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The Detroit Red Wings continued their recent inability to win in overtime or the shootout as the club fell to the surging Tampa Bay Lightning on Sunday night by a score of 4-3 in the shootout. With the loss, Detroit falls to 7-3-5 on the season, and has lost all 3 contests this season that have required a shootout to determine the winner. With almost half of their games being decided after regulation the team will have to improve upon their combined record of 2-5 in overtime and the shootout.
To be fair, despite playing the backend of a back-to-back scheduling spot, on this evening the Lightning held the advantage when it came to play while at even strength and were fully deserving of the two points.
Meanwhile, the Red Wings should be commended for rallying from a 3-1 deficit to at least secure another point in the standings. However, Coach Mike Babcock will surely be disappointed by the play of his team on this night...although with the Wings wrapping up their 5th game in 8 nights (and 7th in 12), a middling performance perhaps was not to be totally unexpected.
Ultimately, the Red Wings need this four day break to not only recharge the batteries, but also to work on some things in their game, including their d-zone coverage. With both Chicago and Montreal coming in for visits next weekend, followed by a three-game roadie to Columbus, Winnipeg and Toronto, the opportunity for a nice five game segment exists for the Red Wings, in particular if
Pavel Datsyuk and to a “much” lesser extent,
Stephen Weiss return to the lineup by Friday.
Some minor observations from Sunday night:
**The Detroit D need to take better care of the puck....giveaways on this night were an ugly 11-2 in favor of the Red Wings. None more egregious than
Jakub Kindl’s own zone giveaway late in the 3rd period to Tampa’s
Nikita Kucherov, who blasted a point blank slap shot just wide of the goal looking for the game-winner.
**Sportsnet’s
Chris Johnston tweeted out last night that
Gustav Nyquist has 36 goals in his last 72 NHL regular season games. Funny how a player who everyone thought would be a playmaker based on his college production with Maine and AHL numbers in Grand Rapids has become a scoring machine in what amounts to essentially a full NHL season.
**How good is Tampa's
Steven Stamkos? Forget about the prolific goal-scoring abilities that were on display on Sunday night with two "snipes" he has become renowned for as he enters his 7th NHL season. That in itself puts him in a special category. However, his dogged work ethic and determination is what in the end, combined with his skill set, puts him in that very select group of players that franchises drool over and hope to select every June on draft day.
**That may have been one of the worst shootout attempts I have ever seen from
Darren Helm. His poor “first touch” to use a soccer analogy, essentially left him scrambling to just retrieve the puck before meekly slamming the puck into the pads of
Ben Bishop. It could be quite some time before we see Helm chosen to shoot amongst the team’s top 3 shooters.
**One bright spot on the night was the continued resurgence of the Wings power-play, as they went 2-for-4 on the night. Detroit has gone 6-for-13 over the past three contests after starting the season 5-for-46. The upswing has moved the unit to 19th overall in the league, but a challenge awaits them over this weekend with two strong penalty-killing teams in Chicago (1st, 91.1%) and Montreal (8th, 85.2%) coming in for visits.
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Previous Posts
GAMEDAY: Lightning vs. Red Wings; Datsyuk remains out
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Mistakes come back to haunt
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Kronwall leads Red Wing comeback over the Pens
GAMEDAY: Red Wings vs. Maple Leafs, Babcock mania begins in Toronto
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