from Bob Duff of Detroit Hockey Now,
One key component for the Red Wings was again missing in action as far as putting the puck in the next was concerned. Alex DeBrincat failed to score. His account is showing one tally over 18 games since Feb. 29.
“I’ve definitely got to bear down more and put some pucks in the net and work on that,” DeBrincat was acknowledging.
He’s certainly right about that. When the Red Wings were trading a first-round pick, prospect Donovan Sebrango and 20-goal scorer Dominik Kubalik to the Ottawa Senators for DeBrincat last summer, they were doing so with the expectation that he’d be filling the opposition net with pucks.
It’s also why they were inking the native Michigander to a four-year, $31.5 million contract. The Red Wings aren’t paying DeBrincat nearly $8 million per season to create chances. A provision of that stipend is that he be finishing chances.
At the start of the season, he was doing exactly that. Through his first nine games with Detroit, DeBrincat was good for eight goals.
Now, no one was expecting him to maintain a 73-goal pace. Then again, nobody was thinking he’d be falling off to a Michael Rasmussen scoring pace.