Same old talk.
Same old lack of production.
Same end result.
Like a record that’s stuck, a CD skipping over an all-too-familiar line, the refrain remains the same from the Detroit Red Wings.
Go to the net. Put pucks to the net. Grab rebounds. Get dirty goals.
Only when it comes time to put the talk into action, it never seems to materialize.
The fancy passes, the pretty plays, the tic tac toes, continue to dominate.
And so do the setbacks.
A 1-0 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers Sunday at Joe Louis Arena left the Wings reciting their lines like robots in a factory.
“I think we just need to get bodies to the net,… Detroit goalie Jimmy Howard said. “When pucks aren’t going in, you’ve got to get the rebounds. You’ve got to get ones where you’re just crashing the net that don’t look pretty.…
Against Philadelphia rookie goalie Anthony Stolarz, none of those suggestions were in evidence.
“Tonight, from the fundamentals part, I thought he was able to see the puck,… Howard said of his opposite number. “He is six-foot-six so he’s probably looking over guys as well.
“I think we’ve just got to get more bodies to the net and throw more pucks in there.…
Everyone thinks that but here’s another thought - it’s well past time for the Wings to be done thinking. The time time to put what they preach into practice is long overdue.
As with Friday’s 4-1 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets, the Wings opted to focus on what they did well, and not what they need to do to succeed in the long run.
“I thought we did a lot of good things,… Detroit captain Henrik Zetterberg. “The only thing that’s missing is goals.
“I thought we were playing good structure, forechecking well, playing good in our own end. Howie’s good again.
“The only thing we were missing is goals.…
Well, OK but here’s the problem with that analysis. In the end, what decides who wins is who gets more goals. So when goals go missing in action, victories tend to abscond with them.
Detroit coach Jeff Blashill is beginning to sound like someone who must feel like he’s talking to a wall when he tells his team what they need to do to get the puck into the enemy net.
“It’s a message that somehow . . . yes, it’s been ongoing,… Blashill said. “We have to drill it, we have to show it, any way we can to try to make sure we do that.
“I don’t know if it’s that easy, but that’s what teams do in the league that score. We played one tonight, we played one the other night in Columbus. They don’t overpass, they don’t over-make plays. They shoot the puck and they go to the net hard.
“That’s just the NHL today.…
Blashill is implementing all of the options at his disposal to get his message through to his players.
“There’s I think four ways to change people’s habits,… Blashill said. “One is to talk, one is to show on video, one is to yell and one is ice time.
“Those are the four ways to change people’s habits.…
He’s tried taking away ice time from those who don’t want to listen to the facts of NHL life.
“I’ve already done that,… Blashill said. “We do that in-game a lot.…
He’s even considered the reality - and there may be a lot to this notion - that he simply doesn’t suit up the sort of personnel that’s capable of executing the required gameplan.
“It’s not an effort thing,… Blashill said. “Our guys try hard, they want to win. Our guys try their asses off. They want to win, there’s no question about it. It has nothing to do with an effort thing at all. Our guys are trying.
“Part of the problem is they want to make plays because they want to win. We have a lot of guys whose natural mindset is to try to make a play instead of whose natural mindset might be a little more north-south and go to the net. So we’re trying to change a mindset that’s been here for a long time.
“As the league gets harder and harder we’ve got to find ways to make sure we’re going to the net and shooting the puck. It’s something I’m going to have to get this team convinced that they have to do. If they do that, we’ve got a chance to be a real good team. We’re in all these close games, we don’t give up a whole bunch. Jimmy Howard looked great in net.
“We’ve got to decide if we want to do the things it’s going to take to score in the league today.…
So once again, on the off day Monday, the Wings will go back to the drawing board and seek to hammer home the same message one more time with feeling.
“Usually if you want to do stuff and it’s not happening out there, then you should practice on it more,… Zetterberg said. “Maybe that’s what we should do.…
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