There were two things on the agenda for the Detroit Red Wings as they faced the Minnesota Wild Monday at Xcel Energy Center.
Firstly, don’t turn the puck over to the counter-attacking Wild. Secondly, get pucks to the Minnesota net and shoot as often as possible.
The Wings did neither very well, and the end result was predictable – a 3-1 loss to the Wild.
“We had too many turnovers, especially from the beginning,… Detroit captain Henrik Zetterberg lamented. “Playing a team like this, you have to be more careful. We weren’t that in the first (period) so they got a lot of momentum.
“Even though it’s a tight game overall for 60 minutes, I think they got too many free chances and got momentum from the start.…
Zetterberg had plenty of company in his misery.
“Obviously it wasn’t good enough,… forward Justin Abdelkader said. “I don’t think we shot the puck enough. We had times where we had the puck in good scoring areas and passed it when we should have had shots. I don’t think we made it hard enough on their goalie to make saves and didn’t get ourselves chances to get those second and third rebound opportunities.
“We had too many turnovers, whether it was through the neutral zone or in the offensive zone. Like I said not taking advantage of shots enough. They’re a good team, especially good here on home ice. They play a defensive game, make it hard through the neutral zone so you’ve got to make sure you don’t turn pucks over.…
Detroit coach Jeff Blashill was extremely downcast over his team’s feeble performance.
“They’re well-coached but the whole league is,… Blashill said. “They’re good defensively but that had nothing to do with it. This was totally self-inflicted, 100 per cent self-inflicted. Not even close to good enough.…
“What’s disappointing is we didn’t correct the mistakes we made through the game and that was turning the puck over. You just have no chance. We just kept turning it over and turning it over and you just have no chance for success there. So it was disappointing.…
Blashill was equally perturbed at how quickly the Wings abandoned their offensive gameplan.
“I don’t think we made it very tough (on Minnesota goalie Devan Dubnyk),… Blashill said. “Not to take anything away from him. I thought he played good. We didn’t make it hard on him at all.
“But it’s hard to make it hard when you turn pucks over. You just have no speed at all. Nothing generated. You’re standing still because we kept turning it over. When we did get opportunities in the zone we over-passed. They’re great at clogging up the middle of the ice. We just kept passing in the middle of the ice. Not a formula of success at all.
“I thought there were opportunities for more (shots). There were opportunities where we passed up real shots, real chances to shoot the puck. You can just throw the puck around at the net all night but I think we had real opportunities to shoot it, a couple in particular especially from the D-men.
“We’ve got to do a better job than that.…
Changes Afoot? Blashill’s disgust evident, it would appear that some new faces might find their way into the Wings lineup for Tuesday’s game at Winnipeg against the Jets.
“I just think overall we didn’t have enough guys going at a high level,… Blashill said. “It’s hard to win in this league or any league when you don’t have enough guys going at a high level. That’s urgency, that’s everything and then No. 2, it’s hard to get any traction when you keep turning pucks over. I can’t say it enough, we have no chance to win long-term if we turn pucks over like that.…
Blashill planned to review each player’s recent performance before making out his roster for Tuesday.
“I’m going to go on the plane and look at everybody,… Blashill said. “This isn’t good enough. You’re going to lose games, I get that 100 per cent. That’s why I talk about process all the time. But we’ve had two in four games where the process wasn’t even close to good enough.
“You might have two in a 40-game stretch, not in a four-game stretch. I need to look at every player and say ‘does someone need to come out, does someone need to go in?’…
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