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    • The Detroit Red Wings are complaining about team defense and special teams in a 1-3-0 start
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    The Detroit Red Wings are complaining about team defense and special teams in a 1-3-0 start

    Caradoc Wyn Posted on

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    As tough as the first schedule looked, the Detroit Red Wings made it even harder for themselves.

    They travel to Nashville, Tennessee, on Saturday to play the Predators, who have suffered two straight losses, the latter of which exposed their special teams and team defense. The Wings are 1-3-0, with their only win coming a week ago at home against the Predators. Like the New York Rangers, who defeated the Wings twice in four days, the Predators were preseason favorites for the Stanley Cup despite starting the season winless in four days. But the Wings can’t worry about the Predators’ problems – they have too many of their own.

    “We’re playing against strong competition, which is good for us at the start of the season,” said defender Ben Chiarot after Thursday’s 5-2 defeat. “It’s a good benchmark. It shows us where we need to go and we still have a lot of work to do. Luckily it’s still early in the season and we can learn our lesson early instead of fooling ourselves right out of the gate by winning a few easy games and then facing teams like this down the stretch when we really need those points .”

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    The Rangers torched the Wings with three consecutive power play goals, but it was more than just special teams Thursday, it was a lack of urgency as the Rangers took a 3-1 lead and a disintegration in the team defense. This was also a central point in the training camp, but was not implemented.

    “It’s not something that you flip a switch and it happens,” Chiarot said. “We have a lot of offensive-minded players, guys who want to go on offense. It takes time to get people like that to get defensive about what the coaches preach, and we’re in that process right now. It takes time and you have to have lessons like tonight to change it quickly.

    The Wings had a two-man lead of 42 seconds in the first period, but they came out two goals behind. “I think we are in a good position after the first game,” said JT Compher. “I think we had some good chances in the five-on-three game. We were still in a pretty good position.”

    But just like a week earlier against the Pittsburgh Penguins, the second period proved ruinous.

    “The entire season was focused on special teams,” said coach Derek Lalonde. “We came out in the first half and put our first seven shots on net. We have a standard game with a five-a-side system, we have an open net, we don’t execute it. They score with their first goal.” Chance and they score on the power play. All of a sudden we had a great start to the second round, and then the special teams took over the game and didn’t execute. That’s it.

    “You’re going to have to go through these types of stretches. This happens to happen at the front end. We knew it would be a tough stretch. It’s just a little frustrating how some of these have turned out.”

    After Saturday’s trip to Nashville, the Wings play at the New York Islanders on Tuesday and then come home to play the New Jersey Devils on Thursday.

    “It’s still very early in the season,” said Chiarot. “That’s the most important thing for us at the moment, how we defend. I think the rest will work itself out. The goals will come from good defense and getting the puck back.”

    Contact Helene St. James at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @helenestjames.

    Read more on the Detroit Red Wings and sign up for our Red Wings Newsletter. Her most recent book, The Franchise: Detroit Red Wings, A Curated History of the Red Wings, was published in October 2024. Her books On the Clock: Behind the Scenes with the Detroit Red Wings at the NHL Draft and The Big 50 : The Men and Moments that made the Detroit Red Wings” is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Triumph Books. Personalized copies are available via your email.

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    Caradoc Wyn
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