While a sad song entitled The NHL’s Second-Longest Playoff Drought gets louder and louder in Hockeytown, the Red Wings have watched a division rival end what was also a lengthy span without a postseason berth. Yep, the Ottawa Senators will play in the postseason, and the Wings, well, won’t unless a miracle occurs.
Following last night’s three-goal loss to the surging Montreal Canadiens, a team about to end a much smaller drought, Moritz Seider had some words for how he felt the team fared. Seider, the Wings best defenseman, is a well-respected voice, so when he shared his thoughts, I wisely listened.
But I wish I hadn’t, considering the way he worded everything. Or, I should say that he was right to a degree, but then he probably should’ve ended the conversation there.
When he spoke with reporters, Seider said, "It should hurt. It’s very frustrating. We know we had to treat it like a Game 7 and I thought we handled it very well. Came out with great intensity, played really good hockey, and then in the end, it’s just really simple mistakes that end up in the back of our net and you don’t really have an answer."
Moritz Seider should’ve quit while he was ahead, but didn’t…
The first part of Seider’s remarks was spot on, and something every Red Wings player should be feeling. Nothing has gone right for this team, and frustration needs to be part of the menu throughout these final few games of the season.
And, in a way, it’s far worse than the situation last year, which fans can look at fondly and say, “At least the Red Wings gave us some hope.” Last year, Detroit barely missed the playoffs and this year, they’re missing by more than a mile. And it was too little, too late.
Anyway, continuing with Seider’s comment, he spoke about “intensity,” and “really good hockey.” To a fine degree, he’s right. The Wings were physical last night and they took advantage of the openings given to them when they had the puck.
But then he talked about making “really simple mistakes that end up in the back of our net.” Listen, it’s those small, simple things that comprise good hockey. I’ll agree that the Wings upped the intensity level, and I’m glad to see that they shot the puck. But those mistakes cost them last night, and it’s been a recurring theme. And that, right there, doesn’t constitute good hockey.
Red Wings didn’t play good hockey - they played flawed hockey
Mistakes don’t come with good hockey, or at least mistakes that are made game after game. So, for Moritz Seider to say this team played good hockey before those simple mistakes crept up at the worst possible time, doesn’t add up.
But even when you subtract those mistakes, when you realize that the Red Wings had 36 shots on goal but got the puck past Canadiens goaltender Sam Montembeault just once, there’s a problem. It showed that the Wings had looks, but couldn’t capitalize on them. That tells me they couldn’t figure out the Canadiens.
So, Seider should’ve worded his comments differently. Just say, ‘We didn’t play well enough,’ because that’s been the cold, hard truth in Detroit for going on two months. That, plus “simple mistakes,” transformed what was the hottest team in hockey for a while into one of the coldest.