Written by Helene St. James at Detroit Free Press.com
Inconsistent play, poor special teams and little discipline have Detroit down 3-1 heading back to Tampa.
At a crucial time, the Detroit Red Wings played part time, flunked special teams, lacked discipline and again showed themselves unable to play two good games in a row.
Their playoff hopes are on life support after they lost 3-2 Tuesday at Joe Louis Arena. The Tampa Bay Lightning have a 3-1 lead in the series, which heads back to Amalie Arena for Game 5 on Thursday. The Wings have to win three straight games to advance. The Lightning, once.
Tomas Tatar essentially summed up the Wings’ season as he spoke after the loss.
“I think at the start, we weren’t as good,” he said. “We did lots of penalties, we weren’t skating enough. They scored goals.
“At the end we took off and played better. Unfortunately we did penalty again and they made us pay. We had power plays, too, so it’s not excuse. We have to score one or two goals.”
Game 4 was an encapsulation of the Wings team that showed up after every well-played game in the regular season. They were outshot 10-2 at one point in the first period. Their first trip to the penalty box came in less than six minutes. They trailed 2-0 by the midpoint of the game.
“Last game, we came out really hard,” said Wings forward Riley Sheahan. “Tonight wasn’t the same as that.”
The Lightning destroyed the Wings on special teams, scoring on three of five power plays and holding the Wings scoreless through four man advantages.
“I think we could easily win this game,” Tatar said. “We just have to fix those special teams.”
Given that outside a brief stretch late in the season the power play has been consistently poor, it’s hard to see how it gets fixed now. Tatar admitted as much.
“To be honest, if I would know, I would try to fix it,” he said. “We have to do something. Special teams are deciding the games.”
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