Do Red Wings Lack Killer Instinct?

When push came to shove, when it was crunch time, when it was time to step up their game, the Detroit Red Wings simply stepped aside yet again.

Captain Dylan Larkin didn’t pull any punches about the way the team played when they needed to be at their best.

“We just didn’t win hockey games,” Larkin said.

Philippe Myers walks through the entire Red Wings squad for a highlight-reel goal! 🚨 pic.twitter.com/6LbmenXpMW

— TSN (@TSN_Sports) April 18, 2025

Followers of this club have grown far too accustomed with that outcome. This the third season in a row that the Wings entered March with a realistic opportunity to make the NHL playoffs. And for the third season in succession, they turned it into a death march.

“March was definitely not a good month for us,” Larkin admitted.

The Red Wings finished the third month of 2025 with a 4-10 slate. On March over the past three years, Detroit is 10-28-3.

Red Wings Fail To Launch

It’s puzzling and it’s alarming. As the NHL regular-season progresses, the games grow progressively more challenging. And for the third straight season, when the tough got going, Detroit found it tough to get going.

Are they not mentally tough enough to meet this challenge? Do they lack the depth to get over the over the hump? Is the issue a lack of skill, or a lack of will?

These are all questions that coach Todd McLellan has been pondering. He’s openly admitted that they need to figure out whether they have the right players to ultimately get the job done. And if they don’t, then they’d better find players who can rise up to meet the challenge.

Flaws Continue to Show

McLellan pointed to Detroit’s 4-3 season-ending loss at Toronto as another indication of how far this team still has to go and to grow. The Wings squandered a 3-1 third-period lead and lost in overtime.

Leafs win 4-3 in OT for game 82 of the season. What a way to end the season being up 3-1 and losing in OT.

Todd McLellan and Steve Yzerman have A LOT of work to do this summer 🐙#LGRW #RedWings pic.twitter.com/KN0uiDqI2X

— Hockeytown Rundown (@HockeytownRD) April 18, 2025

“You think of the number of times we’ve talked about recovering from negatives, recovering from getting scored on, managing a game, and it’s still showing up,” McLellan said. “So lots of work to do.”

The Red Wings are in the midst of exit interviews with their players. Oh, to be a fly on the wall, as the old saying goes.

“We got a lot of stuff to do here to finish over the next three or four days,” McLellan said. “The meetings that we have with the players are real important.

“We’ll give them some feedback on what we saw or what we think they can become and what we think they need to do.”

Forward Alex DeBrincat acknowledged that the team still has a long way to rise up before they can feel like they’ve got what it takes to get to the NHL postseason.

“I mean, that’s the big question, right?” DeBrincat said. “And I think game management skills is something we weren’t great on.

“You know, had leads in quite a few games and gave them up.”

There were certainly some causes for excitement. DeBrincat scoring 39 goals. Larkin getting to 30 goals for the fourth season in a row and Lucas Raymond accumulating 80 points for the first time. The impressive growth of young players like Marco Kasper, Simon Edvinsson and Albert Johansson.

Bottom line? All the truly matters?

Again, added together, it still wasn’t good enough.

“We obviously have work to do,” McLellan said. “We didn’t get to where we want to go. And when training camp does roll around, it’s time to go to work.”