What else is there to say at this point?
The Red Wings had all the ingredients for two points Thursday night as they hosted the Arizona Coyotes. Unfortunately, some of the ingredients were rotten and now the team is staring at a potential eight-game losing streak when they get back to action on Saturday.
What went wrong? Pick your poison. Offense sputtering, clunky defense, shaky goaltending, and coaching that just can’t seem to get the best out of this group in this moment. Now, your playoff hopes are disappearing with each passing day.
Here’s how Thursday night shaked out.
1st Period
Just a wave of emotion elapsed in 20 minutes. A heap of bad bounces for Detroit and a fluke-y goal from Arizona’s Logan Cooley to open the scoring. To make matters worse, this was a shorthanded goal that stemmed from a “blown tire” on Moritz Seider. It was a fluke play — I really would expect Alex Lyon to make a save on this play.
The period went on and it was clear the Coyotes were giving the Wings chances, and even with a couple of looks on the power play that didn’t produce anything.
Lucas Raymond, fresh off the skirmish with Ben Chiarot at practice, would eventually pickup a PP goal for Detroit after finding the puck right in his wheelhouse:
Patrick Kane had a pair of big chances with a minute left, and the Red Wings are somehow lucky to get out of this period 1-1.
2nd Period
Wings got a power-play chance early and boy did it look rotten. You saw a lot of good from Patrick Kane but Shayne Gostisbehere had a couple of oopsie-daisies. About 12 minutes in, the Red Wings were handed another punch when Michael Carcone redirected a shot in front of Alex Lyon for his 19th of the season. Not much a goalie can do there.
Alex Lyon had some luck in his favor, though. There were at least two instances in this period where the Coyotes rang a puck off the pipe. They both looked like sure goals.
The most interesting part of the period came in the late stages, around two minutes left. Tempers flared between both teams and Lucas Raymond found himself in a tie-up. Guess who came to back him up?
Yeah, Ben Chiarot. The same guy that Raymond got into a scuffle with at practice this week. The best part is that they got to spend a couple of minutes together, as pals do.
Wings kill off the penalty and head into the third down 2-1.
3rd Period
It’s funny. I thought the Red Wings played pretty well in the third period, for the most part. Problem is as it has been for the last seven games — the “finishers” on this team aren’t “finishing.” Detroit also had its problems on defense — take Arizona’s goal to make it 3-1. Four were caught deep in the zone while Nick Bjugstad waltzed right into Alex Lyon and put it past him. Just an awful play all around, but you’d also like to see Lyon make a save in that moment.
Not much more to show in this period, other than Clayton Keller scoring on an empty net.
FINAL 4-1, Arizona
Uhhhhh, yeah. A lot to hate in that game. A lot. I’ll try and pull some positivity out of it and say that Lucas Raymond looked really good. Moritz Seider was cool and collected as well. There ya go, that’s about it.
Want a fun and depressing fact? Check it out:
To make matters worse, Buffalo is now within a few points of Detroit and a playoff position. Arizona was playing to be beat and the Wings couldn’t do it, now they have seven losses in a row. Nothing is working for this team right now. Even if they did sneak into the playoffs, I can’t say I’d be feeling very confident.
Speaking of Buffalo, the Wings are playing the Sabres on Saturday at 12:30 PM ET. We also may learn more about Dylan Larkin’s timeline to return. If you can spare any confidence in a turnaround, I’d like to borrow some.
