After returning home from the trip out west, the Detroit Red Wings were promptly shutout at home by the Winnipeg Jets. Let’s take eight observations from the loss.
#1: The team is regressing. The Red Wings only have one win in six attempts in 2022. The struggles out west were no surprise – Detroit has struggled on the road all season. However, the team’s performance at home was a bit surprising, considering they have a 12-6-2 record at Little Caesar’s Arena. If the Wings can’t even snag some wins at home, things are going to start getting ugly in the standings.
#2: Power play is terrible. Detroit is just terrible on the man advantage. The Wings had five attempts on the power play, including a 5-on-3 (6-on-3 after Jeff Blashill pulled Alex Nedeljkovic for the extra skater) chance at the end of the third. The unit just can’t find any openings in the defense.
#3: Offense has been terrible. Since the start of 2022, a switch seems to have been flipped with the offense. Detroit has been shutout twice in the last four games, and it wasn’t just stellar goaltending keeping them off the board (although Connor Hellebuyck was quite impressive Thursday night). The team is struggling to reach 20 shots on goal, failing to put any sort of real pressure in the offensive zone (technically, Detroit actually outshot the Jets thanks to a handful of chances in the final minutes, but to anyone watching the game it was clear that Winnipeg had the better offensive showing).
#4: Goaltending can’t be blamed. Even with the team’s recent struggles, Nedeljkovic has been very good in net. In fact, he’s made the score look a bit kinder on multiple occasions (namely, against the San Jose Sharks earlier this week). Neddy finished the night with a .935 save percentage, stopping 29 shots.
#5: Filip Zadina’s confidence is shot. It’s hard to make this declaration when the rest of the team also looks this bad, but Zadina just looked extra rough against the Jets. He’s trying to do to much on the ice; he’ll make a great play to enter the zone, and then promptly turn it over. He’ll make a defender miss, get a clear shot at the goal, and whiff entirely. It’s been a heated topic of discussion among fans, but it is impossible to argue that Zadina has been extremely disappointing.
#6: Dylan Larkin was pretty good. The captain didn’t manage to find the back of the net against the Jets, but he tallied eight shots on goal. Larkin had the best chances for the Red Wings throughout the night, but like the rest of the team, he just couldn’t finish.
#7: They were good in faceoffs. Well, I had to find something positive, right? The Red Wings won 35 faceoffs to Winnipeg’s 23.
#8: See ya later playoff hopes. To anyone holding out hope after that terrible road trip, I commend you for your loyalty. But with Detroit regressing terribly and the Bruins/Penguins storming up the standings, there just won’t be enough room in the postseason for the Wings.