Detroit Red Wings' playoff hopes after 6-game losing streak: 'We haven’t lost belief'
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Hemorrhaging goals, and with a playoff berth looking increasingly questionable, the Detroit Red Wings slink home preoccupied by their starts.
Their next game is Thursday at home against the Arizona Coyotes, one of the teams that lit up the Wings during a six-game skid that has seen them outscored, 32-10.
"It’s for sure a mentality thing," Lucas Raymond said after the Wings were routed, 7-3, Tuesday by the Buffalo Sabres. "I think if you look at the three previous games, we’ve had really tough starts and that gets us in a hole to dig out. That’s a huge thing for us. We need to come out with better starts and keep us in it and then just find a way to win hockey games.
"We haven’t lost belief. We know we are a good hockey team, so it’s just about getting back to it."
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The Wings (33-26-6) are running out of time to right themselves in the standings. At 72 points, they likely need at least 22 points to make the playoffs. There are only 17 games left on the schedule — at best, 34 points.
"We’re running out, yes," coach Derek Lalonde said. "Luckily, we’ve had some stretches in our season to keep us in this battle, but you’re going to run out of time."
Tuesday's loss ended a trip that began with a 7-2 loss at the Colorado Avalanche, continued with a 4-0 loss at Arizona and then a 5-3 loss at the Vegas Golden Knights. That followed a losing streak at home, with a Feb. 29 5-3 loss to the New York Islanders — who, with a game in hand, have jumped the Wings for the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference — and a March 2 4-0 loss to the Florida Panthers.
Yes, the Wings are missing captain Dylan Larkin, whose lower body injury has him out at least until mid-March, but the past four losses have a common theme: slow starts.
"All we’re going to concentrate on the next two days is our start at home on Thursday," Lalonde said.
Lalonde described Tuesday's start as, "Awful. We had no legs, we had no pace. They were playing fast. We give them that easy offense early on and then we just got rattled, got out of structure. It piled up in the first period. Didn’t mind as the game went on. The start, got rattled with it, got out of structure, and it just piled on.
"The third period was a little bit better but this game was decided in the first. We were slow, they were fast, we got out of structure. It was tough watching some of those goals back — just missed coverages, getting beat to the net. So again, our concentration is going to be the start we have on Thursday."
The Wings face at least three more games without Larkin. The Wings' offense has struggled so much over the past weel that he's still their leading scorer despite the absence. Without him, the center depth is challenged, affecting every line. Still, a team that boasts Raymond, Patrick Kane and Alex DeBrincat, among others, should be able to show more than the Wings have.
"Right now, nobody is going to feel bad for us, nobody is going to come in and magically find the answers," defenseman Jeff Petry said. "It’s within these four walls. I think everyone in here believes in the guy next to him, and it is on us to get out of this as a group. We’ve shown it before and it’s on us to do it again."
The Wings haven't had to dig themselves out of anything like this since the calendar turned to 2024, and they are still in the playoff hunt. (The Panthers, last season's Eastern Conference champions, were at 73 points entering March 13. They got hot, grabbed the final wild-card berth and stormed to the Stanley Cup Final.)
But the Red Wings' inability to ignite when the puck drops has stretched this month on to the point that it's inexplicable.
"We’ve shown to ourselves in this room that when we play the way we’re supposed to, we’re a really good hockey team," Raymond said. "I think that is what we need to remind ourselves of — just get back to the basics. Start doing the right things and then good things will come out of that.
"We do really trust each other in this locker room, and are confident that we will turn this around."
Contact Helene St. James at hstjames@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @helenestjames. 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.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Red Wings zero in on starts as key to ending 6-game skid
