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Blashill: Time for Wings to man up |
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You could sense it in Henrik Zetterberg’s words.
You could see it in Jeff Blashill’s face.
They know that this is bad. Letting the season slip away kind of bad.
Yet no one with the Detroit Red Wings seems capable of coming up with the elixir to stop the bleeding.
Another loss Sunday, their fourth in a rown, this one a 3-2 setback at the hands of the Calgary Flames, resulted from a season-long Red Wings bugaboo – the unforced error.
The Wings simply played an on-ice version of the Keystone Cops in their own end, leaving Mikael Backlund all alone on the edge of Jimmy Howard’s goal crease to tap home the game winner at 12:14 of the third period.
“We left our man,” Wings coach Blashill said. “They were able to enter the zone a little bit easy. It was a sort at the blue line in a backcheck situation but then we just left our man.”
It was that easy, that simple, and yet for the Wings, Hockey 101 continues to appear to be a class in which they are in need of remedial study.
“When we’re playing the way we’re supposed to, we’re playing well, we’re creating chances, we have a lot of speed,” captain Zetterberg said. “But when we’re not, we’re getting caught in our own end and once teams get in your end, then it feels like we spend forever in there.”
Losers of six of the last season at Joe Louis Arena, Detroit is now 2-8-1 overall in its last 11 games, as this slump threatens to develop into a death spiral for their season.
“It’s not fun,” Zetterberg said. “Losing is not fun. But we’re in it, so we’ve got to turn this around.”
With confidence at a premium and their psyches teetering toward the fragile state, the Wings embark on a two-game road trip to Buffalo and New Jersey before returning home to face the Montreal Canadiens, the NHL’s No. 1 team.
“It’s on me, it’s on them, it’s on both I’d say,” Blashill said. “I think you have to ride a line of making sure . . . my job is to make sure we’re doing the right things, that we’re accountable enough and making sure that we stay focused on moving forward and not looking backwards.
“Looking backwards will do no good. We’ll have to do a good job of seeing what we can learn from this game. We’ve got to find ways to be better.”
That being said, Blashill then got a little more stern and direct toward his players when queried about the team’s inner strength and confidence.
“That part of it is more in the room,” Blashill said. “I think as a group we’ve got to look inside ourselves and say ‘This isn’t acceptable, and how are we going to be better?’ I talked earlier about the last couple games the process was good. It wasn’t good enough I didn’t think tonight. That’s not taking anything away from Calgary. I just didn’t think it wasn’t good enough tonight. So our process has to be better and then we’ve got to man up and be better as individuals.
“We better pick ourselves up and we better come to work tomorrow to get better. And we better put the work in that it takes to earn confidence come Wednesday. That’s the bottom line. We better pick ourselves up in a hurry and focus on coming to win a hockey game on Wednesday.”
He Shoots . . . He Scores
Rookie Anthony Mantha tied the game at 2-2 with his first goal in four games since his recall from AHL Grand Rapids.
“Obviously it was a big turning goal but then we gave one right away and we were back to chasing for another goal,” Mantha said. “It feels great but I would rather get the win than the goal for sure.”
Marchenko Out
Defenseman Alexey Marchenko left the game with an upper-body injury and the early prognosis was not good.
“It looks like he’ll be out for a little bit,” Blashill said. “I’ll have more for you tomorrow.”
Vanek Returns
Playing his first game after missing 11 with a hip ailment, forward Thomas Vanek had some chances but couldn’t finish them.
“He’s not as sharp as he had been when he left, which is typical of what happens there,” Blashill said. “He’ll be better here next game.”
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