BOSTON — Their opponent was one of those teams head coach Derek Lalonde refers to when he says the Detroit Red Wings need to “reel in” the contenders to show their progress.
The first test of the season against the Atlantic Division-leading Boston Bruins was a dud, however, as the Wings fell behind early Saturday at TD Garden and never played with enough energy to recover, losing 4-1.
“It’s still early in the season, but we know deep down they’re meaningful games and we’ve got to beat the best of the best to be the best,” Joe Veleno said. “But we didn’t come out to play, our effort wasn’t there.”
What was a five-game winning streak has become a three-game winless skid, as a power play that scored on 50% of its chances has gone 0-for-6 the past two games.
“We had them with nine power play chances for, and they scored a goal,” Lalonde said. “We had one, and we had pretty much similar power play time. It saps you of emotion. Our power play, when we had the success early, was fueling our emotions and momentum.”
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Goalie Ville Husso gave his teammates a chance to rally, making 27 saves. The Wings finally dented his counterpart, Jeremy Swayman, at 6:40 of the third period when Veleno stickhandled through a Bruins defender and picked up his fifth goal of the season, but then a penalty waylaid a rally, as Jake Walman slashed David Pastrnak on a breakaway, leading to a successful penalty shot for Pastrnak; he scored his second into an empty net with 2:19 to play, at which point Husso had been on the bench for nearly two minutes.
“We needed something to spark us, Joe’s goal did, and I loved us after that,” Lalonde said. “We had a couple looks to tie it, you could feel the momentum and then we just made a really poor play and we give one of the best finishers in the league a penalty shot, and he cashed in.”
The Wings (5-3-1) next play Monday at the New York Islanders.
Falling behind
The Wings got nothing out of the two-minute stretch they had a man advantage in the first period. First they were unable to get possession of the puck, and then when they did get it, the Bruins forced a turnover as the Wings entered Boston’s zone. Neither power play unit was able to generate a shot on net, nor even a bit of momentum. That looked even worse when, a couple minutes later, Michael Rasmussen was called for charging, sending the Bruins on a power play. Husso made one save on a point-blank attempt by Pavel Zacha, but Zacha succeeded on his second attempt, converting at 10:33.
Penalties pile up
Over the previous two games, the Wings took two late penalties that were costly in Tuesday’s 5-4 overtime loss to the Seattle Kraken, and two early penalties (and three overall) in Thurday’s 4-1 loss to the Winnipeg Jets. Against the Bruins, Andrew Copp took a high-sticking penalty 50 seconds after Charlie McAvoy powered his way to the net to make it 2-0. Worse, when the Wings went on a power play with 1:17 to play in the first, they undermined their chances when Dylan Larkin took a highsticking penalty at 19:28, limiting the Wings’ power play to 46 seconds.
Tick tock
The Wings went into the second period with 40 minutes to dent a two-goal deficit, but didn’t muster much of an attack on Swayman. They had to kill off a penalty to Justin Holl, but the Wings also had two man advantages. On the second, Alex DeBrincat turned the puck over, and the only save Swayman had to make was on Daniel Sprong. Of the 13 shots the Wings had after two periods, only two came during 6:45 of man-advantage time; the penalty-killing units did better than that, generating three shots on net.
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Contact Helene St. James at hstjames@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @helenestjames. Her latest book, “On the Clock: Behind the Scenes with the Detroit Red Wings at the NHL Draft,” is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Triumph Books. Personalized copies available via her e-mail.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Red Wings slumber on power play in 4-1 loss to Boston Bruins
