The Red Wings ought to be ashamed of themselves after falling flat on one of hockey’s biggest stages. They outshot the Columbus Blue Jackets 46 to 21, but unfortunately for them, they had a tough time finding the net.
Alex DeBrincat scored twice and Patrick Kane added one between his former Blackhawk teammate’s goals, but other than that, the Wings made Elvis Merzlikins look like a superstar. Yeah, the average fan may say that Merzlikins did look like the player of the game, but honestly, I digress.
Overall, the Red Wings shot selection was terrible, sans a few good plays here and there. But to me, it looked like they were shooting the puck just for the sake of doing so. Meanwhile, the Blue Jackets did what they’ve been doing best: not playing the most exciting brand of hockey when they had the puck, but they made the most of it.
Red Wings recent stretch of bad games lets us jump to a single conclusion
This all started when the Red Wings lost to the Tampa Bay Lightning in their final game before the 4 Nations Face-Off break if you go back three weeks. That game kicked off the rough stretch. The Wings haven’t found a way to break through it, and it tells me one thing: They’re not that good of a hockey team.
What I mean by that is, they’re a playoff-caliber squad, but the Blue Jackets sat back, capitalized on their limited opportunities, and let the Red Wings take bad shots. The Blue Jackets, in other words, contributed on Saturday night to laying out a nice, little blueprint of how to beat the Wings.
Let them take their shots; just take away their favorite shooting lanes. And they won’t adjust well enough to complete a comeback. And that’s exactly what happened after the Wings tied the game. Before we knew it, Justin Danforth put Columbus ahead by a goal, and the writing was on the wall.
Red Wings need to add some serious help within a week or pack it up
Under Todd McLellan, the Red Wings proved to us all that they can win an ample amount of hockey games and put up goals. Their pair of hot streaks have even shown that they can string together some outstanding performances game after game after game.
But this slip-up has shown me that they have a long way to go before they consider themselves true contenders to make a deep playoff run and contend for the Stanley Cup. Even if they make a big trade at the deadline, it’s still rather farfetched to say that the Wings will go any deeper than the second round of the postseason.
That said, their loss on Saturday and recent string of mediocrity does confirm that the Wings need to add some solid assets at the trade deadline if they want to maximize their odds of breaking into the postseason. Right now, they may be a wild card team even after their loss to Columbus, but they’re fringe.
Make a few trades, and they won’t be so fringe. Heck, I’d even peg them in as a surefire wild card and potential top-three finisher in the Atlantic Division if they acquired some talent. But if they keep going with the team as-is, it’s going to be rough. And right now, they’re a bubble team at best.