The Detroit Red Wings have seen their offense go cold over the past two weeks. Facing a team that shut them out less than a week ago won’t make a turnaround any easier.
The Red Wings will carry a four-game losing streak into their home matchup against the Philadelphia Flyers on Friday. Detroit has scored only six goals during the skid, which includes a 1-0 loss at Philadelphia on Saturday.
Over the past eight games, Detroit is 1-6-1. That followed a stretch in which the Red Wings won six of seven games while scoring four or five goals in each of the victories.
The Red Wings lost 5-2 at Winnipeg on Wednesday, as the Jets scored three second-period goals to take control.
“It’s kind of spiraling right now,” Detroit captain Dylan Larkin said during a postgame TV interview. “It’s a lot of hockey (left), but we can’t make excuses. We had to come in here and find a way — and we didn’t. We found the opposite. We lost our D-zone coverage. We’ve been struggling with that of late and they exposed us.”
The previous three losses were by one goal, so Detroit coach Derek Lalonde doesn’t think his team is that far away from regaining its earlier form.
“Just consistent play,” Lalonde said of what’s needed. “You lose your momentum when you lose your identity, you lose your shift. And again, we get to 1-1 (early in the second period), a pretty good first half of the game, and then we started losing some shifts. You could feel the momentum change a little bit, and (the Jets) turned that into a couple of easy goals.”
The Red Wings’ offense will get a boost Friday from the return of forward David Perron, who completed his six-game suspension on Wednesday.
In the Flyers’ 1-0 victory over Detroit, Samuel Ersson recorded the shutout by making 32 saves.
Philadelphia was on a 7-0-1 hot streak before losing 4-2 to visiting Nashville on Thursday. Philip Tomasino scored with 4:01 remaining to give the Predators the lead, and Nashville added an empty-netter in the final second.
Flyers coach John Tortorella was unhappy with the team’s approach, feeling his players stubbornly made selfish plays rather than relying on grit and puck movement.
“Nashville, they gave us a clinic on checking,” he said. “All of us were talking about it all game long. We have to get it in deep. We’re not getting through clean. They’re not opening up. And we’re holding on towards the end there and we just can’t keep it simple. We have to try to beat people.”
The Flyers will be playing their third game in four nights. They earned a 3-2 overtime road win against the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday.
Tortorella wants to make sure his team understands it has a small margin for error and can’t cut corners.
“When this league gets going, after the holiday, that’s when the grind starts coming in,” he said. “If we think we’re going to be this high-flying transition team and not forecheck, we’re in for a rude awakening. We found that out (Thursday).”
Travis Konecny, who leads the Flyers with 16 goals, hasn’t scored in the past five games.
–Field Level Media
