach Todd McLellan] said. “You manage the puck; you don’t turn it over. I thought we got off to a good start, but our game management, you’re going to hear that all year from me because clearly, it’s still a huge issue. We just played the game; we didn’t play to win the game.
“The players will say we can fix this. We can. Some of them have been doing it for years. It’s time. We just spent 3-3½ weeks at training camp dealing with these situations. If it happened once or twice in a game, OK. But there’s maybe six or seven outnumbered rushes at the end of the first period from the 10-minute mark on and it’s unacceptable. We’ll have to drill it back into them.”
The Canadiens scored five unanswered goals after Dylan Larkin opened the scoring on the power play at 3:50 of the first. John Gibson, in his Red Wings debut, allowed all five goals on 13 shots and was pulled for Cam Talbot with 3:48 remaining in the second.
“I thought it was a great start, really good intensity, and then the game kind of slipped away from us,” Moritz Seider said. “We weren’t detailed. They just kind of outworked us, out-skated us, got a lot of great opportunities around our net and nothing Gibby could have done to prevent goals.”
McLellan and players said they “hung (Gibson) out to dry.”
“We didn’t execute and everything they got, I feel like we let them get behind us,” Larkin said. “We seemed like we really couldn’t do the simple things, chipping pucks in and getting to our game on the forecheck. We shot ourselves in the foot so many times that we didn’t have time to get to our game and create offense. It was chaotic and a lot of the chaos was self-inflicted, and it was a strange, strange game and we just really did not help ourselves at all. And I do believe it’s all fixable.”
Second, Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen noted the following about the Red Wings’ rookie trio:
The 5-1 loss to the Montreal Canadiens wasn’t the fault of Axel Sandin Pellikka, Michael Brandsegg-Nygard or Emmitt Finnie. Not even close, but no one wearing a Detroit Centennial jersey stood out.
“I thought they were okay,” Coach Todd McLellan said. “I can’t recall them being involved in a lot of the crap, if you will. You know, it’s a different game. That team had already played once. So for those three to get in and experience it now, our team wasn’t real good around them, so they’re not always going to feel comfortable. But I don’t think that they were involved in any of the major issues that we have. But we’ll have to go back and look at it.
Sandin Pellikka and Finnie were even on the night with one shot on goal, while Brandsegg-Nygard was -2. However, Brandsegg-Nygard tied for the team high with five hits. He also produced two shots on goal.
Third, the Hockey News’s Michael Whitaker took note of McLellan’s remarks regarding the boo birds at LCA:
“We earned the Bronx boos or whatever you want to call it, we earned those,” McLellan said. “And it’s up to us to fix it. If we just play fundamentally sound hockey, we wouldn’t be putting ourselves in that situation. Until we get that down and get it back in it’s box if you will, we’ll have trouble winnings games.”
Several of the Canadiens goals were a result of the Red Wings not playing the kind of fundamentally sound hockey that McLellan alluded to.
Montreal generated several odd-man rushes in the opening 20 minutes, capitalizing first on a partial breakaway after a missed defensive assignment that led to a Zack Bolduc goal, then on a two-on-one rush where Oliver Kapanen converted off a pass from Alex Newhook.
After two more goals from the Canadiens in the second period, goaltender John Gibson, who was making his Red Wings debut after being acquired from the Anaheim Ducks in an offseason trade, was pulled in favor of Cam Talbot.
Defenseman Moritz Seider explained that despite the messages from McLellan during Training Camp and the preseason, they were unable to execute the way they wanted to against the Canadiens.
“We talked about it so many times during Camp, and we just couldn’t find a way to prevent the chances and make it happen on the other side,” Seider said. “It’s kind of tough that way, but we just have to regroup. Obviously it’s a long year, and hopefully it’s just a bump in the road.”
Fourth, The Athletic’s Max Bultman offered 5 thoughts regarding the Wings’ “unraveling“:
While it’s just Game 1 out of 82, McLellan wasn’t in a particularly patient mood after the game.
“The players will say — they probably have already said to you — ‘we can fix this,’” McLellan said. “When? It’s time. Some of them have been doing it for years. It’s time.”
I don’t know how many players watch the coach’s postgame press conferences, but I’m sure a similar message will be delivered at Friday’s practice.
There is obviously plenty of time for the Red Wings to right the ship, and they’re far from the first team to have a sloppy season opener. But especially for a team in their situation, they don’t have much time to feel their way into things.
There is real urgency to make these fixes fast. Detroit can’t allow themselves to get off to another slow start, like the one that doomed them a year ago. And they’ll have to find a way to tap into that urgency without allowing it to become panic, which typically only makes a team more sloppy.
Again, the Red Wings’ early schedule is a murderers’ row, with a home-and-home series against the Maple Leafs in the offing, then home games against Florida, Tampa Bay and Edmonton, back-to-backs against Buffalo and the Islanders, a home-and-home with St. Louis and the start of a 5-game West Coast swing.
11 more games in only 21 October days and nights (days, because Monday’s game is a 4 PM start due to Canadian Thanksgiving) = the Red Wings aren’t going to have a whole lot of time to fix what ails them.
Fifth and finally, well…The Free Press’s Carlos Monarrez weighs in:
McLellan said one or two breakdowns would be understandable, but he counted six or seven outnumbered rushes from the end of the first period on.
So what does McLellan plan to do about it? He plans to drill the mistakes out of his players. And while it’s only one game, we must remember something about this team: The Wings are no one’s Stanley Cup favorite and will probably have to play up to or past their potential to end a nine-year playoff drought.
That means they can’t blow chances like an early lead against a comparable team in the season opener at home amid a big celebration with the hyped-up crowd on their side.
“So the good news to that is, it’s our first game,” Larkin said. “We got a chance to fix all that. A lot of that is on us.
“And, you know, it’s just, I thought such a special night. Crowd was unbelievable and we kind of wasted that one. And we’ve got 81 more to … get back to our game and we got to figure it out fast. And I believe it’s in this room.”
Yes, it’s only one game. If the Wings have any hope at all this season, they have to make sure this kind of effort ends after one game, especially with a brutal five-game schedule coming up against Toronto twice, then Florida, Tampa Bay and Edmonton.
As McLellan said, it’s well past time for the Wings to fix these kinds of games.
If some players can’t, then maybe their coach should suggest they find another place to play like, perhaps, hockey’s little leagues.
That’s about as optimistic as Monarrez gets. And he kind of stole my thunder, too.
