Red Wings Rumblings
Well, no eight-game win streak for the Red Wings. They laid a stinker last night to the San Jose Sharks at Little Caesars Arena. This was a winnable game for Detroit, but a couple of poor performances jettisoned their effort to extend their winning ways. This was bound to happen sooner or later, it’s just unfortunate that it had to happen against a lowly Western Conference opponent.
Justin Holl had a downright putrid game. I had him as the direct culprit of at least two goals and was easily the worst player for the team outside of Ville Husso. The encouraging news here is that Todd McLellan realizes how bad Holl was and even made it a point to mention it in his post-game press conference:
The Twitter user here is right. Derek Lalonde would have never publicly held his players accountable. Again, Todd McLellan is a breath of fresh air, even in wake of a disappointing loss.
If this team is going to push its way into the wild card race, these games against “weaker” opponents cannot be lost. The Wings have a tough road trip ahead of them and the margin of error is razor-thin.
In other news, Detroit was linked to Rangers defenseman Ryan Lindgren courtesy of Frank Seravalli:
’“I wonder about Detroit. Is he that big of an upgrade, though? That’s the question I’d have to ask,” Seravalli said. “And I don’t know how big the Red Wings are gonna spend…”’
I think Frank may just be talking out of his you-know-what here, but that’s just my guess. Remember, nothing leaves The Vault. For the sake of fun, I wouldn’t mind acquiring a defenseman like Lindgren, even though he doesn’t really excite me that much. If a trade like this came with the caveat of removing a guy like Holl from the roster, I’m all for it. Lindgren is a pending UFA with a cap hit of $4.5 million, so the money is easily manageable in this instance. I’m not so sure a rental is what Steve Yzerman wants, though.
This is not news, because I mentioned it in yesterday’s Game Day Updates, but Jeff Petry sounds like he will be out for an extended period of time. Petry hasn’t skated since suffering the injury and will not join the team for the road trip. Not sure if McLellan has much wiggle room to sit certain guys, but there could be some roster/lineup movement in the days ahead.