Something has to give for the Detroit Red Wings. On Wednesday night, they let the Minnesota Wild stomp all over them. Things started in the first period when Ryan Reaves took a shot at Filip Hronek that left him in concussion protocol.
There was no call on the play, leaving Reaves to get back into the play once again. Whether it’s his style of play or not, he was out there taking runs at Detroit Red Wings players. No one stood up to him until Ben Chiarot had enough of his shenanigans.
Reaves threw Gustav Lindstrom into the boards, prompting a scrum after the whistle. The “fight” led to Reaves winning and skating away, pointing at his bicep while making a muscle pose. An absolutely abysmal effort for retribution from the Red Wings.
While watching, I was happy that someone did something to try and send a message, but they still played soft. The Red Wings played soft and uncontrolled after the Hronek hit. When the whistle was blown, not a single Red Wings player was involved in a scrum.
Reaves did not get jumped, there were no fights, and there were no skirmishes, just a line change and pause for Hronek to get helped off the ice. That cannot happen. Even if the Red Wings do not have the equivalent of a Reaves-like player in the lineup, someone has to take a run at him to stick up for their teammate who was lying on the ice at the blue line.
Detroit Red Wings cannot afford to play soft.
After the Hronek hit, the Red Wings players ran around like a chicken with its head cut off. They were finishing checks (bouncing off Wild players) and getting aggressive with the stick, which ended up drawing penalties rather than being aggressive.
They played soft. They let the Wild exploit that. The Wild played physically, and this transcended into their style of play. They won the puck battles (minus the Elmer Söderblom goal due to a turnover) and limited the Red Wings’ offense.
The Wild’s defensive strategy was to force the Red Wings to the outside. If any Red Wings players tried to cut to the middle or get in on the netminder Filip Gustavsson, they brought the pressure and forced bad shots or turnovers.
Do not get it twisted. The Red Wings are short-handed right now due to injuries. Losing Hronek is not going to help, either. But playing soft and letting other teams exploit this will only make this team nose-dive in the standings.
When Reaves dropped Hronek, someone should have stepped in. When Reaves dropped Lindstrom, Chiarot did, which was a step in the right direction. Playing soft is not going to work.
Now, I will say when David Perron took a run at Mats Zuccarello, put a shot on net, and crashed hard; he prompted a post-whistle scrum. That fight and battling is the type of energy this team needs to show.
Things picked up after that; rather than running around throwing hits, things were more calculated. The level of play picked up and started to have some cohesiveness; Red Wings players took their chances to throw the body and showed physicality at the right times.
Now, this is all my opinion. But this team needs to learn to avoid sulking and playing soft. I understand that Jonatan Berggren or Lucas Raymond will not just drop the mitts and try to fight Ryan Reaves.
But the Red Wings have to respond and be able to handle some adversity. It’s the growing pains of a younger team and one that is not quite built to throw the body and bring a physical style of play.
Moritz Seider seemed to have a fire lit under him by the end of the game, even a few reverse hits and a couple of nice jobs sending a message to Wild players. But there are other Red Wings players still trying to find that intensity.
The Red Wings must learn to avoid playing soft and letting other teams exploit it. This may just be a post-game rant after Wednesday night’s contest, but it sure was frustrating to watch Reaves single-handedly give the Wild all the momentum in the world so early in the game.