All the optimism the Detroit Red Wings instilled in the rebuild this season is on a precipice as they try to recover from their latest embarrassment.
Thursday night against the Minnesota Wild can’t come soon enough — anything to erase the memory of being booed off the ice at Little Caesars Arena. The answer to what went wrong in the 9-2 loss to the Coyotes was “everything,” and the reaction to the boos was reluctant acceptance.
“I mean, it’s frustrating,” captain Dylan Larkin said. “You don’t want to hear that. That performance was worthy of the boos and frustration. I don’t agree with someone throwing their jersey on the ice, but we show up like that at home, we’re going to get booed. The fans understand where we’re at and where we’re at in the season, and we just have to come out and play way better than that. We have to win battles in front of our net and look like we want to be out there.”
SOMETHING TO PROVE: Red Wings can’t let things slip away over last stretch
Coach Jeff Blashill pointed to an energetic practice Monday and couldn’t explain what happened Tuesday.
“I didn’t see it coming,” he said. “I thought we worked hard yesterday and we had our heads in the right spot, and we didn’t.”
The Wings (24-27-6) were as close as six points to a wild card spot, and while it was unlikely they’d get into a playoff spot, it meant something to the rebuild that they were even in the conversation. But in the past two weeks they’ve been blown out at home, 10-7, by the Toronto Maple Leafs, and that didn’t even prove to be the nadir of the season thanks to Tuesday’s lopsided loss.
“There was optimism and we’re going to have to find that again or else this last month and a half, two months, is going to be miserable,” Larkin said. “We’re playing a lot of hockey. We have to find the optimism, we have to find a way to want to come to the rink and play harder and play better for each other and for our fans.
“We had that game against Toronto and I thought we played well after that game, and we went down to Florida and lost all confidence. We played two good teams back-to-back and came back and this is not the game we wanted to have, not even close.”
Over the past week, they topped the Carolina Hurricanes, 4-3 in overtime, lost 3-1 at the Tampa Bay Lightning, and 6-2 at the Florida Panthers.
“I know we came back and played a real good game against Carolina and a real good game against Tampa,” Blashill said. “We played against real good opponents and we did it right and we played hard. Then we wilted against Florida once they scored and tonight we just got skated all over the ice. Why is that? I don’t have that answer or I would have had it fixed. I know as a group we better look inside here, look in the mirror and get way better real fast.”
More: What claiming Olli Juolevi reveals about Detroit Red Wings with trade deadline ahead
It better be a wall-to-wall mirror.
The goaltending has been an issue the past two games: Thomas Greiss has allowed seven goals on 26 shots, giving him a 12.08 goals-against average and .731 save percentage. Alex Nedeljkovic was good in the Tampa game, but he has allowed eight goals on 35 shots and has a 5.63 GAA and .814 save percentage while being pulled and reinstated at times.
Then again, the skaters offered little help in their own zone and in the offensive zone. Nick Leddy was minus-4 against the Coyotes, Gustav Lindstrom was minus-6. The only players with a goal the past two games are Vrana, Tyler Bertuzzi and Robby Fabbri, who has two.
“Certainly my job is to make sure the messaging is good, but I think we all have to look in the mirror,” Blashill said. “We have to make sure we’re prepared and then go out and execute, and we all have to put it on our shoulders to be way better.”
The Wings recovered from the Leafs loss and beat Carolina. Now they have to recover from a worse loss and win their fans back after being booed off the ice.
“I can’t blame them,” Blashill said. “I thought through the first part of the year we had a ton of nights where we gave the type of effort that Detroit and Detroiters would be proud of. Now too many times here in the last little bit, we haven’t given that type of effort. They want better than that.”
Contact Helene St. James at hstjames@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @helenestjames. Read more on the Detroit Red Wings and sign up for our Red Wings newsletter. Her book, The Big 50: The Detroit Red Wings is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Triumph Books. Personalized copies available via her e-mail.