Jeff Blashill wants the Detroit Red Wings to discover their killer instinct.
Five times this season, including in their last two games, the Wings have squandered late third-period leads. It didn’t cost them Saturday at St. Louis, as they rebounded for a 4-3 overtime victory, but it bit them Wednesday at home against the Boston Bruins, who came back for a 3-2 OT verdict.
“We talked about it this morning,… said Blashill, whose team plays host to the Edmonton Oilers Friday at Joe Louis Arena. “If you look back, we lost a lead late in St. Louis, we lost a lead late in Ottawa just recently and obviously the other night (against Boston).
“We talked about is there anything you could do different? I think that’s the thing you look at as a coach, not for the blame game but more for the correction process moving forward. I didn’t think we took our foot off the gas really in St. Louis. I didn’t think we did last game. I didn’t really think we did against Ottawa either.…
In point of fact, the Wings have blown late leads five times this season, the others coming in a 2-1 OT win at Toronto and a 3-2 OT loss at Calgary, and Blashill is certain he knows what the solution to this dilemma might be.
“The biggest thing for us I think is we’ve got to get that next goal,… Blashill said. “We’ve got to make those games two-goal games.
“If we would have scored on some of our opportunities the other night I think the game would have been over. We’ve got to find a way to have that killer instinct when we do get in those situations.
“When you leave it a one-goal game, you leave it up to chance. You make maybe one mistake or maybe a guy just takes a nice shot. We’d like to not leave it to chance.…
Defenseman Jonathan Ericsson acknowledged that letting late leads escape their clutches is a bad habit to develop and needs to be rectified immediately.
“That is a little bit of a concern,… Ericsson said. “If you look at those stats, we can’t really close the games in the third periods. But how we played lately, I like the way … and I think the last game we played against the Bruins was our best game of the year. I would love for us to play like that every night. We know if we play like that we’re going to win most games.
Ericsson is puzzled by the difficulty the Wings have displayed in searching for that insurance goal in the third period of games.
“Sometimes they get one, not even a quality A chance to score and they capitalize on it,… Ericsson said. “We had probably 10 of those in the third period (Wednesday) and we can’t get it in.…
Jimmy Howard, who gets the nod in goal for the Wings Friday, felt that he and fellow netminder Petr Mrazek should also be willing to shoulder some of the blame for those late tallies.
“Yeah, all of us, Petr and I maybe need to bear down a little more for the guys,… Howard said. “Having that opportunity closing out games means we’re in the lead but we got to find a way hang onto them.…
Howard in goal instead of Mrazek is the only lineup change for the Wings from the group that faced the Bruins.
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