Head coach Todd McLellan slams awful defensive play by Red Wings in 4-1 loss
The Detroit Red Wings were badly beaten by the Dallas Stars thanks mostly to an abysmal defensive effort in the 1st period, and Todd McLellan is speaking out.
The Detroit Red Wings have now lost 2-straight games and 3-of-4 after last night's 4-1 loss to the Dallas Stars at American Airlines Center.
An abysmal 1st period of play doomed the Red Wings, which included a terrible giveaway in the offensive zone from Alex DeBrincat that resulted in the Stars' 1st goal of the game.
More bad defensive play allowed the Stars to score twice more in the period.
Head coach Todd McLellan had no problem voicing his displeasure at how the Red Wings performed on the defensive side of the puck, especially their unforced errors.
Right now, I think we're a reactive team when a couple weeks ago we were proactive. We were getting after it and now we're waiting to see what happens and reacting to it. We've got to fix that and we will.
I'm looking at it from the other side of the coin, the goals against. The start that we had tonight, it's hard because the team plays the price for a few individual errors. It reminds me a little bit of the San Jose game. We start that way and put ourselves in a hole. We're not a four-goal team. We talk about playing to three and if we would have kept it at that level maybe we had a chance but I look it more from the defensive side of it, the disastrous mistakes we made that ended up in the back of our net.
The Red Wings are now 5 points back in the Wild Card race in the Eastern Conference, but they have a chance to finish 2-2 on their difficult 4-game road swing when they play the Philadelphia Flyers tomorrow night before returning home.
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