Detroit Red Wings: Dylan Larkin expresses his displeasure and frustration

After another loss last night to the Winnipeg Jets, future captain Dylan Larkin let his frustration be known.  It was the ninth loss in the previous ten games, and thirteenth in the last fifteen for the Detroit Red Wings.

It has been a rough stretch that has spanned now into a six-week ugly stretch of hockey.  Since the beginning of December, the team has a record of 5-12-4. It is wearing on even some veteran Detroit Red Wings players like Niklas Kronwall who often is quoted saying ” We’re not good enough.”  “We are not making the right plays, the simple plays, we are not good giving a good enough effort on a nightly basis.”

The photo tells its own story.  It reeks of the disbelief, shock, and frustration all in one on the face of Dylan Larkin.  Jacob de La Rose looks puzzled and Gustav Nyquist can’t help but wonder when he can get the heck out of here.

The Wings gave up a goal 13 seconds into the game last night on the road, to a team that played the night before on the road themselves.  That simply can’t happen.  The team has struggled to start periods on time much too often this season.

In an article from Helene St.James from freep.com the quotes speak volumes to the frustration that is setting in on forward Dylan Larkin, he expresses his displeasure here:

"“It’s getting frustrating, it has been frustrating,” Larkin said after the Wings fell 4-2 Friday at MTS Place to the Winnipeg Jets. “I thought for parts we outplayed them, the majority of the game we outplayed them, but how can we keep coming in here and saying that?“Something has to click here. Something has to change where we buy in. Something has to click where we buy into total team defense.”"

It may not always be the first frame of the game but we’ve been struggling to start the second period and third periods of games way more than we should be comfortable with.  The finger needs to point to the players and coaching staff.

It’s not just Jeff Blashill, but he clearly needs to do a better job at getting his group ready to go prior to the game starting and during the intermissions.  The players themselves need to be held accountable as well.

They can’t decide to play halfway through a game that sees them trailing by multiple goals and expect to come back and win.  They had some crazy success earlier in the season when they fought back from being down 2-0 in three straight games.  It was something that was unlikely and would not hold up moving forward, and has not.

Jeff Blashill weighs in:

"“When we weren’t doing it right early, we started cheating and then we were a bad hockey team,” Blashill said. “We are not a bad hockey team right now even though our record says we are. We are a good hockey team that is in every game, that has chances to win. Now, how do you get to where your record says you’re good? You find a way to make those plays at critical moments. We have to keep doing it right. We have to make sure our process is great — both for the short team of the hockey team right now, and the long-term growth of some of a number of individual players, especially our young guys. We have to make sure we are doing it right.”"

I understand as a coach you want the youngsters, in particular, to learn how to play the right way.  Sound defense always transitions into offense.  I’ve mentioned over and over that; I feel players like Dennis Cholowski and Andreas Athanasiou need to play more than the likes of Luke Glendening, Darren Helm, and Jonathan Ericsson on more of a nightly basis.

Andreas Athanasiou, in particular, needs to be much more reliable in his own zone but he’s been the hottest player of late and was not in the top three last night in first-period ice-time.  You’d think Blashill would roll out his scorer who is scorching.  He ended up playing him over 16 minutes but I feel that was the night you get him up to 20 or so knowing what he’s done over the last five games.

Dennis Cholowski will make some mental errors, it’s his first year in professional hockey.  The good very much outweighs the bad and his upside is miles ahead of Jonathan Ericsson so why isn’t he playing 20 minutes a night? Especially on the nights, the team is trailing.

Both the players and coaching staff need to look themselves in the mirror and both need to do a better job.  It’s one thing to constantly say what is wrong, and what needs to change.  It’s another thing to actually make a conscious effort to change.  We will see if the Detroit Red Wings start on time tonight in Minnesota or if they will crumble under heavy siege once again.