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Lundquist wins battle of the goalies, Wings shut out by Rangers - update

February 1, 2020, 10:05 PM ET [5 Comments]
Jeremy Laura
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Update - Zadina out 2-3 weeks, Athanasiou returning

Zadina hurt

*in an unfortunate turn of events, Zadina was hurt (and apparently played through the injury) during Saturday’s game. In the world of irony that is this season, Athanasiou is ready to return to the lineup on Monday. Musical chairs - injury version - continues to be the game of choice for Detroit right now.


Jonathan Bernier stopped 30 of 31 shots, posting a .968 sv%. It wasn’t enough to get Detroit in the win column as Henrik Lundquist stopped 33 of 33. There were plenty of chances at both ends, but a lone power play goal in the first period was enough for the Rangers to sweep the home and home.

The words “puck luck” and “bounces” are being bandied about during the post game. In truth, Detroit’s effort tonight was far better than last night. There was a healthy amount of physicality that bordered on good old fashioned dislike for the opponent. The Red Wings did everything tonight that they were missing in last night’s tilt. The effort was very good.

Brian Burke’s thoughts on losses stem from two basic principles. Either the other team was more talented or you were outworked. Tonight, the first is clearly the issue. The Rangers have a defensive group that seems to continue to improve. Many zone entries were kept to the perimeter and resulted in passes that were intercepted or low percentage shots. Detroit was continually cleared from the crease and had great difficulty cycling the puck successfully. The chances that did come were missed. Passing plays gone awry, puck’s bouncing over sticks, nothing seemed to go the right way. Or, for those who want as bad a season as possible, everything went the right way.

There was a thought in the back of my mind that Detroit would come back refreshed and have some newfound energy. Instead, it feels more like a vacation hangover. The general vibe seems to be lower than normal. No one likes losing, and it is taking its toll on this group. A chunk of veterans know that the right bag of pucks will see them with a new mailing address. RFAs on expiring contracts that have underperformed seem frozen and unable to find any sort of groove. (Perlini, Erne in particular). There aren’t many positive notes coming out of the players in the form of body language. They look exhausted.

Frustration is a poison to any individual. It sits somewhere between anger and sadness and leaves people unable to perform at even their basic level. Frustration is, essentially, losing before the game is played. It’s been called a “worthless” emotion, but it is unavoidable. No player on this team should feel good about the season, but the feeling of frustration needs to be purged from the group. It is a task well outside of my expertise, and reserved for Psychologists. In elemental terms, it sits as a sort of emotional plasma. Neither a solid, nor a liquid, and essentially unusable in all but destructive behaviors. (If you understand the workings of how a hydrogen bomb was developed, essentially a styrofoam casing becomes superheated and turns into plasma allowing for devastating results). The players need to actively convert frustration into a useful emotion.

In times like this, it wouldn’t be unheard of for a small scrum or fight to break out in practice. That is the catalyst for converting frustration into determination. That is one of the most useful emotions anyone can possess. Determination turns failure into a stepping stone to success. It is not blind optimism, but open acceptance that continued dedication to excellence will see all of these failures fall quickly behind and be converted into success.

For my final analogy, I will turn inward toward my long time profession of sales. Outside sales, in fact, full of cold calling door to door and calling hundreds of strangers. The best advice I ever received was, “you need to learn to love the word ‘no’”. You essentially create your own formula of how many times you hear the word no until it becomes a yes. Those are the only valuable words in sales. Maybe is a bane on your existence and leads to wasted time and energy. Your attitude becomes that with each no, you are closer to the yes. Each failure is a critical part of your overall success. It is an investment in your career and, more importantly, your character.

The Wings will do their level best to flush this weekend. Looking ahead is the key to sanity at this point. Accept that you are building into yourself and the team every time you execute in the fundamentals. Larkin, Bertuzzi, Hronek, Fabbri and even Zadina have become adept at looking forward. Larkin, especially, seems to be grasping the balance of accepting reality but pursuing something better in each contest. These lessons build great leaders, and I believe he will be a great leader.

The subtext this year is converting assets into futures. The trade deadline is coming quickly now. Fabbri has let it be known that he likes Detroit and would like to stay. That is a fantastic bright spot. We will see some of Detroit’s future players come up as the season winds down. It will be exciting to see Seider for a few games, and see how Veleno has developed. Svechnikov and Rasmussen will also probably get an invite at some point. The season will close on the notes of hope for a better season next year.

Detroit will face the Flyers on Monday at home. Philadelphia is a team that has had a difficult season and desperately (like New York) want to string some wins together. We’ll see if Detroit can put together another solid effort.

Thanks for stopping by to read and comment. Keep it coming! We’re past the halfway point of the worst season in 30 years. As things wind down, let me know who you think will be moving on for picks or players.
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