Following their third straight home loss, Detroit Red Wings head coach Todd McLellan called out their overall compete level at such a critical time of the season.
The Detroit Red Wings have said all the right things regarding their desire to author a new story in March compared to years past.
However, the results they've delivered are strikingly familiar.
Not only have they witnessed what was once a comfortable playoff cushion disappear, but they continue to get virtually no help from the outside as their chief competitors can't seem to stop losing.
Perhaps two of the more frustrating games on home ice in recent memory saw the Red Wings fall behind by scores of 3-0 and 4-0, both eventual damaging regulation losses.
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What's worse is that the urgency level by the Red Wings players, all of whom know what is at stake, seemed lacking at best.
Head coach Todd McLellan, who recently called out the club for having too many “sweaters” in the lineup - as in, players who are active on the ice but not contributing enough - continued to hold his players’ feet to the fire.
"We’re going into April, and video and practice should just be polishing things up, and away you go," McLellan said following Monday's practice. "You shouldn’t be trying to extract competitiveness or heaviness out of the players at this time, but we are. We're capable of providing it, and we'll get a chance to do that starting tomorrow night."
The good news is that, despite the deficit, Detroit can still control their own destiny, but it needs to begin right away.
“It’s still in our hands, there’s still 18 points left," McLellan said. "But sometimes we play like we’re waiting for teams to do us favors and that’s the issue that we have. We win our share of games, I think it’ll be fine. We play teams that are right there with us.”
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