“Frustrated” Red Wings lay groundwork for ending early-game funk

The Detroit Red Wings have found themselves falling into a disturbing trend of falling behind their opponent before deciding to try and fight their way back into the game. It's worked against the likes of the New York Islanders and Boston Bruins, but no such happy ending against the New York Rangers on Tuesday night. 

Despite showing the ability to come back into games in which they trail, it's not a way to move forward. And there is one way to avoid falling into additional bad habits that could plague them through the season. 

“We need to simplify our game,” coach Derek Lalonde said. “It’s real, the analytics, just simple goals for, goals against. It’s been tough to read because if you look at out last handful of games: Islanders, great first period, came out zero goals; Boston the great first period, find ourselves down 2-1. The Florida and the Rangers games were very similar in that we didn’t give up a ton, but they got to the simple game like we wanted to. They just got pucks north, they established a forecheck, they get pucks on net and then they created races.

“So, you’re frustrated that we’re not getting results but there’s something real about what the Rangers did (Tuesday). They got a ton of zone time, creating rebounds, slicing everything on net, they made us defend. They won that period on the scoreboard (1-0) but won that period territorially. So, I think we have to do similar in our next approach.”

The Red Wings take on the Montreal Canadiens tonight at Little Caesars Arena.

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