Just as the Detroit Red Wings were making progress, they regressed.
A rule of thumb regarding road trips is that a successful one points-wise matches the number of stops. The Wings could have put themselves in a great position heading into the finale of their longest trip this month but flunked.
The 4-1 loss at the Calgary Flames on Saturday, Oct. 24, snapped a six-game point streak.
“They were obviously better than us in multiple areas. Look at the special teams alone,” Red Wings coach Todd McLellan told reporters. “I thought it was one of our poorer nights as far as execution goes. When we did work hard and got offensive opportunities, passes were in the skates, they were too far ahead, so just a lack of overall details cost us.
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The Wings (4-4-3) were 0 for 2 on power plays and 0 for 2 on penalty kills. Their only goal came from Andrew Copp early in the second period − after which the Flames scored three straight times on John Gibson.
The trip wraps up Monday at the Edmonton Oilers, who are 8-2-1.
McLellan's criticism that it was one of the Wings' poorer efforts is pretty damming. Beset as they are by the turmoil of Dylan Larkin wanting to play for another team and Simon Edvinsson absent because of a contract stalemate, the Wings had shown resilience on this trip with rallying from a three-goal deficit to squeeze a point out of a 4-3 shootout loss at the Seattle Kraken and then winning 5-2 in Vancouver the next stop.
The Flames game shows how far the Wings still have to grow. The Calgary team is 4-6-0, near the bottom of the Western Conference, but have won three games in a row. That's the traction the Wings seek as they try to gain a foothold in the Eastern Conference.
Contact Helene St. James at Hstjames@freepress.com. Read more on the Detroit Red Wings and sign up for our Red Wings newsletter.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Red Wings takeaway: Loss to Flames shows how much growth is still needed
