Wings Come Up Empty Again

03/10/2024 at 8:00am EDT

from Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press,

"This one stings a lot," coach Derek Lalonde said. "To come into this building on a back-to-back, outshoot a team like that, 13-5 (in the third period), with the lineup they have, and come up empty-handed feels a little disappointing."
Losers of five straight, the Wings (33-25-6) have dropped to the second wild-card position in the Eastern Conference with just a two-point lead on the New York Islanders.
Goalie James Reimer withstood a barrage from the Knights and Moritz Seider's shot led to deflected goals by Michael Rasmussen late in the first period and J.T. Compher early in the third period.
"You try to not give them much," Patrick Kane said. "I think after the first 10 minutes, we played pretty well, had a lot of puck possession."///
"Such a great effort by everyone," Seider said. "We came out with a really good game plan against a really good team that loaded up at the deadline even more, and we showed character. That was the best game on the losing streak so far. That’s just a bummer, coming out of here with nothing."

from Ted Kulfan of the Detroit News,

The Wings lost their fifth consecutive game. This one, though, showing some resilience after a poor outing Friday in Arizona, made the loss hurt even more.
"We were fighting all night," forward David Perron said. "It's not an easy back-to-back but with the performance we put up (Friday) we wanted to come out and definitely fight for each ohter out there. We did that. We stayed in the game all night."...
"To come into this building on a back-to-back and outshoot a team like that 13-5 (in the final 20 minutes) with their lineup, and come up empty, it feels a little empty, disappointing," coach Derek Lalonde said.
Lalonde is hoping that five consecutive periods of improved hockey — the last two periods in Arizona and the entire game against Vegas — is something the Wings can build from.
"We have to continue to get hungry," Lalonde said. "We can't get frustrated. That's five periods of where we've had sustained, good effort. If we can do that, we can have some success going forward."...
The Wings welcomed forward Jonatan Berggren into the lineup, recalled from Grand Rapids. Berggren was minus-two in over 12 minutes of ice time.
"Berggy was good," said Lalonde, who wasn't thrilled about Berggren's turnover that led to a Vegas goal. "When we get to this time of year the way hockey is, you can't give plays away. It's a learning lesson."
One lineup change was defenseman Jake Walman slipping out of the lineup, as the Wings returned to a 12 forward-six defensemen look.
"Coach's decision," Lalonde said. "We have seven defensemen, we've lost four in a row, and I liked how Justin (Holl) played for us the other day. Just a coach's decision, and maybe give him (Walman) a little bit of a reset. We had a pretty good performance from our six defensemen tonight."

I don't think the Isles are going to make it.

The NYI schedule is brutal...with 3 back-to-backs. Those 2nd day opponents @NYR, Njd, and Chi.
64 2024-03-11 10:30 PM @ LA
65 2024-03-14 7:00 PM @ BUF
66 2024-03-16 12:30 PM Sens
67 2024-03-17 1:00 PM @ NYR
68 2024-03-19 7:30 PM Car
69 2024-03-21 7:00 PM @ DET
70 2024-03-23 1:00 PM Win
71 2024-03-24 5:00 PM NJD
72 2024-03-28 7:00 PM @ FL
73 2024-03-30 7:00 PM @ TB
74 2024-04-01 7:00 PM @ PHI
75 2024-04-02 7:30 PM Chi
76 2024-04-04 7:00 PM @ CBJ
77 2024-04-06 7:30 PM Nsh
78 2024-04-09 7:00 PM Nyr
79 2024-04-11 7:30 PM Mon
80 2024-04-13 12:30 PM @ NYR
81 2024-04-15 7:00 PM @ NJD
82 2024-04-17 7:00 PM Pit

Red Wings schedule with 2 back-to-backs: @PIT, @MON (last game of year). The Wings schedule that lets up then gets brutal again.
65 2024-03-12 7:00 PM @ BUF
66 2024-03-14 7:00 PM ARI
67 2024-03-16 12:30 PM Buf
68 2024-03-17 6:00 PM @ PIT
69 2024-03-19 7:00 PM Cbj
70 2024-03-21 7:00 PM NYI
71 2024-03-23 5:00 PM @ NSH
72 2024-03-26 7:00 PM @ WAS
73 2024-03-28 7:30 PM @ CAR
74 2024-03-30 12:30 PM @ FLA
75 2024-04-01 7:00 PM @ TB
76 2024-04-05 7:00 PM Nyr
77 2024-04-07 1:00 PM Buf
78 2024-04-09 7:00 PM Was
79 2024-04-11 7:00 PM @ PIT
80 2024-04-13 7:00 PM @ TOR
81 2024-04-15 7:00 PM Mon
82 2024-04-16 7:00 PM @ MON

Chet

some of these decisions and the way they talkwhat!? you sit Walman for Holl?

evileyeChet

I believe Walman was injured

Paul

Nikita Zadorov of the Canucks was on After Hours and discussed his recent hit on Raymond and The Griddy.

damndogrevengePaul

I really wanted Yzerman to sign him when he was a free agent.

Plans for the Wings were an off day while staying in Vegas, practice tomorrow in Vegas then fly to Buffalo.

evileyePaul

This team does not deserve a "day off in Vegas". Should have changed that to a day off in Buffalo.

Sunday morning standings check: the Red Wings lead the Islanders by two points in the race for the second Wild Card spot. 18 games remaining. pic.twitter.com/zBWlK4kBhr
Brad Galli (@BradGalli) March 10, 2024

via Tim Kavanagh of ESPN,

The Isles have a 61.8% chance of making it, per Stathletes, which is considerably better than that of the Detroit Red Wings (36.3%), the team they are chasing. Part of that is due to their upcoming schedule: after Sunday's matchup against the lottery-bound Ducks, they'll have 19 games left. Of those 19, just 10 are against teams currently in playoff position. They'll also have a chance to play the Red Wings and Tampa Bay Lightning (the other wild card) once more apiece, with those games holding the famous "four-point swing" potential.

I imagine most of that is because the Islanders have 2 more games to play than Detroit.

Steeb

On the plus side, the annual "Disastrous Western Swing" came much later this year than usual.

Lose the garbage patch.

rwbill

A win by NYI against Anaheim tonight, 23-37-3 .389, puts them into the WC2 and knocks Detroit out, with still another game in hand on the Wings.

VPalmerrwbill

I think it will be between us, Flyers and Devils for the last spot. Islanders and Tampa will be in the playoffs

dcaVPalmer

Buffalo has improved significantly over the past month.

They are 6-3-1, the losses vs Nashville .592, Toronto .641, Winnipeg .675, and Florida .708.

This includes wins over Vegas .586, Edmonton .637, Tampa Bay .569 and Carolina .651.

This will be a tough game on the road.

bigfrogrwbill

I am thinking the same.🧐

calquake

Are we witnessing another late season collapse? Remains to be seen. If the Wings don't take 6 out of 8 points available in the next 4 games (Buffalo twice, Arizona and Columbus) you may as well write them off. Sad to say but the Wings are just not good enough. They can score, have adequate goaltending but fall woefully short in defensive capabilities.

exor54calquake

Becoming less and less impressed with the 'value add' of this coaching staff over the prior one. I for one am not impressed with Lalonde or Tanguay or Boughner.

RockyGibraltar

If youre on Instagram, check out Prioritys account. They are taking a beating in the comments.

SteebRockyGibraltar

We're in a world where a garbage company has an Instagram acct.

Shanny_Fan

The wings played a pretty good game last night considering the competition and Larkin being out. Vegas scored on what 3 of their 4 shots in the 3rd? One off Mo's jersey, the other off a strange rebound, and the 3rd into an empty net.

I bet they win or take that game to OT 90% of the time. You gotta believe the wings have done something to anger the hockey gods!

But their schedule gets easier for a while, then we get Larkin back. Lightning and Flyers both don't look great lately, I still think the wings will make it and take one of those spots.

NYI already ahead by 2-0 just 10 minutes into the game vs Anaheim. That win would put them into wildcard 2 and drop the Red Wings, and the Islanders would still have one game in hand.