Yahoo Sports No Reason to Cheer as Red Wings Blanked 4–0 by Visiting Blues
DETROIT—It was a cold, gray day in Detroit, one that gave way to a dark and wet night. Rain, sleet, and snow fell as fans filed into Little Caesars Arena, but the show they were treated to was colder and uglier than the black night and dumping skies. By the end, their Red Wings had lost 4–0 to the visiting St. Louis Blues. The fans who hadn't left before the final horn booed as the Red Wings retreated to the locker room, booed because there was nothing else to do. As captain Dylan Larkin pointed out, the cause of the booing was obvious: "We didn't give them any reason to cheer."
Rick Osentoski, Imagn Images
Two points against the Blues would do little to steel Detroit against the reality of the season's trajectory, but they might have afforded an air of hope, however deluded, heading into the three-day holiday break. Instead, Monday night represents the new nadir in a season where the bottom can't yet be described as 'rock,' because it's yet to stop dropping.
Larkin called it "unacceptable." "Not enough execution, not enough jam," added center J.T. Compher. "We turned the puck over way to much tonight to give ourselves a chance to go play offense."
The Red Wings' performance was lethargic, allowing the visitors to play the exact game Detroit covets. St. Louis occupied sound defensive positions. The Blues stayed above the Red Wings and pounced on turnovers to create fast, vertical offense. They held off pressure with offensive zone possession and altogether smothered Detroit. At the end of two periods, the Red Wings had just nine shots, and St. Louis led 3–0.
"We're very disconnected," said Larkin, before saying that his team hadn't wanted for effort but rather efficacy: "A lot of hard work, but we're not getting anything accomplished." "A lot of skating, not a lot of creativity," he would add later.
It would be tempting to pin the night's result on the absences: Simon Edvinsson and Ben Chiarot—the first two names on the left side of Detroit's defensive depth chart—both unavailable due to injury. And it wouldn't be without justification: Edvinsson has been the biggest (perhaps the only) reason for optimism about the future during a heretofore futile season, and no team is well equipped to absorb the loss of its top two left-handed defensemen. Yet the void those two left fails to encapsulate the scope of the evening's failure and frustration.
"The D were fine tonight," said coach Derek Lalonde, unwilling to accept the excuse Edvinsson and Chiarot's absences might have offered as cover for the game his team had played. "I thought our D gave us a really good game tonight, considering where it's at."
Of course, Edvinsson and Chiarot could have helped, but the sources of the Red Wings' undoing—one more glaring than puck management on another night riddled with giveaways—fit within a pattern established when those two were available.
"We need the break," Lalonde said of the league-wide three days off that will run Tuesday to Thursday. "The break's coming at a really good time," he said. Not a good time on the ice, but rather good timing because the holiday pause enforces a disruption to the rhythm of a side that has been outscored a combined 13–4 over its last three times out.
When asked about what waits on the other side of the break, Larkin spoke of the need to reset and enjoy family before the push until the next league-wide break in February, for the 4 Nations Face-Off. "It's a lot of games," Larkin said. "We gotta get something going."
He meant that Detroit would have a meaningful chance to change its fortunes between the final days of December and the mid-February break, but the 34 games that preceded the present break (from which the Red Wings have won just 13) have been a lot too. The present three-game run is perhaps the most dire manifestation of Detroit's troubles, but the poor patches of form have lasted far too long to be treated as aberrant, rather than the season's standard.
When asked whether he was concerned about the state of the season, Lalonde replied, "Of course, that's common sense...Of course, it's not a very good spot to be in, but again, I just think it's about finding our game...Losing the season, I don't think you look at it [like that]. I think you kind of live in the moment, and our moment is break, recharge, and try to get our game back in order."
The specific spot the Red Wings find themselves in is second-to-last in the Eastern Conference, and in that answer, Lalonde seemed to acquiesce to the reality of a season lost, even if he would prefer an alternate frame. As he admitted himself, the reason for concern was obvious, same as the reason for the fans' booing. After Monday's 4–0 loss, there could be no other response.
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