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Things to clean up in Hockeytown |
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A to-do list for the Detroit Red Wings to put on the team refrigerator following Thursday’s 2-1 overtime loss to the Florida Panthers at Joe Louis Arena of things that required rectifying prior to embarking on their upcoming road trip:
1. Close the Red Wings Bakery
Turnovers - a Detroit bugaboo for much of the season - were a problem that appeared to have been solved but reared its ugly head again Thursday.
“We just have to be smarter with the puck for sure and be harder on it,” Detroit forward Luke Glendening said. “Tonight we didn’t do that.”
There were plenty of examples of poor puck decisions all night long but the most glaring came in overtime when defenseman Ryan Sproul presented the puck to Florida’s Jonathan Marchessault, and then headed to the bench, helping to create the opening for Aleksander Barkov’s breakaway game winner.
“Turnovers,” Detroit defenseman Niklas Kronwall said, shaking his head. “All over the ice.
“I thought our start was decent, the first 10 minutes or so. The second period wasn’t very good. We started turning the puck over.
“We didn’t really get back to playing the way we want to after that.”
2. Lose The Foul Behavior
Detroit was shorthanded six times Thursday after taking five infractions of the rules in Tuesday’s 3-1 win over Dallas. That their penalty killers staved off all 11 opposition power plays is impressive but this continued miscreant behavior can only bring bad things.
“It’s going to be long nights if we keep doing that,” Kronwall said.
The numerous penalties disrupt line combinations and destroy the flow of the game from Detroit’s perspective.
“You’re in your zone a lot and (goalie Petr Mrazek is) getting tired and a lot of our tops guys aren’t playing,” Glendening said. “That’s hard on them to get out of a rhythm.”
Several of Detroit’s skill players, such as captain Henrik Zetterberg, Tomas Tatar, Anthony Mantha and Dylan Larkin, don’t kill penalties so a rash of infractions inhibits their ice time.
“It breaks up the lines and some guys are sitting on the bench for too long, guys that we need out on the ice,” Kronwall said.
3. Stay Healthy
OK, so this one is one of those uncontrollable factors but for crying out loud, Wings keep dropping like Cleveland Browns quarterbacks.
Left-winger Justin Abdelkader left Thursday in the first period with an apparent right knee injury after a collision along the boards with Florida’s Vincent Trocheck.
After the game as he was leaving the rink, Abdelkader couldn’t or wouldn’t bend his right leg at all.
“Obviously, Abby’s a big piece of what we do,” Detroit coach Jeff Blashill said. “I don’t think he’s going to be out that long, but we’ll see.
“We’ll know more on that tomorrow.”
Abdelkader joins goalie Jimmy Howard (groin), defensemen Brendan Smith (knee) and Alexey Marchenko (shoulder) and forwards Darren Helm (shoulder), Andreas Athanasiou (knee) and Tyler Bertuzzi (ankle) on the shelf.
4. Smarten Up
How many times did your parents admonish you with those words while growing up?
After Thursday’s game, Blashill sounded more like an angry parent of a pre-teen than the coach of an NHL club.
“We turned pucks over and we turned them over again,” Blashill said. “You can’t win like that.
“I thought we were immature in our game in terms of that, in terms of making sure we stay above people, in terms of short shifts and I think at the end of the game we were immature in our game. We had the puck on our stick and we gave it away.
So we’ve got to be better than that.”
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