The last time the Detroit Red Wings played at Ottawa, they scored five goals. They’ve scored nine goals in the six games since, so perhaps another trip to Canada’s capital city, where the Wings face the Senators on Monday, will prove to be the elixir for what ails their popgun attack.
“If we can draw something from that (game), then yeah, sure, but we haven’t,… admitted right-winger Gustav Nyquist. “Since then we haven’t scored five goals in a game again and that was quite a few games ago.
“If we knew what we had to do we’d do it. Right now we’ve just got to keep grinding and try to bury our chances we get.…
The list of Wings in scoring slumps is almost as long as the list of Republican Presidential candidates.
Riley Sheahan has one goal in 13 games. Tomas Tatar has one goal in six games and two in nine. After a strong start, captain Henrik Zetterberg has one goal in seven games and two in 14. Teemu Pulkkinen has scored once in eight games. Rookie Dylan Larkin has gone goalless for five games. Even though he scored in the last game, Justin Abdelkader has one goal in 15 games.
Six forwards – Drew Miller, Luke Glendening, Darren Helm, Joakim Andersson, Landon Ferraro and Tomas Jurco – have yet to score this season, though in fairness, Ferraro is currently injured and Jurco has suited up for just four games.
“I think we want to score more,… Miller said. “I think that’s a given. I don’t think it’s something we’re trying to hide.
“I think the whole team is trying to score more five-on-five, we can’t just count on our power play to score all the goals. It’s got to be all the lines, especially our line.
“We’re getting some good ice time out there, whether it’s against their first line or second line that we’re supposed to be a shut-down line but we have to get our chances and get some points on the board and we have to have a sense of urgency for our offense now.
“Other than that I think our line has been playing pretty well. We’ve been playing good defensively against other lines and shutting down.…
Pulkkinen Uncertain Forward Teemu Pulkkinen missed Saturday’s game with what the team described as soreness, and his status for Monday remains up in the air.
“It’ll be a game-day decision,… Detroit coach Jeff Blashill said. “I want to have a chance to get back here tomorrow morning and see where he’s at, see where everybody else is at.…
Pulkkinen felt improvement from where he was at physically on Saturday and was hopeful that he’d be able to answer the bell. “Today I was feeling pretty good,… Pulkkinen said. “Yesterday it was bad. I have some issues with my neck.…
“It started in last game. I fight it through. It wasn’t good. After the game, yesterday morning it was really bad, but we’ve been doing good treatments so I feel way better today.…
Pulkkinen is uncertain as to the cause for his ailment.
“I don’t know actually what happened,… he said. “It was so sore, I couldn’t move my head.…
Regardless, he thought he’d get the green light for Monday’s game.
“I feel good,… Pulkkinen said. “I’m ready to go for sure.
“We’ll see what the lineup’s going to be tomorrow.…
Smith Out The news was less positive on defenseman Brendan Smith, who missed Sunday’s practice.
“He’s sick,… Blashill said. “He’s had an ongoing battle with an illness that he’s been in and out with. He thought he was getting better and kind of took a turn for the worse last night.
“He’s probably not in tomorrow.…
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