Another game in which they were badly outshot by their opponent.
And yet another loss.
Things are rapidly going from bad to worse for the Detroit Red Wings.
Less than two minutes away from victory, the Wings surrendered the tying goal with 1:12 left in regulation time and lost 3-2 in overtime, their fourth straight defeat after opening the season 3-0.
Calgary outshot Detroit 40-29.
“We won the first three and then we haven’t done much after that,… Detroit captain Henrik Zetterberg summed up succinctly.
It started out to be a promising night for the Wings when their previously moribund power play sprung to life and tallied first-period goals by Gustav Nyquist and Brendan Smith for a 2-1 lead.
“The power play was positive today,… Nyquist said. “I thought the penalty kill was a positive as well. We killed off all of them, I think, so special teams was real good today.…
Many other elements of Detroit’s game weren’t nearly as special.
“I thought in the first period we played well,… Detroit defenseman Danny DeKeyser said. “We were forcing them to take penalties and then we were putting it in the net on the power play.
“It started to swing a little bit in the second, we took a few penalties there. In the third it kind of kept sliding their way.
“We’ve just got to play a complete 60 is what it comes down to.…
Detroit coach Jeff Blashill felt his team sat back too much on their one-goal lead, perhaps a symptom of the fragile nature of a team in the midst of a losing streak.
“I thought the first half of the game we played well,… Blashill said. “I thought our power play looked good, it scored but it also looked good. I thought the process was real good. It built off Wednesday night when I thought the process was good. I thought we did lots of good stuff.
“When we ended up with the two penalties right in a row (in the second period), unfortunately it was to the same guy (Kyle Quincey), so the four D ended up out there a lot. I think that’s a bit of a grinding on them.
“Then I thought we protected the lead a little too much in the third. I thought we should have done a little better job on the attack.…
Blashill believes that things will get better for his team, if they simply apply themselves to the task at hand.
“I think we’ve still got better in us, individually,… Blashill said. “We had some guys really going and some guys were just OK and some guys didn’t have great games.
“We need 20 guys having great games in order to win in this league. You’re not going to be your best every night but we got to have more guys with ‘A’ games every night.…
Green Injured On top of the loss, the Wings also played much of the game minus defenseman Mike Green, who was injured when pounded into the boards by Calgary forward Josh Jooris behind the Detroit net.
Green’s helmet was dislodged and it appeared he may have hit his head on the glass, but the Wings weren’t revealing much regarding his condition post game.
“I honestly don’t know that beyond that he wasn’t coming back tonight, so I really don’t have an update on that,… Blashill said.
Without Green, Detroit was forced to juggle five defenders for much of the night.
“It makes it a little bit tougher,… DeKeyser said. “Rolling five D, you're just kind of playing with everybody and everyone's getting more ice time.
“You’ve just got to keep the shifts a lot shorter and make simple plays and try to play in their end.…
Howard Sharp Detroit goalie Jimmy Howard made 37 saves, several of them sparkling, and probably deserved a better fate.
“It doesn’t matter,… Howard said. “We didn’t get the extra point.
“At the end of the day, that’s all that counts.…
One area of the team’s play that doesn’t concern Blashill in the least is his two netminders, Howard and Petr Mrazek.
“I thought our goaltending’s been ‘A’ every night to be honest with you,… Blashill said. “They’ve both played very well, they’ve both been a positive for us.
“They need to continue to be a positive for us but I think they’ve certainly been there.…
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