Detroit cannot right the ship in Winnipeg, suffering a humbling 5-2 loss at the hands of the Jets
Detroit cannot right the ship in Winnipeg, suffering a humbling 5-2 loss at the hands of the Jets
After the Detroit Red Wings suffered a 4-3 loss to the Anaheim Ducks Monday, coach Derek Lalonde referred to his team as "fragile." On Tuesday, he spoke of the need of the team's need to get its game in order. On Wednesday, the Red Wings lost their fourth straight, 5-2 to the Jets in Winnipeg. It was Detroit's seventh defeat in eight games, and once again, the only word for it was fragile.
After a rocky first two shifts spent in the defensive zone, the Red Wings appeared to have their game in order, in keeping with the exigence laid out by their coach the day prior. Detroit commanded play for a stretch of roughly ten minutes midway through the first period—establishing the simple forechecking game preferred by Lalonde and driving play to the Jets' third of the rink.
However, it was Winnipeg who came out of that spell of Detroit control with a lead, when a Neal Pionk wrister dipped off the glove of defenseman Jeff Petry and past James Reimer in net, putting the hosts ahead 1-0 with the clock showing 4:22 to play in the first period. The deflection was an unfortunate break for Reimer, but the goaltender was not blameless in Pionk's goal; it was Reimer's inability to squeeze a simple dump-in with his catching glove that had allowed the Jets to get to work on the cycle to begin with.
From there, any sense of control, much less command, evaporated from the Red Wings' game; the fragility Lalonde described made manifest by his team's inability to settle back in after conceding a goal late, against the run of play, in a period it had largely controlled.
Detroit did manage to regain its composure well enough to tie the game early in the second, through a quintessential example of Patrick Kane's playmaking. Kane pulled up along the half-wall, surveyed his options, then feathered a perfectly weighted saucer pass for the rush's late arrival Olli Maatta to skate onto then fire home in stride.
However, instead of riding a burst of momentum out of the goal, Detroit's game flatlined, and eventually a defensive zone breakdown sent another tremor down the visiting bench as Nikolaj Ehlers—abandoned by the Red Wings' coverage at the back post—restored Winnipeg's lead seven minutes and 41 seconds into the second.
Having suffered another setback, Detroit's game deteriorated further.
Shayne Gostisbehere's misread of a banked stretch pass left Axel Jonsson-Fjallby behind the Red Wing defense where he beat Reimer to make it 3-1 just over three minutes after Ehlers' goal, then a miscommunication between Moritz Seider and Jake Walman left a different Jet wide open at the doorstep, this time Gabe Vilardi, who made it 4-1.
Though almost four minutes remained in the second period, the game was all but over. There have been stretches of the season where a three-goal third period comeback would have felt feasible for these Red Wings, but even the team's most optimistic supporter couldn't harbor such a fantasy on this occasion.
Kane provided a modest silver lining with a third period goal to make it 4-2, his fourth point in his last two games. More than 11 minutes remained for Detroit two make up the remaining deficit, but the muted nature of Kane's celebration reinforced the futility of such an effort.
What the Red Wings needed, what they have needed for some time, is a break the schedule will not afford them, with two games still between Detroit and the league's three-day Christmas freeze.
When this skid began, injuries might not have been an excuse per se for poor performance, but they provided explanatory context. The Red Wings still have important pieces absent (the suspended David Perron and the injured Ville Husso, Alex Lyon, and Klim Kostin), but with Dylan Larkin and J.T. Compher back in action, it's harder to dismiss more dropped points as an injury-induced inevitability.
Instead, as has been the case all month, the only inevitability is an imminent chance at redemption; the Flyers will come to Little Caesars Arena Friday night, then the Red Wings will go to New Jersey Saturday.
Emotionally, Detroit is dying for something to break its way, and practically, the Red Wings have slipped from a solid playoff spot when this skid began to 10th in the East by points percentage as of this writing.
If there's one thing Detroit needs worse than it needs some time off right now, it's points in the standings. As difficult as the last two weeks have been, there are four vital points yet to salvage from what's been a brutal month. Must-win might be a stretch, but the Red Wings have a desperate need to stop this slide if they are to realize this season's ambitions.
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