from Ansar Khan of Mlive,
...losing wasn’t the issue Thursday as much as the way they lost. Poor puck management, defensive breakdowns and, according to coach Jeff Blashill, too many no-shows translated into a 7-1 loss at Bridgestone Arena.
The smallest player on the ice, 5-6 Rocco Grimaldi, enjoyed a career night with four goals.
“It’s obviously totally unacceptable,” Blashill said. “You can’t have nights where you give away easy goals.
“I just thought we had too many no-shows. Too many guys that didn’t bring their A or B or C game. When you have that many no-shows, it’s hard. We had a few guys going. I thought our first three shifts were great, exactly what we wanted to do, and then all the sudden we give up a two-on-one goal out of nothing.”
from Ted Kulfan of the Detroit News,
But the true sticking point in this game was defensively. The Wings were too easy on the hard-charging Predators.
"It starts by making sure we check," Blashill said. "We get concerned when we don't score and I get it. But this is the result when you don't check. If that game is 2-1 you are giving yourself a chance to win, but when you're giving up seven goals you have zero chance."...
"We were out of sync," forward Dylan Larkin said. "We didn't execute, didn't have a good start, right away behind the eight-ball, and gave up the three (goals). It wasn't fair to (goaltender Thomas Greiss) Greiser, some of those breakaways. Not much you can do, it wasn't fair to him.
"We didn't have the start we wanted and it went downhill from there."
Below, watch Mickey Redmond on the power play and longer versions of Dylan Larkin and Jeff Blashill post game.
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