Hockey is a very taxing game. The average shift lasts about 45 seconds. Any physical activity you can’t do for even a full minute is extremely difficult. (Insert your favorite joke here.)

I can’t imagine the strength, resolve and mental fortitude it takes to play late in the third period against a guy like Kings forward Adrian Kempe, a 6-foot-2, 205-pound bruising forward who seems just as content scoring goals as he does trying to snatch souls with bone-crushing hits in the corners.

But that’s what the Wings must do. They have to get tougher and stronger and dictate the style and pace of play more often. They do that sometimes, but not with enough consistency. Again, the game against the Kings was a great example. Somehow — even though they’d been at home for five days and had a full day of rest — the Wings lost to a West Coast team at the end of a six-game Eastern trip. Inexcusable.

Los Angeles Kings center Andreas Athanasiou (22) gets defended by Detroit Red Wings center Joe Veleno (90) during the first period at Little Caesars Arena on Feb. 2, 2022.
“I didn’t think our battle level was nearly good enough,” Blashill said. “For the most part this season our compete and battle level has been really, really good. And I thought tonight, I thought the stick battles, they were harder on sticks, they were stopping on pucks better than us. …

“I thought we had too many guys that had their 'B' game — 'C' game, maybe — and we can’t afford that. We need guys to have their ‘A’ game.”

There’s no easy fix here. Like I said, a minute’s a long time. (Insert your second-favorite joke here). But whenever I watch a growing team like the Wings or the Lions or — OK, every Detroit team — the one thing I want more than results is effort. That’s something every team, regardless of talent, can control.

Blashill deserves some blame for this because he needs to find the right motivational tactic to get a consistently high effort out of his players.

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