It’s a problem to be sure, and one that’s been going on for quite some time now, maybe even longer than you think.
“I think it was we couldn't score,… Detroit Red Wings captain Henrik Zetterberg said after the team was held to one goal for the second straight game, dropping a 2-1 decision to the St. Louis Blues Wednesday at Joe Louis Arena.
Detroit’s lone goal was a third-period power-play marker by Zetterberg and Wednesday’s loss marked the 19th game of the season in which the Wings scored one or fewer even-strength goals.
The Wings have tallied just 72 five-on-five goals this season, tied for 20th overall in the league, after garnering only 133 five-on-five goals last season, good for 25th in the NHL and the lowest total of any team that qualified for the Stanley Cup playoffs.
“I’d go back and say it’s probably two seasons long at least,… Detroit coach Jeff Blashill correctly noted of their five-on-five scoring issues. “I don’t know the stats prior to that.
Actually, the Wings weren’t bad at five-on-five hockey in 2013-14, finishing tied for ninth in the league with 153 goals.
“I know this,… Blashill continued. “We had 30 shots against a real good team. I try to take emotion out of it as best I can. Everyone’s frustrated. You want to score. You want to win.
“I thought there was lots of our process that was good.…
Blashill felt their net-front presence was improved over Sunday’s 2-1 shootout loss to Philadelphia, perhaps even too improved.
“I said after last game we needed more net presence and we needed to hit the net more,… Blashill said. “I thought after this game that our net presence was pretty good, especially in the second, maybe not in the first.
“I thought we needed to hit the net more. I’ll be honest with you. We need to keep playing the way we played tonight. We’ve got to keep defending well and we’ve got to find a way to score a bit more.
“How do you find a way? You hit the net more and you continue to have net presence for 60 minutes and then you win the second-chance battles. We didn’t win enough of our second-chance battles.
“I thought our second guy was too close to the net. There were tons of rebounds in the hash mark area that we didn’t have guys there.…
The Wings believe that they are doing the right things for the most part and with some tweaks will be lighting red lamps on a more consistent basis very soon if they keep it up.
“The areas I talked about, these aren’t big changes,… Blashill said. “The one other area I’d say is that our D have got to make sure that we’re shot ready and when it goes low to high early. We’ve got to be shot ready so we can find pucks and pucks can find ways to the net.
“I don’t think there are vast differences. We’re not going to change the way we’re playing. I think we’re going to grade this game out and we’re going to have more chances for than against, although we had some against for sure and they played well. But I bet you we had more.…
Tatar Ill The plans to combine team goal-scoring leaders Tomas Tatar and Dylan Larkin with Pavel Datsyuk on a high-powered forward line went up in smoke when Tatar took sick after the pre-game warm up and was unable to play, ending his consecutive games streak at 162.
“He was ill and he just didn’t think he could go,… Blashill said, who like Larkin has 14 goals this season.
Defensive Lapse When you’re not scoring, you can’t be giving up a Grade A scoring chances like the Wings did on Dmitrij Jaskin’s third-period game winner.
Jaskin got by centre Riley Sheahan and then split the defense of Mike Green and Jonathan Ericsson before beating Petr Mrazek with a slick deke move.
“He got there through the two defensemen,… Mrazek said. “He’s got good speed and he went on the backhand. I tried to close it. He went on the forehand.
“Just a nice move by Jaskin.…
Blashill cited it as a breakdown in the team’s defensive scheme.
“Our rule is you’re either on the guy or you’re inside the (faceoff) dots,… Blashill said. “We drifted outside the dots too much there.…
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