Despite their damaging setback on Tuesday evening, the Detroit Red Wings have no choice but to press onward.
On a night that the Detroit Red Wings needed everything to go right, just about everything went wrong.
Not only did they lose forward Andrew Copp to injury, but they also twice blew one-goal leads against the Florida Panthers, who knotted the score inside of the final two minutes of regulation and then scored the game-winner with just 14 seconds left.
Andrew Copp, who slotted in for the injured Dylan Larkin on the first line, was hurt when former Red Wings forward Tomas Nosek fell onto his left leg after a face-off; he didn't return and has been designated as "doubtful" for Detroit's next game on Thursday.
That, combined with victories by every team either directly behind or ahead of the Red Wings in the standings, made for a very damaging night.
The Red Wings are now in the first Wild Card position in the Eastern Conference, with the Boston Bruins and Columbus Blue Jackets hot on their trail.
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However, don't expect anybody around the League to feel some kind of sympathy for Detroit because of their injuries.
“It’s a big ask, but nobody’s feeling sorry for the Red Wings,” McLellan said after the game. “And nobody in the locker room should feel sorry. We have a job to do. The first thing we have to do is recover from this loss. And then we have to figure out how to plug some holes.
And I thought, when you look at the game tonight, after Copper went out, we had a pretty good effort. That doesn’t mean we can’t have that night in and night out without him.”
The Red Wings took a 3-2 lead in the third period after Marco Kasper tallied for the seventh time this season. But it was a lead that they couldn't protect.
Panthers forward Carter Verhaeghe scored the game-tying goal with 90 seconds left in regulation, following a failed clearing attempt from Simon Edvinsson, and then the go-ahead goal with 14 seconds left on an odd-man rush.
To add a cruel twist of irony, Verhaeghe's game-winning goal deflected off Justin Faulk, who scored his first goal since being acquired by Detroit on Friday from St. Louis.
McLellan addressed Edvinsson's clearing attempt that went for naught, saying he'd have preferred for him to use the glass to get the puck out of the zone.
“When we were up by one, face-off in our zone, a bit of a scramble," he said. "I understand individuals looking to shoot into an open net, but when you’re the last guy back with a forest in front of you, that puck has to find a way to at least gain the blue line."
"I would prefer not shooting for the net there, use the glass and get it out so we have a chance to regroup, but we took the shot," he continued. "We kind of fumbled on it, and it ended up in the back of our net."
While replays showed that the Panthers had six players on the ice just moments before what was the game-winner, no call was made.
"Then the winner, in my opinion, too many men on the ice, but I’m not the referee," McLellan said.
Without Larkin and likely Copp, the Red Wings have no choice but to regroup when they face the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday.
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