from Ansar Khan of Mlive,

“There’s great learning in this and it’s great for all of us to go through it, but we need more out of everyone,” Larkin said. “We need guys to be drivers and that’s what we’re going to need this week.”

The Red Wings host Washington on Tuesday and visit Pittsburgh on Thursday. The New York Islanders and Philadelphia also are in the mix for either third place in the Metropolitan Division or the second wild card spot.

“We have to get points. It doesn’t matter how we do it,” Larkin said. “We have to start winning hockey matches.”

The Red Wings (37-31-8, 82 points) feel good about their play in recent games but have left points on the table – losing 1-0 at Nashville, 4-3 in overtime at Washington, 3-2 in a shootout at Florida, and 4-3 in regulation to the New York Rangers on Friday.

“There’s a lot at stake and it’s the little details that count,” Larkin said. “It’s the first time in a long time that I’ve been a part of games like that and it’s what we ask for. I feel that we’ve figured it out and even going back to Washington, we had a lot of chances and didn’t convert on them. In Tampa (4-2 victory), we didn’t get frustrated when we didn’t convert on our chances, we just kept going. Last night it was a little bit of a different story where we just had costly mistakes at costly times.”

Coach Derek Lalonde said his message to the team is to stay on it.

“You got to stay even keeled and take care of what you can take care of,” he said. “I feel like we can still control our own destiny. We got a couple of four-point games coming up.”

read on