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Confidence found, momentum built

December 5, 2017, 11:46 PM ET [7 Comments]
Bob Duff
Detroit Red Wings Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Jeff Blashill summed up the turnaround in the fortunes of the Detroit Red Wings in two words.

“Two things that don’t get talked about enough are confidence and momentum,” Blashill explained after Tuesday’s 5 -1 victory over the Winnipeg Jets. “Those are two huge things, and they probably go hand in hand.”

Losing momentum during a seven-game losing streak that culminated in a horrific 10-1 loss Saturday to the Canadiens in Montreal, the Wings were left completely bereft of confidence, and it showed.

“We’re stopping playing after they’ve scored a couple,” defenseman Jonathan Ericsson explained prior to Tuesday’s win. “We’ve got to be stronger mentally and not let it get to us when they get some goals on us.

“That’s what it seems to be, I think.”

In six of the seven games during their losing skid, the Wings were actually ahead on the scoreboard. But as soon as things went a little bit south for them, they completely came apart at the seams and collapsed.

That wasn’t the case on Tuesday. When opportunity to dissolve presented itself - Patrik Laine scored early into a five-on-three advantage to narrow Detroit’s lead to 2-1 - the Wings buckled down and maintained their advantage, both on the scoreboard and between the boards.

“They scored to get a little momentum but we didn’t give them another one,” Blashill said. “That was huge. If you give them another one, all the sudden they got way more momentum.

“They pushed hard in the third and we were able to get that third goal.”

There were other elements of the game that were stark in their differences to what transpired during the losing stretch.

“In the first period we did a way better job of not making any real goofy errors to give them easy chances and then, two, playing through bodies,” Blashill said. “Not necessarily big hits, just making sure there was no stick-checks. Guys had to go through us to get up the ice and that’s a really important thing, and we were way better at that.

“We’ve played lots of good games and not scored. In this one, we scored.”

They stopped the bleeding, but the Wings were the first to acknowledge that one solid game can’t heal the wounds created by their second long losing skid of the season. Detroit also dropped six in a row in October, and slides of that length are generally fatal to postseason hopes.

“For us right now, I think it was just about winning a game and that feels great obviously, but we’ve still got a lot of games to make up for that long skid, so back to work,” forward Gustav Nyquist said.

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