Red Wings dangerously close to wrong side of playoff line
The Detroit Red Wings gleaned some positives from Saturday’s 5-3 loss at Vegas but left the building facing the most adversity they have all season.
They have lost five in a row and are dangerously close to being on the wrong side of the playoff line. If the New York Islanders, winners of five consecutive games, beat Anaheim on Sunday, they would slip ahead of the Red Wings into the second wild card spot.
Coach Derek Lalonde was encouraged by the effort.
“I think if we can sustain an effort like that, we’ll be successful more times than not,” Lalonde told Bally Sports Detroit. “Can’t get frustrated, just got to keep getting hungrier, very similar to like we did tonight.”
The Red Wings (33-25-6, 72 points) wrap up the four-game trip Tuesday at Buffalo (7 p.m., BSD).
Vegas, which snapped a four-game losing streak, scored three goals in the third period (Jonathan Marchessault completed his hat trick with an empty-net goal), but it was a good period for Detroit, which outshot the Golden Knights 13-5 and controlled much of the play. They tied it twice, on goals by J.T. Compher and Shayne Gostisbehere and had chances to take the lead before Marchessault’s winning goal with 2:44 remaining.
We literally have two open nets on the same play under five minutes and they get a goal off a blocked shot, pin-ping, backdoor tap-in,” Lalonde said.
The Red Wings did a better job of getting to the net, where Rasmussen and Compher scored on tip-ins.
“A little bit better job of getting to those hard areas,” Lalonde said. “I loved our first goal. It just felt like that’s the type of goal we needed, just getting to the net, a body there, a tip. There’s some positives there but again, empty tonight.”
The Red Wings are 0-3 during this stretch without Dylan Larkin (lower-body injury), who’s expected to out at least another week. They are 2-7-0 this season without their captain.
David Perron, one of the club’s other leaders, lauded his team’s fight coming off a lousy performance the night before in a 4-0 loss at Arizona.
