As the Detroit Red Wings try to regain their footing, they are well served to look to two of their younger players as examples.
The Wings sputter into San Jose to play the Sharks on Thursday, humbled by a four-game losing streak that has yielded just two points. They’ve been taxed on special teams, where their penalty kill has been overwhelmed by players’ own transgressions. Their puck management has been tested, and flunked at key moments.
One good trend has been the performances, over the last three games, of 2018 draft picks Jonatan Berggren and Joe Veleno, whose simple play has led to the kind of shifts coach Derek Lalonde wants to see.
“Veleno and Berggren had a really good game for us,” Lalonde said after Tuesday’s 3-2 overtime loss at the Anaheim Ducks. “The special teams took them out of their rhythm.”
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Lalonde was less pleased with the way two other young players, Moritz Seider and Lucas Raymond, played in the third period, when they took penalties 50 seconds apart with the Wings nursing a one-goal lead. Raymond went off a second time when he blatantly hooked Jakob Silfverberg.
“Clean up the penalties, but Lucas plays hard, he plays the right way,” Lalonde said. “I think sometimes he just has to manage his emotions there. That penalty 200 feet from the net — he’s trying, I think it’s just managing a little bit better. So it’s just growth. No worries on where his game is at, of where he’s going to be.”
Lalonde has kept his message steady through the Wings’ 3-0-2 start; through a couple blowouts; through a slide that has left them 7-5-4. He reiterates they do not have a margin of error, they cannot afford to make risky plays (like Tyler Bertuzzi’s clearing attempt in overtime that the Ducks turned into the winning goal).
“When Bert’s been out, as a team, we’ve learned how to manage risk in our game, and that’s something he’s going to need to do going forward,” Lalonde said.
Bertuzzi missed just short of five weeks after breaking a hand the second game of the season, and while his first game back was marred by that costly mistake, the Wings are better with him in the lineup. Dylan Larkin said after the game the Wings need to find ways to score more at even strength, but they had a chance to help themselves leading 2-1 with nearly three minutes of man-advantage time in the third period.
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“We’ve got to look to create more five-on-five, put the puck in the net more,” Larkin said. “We’ve got to put the puck in the net. We do pretty well defensively, even in L.A., other than the first couple minutes, there wasn’t many chances against. We’re getting looks, but we have to put the puck in the net.
“Now that Bert is back, he’s got his first game under him, it’s going to take a little time, but someone like that is going to be a huge boost for your team offense.”
Berggren came away from Anaheim with the memory of scoring his first NHL goal. Berggren earned power play time on the basis of how creative he is, but Veleno doesn’t play on either special team, which is why he logged just seven minutes. Lalonde likes the way those two have gelled, and likewise liked the way Oskar Sundqvist and Michael Rasmussen made it 2-1, with Sundqvist winning a faceoff and then going to the net, and Rasmussen driving the puck behind the net, out front and scoring.
“One player took the puck hard to the net and one player got in that hard area and took the goalie’s eyes away,” Lalonde said. “Talk about creating five-on-five, we need more of that.”
Give the last word from Anaheim to Berggren, whose joy at realizing a childhood dream of scoring his first goal (“It was unreal feeling when I saw the puck go in,” he said.) shouldn’t be tarnished because his teammates blew a chance to bank two points. Three games after being called up, he is making a case to stick around, and his exuberance maybe will rub off on the rest.
“I think we have the players and the staff to be a playoff team,” Berggren said. “I think most of the games, we control the game, but then we have some bad plays and a couple minutes of bad plays. I think if we take away that, we can be a really good team.”
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 latest book, “On the Clock: Behind the Scenes with the Detroit Red Wings at the NHL Draft,” is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Triumph Books. Personalized copies available via her e-mail.