Frustrated Lalonde: Just copy and paste after Red Wings’ latest loss
DETROIT – Derek Lalonde, looking as frustrated as he’s been all season following his team’s latest loss Saturday, opened his remarks with some advice for the media.
“Frustrated Lalonde: Just copy and paste after Red Wings’ latest loss,” the exasperated Detroit Red Wings coach said.
The Red Wings’ winless streak reached five with a 2-1 to the Colorado Avalanche at Little Caesars Arena.
Another winnable game eluded the Red Wings (10-13-4), who are just one point ahead of cellar-dwelling Montreal in the Eastern Conference. Each of their past six losses has come by one goal.
The Red Wings had several chances to tie in the final two minutes after pulling Ville Husso for the extra skater. Their inability to seize the momentum they built after Lucas Raymond cut Colorado’s lead to 2-1 with 1:47 remaining in the second period cost them. The Avalanche (15-13-0) dominated the third before the goalie pull.
“Obviously very frustrating,” Moritz Seider said. “Once again, you do a lot of good things, but not over a span of 60 minutes. And that will cost you against a really good team. With came out in the third with not nearly as enough jump as we had before. Couldn’t really sustain any kind of O-zone time, get really any kind of dangerous chances, didn’t really force them into uncomfortable situations. In the end then we had a couple good chances, but obviously that’s not good enough.”
Is their confidence suffering?
“I don’t see how it can’t be,” Lalonde said. “I think they’re playing some pretty responsible hockey. … We’re doing some quality things, but we just had to do a little more offensively. I don’t know if it was confidence, probably just a little frustration, that it’s not going our way.”
Lalonde said there were “some positives.”
“Probably take our five-on-five game against a team like that, holding them to two goals, probably out-chance them fairly good,” he said. “Just got to do more to find a way to flip some of these games. We got to stay at it. You go through these stretches and they look a lot different. This has been a unique one. We had that stretch last year and we were bad (seven consecutive losses in regulation from Feb. 29-March 14). We earned that losing streak. This is just feels a little different, but bottom line is we got to do more to flip these games.”
Lalonde and players aren’t questioning their effort.
“What’s unique is the care in this group’s pretty darn good,” Lalonde said. “I think you can see that with we’re still competing. And I see (J.T. Compher’s) frustration after a game. I see (Michael Rasmussen’s) frustration after a game and they’re putting on themselves for that play they finished or they didn’t. … But if guys just keep at it again, continue to have those type of looks and hopefully it’ll go in.”
Compher stressed the need to “stick together.”
“A lot of frustrated guys in the room and it’s got to be our group of guys to find our way out of it and it’s there for the taking,” Compher said. “A lot of games, it’s right there.”
Seider lamented losing so many 50-50 type games.
“We’re losing games that are winnable, and we just can’t find ways to get it done,” Seider said. “Obviously, that’s really frustrating, and we shouldn’t be lying to ourselves.
“That shouldn’t drag us down, though. We come to the rink with a big smile tomorrow, get ready to work, play two opponents that are really close (at Buffalo Monday, at Philadelphia Thursday), and hopefully get four points and get back with a little bit of swagger.”
