DETROIT — The Detroit Red Wings’ early, explosive success with the power play was not going to last. They now need to devise strategies to ensure that their recent losing streak doesn’t continue.
In what was virtually a one-goal game on Thursday, the Red Wings were 0 for 5 when having the man-advantage. It was the primary cause of the Little Caesars Arena team’s 2-0 loss to the Florida Panthers.
Coach Derek Lalonde stated, “There are times when we haven’t handled it well—passive penalty kills.” “It seems like we should have scored one, but it probably represented our five-on-five performance, which is alright but not fantastic. You feel that you should win this game because you are 0 for 5 at home and you only give up one.
“We need to reassess our power play, and it’s probably time to try some different approaches.”
After going 12 for 29 (41.4%) in their first seven games, the Red Wings have gone 0 for 13 on the power play in their last four games.
Dylan Larkin stated that they were primarily to blame for their own inefficiency while they had the man-advantage, not the Panthers’ penalty kill.
“I believe we were mostly the target of the power play,” he stated. Our appearances were ours. We were only 22 of 59 throughout the game and 3 of 7 when on the power play when it came to faceoff wins. Not many entries were made. A couple occasions, we were in the zone, but we just failed to execute. At crucial moments, we forced it and bobbled the pucks. Simply put, we didn’t receive the one we required.
“I believe we need one terrible on the power play. From our first power play to our final power play, there needs to be a stronger feeling of urgency.
According to Larkin, they must return to their core competencies of “shooting the puck more and getting some dirty goals” in order to succeed.
They only got 22 shots on Sergei Bobrovsky in total, seven of which came during the 7:56 power play.
“We weren’t making it difficult for Bobrovsky, and I don’t think we did enough of it,” Larkin remarked.
Penalty issues
Although neither team was able to capitalize on the first penalty, which was a tripping call on Klim Kostin 2:23 into the game, the tone was set early on for both teams.
Even though we ended the quarter with a 0-0 score, they likely won the period due to a lazy stick penalty at the beginning. Lalonde stated that “(James) Reimer was probably the difference.” “Just giving them momentum and the early power play.” In the second, I thought our five-on-five play was extremely good, and we just took those penalties. It was a superb penalty kill. It’s a really difficult game to assess when you lose.
“I thought our start was good,” Larkin said. After we gave them a penalty, they launched a power play and quickly outmatched us. In hard times, we have been accepting penalties. Our five-on-five momentum is destroyed. Our level of intensity is wonderful, but going forward, we need to continue to go beyond the box.
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