Detroit Red Wings team captain Dylan Larkin lamented his club's lack of finish over the last five games, which has yielded a 1-3-1 record.
While the good news for the Detroit Red Wings is that they enter the Olympic break with 72 points, the bad news is that they're 1-3-1 in their last five games following Wednesday's 4-1 loss to the Utah Mammoth.
Not only did they surrender an early goal just 58 seconds into the contest, but they got into penalty trouble and were soon trailing 2-0 after a five-on-three power-play tally from Utah's Nick Schmaltz.
While Utah took advantage of its special teams, Detroit's continued to struggle, having produced just a single power-play goal on its last 16 opportunities.
Afterward, captain Dylan Larkin tipped his cap to Utah goaltender Karel Vejmelka and said he feels he and his teammates have been lacking a certain “finishing touch” around the net in recent games.
"You look at the goals they got, and that was the difference," Larkin said. "They get a flukely one to start, and that happens. But then they get one on the five-on-three, for the most part, it's a 2-0 game. Their goalie played pretty well and seems to play well against us.
"We just didn't get the puck past them at crucial times, and had looks on power-plays. But we're just missing that finishing touch around the net."
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Head coach Todd McLellan echoed Larkin's sentiments regarding Vejmelka's performance while also lamenting the poor start to the game.
“We had a disappointing start, I don’t think we want to cough a goal up like that right off the bat," McLellan said. "Then, to go down 5-on-3, now we’re chasing it the whole night.
"I thought we created enough opportunities to get ourselves back in," he continued. "We couldn’t beat a real hot goaltender and that was probably the difference, when it was all said and done.”
Making things even more uncomfortable is the fact that the red-hot Montreal Canadiens have tied them in total points and technically passed them in the standings; they're now second overall in the Atlantic.
Meanwhile, the Buffalo Sabres are just two points back of Detroit, thanks to a monster run since the firing of GM Kevyn Adams in December.
The Red Wings are now off until Feb. 26 when they play the Ottawa Senators.
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