Red Wings Must Find Different Ways to Score

Rick Osentoski-Imagn Images

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What’s almost become as familiar a discussion about the Detroit Red Wings as their inability to make the playoffs is the club’s inability to score 5-on-5 goals. The Red Wings finished 30th in the NHL this season in 5-on-5 goals, but that’s not anything new.

The discussion always comes around to the same talking points. Going back to the days when Jeff Blashill was coaching the team, we would always hear about how this team needed to get traffic to the net and play the game with more of a shot mentality.

We’re still having those conversations, and the Red Wings still aren’t getting the required consistency in offense when playing the game at even strength.

“I do think 5-on-5 scoring is a big area of emphasis for our team,” Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin said.

Clearly, this club must work to find different ways to score goals if they want to move forward and become a team that makes the playoffs.

“Offense is hard to come by in this league,” Larkin said. “To score in this league, you’ve got to go to the net. You’ve got to be hard and get pucks through.”

When push came to shove, as the games got tougher down the stretch, the Wings didn’t display the necessary fight to get the so-called dirty goals.

“I think for us as a team, we need to be an aggressive team,” Detroit forward Lucas Raymond said. “We need to be on top of players on other teams for us to be successful.

“When we’re shooting the puck, and we’re getting 30, 40 shots, I think that creates a lot of momentum within our game. Not just scoring-wise, but just playing O-zone and creating off of it.

“I think that’s, that’s a big part, and one part that you gotta be reminded of.”

Red Wings Cite Penguins As A Model Franchise For Gritty Goal Scoring

Detroit defenseman Simon Edvinsson would like to see the Red Wings play a style of hockey more like the Florida Panthers or Pittsburgh Penguins.

“Pittsburgh, you see, and you feel it out there on the ice,” Edvinsson said. “They’re very hard to play against. They crash the net all the time. They hit even after you pass the puck. That’s a championship mentality.

“I feel like they get a piece of you every time, bring you down slowly. And that’s something in our team that we could use more. That’s where all the goals come.

“I feel like it’s not going to be pretty. It’s going to be those gritty goals where you send the puck to the net and so on. Yeah, basically crash the net and crash into the goal in the paint, and that’s where the goals are made. And I feel like we can have more of that.”

Sure, that sounds good. The Red Wings always talk a good game when it comes to getting garbage-type goals.

Too often in the past, all that talk has amounted to little more than a pile of rubbish.

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