The Detroit Red Wings enter Monday’s contest against the New York Islanders, having lost three games in a row but will look to buck the once-familiar trend.
Detroit enters the night with a 5-3-1 record. New York currently sits with a 4-2-1, and like the Boston Bruins, who Detroit just lost to on Saturday, play a physical brand of hockey and are built for the postseason.
Andrew Copp recently mentioned that this is a big early-season contest for the Red Wings. Having a 6-3-1 record through the first ten games of the season is quite efficient, and although it’s just a one-game difference, having a 5-4-1 record feels disappointing, especially following such a hot start to the season.
“A lot of it is our start,” Copp said after Saturday’s 4-1 loss to the Boston Bruins. “We just didn’t come out with the right mindset. We responded well, but we’ve responded well the last couple of games by making pushes and trying to come from behind. We got to get off to a better start and maybe a little more emotion in the game right from the get-go.”
The Detroit Red Wings hope to end their mini-losing streak Monday in New York.
Expect Detroit to come out with a sense of urgency on Monday night. Head coach Derek Lalonde will roll with starting goaltender Ville Husso in goal once again, even though James Reimer has outplayed the starter early this season.
Up front, the Detroit Red Wings are expected to roll with a similar lineup as they deployed in Boston. The main change had been David Perron moving up a line to play with J.T. Compher and Copp, which means Michael Rasmussen goes down a unit to flank the red-hot Joe Veleno and Daniel Sprong. Veleno has recorded five goals over the last five games. On the backend, Justin Holl will be the defenseman getting a night off, with Olli Mattaa drawing back into the lineup. Over the weekend, the Red Wings sent forward Jonatan Berggren back to Grand Rapids after being a healthy scratch the past few games since Klim Kostin returned to the lineup.
The Detroit Red Wings own the second-best power play in the league, operating at a whopping 41.1% conversion rate, but over the past two games, it dried up, going 0-6. Lalonde mentioned that when the Wings were ‘right,’ they had been creating energy with the success of their power play and special team play; over the past two games (Winnipeg and Boston), Detroit has struggled to create chances with the man advantage, and that lack of offense has leaked through to their five-on-five play.
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If the Detroit Red Wings hope to end a seven-year playoff drought, winning these types of games in October becomes imperative. They say you can’t make the postseason early on in a season, but you can surely miss it by going on a lengthy losing skid. Detroit needs to slam the emergency brake on this mini three-game losing skid and ensure it doesn’t turn into a four-five-six-game slide.