from Ansar Khan of Mlive,

...Detroit Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill defended his decision to not put Dylan Larkin and Anthony Mantha on the ice for his team’s first two power plays in Saturday’s 3-2 overtime loss to Florida at Little Caesars Arena. He said it could happen again.

“Obviously, our power play hasn’t been good enough,” Blashill said. “That’s the definition of insanity, just doing the same thing over and over again. So, we felt like we’d try a couple other guys to give them an opportunity to see how they do. And when they weren’t getting it done, we went back to Larkin and Mantha.

“Ultimately, power play is not a whole bunch of schematics, it’s about executing and making plays. Somebody’s got to step up and play better in those situations. If it’s Larks and Mantha, great; if it’s somebody else, great. I’m not sure how you find out it’s somebody else if you don’t try other people.”

The Red Wings went 0 for 4 on the power play, the last two with Larkin and Mantha on the unit.

“It’s something that for the team we got to take a look at,” Larkin said. “It wasn’t working, so try other guys.

“The whole season, even training camp, (Blashill) says (playing on the power play) is a privilege and we just haven’t been good enough, so try to switch something up and get it going and I think just watch from the bench and you can see. It definitely was a good lesson for me, I guess.”

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Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press answers a question from a reader abut firing Jeff Blashill,