Wings’ desert drought increases challenge in playoff hunt
Moritz Seider posited it’s even harder for Dylan Larkin to watch from press boxes than it is for the Detroit Red Wings to play without their captain, but it’s their inability to do so that has tarnished their playoff chances.
The Wings don’t play again until Tuesday in Buffalo, and at least they can take on the Sabres having put on a competitive performance in Las Vegas. But process and performance only go so far when points aren’t part of the equation, and a five-game losing streak has bumped the Wings from the top wild-card spot they were in on March 2, when Larkin suffered a lower-body injury which will sideline him at least until mid-month.
Larkin is the Wings’ leading scorer; remove such a player from any lineup and it will show. But the Wings made a mockery of the depth they’ve talked about all season in going 0-3 without him this month. (At least their struggles without him in mid-December were worsened by the absences of J.T. Compher and David
Perron.)
“I think the first couple games, I think we were kind of sorry for ourselves, maybe,” Seider said after Saturday’s 5-3 defeat to the Golden Knights. “I think there was a lot of good stuff today, everyone stepped up his game a little more. I think it’s even harder for him watching the games up top. But overall we have a really good lineup, even though he’s not in it, and we just have to find a way to get two points.”
They may feel sorry for themselves all summer if they wind up missing the playoffs by a point or two. The Golden Knights, while enduring some turbulence themselves, are the defending Stanley Cup champions and freshly strengthened by big additions ahead of last week’s trade deadline. The Wings held their own against them, playing on the second night of a back-to-back, and it rightfully stung that a game that was 3-3 with three minutes to play ended with the Wings not even squeezing out one point.
But there was no shame there, just as there wasn’t in losing at home to the Florida Panthers, who entered Sunday atop the NHL standings, nor at the Colorado Avalanche, who have the league’s best home record. It’s Friday’s dud in the desert, where a lackadaisical effort resulted in a 4-0 loss to the lottery-headed Arizona Coyotes — that was embarrassing.
The Wings decided to spend an extra day in Vegas, scheduling a practice there for Monday morning, and then take a flight to Buffalo, arriving Monday night. There’s magnified pressure now to win, and that starts with doing a better job keeping the puck out of their own net. During this five-game skid, the Wings have been outscored, 25-7.
“It seems like we’re giving up too much lately — seven against Colorado, then four, then five,” veteran Patrick Kane said Saturday. “Tonight, I think the effort was definitely at a good level. There’s always more you can do when you lose, but hopefully it’s a step in the right direction for us. We know the position we’re in and where we set ourselves up to be right now. It’s fun to be in the hunt and fun to be in the mix for the playoffs.”
The Wings (33-25-6) are down to 18 games remaining, and this losing skid now allows little leeway for anything other than perfect efforts down the stretch.
“Frustrating, but we have to continue to get hungry,” coach Derek Lalonde said. “We can’t get frustrated with it. Pretty much from the second period on (in Arizona), I’ve loved the team’s effort, so that’s five periods we’ve sustained a pretty good effort. If we can do that, I think we’ll have some success going forward.”
Contact Helene St. James at hstjames@freepress.com . Follow her on Twitter @helenestjames . Her latest book, “On the Clock: Behind the Scenes with the Detroit Red Wings at the NHL Draft,” is available from Amazon , Barnes & Noble and Triumph Books. Personalized copies available via her e-mail.