The Red Wings made their shootout loss against the Kraken memorable, but Todd McLellan wasn’t holding back in his postgame comments.
Via Darren Brown of NHL.com, McLellan said:
“I thought we put ourselves in a situation where we got frustrated (in the first two periods). That was taking a lot of energy out of our game. We weren’t connected, we were upset, for lack of a better term, with our play. We talked about it between the second and third and got a goal, and that broke the ice for us, so then we started coming back. We have a pretty resilient group.”
Looking at the shot totals from the first two periods, McLellan was correct. The Kraken outshot the Red Wings 22-11 throughout the game’s first 40 minutes. That’s a 2:1 ratio, and it was a big reason Detroit was down 3-0 heading into the third period.
Todd McLellan’s Comments Sum Up Poor Play In The First Two Periods
Detroit was also playing irresponsible hockey. During the Kraken’s power play early in the second period, Michael Rasmussen made a costly turnover while trying to backhand the puck out of the Detroit zone. Ryker Evans collected the puck and easily beat goaltender Daniil Tarasov to put Seattle up 2-0.
It’s lethargic play and bad decisions that will frustrate a team. The Red Wings had both on full display on Tuesday night.
Allison Lukan of the Kraken’s team site via Sportlogiq also noted, “The Kraken also won 66.7-percent of all puck battles.”
That analysis further sums up how badly things went for the Red Wings throughout most of the contest. Fortunately for Detroit, it managed some damage control.
McLellan Rightfully Praised The Red Wings’ Late-Game Efforts
Despite Detroit’s shortcomings through the first 40 minutes of Tuesday’s contest, the Red Wings deserve credit. They came out firing in the third period, outshooting the Kraken 13-4. It was a complete reversal from Detroit’s efforts in the second period, when they let the Kraken outshoot them 4-13.
Detroit’s power play also came to life. Lucas Raymond, Dylan Larkin, and Alex DeBrincat linked up twice. The first came at the 7:24 mark of the third period when Raymond put up a second effort to sneak the puck past Kraken goaltender Philipp Grubauer.
Larkin fired one at the net, and it rebounded off Grubauer’s pad. Raymond collected the puck and passed it to DeBrincat. DeBrincat relayed back to Raymond, who stuck around near the goal line. Raymond eased toward the net and fired.
The shot again rebounded off of Grubauer. Raymond found the puck and scored while stumbling forward.
DeBrincat later scored off assists from Larkin and Raymond with 17 seconds to go. It was the second time DeBrincat saved the Red Wings late in as many games. It was also his 300th career goal.
For Detroit, this one could be a momentum builder before they take on the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday. Vancouver has allowed 4.63 goals per game in the early going. Therefore, the Red Wings cannot play such disconnected and uninspired hockey early.
If they build on their third period from Tuesday night, Detroit will carry even more momentum into the back half of this road trip.
Todd McLellan Reveals What Frustrated Red Wings Against Kraken