Arizona beat Detroit 4-0 with a first period surge, damaging the Red Wings' control of their playoff future
Arizona beat Detroit 4-0 with a first period surge, damaging the Red Wings' control of their playoff future
If the Red Wings needed any evidence to support a tame trade deadline, Friday night’s 4-0 loss to Arizona served as plenty of evidence.
In a game in which they went down 3-0 in the first period and never really recovered, the Red Wings (33-24-6 overall) suffered a tough road loss to a skeleton crew of a Coyotes team, marking their fourth-straight loss. As Detroit battles for a wild card spot, the loss damages its control on a playoff spot as other teams draw nearer.
Arizona (26-33-5) wrested control early on, taking the lead 2:35 into the game off a rebound goal by forward Jack McBain, tacking on two more that period by way of an Alex Kerfoot deflection of a faceoff and a Logan Cooley power-play one-timer. Such control spanned further than just their own offensive end, too. They allowed the Red Wings to put just six shots on net all period and none for the first 10:43, showing nearly complete domination. By the second period, that lead ballooned to 4-0 thanks to a one-timer in the slot by forward Nick Bjugstad.
Each goal showed common symptoms of the Red Wings’ recent cold streak, particularly on the defensive end. On McBain’s goal, a failed zone exit led to a transition chance. On Kerfoot’s, defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere did not clear the net front off a clean faceoff win. Open one-timers didn’t help matters either, as Cooley and Bjugstad made sure to cash in on.
Without injured star Dylan Larkin, Detroit doesn’t have the firepower to outduel teams. And with defensive lapses like those against the Coyotes, they can’t outdefend them, either. The lack of goal support from the offense magnifies each error.
After Bjugstad’s 4-0 goal, the game saw a much more even performance by Detroit, which created far more offensive threats than its timid opening frame. That included more than a dozen shot attempts from within home plate, the majority of which came right in front of the net. None, however, could get past Arizona goaltender Connor Ingram, who pitched his sixth shutout of the season. That carried into a scoreless third period in which the Coyotes maintained their control.
An imperfect outing could be expected of a Detroit team without Larkin, just like it showed against fiery Colorado two nights prior. But against an undermanned Coyotes team that traded two of its best players in forward Jason Zucker and defenseman Matt Dumba earlier in the day — one with two wins to its name the previous 18 games — such a performance was unbecoming of a team with serious playoff aspirations.
The timing, meanwhile, is far from optimal. Led by the midseason hire of Patrick Roy, the New York Islanders have crawled within two points of the Red Wings in as many games. Tampa Bay, meanwhile, has the same 72 points as Detroit. The Eastern Conference wild card race could come down to a sprint the last 20 games, and the Red Wings look to be a step behind. Compared to their six-game win streak before this, the difference is jarring.
There’s still time to put the doom and gloom aside, especially with a rematch against the Coyotes and two games against the Buffalo Sabres on the docket. That is, if Detroit can shirk its current form.
Because against Arizona, Detroit didn’t look like a playoff team. And if it doesn’t fix its recent woes, it won’t be.
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