The season ended for the Detroit Red Wings in the same fashion that it progressed all season long.
When it mattered most, they simply could not score.
Blanked 1-0 by the Tampa Bay Lightning Wednesday at Amalie Arena, the Wings fell 4-1 to the Lightning in their Stanley Cup opening round series, making a first-round exit for the third successive season.
“Tonight we had a lot of great looks and didn’t score,… Detroit forward Brad Richards lamented. “The three losses we had prior to tonight, we were tied in every third period in the series (in the games) that we lost.
“It’s right there for us. We didn’t capitalize; they did. That’s just the way it was. You can’t draw it up any different.
“When it’s tied in the third period all series, you’d think you’d be on the good side of some of that and we weren’t.…
Detroit coach Jeff Blashill described the outcome as “extremely frustrating.…
“I thought our guys played really well,… Blashill said. “I thought we played a real good hockey game, (but) couldn’t find a way to find the back of the net obviously.
“I think you find out a lot about your character when you’re in situations like this down 3-1 on the road. I just thought we kept coming and coming and coming and coming, and just speaks to the character of not only the leadership but the whole room.
“I thought we certainly played good enough to win. We didn’t.…
The Wings had plenty of chances to score, including second period breakaways by Riley Sheahan, Dylan Larkin and Darren Helm that were all foiled by Tampa Bay goalie Ben Bishop.
“I thought we did a lot of good things except getting the puck behind Bishop,… Detroit captain Henrik Zetterberg said.
Richards chalked that outcome up to the dangers of falling behind in a series.
“Their power play had a big game (with three goals in Game 4) to put them up 3-1 and all of a sudden we’re in a game where we have no room for error and Bishop steals one,… Richards said. “When you get into elimination games where you have to win, sometimes you test fate a little bit and the bounce wasn’t there for us tonight.…
You can say the Wings were in every game, but don’t try telling Zetterberg, because he’ll tell you that close doesn’t count for anything when the Stanley Cup is on the line.
“It gets tougher and tougher to go all the way,… Zetterberg said. “The first step is making the playoffs. We keep doing that but there’s nothing more. That gets frustrating.
“We did a lot of good things but you have to score goals in this game, in this sport, and we’re not doing that.…
Mrazek Muff The only goal of the game came when Detroit goalie Petr Mrazek passed a puck behind his net too softly to defenseman Jonathan Ericsson. Tampa Bay’s Ryan Callahan intercepted and fed Alex Killorn for the series winner.
“I hear somebody screaming, ‘Play the puck,’… Mrazek explained. “I just bump it to Big E there and he skated more to the corner.
“I thought he was going to skate by the net so I just tried dumping it and Callahan took it, played it in front of the net and (they) scored.…
Blashill wasn’t about to fault his goalie for their playoff exit.
“I think Pete’s one of the better puck-handling goalies in the league,… Blashill said. “One thing, when you have a great puck-handling goalie, sometimes you’re going to have miscues and unfortunately it was at that time.…
Power Outage Defining the difference in the series didn’t take any fancy stats. It’s all right there in the special teams. Tampa Bay scored four power-play goals while Detroit when one-for-25 with the man advantage.
“I think we lost it when their power play outplayed our power play,… Richards said.
Stars Decline Tampa Bay’s stars certainly lived up to their billing, while Detroit’s stars fizzled.
Zetterberg scored once. Pavel Datsyuk went through the entire series without a point.
“Their best players outplayed our best players,… Zetterberg said. “We’ve got to produce more, including me. I’m probably one of the guys that, with the ice I have, had to do more.
“I couldn’t really do that this playoff and that’s hard.…
Datsyuk was equally dissatisfied with his performance.
“We have many chances but you never win game if you not score any goals,… Datsyuk said. “So we need to score, we need to find a way, I needed to find a way to score any goals.…
Future Watch The season over, the attention in Hockeytown will turn to Datsyuk as he makes his decision whether to stay in Detroit for the final season of his contract or return to his native Russia.
He doesn’t know when he’ll make that call.
“I’m not thinking about two days or how many days,… Datsyuk said. “I need a little bit (of) cool down and emotion got out and then I start thinking about it more.…
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