Detroit Red Wings Lose Third Straight, Fall to Florida 7-2

The Detroit Red Wings have been better defensively. Head coach Jeff Blashill said they just needed to flip a goal. Well they needed a heck of a lot more tonight as the Florida Panthers absolutely blasted the Red Wings 7-2.

This was unequivocally Detroit’s worst game of the season, and sends them to their fourth consecutive loss. The power play was useless again, and a team that doesn’t have any players on protocol or missing a chunk of players, this harkened back to last season’s disastrous blow out losses.

Just a glance at the stats are cringe worthy. Detroit was down 3-0 with 15 minutes to go in the first period. Though Bobby Ryan ripped a slap shot past Florida’s Chris Driedger but the Panthers answered in just over a minute to make it 4-1.

Valtteri Filppula scored on a shot that bounced off a Florida stick and redirected into the net. But that would be it for the Red Wings. Florida would add three more and the Panthers wrapped it up 7-2.

A few more observations

•  This was easily the worst game of the season for the Red Wings. They looked flat from the beginning and the lineup changes by Blashill only doubles down on my theory of shaking this roster up.
• The power play is now 0 for 34. There aren’t enough words to accurately describe any other thoughts I have on this. I’ll let Alex, Octopus Thrower’s newest writer, handle that tomorrow. Matthias Brome is jinxed though. I expect that the puck just stops on the goal line because it’s him.
• One can only hope that a short turn around means a short memory, but Florida just looked better in every facet. I don’t think they “quit” per say but it looked pretty close at times today. Some of the Red Wings players, including Larkin, looked shell shocked at times.

Red Wings Grieving Loss of Beloved Staff Member

This was later clarified:

That’s tough news. Condolences to the Tchekmarev family and the Red Wings players, and staff for their loss.