Both the Detroit Red Wings and host Pittsburgh Penguins are struggling as they prepare to square off Wednesday.
The Red Wings have lost their past two games while being outscored 7-1, and the Penguins have lost three of their last four.
Detroit fell 4-0 to the New York Rangers at home on Saturday after losing 3-1 to the Toronto Maple Leafs on the road in the Hall of Fame Game on Friday.
There was one positive in the loss to the Rangers. The Red Wings actually had a pronounced shot advantage after being decisively outshot in most of their games this season. They had a 37-24 edge, but still could not dent New York goaltender Jonathan Quick.
“Stay with it,” Detroit coach Derek Lalonde said of his message to the team. “I know it sounds like a cliche but trust the process. I don’t like the fact you play a game like that, and we don’t have another crack at it (another game) until Wednesday. Guys will have to sit on this one for a little.
“I don’t know if I’ve had a more frustrating hockey game while coaching for 30-plus years.”
The Red Wings dominated in time in the offensive zone, hit goal posts and missed open nets.
“We definitely produced some looks and odd-man rushes,” forward Patrick Kane said. “Throughout the season you’re going to have games like that. What we can take away is we created a lot and obviously we have to find a way to get pucks by the goalie.”
Wednesday night’s contest is the beginning of a four-game road trip that then takes Detroit to the West Coast with games in Anaheim, Los Angeles and San Jose.
The Penguins were hammered 7-1 at home by the Dallas Stars on Monday night; they found themselves down 6-0 in the first period when they allowed six goals in a span of a little more than 16 minutes.
“They get a couple of fluky goals early in the first period, we get down that early, that many goals,” Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan said. “Thought the rest of the period, we didn’t play the game the right way. We were careless with the puck. We gave them some easy looks. They turned it into an insurmountable challenge.”
Joel Blomqvist gave up three goals on the first eight shots and Alex Nedeljkovic could not stop the initial two shots he faced.
“There’s not much to say when it’s 6-0,” Penguins captain Sidney Crosby said. “You just have to go play through it. You can’t quit. You can’t give up. We put ourselves in that situation. We’ve got to keep playing and see what happens. So besides that, you can’t change the period. It happened. We’ve got to find ways to play through it.”
Evgeni Malkin leads the Penguins in scoring with five goals and 13 assists for 18 points. Crosby is second with 16 points, and his six goals tie Rickard Rakell for the team lead.
Despite having only one goal, Lucas Raymond’s 13 points leads the Red Wings, and captain Dylan Larkin sets the pace with nine goals.
Former Red Wing Pavel Datsyuk was inducted into the Hall of Fame on Monday night.
–Field Level Media
