Suddenly, Puck Keeps Going in Red Wings Net

Every game night, the Detroit Red Wings find themselves in a race to three. That’s the way Red Wings coach Todd McLellan sees the NHL.

It’s a three-goal league. The first team to score three generally wins. And teams that give up more than three will eventually be racking up the losses.

It could be that losing the race to three is finally catching up to the Red Wings.

Thursday, Detroit fell 5-2 on home ice to the Columbus Blue Jackets. It was the fifth time in six games that the Wings were coughing up four or more goals.

“Not a good number, is it?” McLellan lamented.

KJ'S 20TH GOAL OF THE YEAR MAKES IT 3-1!🔥@FanaticsBook | #CBJ pic.twitter.com/wRrgarcJn2

— Columbus Blue Jackets (@BlueJacketsNHL) February 28, 2025

Amazingly, Detroit is 2-2-1 over those five games. But the Wings are clearly trending in the wrong direction in terms of their defensive game.

Prior to this current struggle, they’d allowed two goals or fewer in seven successive games.

So where has it all come unraveled?

Allow McLellan to count the ways.

Red Wings Unwilling To Sacrifice

In the NHL, winning is painful. It’s about blocking a shot to keep the puck from getting to your net, or taking a hit to make a play.

Lately, the Red Wings are lacking that level of sacrifice in their game.

“I thought we did a real poor job of doing some of the hard things tonight at the blue paint,” McLellan said. “But also on top of that, we had opportunities to take a puck to the shin or to the ankle or to the leg and it seemed to get by us.

JVR tips one in for the tie! 🚨@FanaticsBook | #CBJ pic.twitter.com/8CzDdYTV3f

— Columbus Blue Jackets (@BlueJacketsNHL) February 28, 2025

“And that’s a little disappointing, because you can’t go to where this group wants to go to without that being part of it.”

Defenseman Moritz Seider was blunt in his assessment of Detroit’s latest loss.

“We just got out competed, and obviously that’s a hard one to swallow,” Seider said. “We know they’re a good team, but we just got up our level a little bit.

“In the more recent games we just aren’t as good around our own net.”