The penalty phase of the Detroit Red Wings’ game has once again gone south when the team goes on the road. Detroit has allowed eight power-play goals in the past three games away from Little Caesars Arena, killing penalties at a dismal 42.8 percent success rate in those games.

Granted, half of those goals came during Detroit forward Tyler Bertuzzi’s match penalty against the New York Islanders that led to the Isles scoring four times during their five-minute advantage.

“We allowed a shooting gallery to happen to happen with a great net-presence guy (Anders Lee) and we got burned on that,” Detroit coach Jeff Blashill said.

Regardless, any way you draw it up, the schematics do not paint a pretty picture.

“Our PK is a little fragile right now but we’ll get the PK going, we’ve got great penalty-killers,” Blashill said. “We’ll get it back going.”

They better. The Wings were lit up for a pair of power-play goals in Thursday’s 4-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning by Tampa Bay’s man-advantage units, which are currently clicking second in the NHL at 24.3 percent. The Wings will get another tough test on Saturday as they are in Nashville. The Predators power play is fifth in the league at 22.2 percent.

Blashill believes, as his team showed in the last home game by successfully killing all four penalties against the Anaheim Ducks, that they are capable of getting the job done.

“I think that’s the important part,” Blashill said. “We had a good PK for a long time and I think we’ve got real good penalty killers. I think the No. 1 component of a good PK is having great penalty killers, and I think we have them. (Assistant coach) Doug Houda’s got a good plan. I think we’ve got to get our confidence back, No. 1, and so we’ve got to understand that kill by kill we got to go out there and do it right.

“To be honest with you, I thought our kills weren’t bad in Washington, but the goals went in. I understand that’s not good enough, but I thought from a process standpoint we did things the way we want to do it. They have some real good shooters, they had some shots from areas of the ice that you’re probably going to give them up on the PK.

“One by one, kill by kill, we’ve got to get our confidence back going. I think our guys got to understand we’ve just got to stick to the principles of what’s made us good at times. What’s made us good is we’ve made stands at the line, forced the puck out of the other team’s hands, had good retrievals and sent it down the ice. That’s the best way to have a good PK. In the zone, we’ve had a good plan, done a good job. But the best way to have a good PK is to not let other teams set up.”

Looking back will do them no good. The Wings must move ahead and find a way to be more consistent when down a man.

“Well, there’s not one thing you can about it, except for learn,” Blashill said. “You can’t go get yesterday back in life. All you can do is learn from it and move forward. So we have to move forward.

“The lesson there, we’ve got to make sure we’re disciplined and we’ve got to be ultra committed like playoff hockey to blocking shots.”

Follow me on Twitter @asktheduffer

Join the Discussion: » 6 Comments » Post New Comment

» Five of Last Six First Rounders To Start Season In AHL

» Zadina, Veleno sent down

» Opening-Night Roster Not Set In Stone

» Back Where Pro Hockey Started

» Abdelkader Looking To Bounce Back