Todd McLellan points to Detroit Red Wings' mental sagging for stretch run struggles
The Detroit Red Wings are running out of time to stop what their coach described as mentally sagging and start believing in themselves.
Once again, after their latest loss, the phrase "not enough" was applicable: Not enough scoring when handed five power plays the first 22 minutes of the game, not enough push after making it close, not enough to avoid losing for the 11th time in the last 14 games.
"Every loss is pretty hard right now," Simon Edvinsson said after Thursday's 4-3 defeat to the Ottawa Senators. "Everybody knows how important every game is. We were close, we had some chances all of the game, but we couldn't get the puck in. The last goal wasn't there for us."
Ottawa Senators defenseman Thomas Chabot (72) and Detroit Red Wings left wing Lucas Raymond (23) battle for the puck in the second period at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit on Thursday, March 27, 2025.
THURSDAY'S ACTION: Red Wings squander chance to improve in playoff race, fall 4-3 to Ottawa Senators
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The Wings (33-33-6) next play Saturday at home against the Boston Bruins, with the schedule down to 10 games and four teams to climb over to reach the second wild-card spot in the East.
"You can say however many times as you want that we're going to do everything in our power to get there," Lucas Raymond said, "but I think for us right now it's just about digging in and getting it done and keeping that belief in ourselves."
The Wings face a brutal schedule, with six of nine games in April on the road, and two back-to-backs, also on the road. But their biggest enemy may be themselves.
"We have to get better defensively, we have to get better in the faceoff circle, we have to have better coverages," coach Todd McLellan said. "I look at the game tonight, 4-3, wow, you almost came back, you made it close. But that might be the most outnumbered rush situations I've seen this year from our team. The first goal was four-on-two. There were multiple two-on-ones. There were short breakaways, where the D was just getting walked from the tops of the circles in.
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"Until we learn to take that crap out of our game, we're going to need six a night, and that can't happen. So that's not good enough. When you use those words, sometimes people think effort or whatever — no. It's systematic. It's the mind. It's understanding the game. That's not good enough."
Detroit Red Wings center Marco Kasper (92) and Ottawa Senators defenseman Jake Sanderson (85) battle for the puck in the second period at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit on Thursday, March 27, 2025.
That was the same assessment after Tuesday's 5-2 loss to the Colorado Avalanche, the same as the losses this month to the Washington Capitals — the same after pretty much every elite team they've lost to this month. The Wings were 15-5-1 from Christmas, when McLellan was named coach, until the Four Nations Face-Off break, but they are 5-10-1 since that ended on Feb. 22.
"I go back to when we arrived, we talked about building up a belief system," McLellan said. "It's getting tested, and it has been getting tested this whole month. It's not just the wins and losses in your record, it's about what happens in a game. And we've seen that multiple times where it doesn't go our way and it drops off for five minutes. And then we get it back.
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"We can't sag. It's as much mental as it is physical and structural."
Contact Helene St. James at hstjames@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @helenestjames.
Read more on the Detroit Red Wings and sign up for our Red Wings newsletter. Her latest book, 'The Franchise: Detroit Red Wings, A Curated History of the Red Wings,' was released October 2024. Her books, 'On the Clock: Behind the Scenes with the Detroit Red Wings at the NHL Draft,' and 'The Big 50: The Men and Moments that made the Detroit Red Wings' are 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 playoff chase: Blame it on mental sags, says coach
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