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Just Good Enough To Lose

January 12, 2019, 3:53 PM ET [4 Comments]
Bob Duff
Detroit Red Wings Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
The emperor’s new clothes are apparently red and white in hue.

There is also this positive, happy, feely-good energy surrounding the Detroit Red Wings.

The future, evidently, is abundantly bright. Every night, they are oh, so close to winning. It can’t be long until a corner is turned and all is right again in this place called Hockeytown.

In fact, some people are all so bubbly about the goings on at Little Caesars Arena that you almost forget that as they take the ice Saturday in Minnesota to face the Wild, the Wings have lost nine of 10, 13 of 15 and 16 of 20.

Any way you do that math, it comes out bad. Sure, the spin masters will tell you that nine of those losses were one-goal setbacks, that the Wings are in most every game.

What it also says is that the Wings are steadily playing just well enough to lose.

“We’re in every game, but you’ve got to find a way to win them,” Detroit coach Jeff Blashill said.

“We’ve been in a lot of close games,” forward Gustav Nyquist agreed. “In saying that, it’s not good enough to win, so we’ve got to figure out a way to win.

“We can’t let that frustration get to us, we’ve just got to work hard every day and get better.”

Hard work. That’s a popular refrain within the Detroit dressing room, as if they were to put their noses even more firmly to the grindstone, all will turn around.

You know who works hard in the NHL?

Everybody.

“Sometimes you can work as hard as you want, but you’ve got to do the simple things that make a big difference,” defenseman Mike Green said.

Simply put, what the Wings need to work at is finding a way to get the puck out of their zone and to safety on a consistent basis and to play much less of the game in their end and more of it in the other team’s end.

“It’s the mental lapses that probably kill us the most, you know the mistakes,” goaltender Jimmy Howard said. “When we start to run around and turn pucks over in bad areas, in this league you can get away with it a little bit, but as soon as you’re constantly repeatedly doing it, it’s going to cost you.

“That’s what we’ve seen here lately.”

The issues that plague this team continue to be issues past the midway point of the season. Some nights they don’t start on time. Other nights they blow large leads. Zone play at both ends of the ice tends to ebb and flow.

In Friday’s loss at Winnipeg, the Jets scored 13 seconds into the game and with 0.4 seconds left in the opening frame when the Wings simply couldn’t clear the puck. In Tuesday’s loss to Montreal, Canadiens defenseman Jeff Petry was so wide open on the winning goal he had time to tie his skates and tape his stick before firing the puck past Howard.

“We’ve played at times pretty good hockey but you’ve got to be able to do it for 60 minutes, and that’s something we haven’t been able to string together,” veteran defenseman Niklas Kronwall said.

When you step outside the bubble, the reality remains the same - these Wings still aren’t good enough to get it done.

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