William Wallinder stood in the middle of the Detroit Red Wings' locker room, a bit glad but mostly every bit as mad as those around him.
The Wings blew a chance to draw even on the season, nascent as it is, ahead of their first road challenge, coming against the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday, Oct. 10 (7 p.m., Detroit SportsNet). At least playing back-to-back provides little time to sulk over how the Wings "collapsed in the second period," as Wallinder said of giving up four straight goals en route to a 6-3 loss to the Seattle Kraken in the last of four straight at Little Caesars Arena.
It was all the more maddening for all the positives: Their best start of the season, rookies Wallinder and Michael Brandsegg-Nygard recording their first career
NHL goals, Alex DeBrincat gathering his 600th career point in his 700th career game. All that, overshadowed by the sloppiest 20 minutes the Wings have played through 240 minutes.
"We probably didn't get rewarded for the effort and the input into the game early and I thought it cost us in the second," coach Todd McLellan said. "We got loose and impatient and we didn't stick with it and all of a sudden the puck's in our net now we're chasing the game.
"It's disappointing. We put a lot of time and work into doing things right and we give it back and we've got to go back to the drawing board."
Friday's performance dropped the Wings to 1-3-0 and stood out because in the first two losses, they played well for most of those games, and didn't give up anything five-on-five. Then they gave up five goals at five-on-five to the Kraken.
"I think we just got a little lazy, a little soft on pucks, not connected," DeBrincat said. "We go back in our zone and we're not supporting each other, not going as a five-man unit. And we turn pucks over, and they shoot it in the net. So something we can learn from for sure. I thought our first period was really good, the second just cost us.
"I feel like we've played well up until that point, and one bad period cost us the game. So learn from it, we'll get better from it. We know we're not good enough to take any time off."
The Wings had a 40-24 edge in shots. John Gibson certainly wasn't at his best in net, and was pulled after allowing five goals on 15 shots in 34:05 minutes. The puck took some funny bounces, but the Wings were also caught puck-watching at times.
"We went from being in control to being out of control," McLellan said. "We can put ourselves back into that situation. I thought we came out in the third and we started again with the same game plan but – I guess put it this way, we scored three, that's enough to win.
"I'm upset with the defensive part of it, but that's perhaps how the players are thinking – you know what, we didn't score, we had all these chances, we've got to open it up even more. We're crazy if we think that's going to do it for us."
Winding up the four-game, eight-day homestand with a loss tempered everyone's mood, but at least Wallinder can remember that his first NHL goal provided his team with a lead. He fired the puck through traffic and wasn't even sure it was his goal, as it initially looked like it might have hit Emmitt Finnie's stick, until Justin Faulk offered the first congratulations.
"I was kind of surprised, I didn't see it go in," Wallinder said. "I was just like, I thought someone tipped it, but I was happy to score my first goal and sorry, sorry for not winning the game."
When Brandsegg-Nygard scored while battling in the paint, on the other hand, the score was 6-2.
"Kind of mixed feelings to be honest, we're under by four goals," he said. "But I mean, of course I'm happy with having my first goal and I have that done."
Contact Helene St. James at Hstjames@freepress.com.
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Next up: Devils
Matchup: Red Wings (1-3-0, 2 points entering Saturday’s late game) vs. New Jersey (1-2-0, 2 points).
Faceoff: 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 13; Little Caesars Arena, Detroit.
TV/radio: Detroit SportsNet; WXYT-FM (97.1).
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Red Wings 'a little lazy' as they give away two points
