DETROIT – Failing to get on the scoresheet against the NHL’s leading squad in their final home game before the Olympic break, the Detroit Red Wings were shut out by the Colorado Avalanche, 3-0, at Little Caesars Arena on Saturday afternoon.
“Disappointing,” Red Wings head coach Todd McLellan said. “A lack of energy, drive and execution. You can’t have all those things disappear at one point and expect to have success. I don’t think we skated well at all. I don’t think we passed real well at all, which affects your skating. And then when it was time to do some of the harder or heavier things – battles, 50/50s, loose stuff, the 4-foot races – they were much better than we were. So, we got to fix something.”
John Gibson was replaced by Cam Talbot to start the third period, and the pair of netminders combined to make 16 saves for Detroit (32-18-6; 70 points), which saw its winless skid run to three straight games. Meanwhile, goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood stopped all 28 shots sent his way for Colorado (36-8-9; 81 points).
“We were just kind of watching,” Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin said. “It’s an early game. You got to find a way to get something going. I thought it was a great crowd. We just didn’t have a response to their offense. I wouldn’t say they dominated us, but a lot of what they got was kind of easy offense.”
Like Larkin pointed out postgame, Detroit anticipated a tough challenge containing Colorado’s high-flying offense, and the Avalanche backed that up beginning in the opening frame as they jumped out to a 2–0 lead behind Brent Burns’ game-opening goal at 6:44 and Nathan MacKinnon’s first of the afternoon at 10:03. Lamentably for the Red Wings, they also had a pair of unsuccessful power plays in the frame.
“I thought we had the two best scoring chances of the game to begin with,” McLellan said. “We had one early, then DeBrincat came down on a 2-on-1 -- just missed. And six minutes later, we were down 2-0. The start isn’t always the score.”
Twelve minutes and nine seconds after Ross Colton finished off Brock Nelson’s centering feed from behind Detroit’s net pushed Colorado in front 3-0 early in the second period, MacKinnon became the first NHL player to reach 40 goals this season when he one-timed Arrturi Lehkonen’s cross-ice pass from the bottom of the left face-off circle to stretch it to 4-0 at 13:33.
“With MacKinnon, we watched before the game what he likes to do,” Larkin said. “He got to do a lot of what he likes to do.”
The Avalanche capped off the afternoon’s scoring 7:35 into the third period when Parker Kelley backhanded his own rebound past Talbot from the goal line to make it 5-0 at 7:35.
With just a two-game road trip remaining before the Olympic break, including a rematch against Colorado at Ball Arena on Monday night, Larkin said he expects Detroit to show some “resiliency, where we’ve bounced back.”
“We’ve been kind of chugging along and things get a little bump in the road, and we just pick ourselves back up and keep going,” Larkin said. “That’s what we need to do. There’s probably no better test than to go into that building in Colorado and play against that offense. If we’re going to win, it’s going to be a team win. That’s the way it’s got to be.”
NEXT UP: Detroit and Colorado will conclude their home-and-home set at Ball Arena on Monday night.
