Detroit Red Wings know the formula: 'Good teams find ways to bounce back'
Alex DeBrincat summed up the best path forward for the Detroit Red Wings as they seek to make the most of what is left of their home stand.
"We've been playing well; I think we've been focusing on the details a lot," he said after Tuesday's disappointing 5-4 loss to the Dallas Stars. "Twenty minutes cost us the game. Thought we played well in the third.
"We'll learn from it, come back Thursday, and win that one."
The Wings (24-18-5) only have two regulation losses this month. They host the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday, and also have games at Little Caesars Arena on Saturday (Vegas Golden Knights) and next Wednesday (Ottawa Senators) before nine days off for the All-Star/winter break.
STAR FALL: Detroit Red Wings' rally no match for putrid 2nd period in 5-4 loss to Dallas Stars
What smarted against the Stars was that the Wings led, 2-1, after the first period, and scored three power play goals in all. Most nights, that's a recipe for success. But not when the opponent is able to batter the goalie (Alex Lyon) with 25 shots (and score on three of them) in a single period.
"It certainly wasn't a good period," David Perron said of the second period after scoring his 10th goal of the season in the opening 20 minutes. "I just didn't feel like we took care of each other out there. We didn't set up the next line, things like that. We probably made a couple mistakes, but, it wasn't a great period for us."
Perron and DeBrincat made it 2-for-2 on power plays, seemingly setting up the Wings for success.
"I think guys were getting pucks back, winning those board battles and extending the play," DeBrincat said. "We did a good job of that. But it's tough to score three power play goals and not win a game."
Mason Marchment scored in the opening minute of the second, and Roope Hintz scored the first of his two goals when Klim Kostin turned the puck over right outside his own crease.
"Probably a little bit of credit to them, but it was on us," coach Derek Lalonde said. "Some missed tracks, a couple turnovers — some of those things that we've been kind of eliminating out of our game kind of all came back to us in the second against a team that is simply too good.
"Little disappointing in that any time you go 3-for-3 on your power play, you feel like you probably won two periods. To just get outplayed that much for 20 minutes, it's just a little disappointing. It feels like a little missed opportunity again."
The Wings recovered to make things interesting in the third period: Christian Fischer was ruled offside (after a review) when he put the puck in the net 5 minutes into the third period, but Dylan Larkin scored at 11:28 and J.T. Compher with 3:12 to play.
"I give the guys some credit," Lalonde said. "With how everything has been going our way for so long, in the past 10, 12, games, it would have been easy for us to quit in the third. I think that's a very good sign, and good on our guys, to get that push and give ourselves a chance in the end against a really good team."
The Wings just went through something similar: Last Friday at the Carolina Hurricanes, it was 2-2 with 10 minutes to play; that the Wings ended up losing, 4-2, was described by Lalonde as a missed opportunity. The Wings righted themselves by winning their next game. That's the mindset, again, after another missed opportunity.
"One of our guys, Alex Lyon, says good teams find ways to bounce back," Lalonde said. "That will our challenge from here.
"We had five games going into the All-Star break, all at home. You'd like to get three of those five — obviously you'd like to get more, but we're sitting at 1-1 here. It's a really big game for us, important game for us on Thursday."
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.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Red Wings know formula: 'Good teams find ways to bounce back'
