Come off it, the Detroit Red Wings can’t be that bad.
Actually, like all times in the uber-tight National Hockey League, they can be when they come off it.
It being their A-game.
The Wings were off-form, off-kilter and off-putting again Thursday against the Pittsburgh Penguins at Joe Louis Arena, the end result being that they squandered a 2-0 first-period lead and fell 5-2, their third straight setback.
“You can’t come off it at all,… Detroit coach Jeff Blashill said. “If you come off it even a little bit, confidence is a big factor, too. We’ve got to find a way to earn our confidence back with really good play.
“You create your own confidence by the way you play. You can’t come off it at all because if you do, you’ll be in the sport we’re in.…
It’s the first time that Detroit has lost three consecutive games in regulation time since Oct. 16-21 but Blashill feels the line between winning and losing is razor thin.
“Probably the difference is a minor difference,… Blashill said. “I don’t think there’s huge differences.
“Obviously we’ve given up too many goals here lately, at least in the last couple here. I still think we’ve got to do a way better job managing the puck. I still think we’ve got to do a better job of making teams earn their chances. I still think we’re giving up way too many chances.…
The Wings are 2-5-1 since their 13-game points streak ended, but the beginnings of a slide were already creeping into their game, hidden within their continued success.
“Certainly at the end of that stretch we weren’t playing good enough but we were still able to get points,… Blashill admitted. “We talked about the fact that we better straighten our game out, otherwise we’ll end up on the wrong side.
“Here we are, ending up on the wrong side for too many nights now.…
Special Education Detroit’s special teams failed to deliver yet again, going 0-3, but perhaps even more alarmingly the Wings allowed Pittsburgh’s 26th-ranked power play to score twice in three opportunities.
“Obviously you look at specialty teams,… Blashill acknowledged. “That’s three games in a row. Obviously, this league is so tight that when you end up in situations like that where you’re 0-3 on the speciality teams for the night you’re in trouble.
“The other night (at Winnipeg) we gave up the shorty. In Minnesota, we went on the power play with the chance to tie it up, didn’t, and we gave up the power play goal later on.
“That part of it’s hard for sure. I thought we let it suck too much of the life out of us. We’ve got to dig in deeper than that. When we’re up 2-0 we need, I don’t want to say a killer instinct, but we really need to start taking the game over. We didn’t do a good enough job of that.…
Blashill was quick to point out the power play wasn’t the only dead weight pulling Detroit downward.
“Overall I’ll combine it,… he said. “I don’t think it should just be talk about the power play. It’s specialty teams.
“We’ve given up too many goals when we’re on the penalty kill. Our specialty teams combined have to be better.…
Jurco Injured Forward Tomas Jurco left the game with an upper-body injury and his status going forward was uncertain, as was a decision whether the Wings would call up someone from AHL Grand Rapids prior to embarking on a six-game road trip beginning Saturday in Buffalo.
“We’ve got personnel decisions we have to make but we’ll make them once I get more reports,… Blashill said.
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