It’s simple, really, the strategy that coach Jeff Blashill believes will set the Detroit Red Wings on the course toward more goals per game.
Get it on net and get to the net.
That’s all they need to do, and it’s exactly what they didn’t do Sunday afternoon in a 4-1 loss to the Dallas Stars at Joe Louis Arena.
“We missed the net and we didn’t have enough net presence,… Blashill explained after the loss. “So if you ask me on a specific area where we need to score more, we need to make goalies make saves and we need more net presence.
“I thought there was opportunities even in the first to hit the net. The shots were 15-8 (for Dallas); I think they should have been 15-12.
“I just think we’ve got to hit the net way more.…
The Detroit coach saw much that he liked in the performance, but those are two very key areas of concern, areas that will continue to haunt the team if not addressed and corrected.
“What’s missing is we haven’t scored enough but I think it’s a hard, hard league,… Blashill said. “We’ve got to find a way to score more goals. I thought – again I’ll always coach the process – that there’s lot of things we did tonight that were really good.
“If you look at the second period I thought it was great, one of the best periods we had all year.…
At the same time, Blashill was very concerned by how quickly his team fell into a funk after Dallas opened the scoring in the first period.
“I thought the start was fine but once they scored it wasn’t good enough,… Blashill said. “Momentum’s a big thing and we cannot allow a goal against to take away our momentum.
“I thought we started fine, and then I thought we let the momentum get away from us a little bit.…
Keeping Mum A bizarre sequence midway through the third period saw Detroit defenseman Jonathan Ericsson down on the ice bleeding and then penalized.
Checked hard into the boards by Dallas forward Ales Hemsky on what certainly appeared to be a high hit, Ericsson came up bleeding from over the right eye and swinging at Hemsky. Referee Graham Skilliter, who was closest to the play, did not penalize Hemsky, but tagged Ericsson with two minutes for roughing, leading to a heated exchange with Blashill, one the coach declined to share.
“I have no comment on that,… Blashill said. “I won’t comment on a discussion between myself and the referee.
“Lots of stuff happens in a game. We’ve got the best referees in the world and the best refs in a world for a reason, so I have no comment on that.
“It’s frustrating for sure to have to kill a penalty at that point in the game. But that’s part of hockey.…
Others were less reluctant to share their thoughts on the play.
“That’s a scary situation there,… Detroit defenseman Mike Green said. “(Hemsky) goes in pretty hard and he’s a big guy, so obviously there’s some intent there.
“If no one’s going to protect (Ericsson), he’s got to protect himself.…
Both Ericsson and goalie Jimmy Howard, who had to leave the game in the third period after being accidently kicked in the head by Dallas forward Tyler Seguin during a goalmouth scramble, were deemed to be OK after the game.
“He wanted to come back out in the game but it had been too long,… Blashill said. “He has some contact issues from being bumped in the head.…
Green Back The Wings welcomed Green’s return after a six-game absence due to an upper-body injury and he figured in their lone tally, assisting on Gustav Nyquist’s team-leading sixth goal during a first-period power play.
“I thought Greener was great,… Blashill said. “I thought he jumped in the play a bunch. I thought he was real close to having lots of opportunities. I thought he was active in the O zone.
“I thought he did a good job of breaking the puck out for the most part.…
AA In Big Leagues The Wings recalled center Andreas Athanasiou from AHL Grand Rapids and opted to give him the spot in place of the injured Landon Ferraro (lower body) instead of veteran Tomas Jurco, who was a healthy scratch for the eighth time this season.
“He’s got an NHL skill set, especially in the skating sense,… Blashill said of Athanasiou, who led the Wings in pre-season scoring with 4-3-7 totals. “He can really skate, and I mean flat-out fly. He makes other teams’ defense turn because of how much he can skate.
“He’s dangerous. AA is one of those guys that doesn’t need to play top six to score, that doesn’t need to be on the power play to score because he has such a lethal weapon of speed.…
Athanasiou couldn’t contain his excitement at being an NHLer for the first time.
“Obviously these are pros and this is where you want to be,… Athanasiou said. “You grow up wanting to play in the National Hockey League.
“I’m just going to do everything I can to try to stay up here for as long as I can.…
Blashill indicated they’d make a decision on Monday as to whether Athanasiou would stay in Detroit or be returned to the AHL.
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