The maddening trend of the Detroit Red Wings getting badly outshot, outworked, out-hustled, and outmuscled is continuing, this time against the Philadelphia Flyers.
Through the first 40 minutes of the contest, the Red Wings are getting outshot by a near 3-1 margin and have surrendered multiple odd-man rushes and breakaways.
Goaltender Cam Talbot is doing everything possible to keep his team in the game, having made several great saves including a one-time shot from rookie of the year candidate Matvei Michkov, a Flyers 2-on-1 rush from in tight, and a breakaway attempt from captain Sean Couturier.
Unfortunately, Talbot wasn't able to stop what seemed like the 10th breakaway of the period, as Scott Laughton took a page out of former Red Wings forward Marian Hossa's book and wound up to fire a slap shot from the slot; the shot beat Talbot for the game's opening goal.
As a team, the Red Wings also have 13 giveaways.
For years now, we've been told that we need to "trust the Yzerplan".
And yet, here we sit in the legendary former Red Wings captain turned GM's 6th season on the job, and the team is regressing from where they were at this point in the last pair of years.
Not only is the Red Wings penalty killing historically awful, but tonight's game marks yet another game in which Detroit is badly outshot by their opponent.
Two teams this year have already parted ways with their respective coaches, and one of them is in the midst of a full-fledged rebuild.
But right now, there's been no indication that Yzerman is considering making a switch despite yet another abysmal defensive effort by the team that was expected to take a major step forward this year after just missing out on the postseason last year.
POLL | ||
DECEMBRE 12 | 115 ANSWERS Detroit Red Wings once again getting badly outshot, and leaving goaltender Cam Talbot completely out to dry Will this latest porous defensive showing from the Red Wings result in changes being made? | ||
Yes, Steve Yzerman can't allow this any longer | 76 | 66.1 % |
No, the team will stay the course with 0 changes | 39 | 33.9 % |
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