Kanata, Ontario — What do you do now if you’re Red Wings general manager Steve Yzerman?
The Wings appeared squarely in a race for a wild-card playoff spot in the Eastern Conference heading into Ottawa, and with a definite chance to build that momentum.
Two convincing losses later, capped by an ugly 6-1 loss Tuesday, where are the Wings headed?
The playoff chase is a bit cloudier, now trailing the New York Islanders by six points and Pittsburgh by five, with three teams in between the Wings and Pittsburgh.
“There’s still time,” captain Dylan Larkin said in a sullen Wings locker room Tuesday night. “There’s not much time, but there still is. We’ve got to win some hockey games here.”
But, with these losses, speculation of what Yzerman will do leading up to Friday’s 3 p.m. trade deadline will resurface. The losses certainly dented the Wings’ playoff hopes. So, given what some teams out of the playoff picture have received for some of their prospective unrestricted free agents thus far on the trade market, does Yzerman decide to sell off some potential free agents to further stockpile draft picks or more prospects?
Forwards Tyler Bertuzzi, Oskar Sundqvist and Pius Suter would likely attract interest from legitimate playoff contenders. At the same time, it would further weaken the Wings at this point, and truly squash any playoff hopes.
Tough call.
But truth be told, the Wings didn’t look like a playoff team while losing, 12-3, in the two games in Ottawa, a team that is tied the Wings with 64 points in the standings, and have the look of a dangerous team these final weeks of the regular season.
“Not the way we wanted this trip to go,” Larkin said.
The Senators’ size, grit and physicality had an impact on Monday’s game. Then Tuesday, the Wings did a good job matching those ingredients but completely collapsed on special teams and team defense.
A power play that had been performing well since the All-Star break went a dismal 0-for-8 Tuesday (1-for-12 in the two games).
The Wings’ penalty kill was equally disappointing. After killing 21 of 24 penalties leading into Ottawa, the Senators scored four power-play goals (on 12 attempts) against the Wings.
“Special teams, we didn’t execute well enough,” coach Derek Lalonde said. “We gave them too many looks on the power play. I wouldn’t call it a simple game plan against them, but you don’t want to give them easy offense. We gave them easy offense and put them on the power play and their skill got rolling.”
After losing to Edmonton in the first game after the All-Star break, Lalonde said Wings players talked about what needed to be done and figured they needed to be 9-2 in the next 11 games to stay in the playoff race.
The Wings are 7-4 headed into Thursday’s game against Seattle (7 p.m., BSD/97.1), so they won’t reach the nine victories. But eight would be close, and keep the Wings within striking distance.
With another loss, the task becomes much harder and likely makes Yzerman’s decision going into Friday’s deadline much easier.
“Just keep looking forward, and building our game,” Lalonde said. “It’s funny, once we got above the (playoff) line, I wouldn’t say our game kind of fell apart because we played well on Saturday (3-0 loss against Tampa that Lighting goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy was sensational) but what got us above that line was our team game and just concentrating on our game and not talking about playoffs or outcome.
“We have to get back to that.”
Injuries mounting
Already without forward Michael Rasmussen (lower-body injury) — and Rasmussen’s size and grit were missing against Ottawa — the Wings may have lost another key player Tuesday.
Defenseman Filip Hronek only played eight minutes Tuesday before being forced out because of a left arm injury.
The Wings had the day off Wednesday, but an update on Hronek is expected after Thursday’s morning skate.
“We’ll evaluate, but he had to leave the game,” Lalonde said. “It’s something he went into the game (with), so we’ll evaluate and have a better feeling (about Hronek’s availability).”
Prospect signed
The Wings Wednesday signed forward Alexandre Doucet to a three-year, entry-level contract.
Doucet, 21, is an undrafted free agent who leads the Quebec major junior hockey league with 45 goals in 58 games. Doucet (6-foot, 187-pounds) also has 44 assists and 89 points (fourth), and leads the QMJHL with eight shorthanded goals.
Doucet established a career-high 14-game point streak from Dec. 11 to Jan. 21, totaling 27 points (10 goals, 17 assists) in that span.
Kraken at Red Wings
▶ Faceoff: 7 p.m. Thursday, Little Caesars Arena
▶ TV/radio: BSD/97.1
▶ Outlook: The Kraken (33-21-6) are coming off a 5-3 victory Tuesday in St. Louis. Seattle defeated the Wings, 4-2, on Feb. 18, the only other game between the teams this season. RW Jordan Eberle (32 assists, 47 points), D Vince Dunn (33 assists, 44 points) and LW Jared McCann (27 goals) lead a balanced offensive attack.
tkulfan@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @tkulfan