Red Wings Lose Outdoor Classic on Late Goal

COLUMBUS — Detroit Red Wings coach Todd McLellan said 10 years from now players will be talking about the special night when when they played an outdoor NHL game in front of 94,751 people.

Historic venue. Crisp, chilly night. Cool new uniform designs. Emotional night. Many thoughts, by players from both teams, about the late Columbus forward Johnny Gaudreau. Executing a quality game plan. Firing 46 shots on goal. Late-game comeback.

What a night

“You’d love to end that story by saying, ‘Oh, by the way, we won and we can’t do that now,'” McLellan said.

The Red Wings’ storybook night had a bad ending when they fell 5-3 to the Blue Jackets in front of the second-largest crowd in NHL history. Trailing 3-1, the Red Wings received third period goals by Patrick Kane and Alex DeBrincat to get themselves in position to earn at least a point.

But Justin Danforth scored a goal with 2:17 left. The Red Wings believed that defenseman Simon Edvinsson was high-sticked on the play. But there was no call and the goal counted.

The Blue Jackets completed a two-game series sweep to move two points past Detroit for the first wildcard spot in the Eastern Conference.

“I thought we played a hell of a game,” McLellan said. “When you think of the type of game we played two nights ago in Detroit and the response that we got,
we were aggressive, but at the end of the day, we have to learn how to
win those games and not lose them.”

The Red Wings played well and lost on Saturday after playing one of their worst games under McLellan on Thursday.

“And what did I see?,” McLellan said. “It’s hard to complain about the effort and the drive and the response, but yet the game management and the impatience sometimes of our team can come back to bite us.”

The Red Wings have now given up four or more goals in six of their last seven games, not a statistic they want to see as they battle for a playoff spot.

Positive Vibe

“There’s a huge difference between playing on your
toes and being aggressive and being impatient,” McLellan said. “And I thought we got a little impatient at times tonight and it made us feel pain.”

McLellan called out Dylan Larkin for his poor play on Thursday, but the captain was far sharper on Saturday. He had five shots on goal and five hits. Still no points.

“I think we played right to our game plan,” said Kane, who had three points in the game. “Wanted to shoot a lot of pucks, get a lot at the net. Obviously anything can happen in this type of environment. Comes down to one play here or there. ”

But make no mistake: these were two critical losses given the tightness of the East.  Still, Kane thought the attitude remains positive.

“Everyone, wanted it on the bench for each other,” Kane said. “The vibes are great, but we just didn’t get it done. So obviously we need to be better in those
game-winning type situations to make a play here, there, play it safe
and make sure we’re at least getting a point in those situations,
especially when you come back, it’s almost even more disheartening to
lose that way.