The Tampa Bay Lightning are on the brink of eliminating the Detroit Red Wings from the Stanley Cup playoffs and the Wings appear power (play) less to stop them.
While the Lightning hammered home a trio of power-play goals to fashion a 3-2 victory over the Wings and take a commanding 3-1 lead in their opening-round series Tuesday at Joe Louis Arena, the Detroit power play remained in remedial study.
The Wings went 0-for-four with man advantage, dropping to one-for-21 on the series.
“We obviously lost the game on specialty teams, both the power play and penalty kill,… Detroit coach Jeff Blashill said. “Regarding the power play, I thought we had too many unforced errors. I didn’t think we won enough pucks when they did pressure us.
“They did a good job not letting us set up and so you have to win those pucks. Once we got set up we didn’t do – in my opinion – a good enough job of finding a way of getting pucks to the net.…
While Detroit’s power play has been in a funk all season long, left-winger Tomas Tatar thinks during this playoff series it’s been plagued by a variety of ailments.
He thought most of Tuesday’s problems were self-inflicted.
“I think the problem was a little different than the game before,… Tatar said. “The game before we just couldn’t get shots through.
“Today, it seemed like we couldn’t really break in.…
Detroit defenseman Niklas Kronwall was alarmed by the team’s penchant for penalties.
“I wish I had a good answer,… Kronwall said of Detroit’s continuing special teams issues. “I took another penalty tonight.
“We have to stay out of the box. It’s pretty simple. They’re a good team, very talented, very skilled. But in saying that, when we take our penalties our PK has to be better.…
He didn’t think the Wings would have any difficulty getting motivated for a make it or break it Game 5 Thursday at Tampa’s Amalie Arena.
“It should be fairly simple,… Kronwall said. “Either you win or you go home and the season’s over.
“We regroup, we have a look at the PK and see what we need to do better and the power play as well. We have to find something. We had a good chance there in the third but other than that we haven’t found ways to create momentum.
“There’s a little bit too much standing still.…
Going Post-Al With the score tied 2-2 in the third period, Detroit rookie Dylan Larkin rang a close-in shot off the goal post, the closest the Wings came to claiming a lead in the game.
The goal light flashed, the crowd erupted deliriously but the officials immediately signalled no goal and play continued.
“I knew it went off the post,… Larkin admitted. “I was thinking maybe it went off the back bar. I saw the lights come on, so I thought maybe it did but I was right there so I didn’t really think it did.
“I beat the goalie (Ben Bishop) and the post was there, so I guess there’s not much more you can do.…
Late change The Wings lost the game and they also lost defenseman Alexey Marchenko.
Expected to play, he was a late scratch following the pre-game warm-up, unable to answer the bell after taking 12 stitches to the head due to a hit Marchenko absorbed from Tampa Bay forward Vladislav Namestnikov in Game 3.
Kyle Quincey drew back in after being a healthy scratch for Game 3.
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