What’s wrong with the Detroit Red Wings?
Where do we start?
You could begin with their supposed finishers, who look more like they are finished. Gustav Nyquist has gone 11 games without a goal and has tallied once in 25 games.
He hit the post late in Thursday’s 4-1 loss to the Los Angeles Kings.
“Honestly you’d like to see that one go in instead but we’ve got to create more chances like that to get closer to scoring a goal,… Nyquist said, revealing a scary notion.
Evidently, Detroit is so desperate for positives, the Wings are thinking about scoring goals. They’re focused on getting close to scoring a goal.
“We’ve got to do more to create chances,… added Nyquist, who insisted he tries not to fixate on his personal slump.
“I’ve just got to forget about it and focus on the next shift and try to do better that time. You try to at least for sure.
“It has to come soon, so hopefully next game.… If it were only one player who couldn’t shoot the puck into the ocean from the edge of the water’s wake, that would be one thing. But among Detroit’s forwards, it’s an epidemic.
If Sting were here, he could sing about Roxanne because in Detroit, you sure don’t have to put on the red light.
Tomas Tatar, like Nyquist a 20-goal shooter last season, has one goal in 12 games and four in 31. Thomas Vanek has one goal in 13 games. Luke Glendening has gone 19 games without a goal has scored once in 31 games. Tomas Jurco is 0-for-nine and Steve Ott 0-for-eight. Drew Miller hasn’t scored since Oct. 21. Riley Sheahan is still wearing an 0-fer this season, goalless in 31 games.
Captain Henrik Zetterberg is without a goal in his last five games while Frans Nielsen, the guy the Wings signed to fill the void left by Pavel Datsyuk, is six games without a goal and has lit one red lamp in 10 games.
Even the guys who were recently hot have cooled off. Anthony Mantha shows one goal in eight games and Dylan Larkin one goal in six games.
“I don’t think anybody’s lighting it up in terms of production, across the board,… Detroit coach Jeff Blashill correctly assessed.
As the team leader, Zetterberg tries to quell any notion that it’s time for the Wings to push the panic button.
“I think when you’ve been in this league for awhile you know you’re going to have stretches like this, whether it’s individually or team-wise, but I think more so individually you’re going to go through stretches when you don’t produce the way you want to and all of a sudden it comes back,… Zetterberg said. “You have to find different ways to get there, and now we have to find that way as a team to get back to feeling good about ourselves and go out and play good as a team.…
You would have thought the elixir might have been Detroit’s current five-game homestand but with a 0-3-1 slate so far, the Wings will need to beat the Anaheim Ducks on Saturday just to salvage one win from this five-game stretch.
“It’s just to a man we’ve got to get it done,… defenseman Mike Green said. “That’s the bottom line. I wouldn’t say it’s a lack of confidence. It’s finding that relentless will to get the job done.
“We’ve got to find it within this room.…
Petr Principle Petr Mrazek will get the start in goal Saturday but if Mrazek is the solution, a fair question would be to ask for a definition of the problem.
Detroit isn’t scoring and for quite some time now, Mrazek hasn’t been stopping them.
Since last Feb. 14, Mrazek is 14-12-4 in 34 appearances with a 3.15 goals-against average, .897 save percentage and no shutouts. He had nine shutouts in his first 78 appearances.
Pulled from his last start, Mrazek believes he’s ironed out some of his difficulties by working with goalie coach Jeff Salajko.
“I changed a couple of things,… Mrazek said. “I feel great in the situation, in the net. With Jeff we work on lots of stuff around the net. I think I improved that, I changed and I get better on those things.…
Mostly, Mrazek indicated, it was a matter of re-emphasizing his fundamentals.
“We didn’t work on anything different than the start of the season, just how I said the stuff around the net and be strong on the posts and not too aggressive,… Mrazek said.
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