"We Gave It Back": Red Wings Left Looking For Answers After Collapse Against Panthers

Follow Michael Whitaker On X

The Detroit Red Wings have now lost five straight regulation games, with the latest setback the toughest to swallow. 

The Red Wings held a 4-1 lead over their divisional rival Florida Panthers midway through the second period Thursday evening, only to watch the host Panthers score four unanswered goals and seize victory from the jaws of defeat.

"We didn't do a good enough job of attacking in the third period, and we sat back too much," said forward J.T. Compher, who scored his second goal of the campaign in the first period. 

Goals from Compher, Andreas Englund, Lucas Raymond and Marco Kasper gave Detroit a 4-1 advantage before Florida began to shift the momentum with a goal in the dying seconds of the second period, giving the Panthers some life heading into the third.

"Momentum is a funny thing in sports," said head coach Todd McLellan. "We had all of it until the goal at the end of the second period, and had a chance to regroup coming out into the third, and then took a penalty 30 seconds in a long way from our net, and they really got rolling."

While McLellan believes the group found their footing in the third period, they didn't sustain it.

"We just couldn’t sustain it enough," he said. "We lost that aggressiveness to go the other way. We were trying to play mistake-free hockey, and they capitalized.”

Bookmark The Hockey News Detroit Red Wings team site to stay connected to the latest news, game-day coverage, and player features. 

The Red Wings will lament the fact that Thursday was another game in which they held a multi-goal lead and ultimately ended up with zero points in the standings.

"There’s been games this year where we didn’t have it and we went back and got it, so we got that down," said McLellan. "But today, we gave it back.”

Detroit has no choice but to immediately try and regroup for when they conclude their road swing against the Tampa Bay Lightning, who defeated them by a 4-1 final score earlier this month to begin the current five-game skid, on Saturday evening. 

Never miss a story by adding us to your Google News favorites!

For action-packed issues, access to the entire magazine archive and a free issue, subscribe to The Hockey News at THN.com/free. Get the latest news and trending stories by subscribing to our newsletter here. And share your thoughts by commenting below the article on THN.com or creating your own post in our community forum.