On Friday night in Washington, the Detroit Red Wings lost their fifth straight game, all of them in regulation, falling 5–2 to the Capitals.
The Red Wings entered the third period with a 2–1 lead, and that lead evaporated in less than two minutes. First, Aliaksei Protas scored a short-handed goal, taking advantage of a Detroit turnover to race off for a one-on-one break. He drove wide on defenseman Moritz Seider, then beat Cam Talbot with a rifled wrist shot. Just over a minute later, Capitals defenseman Jakob Chychrun gave the hosts their first lead of the night.
Protas scored again just past the five minute mark of the third, and Tom Wilson added another short-handed goal at 9:19, putting Washington up 5–2 and leaving the fragile, beleaguered Red Wings without any hopes for a comeback.
“It started with that power play. We were just not executing with the puck, and they come down and take a shot, score, and all of a sudden, it’s 2–2, and it takes the wind out of your sails a little bit,” Patrick Kane told reporters after the game, when asked about where things went wrong in the third.
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After a fifth straight loss, the comparisons to last season’s swoon at this moment in the season are unavoidable. A year ago, Detroit looked to have a commanding grip on a wild card spot, only to go on a seven-game losing streak (sandwiched around a quiet trade deadline) and miss the postseason by no more than a tiebreaker. Now, the Red Wings are repeating unwelcome history, having plummeted from four points up on the playoff cut line to a point back with two extra games played over the course of the losing streak.
“We didn’t go to the mall and lose our confidence,” coach Todd McLellan told reporters, when asked about his team’s confidence. “It doesn’t fall out of your pocket. You tend to gain it and then you give it back as a group, so if we’re talking like that, we have to look at each other or look at ourselves and figure out what we can do better individually and collectively. We need to have a real good practice on Sunday, and we need to go to Ottawa, and we’re gonna play a real hard game there. They’re a real good hockey club right now, playing good hockey. That’s the way it should be at this time of the year. It’s hard at this time of the year, and our guys are learning that.”
It’s impossible to ignore the parallels to the Red Wings’ stumble at this time a year ago, but Detroit also hasn’t fallen so far as to lose all hope for the postseason yet. There is still time to swing fortune in their favor, but that has to happen in a hurry. The Red Wings will have practice at home Sunday afternoon before traveling to Ottawa for a Monday night game against the Senators at which they desperately need to stop their skid.
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