It was the best of weekends; it was the worst of weekends.
The Detroit Red Wings followed up a sensational effort in a 4-1 victory Friday over the Chicago Blackhawks by laying an egg on home ice Sunday, losing by the same count to the Montreal Canadiens at Joe Louis Arena.
“It’s a little disappointing,… Detroit defenseman Danny DeKeyser said. “We had four days off this week. We should be fresh and we should have come out a lot better than we did.…
Instead, the Wings were flat and lethargic, producing just 10 shots on goal through the first two periods, even though they enjoyed four power plays during the first two frames.
“I think in the first, it was an OK period from us,… Detroit captain Henrik Zetterberg said. “Then they go up 2-0, and we kind of get away from our details and open ourselves up a little bit.
“Then they get the third one, it’s 3-1 there and obviously the fourth one is a tough one. That happens.…
Zetterberg felt the Wings were being too cute with the puck and seeking to make pretty plays when simplifying their attack would have proven the best approach.
“They play real tight in front of the goalie,… Zetterberg explained. “Instead of shooting it, we were passing it. You’ve got to overshoot against a team like this and you’ve got to be there inside for second chances.
“I think both teams played tight in front of the net, it was tough to get anything through there. You had to go through a lot of guys to get the puck there. But in saying that, we didn't do a good enough job to get the pucks through.
“You have to try to shoot a little more. In the second there we tried a little bit too much instead of throwing pucks at the net. We tried to find one more pass, but it didn't work.…
Detroit coach Mike Babcock struggled to unearth any positives from his team’s performance.
“I thought we didn’t have much jump and much energy, for whatever reason,… Babcock said. “As positive as we were when we left the building the other night, we feel the other way here tonight.
“You don’t mind losing when you’re as good as you could be but I didn’t think we were at all tonight. I didn’t think we were near good enough. We didn’t have enough hands on deck.…
Babcock echoed Zetterberg’s opinion that the Wings were over passing the puck.
“We didn’t do much good tonight I didn’t think,… he said. “I didn’t think we shot the puck. All you’ve got to do is look at the shots on net. We had three shots in the second period and we knew they were going to be backing on the inside.
“We knew we were going to have to shoot to break them down but we didn’t execute and we paid the price for it. The team that was supposed to win tonight as far as effort and execution did and the team that didn’t get that done lost.…
Even though it was just Detroit’s second game since last Sunday, Babcock gave his team Saturday off because the Wings play three road games this week and seven times in a 12-day span beginning with Tuesday’s game at Columbus.
In retrospect, the coach wondered whether he’d made a miscalculation in opting to rest a squad that wasn’t weary.
“We scheduled a day off yesterday because we had to,… Babcock said. “We travel so much this month and we couldn’t get enough (off) days. We knew going in we didn’t want to do that but that’s the way it goes.
“But we should have competed and skated better than we did tonight.…
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