Is the glass half full, or is it half empty?
That’s the question the Detroit Red Wings must be asking themselves today.
Friday, they allowed yet another third-period lead to escape their clutches and it cost them in a 3-2 overtime loss on the road to the New Jersey Devils.
On the flip side, it was the 13th straight game in which the Red Wings have collected a point, and that’s the longest points streak by any NHL team this season.
“We still got the point tonight but it’s tough being on the road and having a two-goal lead and not coming out on top,… said goalie Jimmy Howard.
The Wings were up 2-0 after two periods on power-play goals by Gustav Nyquist and Tomas Tatar before giving up a pair of third-period goals.
“It’s tough to swallow but on the bright side we did get a point here,… Howard said. “We were doing a lot of good things out there. To have it spoiled, it’s tough.…
That double-edged sword sort of thinking permeated the Detroit dressing room. The Wings are excited to keep garnering standings points, but are distressed that they’ve allowed third-period leads to escape in eight of those 13 games.
“We want to come out of this with two points and feel good about ourselves,… Nyquist said. You always want to come out of there with two points. It's bad when you're up 2-0 going into the third. We should be good enough to shut them down and not let them tie it up. We've got to do a better job.
“This points streak has been good to us but it's not like we're really running away with it in the standings. It's still tight so it just goes to show how important it is to take a point every night.
“We've got three out of four (points) in the last two days so that's alright.…
Detroit coach Jeff Blashill tried to view the end result as a positive.
“Well, there's frustration,… Blashill admitted. “I guess it depends which way you look at it. As I said in the room (to the players), I'm glad we've had lots of leads. I don't really look back a lot. We’ve just got to keep getting better as a team.
“We found a way to be up in a lot of those games. I think we're scoring more, which has put us in a good spot. We’ve got to find a way to continue to minimize our mistakes. We made too many mistakes in the last little bit and we’ve got to get as many points as we can. It's the National Hockey League, they're trying real hard, too, and we've got to continue to get better.…
Working Overtime Friday also marked the 10th time in 13 games that the Wings were forced to go to overtime.
“It's been a little weird actually,… Nyquist said. “I haven't been a part of this before, that many games in a row going into overtime. It seems like we're playing almost 65 minutes every game. But again it shows you how tight this league is and how tight every team is. There's not much difference between the teams.…
Blashill doesn’t care if they have to play extra time as long as they end up getting the extra point that’s up for grabs more often than not.
“I don't take anything out of it,… Blashill said. “I just coach the game that we have. When you're behind you like to come back and tie it and when you're ahead you hate giving up the lead.
“We've come back here in games in the last few, we've given up some leads. At the end of 60 minutes, what's the score and at the end of the game, what's the score?
“Can we get better? Absolutely. Do we have to get better? For sure. We better be better on Monday (against Buffalo) than we've been the last couple nights.
“Again, I think part of that's too many turnovers.…
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