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Todd McLellan points to major problem for Red Wings during loss vs. Lightning

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Jack Sutherland
February 8, 2025  (7:19 PM)
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Todd McLellan wasted zero time in identifying what went wrong for the Red Wings in their loss to the Lightning, which ended a 7-game winning streak.

Lightning struck twice within two minutes against the Detroit Red Wings today at Little Caesars Arena.

Before most fans had gotten a chance to take their first few bites of their hot dogs and nachos, the Tampa Bay Lighting raced out to a 2-0 lead on their 1st three shots; the Red Wings hadn't yet entered the Tampa defensive zone.

Head coach Todd McLellan immediately pulled Alex Lyon after making one save on three shots to try and shift the momentum; the game wasn't even 3 minutes old. But Cam Talbot was beaten twice after entering the contest for Lyon, as the Lightning raced out to a 4-1 win en route to a 6-3 win.

It was the final game for the Red Wings until late February, as the NHL is taking a break for the 4 Nations Faceoff.

McLellan was bothered by his team's lack of execution and turnovers early on, pointing out their disturbing lack of game-management skill.

I'll tell you the same thing I told them between the first and second period. Usually the coach is coming in and losing his marbles because of lack of effort and no energy and bad body language and all those types of things.

I thought we had that, but we didn't have any game management skills at all. A number of turnovers - the gifts that we gave them, I didn't see that part coming. I thought the game management may be there, but we might not have the drive or the jump that we might need. So it worked out (the) exact opposite as I thought it could for our team.

While the Red Wings eventually had the major advantage on the shot clock, their woeful defensive effort in the 1st period sealed their fate.

That's disappointing. We worked hard to develop a way that we needed to play. And it didn't exist in the first period.

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Todd McLellan points to major problem for Red Wings during loss vs. Lightning

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