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Detroit officially eliminated from Playoffs with loss to the Islanders

February 21, 2020, 11:28 PM ET [23 Comments]
Jeremy Laura
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Detroit, mercifully, has 19 games left. They currently possess 34 points. If they swept the next 19 they would end with 72 points, and the lowest Eastern Seed has 73. So, three weeks into February Detroit is out of the race altogether.

No one would be surprised for them to miss this year. The team is just so much worse than many thought. Tonight’s game saw 1 shot on goal after the first (although they added a second pity shot for an official total of 2). The second period saw 12 shots and a better effort. The third period saw 8 shots and Detroit’s only goal courtesy of Mantha on the PP. This game was about as bad as they’ve played all year, and that is impressive.

The first period saw so many lost chances for bad passing, drop passes and just poor decision making. The team, to a man, wasn’t ready to play. Except for Jonathan Bernier. Bernier gave the team every chance but was victimized thrice by Jordan Eberle. It really looks like this team has forgotten how to play. They seem like a group that wants to compete but has absolutely no idea on how to do that. Larkin, Fabbri and Athanasiou all passed up good scoring chances to make horrible passes. Barry Trotz’s teams will pick you apart with garbage like that.

As this hit parade (add an s to that if you would like) winds down, players look nearly unsalvageable. Adam Erne only grabs your attention when he goes to the box. The best efforts night in and night out come from Glendening, Helm and Bertuzzi. Larkin is trying, but his decision making is way off. Fabbri has lost the swagger he’d earned. Athanasiou is a defensive liability and so when he’s not scoring, it’s painful to watch. Biega made some reasonably good offensive plays but just seems to fall short in execution.

Quite frankly, it’s getting harder to watch this team. They seem to have finally given in to this awful season. Understanding that a large chunk of the roster has no contract for next year and that is obviously a distraction. Other players are waiting to see if anyone wants to add them to the roster (though the returns can’t be very good at this point). There is no direction, even game to game any more. When the odd win comes along, it is in defiance of poor play, not because of any sort of dominance.

This may all sound harsh, but the team tonight looked like they had mailed it in for the better half of the game. The toxicity of 48 losses seems to finally have seeped into almost the entire lineup. Every match is David vs Goliath only in this case, David forgot his sling. Not a pretty picture.

Any returning players for this roster really need to take time with a sports psychologist this summer. Many of them look shell shocked out there. The sound clips aren’t worth listening to, and the explanations are getting worse.

A few weeks ago, it seemed certain that Seider and a few others would get called up for some games to get a good look at them. Grand Rapids is in the thick of a playoff race, and this situation is not the best to bring young players into. All of a sudden, the organization is hesitant to trust their prospects to be able to develop in the current environment. That is a very, very red flag.

The real problem is that the players seem to take it harder than the coach. Larkin and co are genuinely angry at the results and frustrated with themselves. Blashill doesn’t seem to be nearly as upset with himself as he should be. Granted, there isn’t a lot to work with, but he’s not even getting the best of what is there. These are hostile waters.

There isn’t much of anything left to look forward to at this point in the season, except for its end. One can only hope that something better than a 4th overall pick will be available to Detroit at the draft. All hope is directed at the unknown. A new coach? A new top prospect? Development of younger players? Replacements for expired contracts, etc. there aren’t nearly enough specific things lined up to see a much better turnaround for next year

Detroit will face Calgary on Sunday. Hopefully they can come out with enough of a chip on their shoulder to make a game of it. Another night like this would be tough for any fan base to stomach. We’ll see if Yzerman makes any moves by Monday. With all of the trades already made, it could be a very slow trade deadline this year.
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