Detroit Red Wings get honest about their lackluster play ahead of pivotal clash vs. Flyers
While the Detroit Red Wings did pick up a badly needed victory against the Buffalo Sabres, they still fell into hold habits that have hurt them during this year.
While the good news for the Detroit Red Wings is that they earned two points against the Buffalo Sabres on Monday night, the bad news is that the win required three separate comeback efforts.
The Sabres took leads of 1-0, 3-2, and 5-3 thanks in large part to poor defensive play by the Red Wings along with subpar goaltending from starter Ville Husso, who was yanked from the net after 20 minutes and replaced by Sebastian Cossa.
Forward Joe Veleno, who has underwhelmed with just a pair of points so far this year, said the Red Wings just need to "settle down" a bit.
It wasn't us in terms of how we how we like to play defensively in Buffalo. I think we got away from our game a little bit.
And, you know, look at the positive though we had opportunities to generate offense and to capitalize, which we did. But I don't think we should be too concerned about it, because, you know, we know that's not us. We know we haven't really given up five goals regularly as of late.
So I think we've just got to settle down a little bit, relax and go back to what we were doing defensively that was giving us a lot of success-execution in our end, breaking pucks out quick, protecting the dangerous ice in the D zone. And I think we got got away from that a little bit last game.
The Red Wings need much more from Joe Veleno
Veleno, a former 1st round pick of the Red Wings in 2018, produced career-bests in goals and assists last year (12G, 16A) and was expected to build on that stat line.
Right now, he's on pace for just six points (3G, 3A), nowhere near the kind of output they envisioned or expected.
POLL |
DECEMBRE 12 | 101 ANSWERS Detroit Red Wings get honest about their lackluster play ahead of pivotal clash vs. Flyers Is Joe Veleno the most underwhelming Red Wings forward? |
Yes, he's the top underperforming Red Wings player | 56 | 55.4 % |
No, Andrew Copp and J.T. Compher are ahead of him | 45 | 44.6 % |
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