The Detroit Red Wings struggled through one of their worst performances of the season against Calgary.
Via Jonathan Mills of the Red Wings team site, McLellan said, “We extend a shift, we shoot one over the glass. Those are the little things our team can’t afford to do. We can’t survive those momentums. We don’t score enough.”
It has been a trying first 11 games for the Red Wings (4-4-3). Following their 4-1 loss to the Flames on Saturday night, Detroit has scored 28 goals. That is 2.54 per game. Heading into Saturday, they were 23rd in the league in scoring. Saturday’s loss was the latest example that warned inconsistent play with the puck could be a season-long trend.
It was the fifth time this season Detroit was held to two goals or fewer. In such games, the Red Wings are 1-3-1. Detroit doesn’t do enough defensively to consistently get away with winning games 2-1. To stop this trend, they must start playing better hockey when the puck lands on their stick.
Red Wings Lost To A Team That Was 30th In Goals Against
The Flames have had a rough year all around. Before Saturday’s slate of games, they were 30th in goals against, with 38, and 31st with 19 goals scored. Still, the Red Wings managed to put up just one goal and allow four.
To be fair, goaltender Devin Cooley has played at an elite level lately. Cooley has now stopped 100 of his last 104 shots faced, good for a .961 save percentage. But the Red Wings still outshot the Flames 29-25. They won 55.1 percent of their faceoffs, yet couldn’t capitalize.
Turnovers crushed Detroit on Saturday night. They gave the puck away 21 times, recorded three takeaways, and blocked six shots. Calgary coughed up the puck just nine times while blocking 15 of Detroit’s shots and stealing the puck another six times.
You look at these numbers, and it’s easy to see what McLellan meant when he said, “Those are the little things our team can’t afford to do.”
Getting the little things wrong, making petty errors, and generally letting an opponent — no matter how weak they look — outplay you will rarely land your team in the win column. The Red Wings learned that on Saturday night, and McLellan couldn’t have been more blunt.
Detroit Can’t Repeat The Mistake On Monday Night
The Red Wings will get a chance to rebound from their disastrous offensive and overall showing come Monday against the Edmonton Oilers. Edmonton has been one of the league’s hottest teams all season, and the Red Wings squandered a chance to build momentum heading into the contest.
The silver lining is that Detroit has shown flashes that it can produce consistently when it has the puck. It just hasn’t done so to the point where fans can expect a valiant effort offensively heading into each game.
In the three games before facing the Flames, Detroit scored 12 times. If they can turn into that team once more against Edmonton, they may be fine. But, as McLellan implied, such performances just don’t occur often enough. It will be up to the Red Wings to change that trend.
Todd McLellan Makes Concerning Admission After Red Wings Loss To Flames