As Detroit looks to snap out of a season-jeopardizing losing streak, the Red Wings are looking to channel the frustration that's inevitably arisen from six straight regulation losses
As Detroit looks to snap out of a season-jeopardizing losing streak, the Red Wings are looking to channel the frustration that's inevitably arisen from six straight regulation losses
At the Red Wings' first practice since a humbling 7-3 loss in Buffalo a night earlier, the frustration was palpable. With six consecutive regulation losses, Detroit slipped from a playoff inevitability to on the wrong side of the cut line as the team awoke this morning.
There was a somber quiet to the BELFOR Training Center through much of practice. The bench door was slammed. Sticks swatted the ice. Pucks were fired straight into the boards after the completion of a rep in a drill.
Then, the most obvious marker of the team's collective frustration came when a net-front battle between Ben Chiarot and Lucas Raymond during a five-on-five defensive zone drill escalated into a shoving and wrestling match that had to be broken up by teammates.
It was nothing spectacular, spiraling from a cross-check or two more intense than standard practice fare into a minor skirmish. No punches were thrown, and neither player was even dismissed from the skate. Instead, both Chiarot and Raymond collected themselves and took the very next rep against one another.
When he addressed the media after practice, coach Derek Lalonde said unequivocally that he believes the flaring up of tempers on display between Raymond and Chiarot was appropriate for the present moment. "You wanna see a response from [the Sabres game] from the guys," he said. "You have a very hard meeting, obviously very disappointed with the road trip, and you'd like to see a little response in practice, and obviously that happened today." Lalonde went on to call the skirmish "very productive," while saying "our last defensive zone drill, if we had half that intensity last night, I think it's a little bit different outcome, but we'll have that opportunity tomorrow."
When asked whether a sense of frustration is mounting within Detroit's dressing room, Patrick Kane offered an equally decisive response, saying "Yeah, for sure, definitely. I don't think it's a bad thing either. I'd be more worried if we were walking around here all smiles, all happy, everything's okay. I think it's good to get a little frustrated as long as you harness it in the right way."
Moritz Seider responded to a question about the scuffle itself by contending that tension like that between Chiarot and Raymond is an accurate reflection of the Red Wings' present reality. "Everyone cares. It's not easy," he said. "We definitely don't want to be in that spot, but it's healthy competition. It's good competition. We wanna get better, and that's the only way to get better is to work even harder. Might be not as comfortable right now, but obviously it has to be done."
And echoing Kane, Seider pointed out that frustration is an appropriate response to Detroit's current circumstances, saying "It's good to be frustrated. It's not okay to lose anymore, and now we just gotta come up with points."
Tomorrow evening against Arizona, the Red Wings will have the chance to direct their frustration externally and stop their losing streak in its tracks.
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