| Detroit Free Press
Jeff Blashill: Why the Detroit Red Wings were not ready to play for Tampa Bay
Jeff Blashill, Red Wings coach, February 3, 2021.
Helene St. James, Detroit Free Press
The current Stanley Cup champions beat the Detroit Red Wings for the first five minutes, then the pain continued to increase.
As difficult as it was to face the Tampa Bay Lightning on Wednesday at the Amalie Arena, the Wings made things more difficult for themselves with sloppy defensive coverage and ongoing fights in the power game. The result was a 5-1 loss that extended the winning streak to seven and reduced the Wings to 2-7-2.
Lightning (6-1-1) scored three times in three minutes, 20 seconds in the first period, chasing Thomas Greiss. Anthony Mantha scored his fourth goal of the season two minutes after Brayden Point took advantage of Steven Stamkos’ rebound, but two minutes later, the Wings were losing by four goals again when Alex Killorn deflected a shot from Mikhail Sergachev. Sergachev’s assist was the fourth point in the game for a Lightning defender.
After showing signs of improvement in the man’s advantage in their previous games, the Wings looked ineffective, registering only one shot on the net at 6:25 of the man’s lead time in two periods.
[ Wings mailbag: Why Steve Yzerman likely won’t fire Jeff Blashill during season ]
The Wings were left without Tyler Bertuzzi, who is also expected to lose the next three games due to an upper body injury, but won four players who were in the COVID-19 protocol.
The Wings play in Tampa Bay again on Friday, when Filip Zadina is due to return after being removed from COVID-19.
From protocol to game
Strikers Robby Fabbri, Adam Erne, Sam Gagner and defenders Jon Merrill have returned to the team after being out since the first week of the season because of COVID-19. Fabbri and Erne trained on Tuesday, but Gagner and Merrill couldn’t be removed from the pandemic protocol until game day, so they hadn’t practiced in two weeks. Fabbri played with Dylan Larkin and Bobby Ryan, and Gagner with Frans Nielsen and Valtteri Filppula. Adam Erne played with Luke Glendening and Darren Helm. Merrill replaced Danny DeKeyser, teaming up with Christian Djoos.
From start to sit
Greiss had no help from teammates, as lightning struck early and often. Victor Hedman went into the crack and sent an upper pulse shot shelf at 1:34. Anthony Cirelli made it 2-0 at 3:57, alone in the right circle and hit a pass from Luke Schenn. In the third goal, Ryan McDonagh was left alone in the center of the Detroit area and kicked from the right circle. This caused a change in the network, sending Greiss to the bank and Calvin Pickard fighting. Pickard has not played since being called back from Austria in early January, where he played six games on loan from Vienna Capitals. Pickard appeared in three games with the Wings in 2019-20, posting an average of 5.46 scored goals and 0.797 percentage of saves.
Medium to incredible
Mantha has had a continuous storyline since he joined the NHL five seasons ago: when he moves his feet, he is a beast. He showed his strength and skill at the start of the second period, when he ran for a loose disc in the neutral zone and then ran up the ice, hitting Andrei Vasilevskiy’s side of the disc blocker. That was Mantha’s third goal in three games. He looked much better than in the first eight games, when he scored a goal and had a score of -10.
Contact Helene St. James at [email protected]. Follow her on twitter @helenestjames. Read more about the Detroit Red Wings and subscribe to our Red Wings newsletter. His book, The Big 50: The Detroit Red Wings, is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Triumph Books. Personalized copies available in your email.