Trending: Wings tie season-low in shots in 6-1 loss to Panthers

SUNRISE, FLA. - The sun was out in south Florida on Sunday but it was not shining on the Detroit Red Wings.
After a less than stellar effort in Saturday 3-2 loss in Tampa, the Wings could not match the Florida Panthers' firepower Sunday in a 6-1 loss at the BB&T Center Sunday evening.

Thomas Vanek (power play) scored for the Wings. Josh Brown (first NHL goal), Jamie McGinn (power play), Frank Vatrano, Jonathan Huberdeau (power play), Dryden Hunt (first NHL goal) and Aleksander Barkov scored for the Panthers.
Detroit goaltender Jimmy Howard had 37 saves. Florida rookie netminder Sam Montembeault needed just 19 saves for his second consecutive victory.
The Wings' 20 shots matched a season low, the third time they have mustered that amount. Ironically, the last time they had just 20 shots was Dec. 31 at home against the Panthers.
The Wings dropped to 24-35-10. The Panthers are 30-27-12.
Up next for the Wings is a trip to Montreal to face the Canadiens Tuesday night.
The Panthers head out west for a four-game road trip to San Jose, Los Angeles, Anaheim and Dallas.
1. Thomas Vanek: The Wings were not getting a lot of shots but Vanek made his count when he got one. With Dryden Hunt in the box for goaltender interference, Frans Nielsen passed to Vanek in the left circle and he fired the puck past Montembeault at 12:24 of the second period, cutting the Panthers lead to 3-1. It was Vanek's second straight game with a power-play goal and gave him four points (2-2-4) in his last four games. In 47 career games against the Panthers, Vanek has 26 goals and 13 assists. Vanek finished with 20 shifts for 13:19, had two shots, one hit, a giveaway, a takeaway, one blocked shot, one minor penalty and was minus-1.

Quotable: "Most of us have been around. This is embarrassing, it's not fun. It sucks but you put it behind you and tomorrow is a new day and you gotta rebuild. You gotta bring a lot more energy on Tuesday and go for a win. We're already out of it, so there's no time to pout and sit around and feel bad. There's a lot of guys here that still have a lot to play for, not just for this year but for the rest of their careers and they better realize it quickly, because there's a lot of good players coming up." -- Vanek
Quotable II: "Yeah, for sure, it's worrying a little bit. We know we're not going to make it but you want to keep building and at least go into the summer with a good feeling that we're making progress here down the stretch. Right now we're going backward." -- Frans Nielsen
Quotable III: "I actually thought we got better in the second, the second half of the second I thought we were better, I thought we had some push and we took the late penalty in the third and I thought if we could have killed that penalty off we could have pushed but it went in our net and then it goes in your net right away again and everyone you get scored on it's like a punch in the gut. Well, if you allow yourself to get scored on a bunch, that's a lot of punches. It's hard to keep getting back up. We go to make sure we do a better job keeping it out of our net." - Wings coach Jeff Blashill
2. Bad start: As disappointed as the Wings were with their performance in Tampa, one might have expected a faster start in south Florida but that was not the case. Certainly taking two penalties did not help but the Wings could not seem to get any extended time in the offensive zone. As a result, only Darren Helm (two) and Andreas Athanasiou recorded a shot in the first period. Athanasiou's came on a breakaway at 10:24 but Montembeault redirected the shot to his right, out of danger. The Panthers scored on one of their power plays - McGinn's goal at 9:22 - but their other power play, even though it did not score, also got four shots.
Quotable: "I think tonight our lineup matches up just fine against these guys. It's about going out and being detailed and playing smart and working hard. Obviously we didn't have a great start, and when you get behind on the road and chase the game it's tough. We've got to make sure that whatever it is, that we're the team that's coming out with jump, especially to start the game, and putting pressure and chances together. It just seemed like it kind of snowballed as the game went on." -- Justin Abdelkader
Quotable II: "It's huge. On back-to-backs, if you can score an early ugly goal, nice goal, whatever and all of a sudden get the lead, then you all of a sudden get some energy. Then it feels a little better, everyone's talking a little more. That's how you get a win. When down 2, 3-0 right away and giving up chance after chance, it's gonna be a long night and it was." -- Vanek
3. Team needs to step up without Larkin, Green: The Wings knew it was going to become more difficult after trading defenseman Nick Jensen and forward Gustav Nyquist. The task became even more challenging when the Wings announced that veteran defenseman Mike Green would miss the remainder of the season due to the recurrence of the virus that kept him out the first nine games of the season. In addition, Dylan Larkin, the team's leading scorer, has missed the last two games with a neck strain and is scheduled to go to New York to visit the doctor who performed the surgery on Green last March, Dr. Frank Cammisa. Although Larkin's injury is not believed to be serious, the Wings want to be absolutely sure. Blashill has often said that you only miss injured players when the group that remains does not step up their game. Now it is incumbent on every player, but particularly the young players who want to have a greater role moving forward, to demonstrate their readiness in the 14 games left.
Quotable: "Right now, because of trade deadline and injuries we're undermanned. Probably two guys that aren't playing are in our top four D, either through injury or trade and certainly our top-line center and probably our top-line winger. So they have to now is you all have to play your 'A' games. You can't afford anything less than 100 percent right now in terms of execution and playing at your very top level when you haven't done that, so we need guys to step up and play at the level they're capable of. It's not one guy, it's not young guys or old guys, I thought last night it was a group of guys and tonight it was a different group of guys. we need to play at our 'A' game." -- Blashill
Quotable II: "I'm not going to use any excuses. Larks has been our best player every single night probably this year, so of course we're going to miss him. That being said, someone has to step up. Someone is getting a lot more ice time and you got to take advantage of that. Right now, nobody is doing that." -- Nielsen
Quotable III: "It's huge, he's our best player and he's been our best player all year. But lots of teams lose best players or a lot of good players, so as much as we miss Dylan, I don't think he would have made much of a difference. Maybe he would, I don't know. Again, back-to-backs are though. This is a quick turnaround. Like I said, you gotta play really smart mentally, or you gotta find your legs quickly. We weren't skating or mentally sharp. It made them look like an all-star team over there." -- Vanek