Alarming Confession From Red Wings Captain

There’s an pattern evolving in recent Detroit Red Wings losses that is proving to be quite alarming.

Goals are going in the net in bunches. The Red Wings fall behind. Then, instead of digging in and fighting back, they just keep on surrendering goals and digging the hole they are in deeper.

You better believe it’s worrisome.

“Yeah, it is,” captain Dylan Larkin admitted.

What’s even worse is that the team knows that, and yet doesn’t seem to know what to do about it.

“We’ve talked about it a lot and to be honest, we haven’t come up with a solution,” Larkin said.

Rapid Fire Goals Against Red Wings

The problem? The Red Wings are in the game. Then a bunch of goals go into their net in short order and the game is out of reach.

Detroit opened a four-game road trip on Tuesday at Washington. Deadlocked 1-1 entering the third period, the Wings coughed up three goals in a span of 7:11 and wound up losing 4-1. That was the sixth time in the club’s past 10 losses that Detroit allowed a number of goals in rapid-fire fashion.

That's 24 for No. 24 pic.twitter.com/mRZKSWsHxR

— x – Washington Capitals (@Capitals) March 19, 2025

In their previous loss, the Red Wings fell 4-2 to the Carolina Hurricanes after allowing three second-period goals in 12:18. A prior visit to Washington saw Detroit ahead 2-1 after 40 minutes. The Capitals netted four goals in 9:28 and won 5-2.

A 4-2 home-ice loss to Utah saw Detroit allow three unaswered goals over the last two periods after fashioning a 2-1 first-period advantage. Also at home, a loss to Columbus resulted in the Blue Jackets scoring four second-period goals in 10:45 during a 5-2 triumph. And the Tampa Bay Lightning potted four first-period goals in 13:45 while whipping the Wings 6-3.

The Lightning and Red Wings put up SIX goals in the first period 😳

📺: ABC pic.twitter.com/RbttmKOPMF

— ESPN (@espn) February 8, 2025

It’s a perplexing problem. And the fact is it appears to have the Red Wings entirely flummoxed. With just 14 games left to play and a playoff spot getting further away from them, a solution needs to be uncovered as quickly as the goals are going in the Detroit net.

Playoffs Slipping Further Away

There was more bad news Thursday on the standings front. A 1-0 overtime loss to Florida moved Columbus to 71 points. Montreal (74 points) also picked up an OT point in a 4-3 loss to the New York Islanders, who climbed to 72 points.

Detroit sits with 70 points. That’s four points behind the Canadiens for the second NHL Eastern Conference Wild Card. The Islanders, New York Rangers (72) and Columbus are all situated between the Red Wings and Canadiens.

As they head out west for games at Vegas, Colorado and Utah, the Wings need to stop bleeding goals in abundance.

“I just think when we don’t have our A game and you’re not going to every night, you got to find a way to shore things up and the next five minutes play hockey and make sure nothing happens,” Larkin said. “And we did it in Ottawa (2-1 loss), we did it against Vegas (3-0 win) at home.

“We’ve showed we can do it. We just have to do it a lot more.”