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The Detroit Red Wings embarked on a short two-game road trip after winning five consecutive contests, a streak that put them into a first-place tie in both the Atlantic Division and the Eastern Conference.
While both of their opponents, the Buffalo Sabres and New York Islanders, had struggled with consistency to start their respective seasons, it didn’t look that way when the Red Wings visited their venues.
Less than 24 hours after the Sabres ended Detroit’s winning streak with a 4-2 victory, the Islanders humbled the Red Wings by scoring seven goals on goaltender Cam Talbot in a 7-2 rout at UBS Arena.
Suddenly, the Red Wings once again find themselves dealing with the same rotten feeling they experienced after their 5-1 loss to the Montreal Canadiens in their Oct. 9 Home Opener.
Head coach Todd McLellan bemoaned Detroit’s careless puck management in both the offensive and neutral zones that, just like they experienced against Montreal, led to multiple odd-man rushes against them.
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“Our puck management through the neutral zone and offensive zone led to multiple rushes going in the other way, and our sort-out coming into our end was non-existent,” McLellan said following the loss to the Islanders. “They found the fourth man, the third man. They scored off rebounds. Areas that we’ve worked on and tried to put time into and thought we corrected after game one showed up tonight.”
While the Red Wings did managed 15 shots on goal in the third period and scored twice courtesy of Dylan Larkin and Jonatan Berggren, they entered the final frame already trailing 5-0.
“It was garbage time,” McLellan said of Detroit’s late push with the game’s outcome already all but officially decided. “We didn’t generate enough early, and it gets to 7-1 or whatever it was, it’s garbage time. They’re playing a different game and they’re getting through it.”
“Not enough from a lot of players offensively as well.”
Larkin did manage to extend his point streak, but Detroit’s other offensive players like Lucas Raymond and Alex DeBrincat were held off the scoresheet.
DeBrincat, who scored 39 goals for the Red Wings in 2024-25, has been held without a single tally so far through the first eight games of the current campaign.
The Red Wings were also playing their third straight game without Patrick Kane, who was shaken up in overtime of Detroit’s 2-1 overtime win over the Tampa Bay Lightning last Friday.
All throughout Training Camp and the preseason, McLellan emphasized the importance of responding properly to when things inevitably go wrong over the course of an 82 game season.
Detroit’s players clearly got the message after being booed off the ice in their home opener, bouncing back with five straight victories. However, they now find themselves facing serious adversity once again after being outscored 11-4 over their last two road games.
Red Wings Humbled By Islanders In Embarrassing 7-2 Loss
The Red Wings wanted to flush the memory of their frustrating 4-2 loss to the Buffalo Sabres and come out strong against the New York Islanders, but instead were humbled in embarrassing fashion by a 7-2 final score.
“On this road trip, we haven’t done a good job of handling it and that’s a huge area of growth for this team,” McLellan said. “When it doesn’t go your way, how do you respond? We didn’t start well in Buffalo last night and we responded a little better as the night went on. Here, we didn’t start well and we never got it going.”
“Certainly, there’s the on-ice product that needs to be worked on, but there’s the between-ears part that has to be managed as well.”
The Red Wings now return home with plenty to figure out before they next hit the ice at Little Caesars Arena on Saturday evening against the St. Louis Blues.
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