from Ansar Khan of Mlive,

Steve Yzerman’s message on trade deadline day Monday, about not just playing out the string, about needing to fight for jobs and play for contracts, hasn’t resonated.

The Detroit Red Wings have since turned in two lousy performances. Thursday’s 7-1 loss to the Minnesota Wild at Little Caesars Arena might have been as bad as any during this dreadful season.

Coach Jeff Blashill and players once again had difficulty explaining the slow start and inability to respond to the slightest bit of adversity.

“We should be fighting for our jobs,” Dylan Larkin said. “I felt that was the message after the trade deadline. You look at the players that we shipped out of here (Andreas Athanasiou, Mike Green), they’re good players. That could’ve been anyone. We have to fight for our jobs, and we have to find a way to come together and realize we’re playing teams fighting for their lives. It could be really fun to beat these teams, at least show up and be competitive on home ice.”

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from Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press,

The (15-474) have a goal differential that’s swollen to minus-119. They have a goaltender in Jimmy Howard who has not won since Oct. 29, and yet there was no effort to provide coverage in front of him when he started the game.

“I’d like to go and give him an effort where we don’t give up any chances and try to get his game back going,” coach Jeff Blashill said. “There’s a responsibility on the team to do that. We didn’t start the game to help him.

“As a group, we have to look after each other. You’ve got a guy that’s had a tough year, let’s make it an easy game on him. We didn’t do that.”

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added 7:33am, Below, watch Jeff Blashill after the game last night.