Coming off maybe their worst loss of the season, the Red Wings had a fast, physical practice on Monday. Todd McLellan called it an attempt to "extract competitiveness or heaviness out of the players" ahead of another crucial game Tuesday in Pittsburgh -- not that he should have to be doing that at this time of year, he acknowledged.
"I thought our practice would set us up well for this game. It didn’t," McLellan said after Detroit's 5-1 loss to the Penguins. "So perhaps our approach was the wrong one. I don’t know. Or else it didn’t get through."
For the third time in the last four games, the Red Wings fell behind 3-0 to a team with whom they're fighting for one of the final playoff spots in the East. But that might be putting it kindly for the Wings, who aren't so much 'fighting' as they are fading. Again.
"In some situations it’s definitely competitiveness and the will and the drive to do it longer and harder than maybe the opposition," McLellan said. "Some of it's technique and skill, too. It’s a combination of both. But the will and the drive is something we could use a little bit more of right now, and we’re going to ask them for it."
For the fourth year in a row, led by mostly the same players, the Red Wings are stumbling with the finish line in sight. Injuries are no longer an excuse for a team that over the course of this season has been one of the healthiest in the NHL. While leaders like Dylan Larkin and Andrew Copp are banged up, the fact is that they're in the lineup and on the ice. The Wings have their full complement of players save a bottom-six forward in Michael Rasmussen, they bolstered their blueline at the deadline, and they continue to look disoriented in high-stakes games.
By the time they found their bearings Tuesday night, it was too late.
"It’s disappointing that we’d come out and start like that," said Larkin. "I really don’t have words for the start. The second two periods were better and we played better, we just didn’t get the puck by (Stuart) Skinner. And that’s what it was."
And more and more, that's what this is, a team that lacks the spunk and the spine to absorb a few blows without getting knocked to the mat. Larkin is clearly compromised since injuring his knee last month and missing a couple weeks -- and he did chip in a power play goal Tuesday night -- but it doesn't excuse the way he lost Anthony Mantha at the net-front on Pittsburgh's second goal as three Penguins jammed at the puck in John Gibson's crease without paying a price. And it definitely doesn't explain this: Larkin has one five-on-five goal and three five-on-five points in his last 36 games, dating back to Dec. 11.
That is frankly inexplicable.
In fact, Justin Faulk has as many five-on-five goals and five-on-five points for the Red Wings over the same stretch of time, despite joining the team a few weeks ago. And at the risk of piling on, among the 245 NHL forwards with at least 450 minutes of ice time since Dec. 11, Larkin -- Detroit's No. 1 center and highest-paid player who's supposed to be in the prime of his career at age 29 -- is tied for last in five-on-five points. His knee injury was March 6.
Steve Yzerman might be forced into having a hard conversation about his captain this offseason. If this playoff drought reaches 10 years, a real shakeup could be needed. You have to wonder if both the player and the team would benefit.
That's for later. On Tuesday night, Larkin lamented the way the Red Wings started the game "on our heels," which he acknowledged has been an issue of theirs all season. While the Penguins -- who by the way lost Sidney Crosby for three weeks coming out of the Olympics and Evgeni Malkin for a month earlier this season and have managed to keep up in the playoff race -- were playing "fast, north, quick," said Larkin, the Wings were wasting the puck whenever they had it, a couple D-to-D passes "and then we throw it up to three guys standing still."
Why are these late-season games such a struggle for this team?
"I don’t know," said Larkin. "Seems to be a different story every night, and that’s a tough one. But when you come to the rink, you put your equipment on, and it’s hockey, no matter what time of the year. It’s elevated this time of the year, but you have to make plays, you have to want the puck on your stick, the battles become even more important. And I think we’re just dipping our toe in a little bit too much."
Larkin owned his own performance. McLellan credited him for "slugging through" his injury, which on Tuesday limited him to his second fewest minutes of the season. But Larkin is reflective of a team that is losing too many battles and coughing up too many pucks. Ben Chiarot, Andrew Copp and Patrick Kane, three of Detroit's most veteran players, lost a board battle in their own zone Tuesday night that led to Pittsburgh's first goal. Copp was reaching. Kane was reaching. And when Rickard Rakell curled into the slot with the puck before wiring a wrist shot over Gibson's blocker, Alex DeBrincat was reaching.
"I thought we were overpowered along the walls and in front of our net, and that wasn’t just at the start," McLellan said. "That was for the whole night. And at the other end, we didn’t return the favor very much. We had some looks, most of them were on DeBrincat’s stick, I thought that line had any of the real chances we had. Everybody else was dry.
"But at the end of the night, they were heavier, they were harder -- boards, back of the net, net-front. They scored multiple shots on tips, deflections and rebounds, and that’s the difference."
McLellan bristled at questions about March almost as soon as they arose in late February. He all but put an embargo on the topic. It was partly understandable on behalf of a coach who, at the time, had only been here for one March malaise. McLellan's message was that this year's team isn't last year's team and that these players get to "write their own story." But this is their story. The same core continues to write the same conclusion. Lucas Raymond, speaking of the team's highest-paid players, went minus-3 Tuesday night and has two five-on-five goals in his last 21 games.
"For all of us it’s disappointing this time of year," McLellan said Tuesday night. "I’m part of it, our staff is part of it, we’re responsible for it. I can’t stand here in front of these cameras and just sling everything at the players. It starts with us and the ability to drive the team. We have to do a better job, obviously. It’s not getting done."
The race isn't over. The Red Wings didn't lose any ground Tuesday night, even if they took another shot to their pride. They got a much-needed lift around the league when their four most direct competitors for the final wild card spot -- the Blue Jackets, Islanders, Senators and Flyers -- also lost in regulation. The Red Wings play in Philly on Thursday, and host Columbus next Tuesday.
"We got eight games left and we’re sticking together," said Copp. "We’re absolutely not out of it. We got a lot of help tonight, which is huge. ... So we can’t linger and say 'Oh, us, March, blah-blah-blah-blah-blah.' We got a huge game Thursday night, and we’re doing nothing but preparing for that."
It sounds simplistic to say, but their fate here might ultimately fall on Gibson. He was the Wings' best player and the NHL's best goalie for three months, leading the league in save percentage (.930) and goals against average (1.90) from Dec. 8 to March 8, and covering a lot of his team's five-on-five flaws in the process. But Gibson looks tired. He looks overworked, which was always the fear when Detroit acquired a goalie who had succumbed to injuries in recent years. Gibson's save percentage since March 8 has fallen to .889. He allowed three goals on 14 shots in Pittsburgh before being pulled.
Larkin looked exasperated Tuesday night by another question about March, almost pained. He pinched the bridge of his nose and briefly shut his eyes, the way someone does when there's nothing left to say. Of course, the question answered itself (and we the media could afford to be a bit more discerning in these moments): Is this frustrating? Disappointing? Larkin flipped a hand in the air, shook his head, scratched at his beard and said yes, it is.
He called the narrative about the Wings' woes in March "outside noise." Sure, maybe so. But it can only be quieted from within. He said that "it's a different team than the last two, three years and it’s not fair to put this month or what happened — it’s a different story every year." But it isn't.
It's the same.
"The book is closed on March now," said McLellan, "and we move to April. We’ll have to review everything. If this is what happens all the time, then we seriously have to look at it. There’s teams that are elevating right now and there’s teams that aren’t, and right now we’re one of them that aren’t."
Again.
