Red Wings Rumblings
Ugh, that was an ugly loss to the Blue Jackets Thursday night at LCA. Total slopfest where it was clear that some of the big role players for the Red Wings were on cruise control, or not even cruising at all. Head coach Todd McLellan didn’t mince words when talking about the performance postgame. Captain Dylan Larkin was part of that.. Here’s what coach had to say from MLive’s article:
McLellan said Dylan Larkin was among them. The team captain had no points, registered just one shot on goal, had no hits or blocked shots, lost 9-of-13 faceoffs and posted a minus-3 rating.
“I can’t beat around the bush — he was missing,” McLellan said. “He was one of the players that I’m talking about and he’s a big boy. He can handle hearing that. He’s going to hear it from me tomorrow. Just a lot of mishandles, unsure plays that he usually makes.
The loss sucks and it’s deflating to see key players slump, but I feel at peace knowing they have a leader like Todd McLellan who will hold them accountable and won’t shy away from telling them that what they did was not good enough. To be fair, it’s tough when you’re missing a center who can play top six minutes. Andrew Copp isn’t an all-star, but he plays a role on this team and he will be missed. We’re already seeing that.
Speaking of Copp, with the trade deadline coming up, the widespread belief is that Steve Yzerman will be in the market for a replacement center. A recent column on Yahoo Sports dished on the possibility of Chicago and Detroit being suitable trade partners. In this, the writer speculates that Ryan Donato would be of interest, and could be had for cheap, perhaps a third-round pick. Donato has been a decent producer this season, almost at 20 goals through 57 games. A third-round pick is nothing more than speculative, but if that’s a realistic price, I would consider making that trade.
So that game is behind us, now we shift attention to Ohio Stadium for tomorrow’s Stadium Series game with the Blue Jackets. Need points, preferably two. The theatrics and pageantry from this game really mean nothing to me. I need a win. We need a win. LGRW.
