Someone needs to step up as a rallying point
When your top player goes down with an injury, it doesn’t matter who you are: Your team will take a collective step back. But that also doesn’t give you an excuse to drop six straight games (four straight since Larkin’s injury) by multiple goals and get outscored 32-11 in the process. Not when you have been playing outstanding hockey for most of the season and have, at times, been a top-three team in a competitive division.
And not when you have a player like Patrick Kane, who, while not the player he was, has superseded so many expectations. Kane won’t score over a point per game these days, but at 35, and given the accomplishments he’s made throughout his career, he’s someone the team can rally around.
Ditto for David Perron, Jeff Petry, and Ben Chiarot, guys who have played in this league long enough to help navigate teams when times get tough. But the Red Wings haven’t done that, or else they wouldn’t have played their worst stretch of hockey this year.
Before anything, they need to realize this season is nowhere near over, and that they can easily climb back into one of the wild card spots. Then, they need to lean on their seasoned veterans to help salvage the way things have gone right now and start moving in the right direction again while there is still time.