from Ted Kulfan of the Detroit News,

The young players on the Red Wings are learning and Thursday they learned quite a bit.

In a 5-3 loss to the powerful Toronto Maple Leafs, the Wings learned you can’t let up for a period and expect to defeat one of the best teams in the NHL.

They learned you have stay disciplined and not give Toronto opportunities on the power play.

They learned, up close, how truly good Auston Matthews, John Tavares, Mitch Marner, and a lot of other Leafs are....

“You have to compete for 60 minutes in order to win,” Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said. “In the second (period) we lost all the contested puck battles.

“Their skill players out-competed our skilled guys in the second and we didn’t have the puck enough. When we did have the puck, we missed the net on every shot we could. You have to hit the net to create chaos and create more zone time.

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