Amid a rough stretch, the Detroit Red Wings will aim to right the ship when they visit the Winnipeg Jets on Wednesday.
The Red Wings are coming off a 4-3 loss to the Anaheim Ducks on Monday, their third straight defeat and sixth in the past seven games. Against the Ducks, they trailed 4-0 by early in the second period before rallying to pull within one.
“We’re fragile right now,” Detroit coach Derek Lalonde said after the game. “It’s just the reality. You come off two tight games, lose 2-1, 1-0, still had some pretty good things in our game. You get a little fragile, and two of their first three chances went in and we were chasing it.”
Not helping matters has been a recent rash of injuries. While captain Dylan Larkin returned against Anaheim, the Red Wings lost goalie Ville Husso during the game to a lower-body injury. It was the second straight game in which their starting netminder departed with an injury, after Alex Lyon sustained an upper-body ailment against the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday.
James Reimer is expected to go from No. 3 to the starter. On Tuesday, the Red Wings signed veteran goalie Michael Hutchinson to a one-year, two-way contract. He had been on an AHL contract with Detroit’s affiliate in Grand Rapids.
They also lost forward Klim Kostin to injury against Anaheim, two days after he returned following a four-game absence due to injury.
“We’ve got to get our game back in order,” Lalonde said Tuesday. “Obviously we’ve lost our identity a bit with this stretch, so I think it’s on all of us … to put things in order.”
Alex DeBrincat leads the Red Wings in goals (15) and points (28). Forward Lucas Raymond is third on the team in goals (10) and points (24) and is on pace to set career highs in both categories.
The Jets, meanwhile, hope to bounce back after a 3-2 overtime loss against the Montreal Canadiens on Monday. It was only their second loss in the past eight games, a stretch in which they’ve gone 6-1-1 while outscoring the opposition 27-15.
It also marked the first time they’d allowed three goals against since a 3-1 loss against the Edmonton Oilers on Nov. 30.
But while results have been good of late, there is plenty of room for improvement. Winnipeg fell behind 2-0 to Montreal before tying the contest. It was the third time in the past five games the team has found itself trailing in such a hole.
“It was a good team comeback to get that point, it’s big for us but we don’t want to put ourselves in a 2-0 hole in the first place,” forward Cole Perfetti said after the game. “Once we have momentum like that, we want to be able to win that game.”
Special teams have also been an issue. The Jets enter Wednesday’s tilt 23rd in the NHL on the power play and 27th on the penalty kill. They’ve failed to convert on the man advantage in six of their past seven games and have allowed at least one power-play goal against in five straight.
“Standing still,” coach Rick Bowness said of their struggles. “Hanging on to the puck way too long. It’s not moving. The same thing that we’ve been fighting with all year. We’re going to have to revamp both.”
Winger Nikolaj Ehlers is riding a three-game point streak in which he has seven points (three goals, four assists). He also has 12 points (four goals, eight assists) in his past eight games.
–Field Level Media
