The playoff hopes of both the Detroit Red Wings and the Utah Hockey Club are fading fast entering their game on Monday night in Salt Lake City.
The Red Wings (32-31-6, 70 points) are five points out of the second Eastern Conference wild-card spot with 13 games remaining while the Utah Hockey Club (32-27-11, 75 points) are four points out of the final Western Conference wild-card position with 12 games left.
Detroit’s chances are disappearing faster because of its 2-9-0 record in its last 11 games, the most recent a 6-3 loss at the Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday night.
“We have to be honest with each other,” Red Wings coach Todd McLellan said. “… We talk about wanting to be in the playoffs, but we’re not sure we always want to be in shooting lanes. We’re not sure we want to do some things, and I’m not saying everybody. Do we really want to do it around the net? Do we really want to get hit by a puck? Do we want to do the board work when it’s hard? If the answer is yes to that from everybody, then we have a chance. If the answer is yes to those questions from 85 percent of the players, we don’t.”
Patrick Kane had a goal and two assists, Lucas Raymond and Alex DeBrincat a goal apiece, and captain Dylan Larkin added two assists on Saturday.
“We had a lot of good chances in the first, and you go down 3-1. It’s not the best spot to be,” DeBrincat said. “There was a lot of good. Some bad that we’ve got to clean up before the next game.”
Defenseman Erik Gustafsson and winger Elmer Soderblom both missed the game after sustaining undisclosed injuries in Detroit’s 4-1 loss at the Washington Capitals Tuesday. William Lagesson replaced Gustafsson and Tyler Motte took Soderblom’s place in the lineup.
The Utah Hockey Club’s 6-4 win over the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday was their third victory in four games.
Logan Cooley and Alex Kerfoot each scored twice for Utah. Cooley, who also added an assist, has 21 goals after tallying 20 last season, his first in the NHL.
“I think the focus from the beginning, right from the start of the game, the focus, the execution, the urgency was elite,” Utah coach Andre Tourigny said. “I think everybody was engaged. Everybody was connected. We were really disciplined in the way we had to play against those guys. So (it was a) great effort from the boys.”
The Lightning, one of the top offenses in the NHL, had a three-game winning streak snapped at Utah.
“I’m really happy about the offense we created tonight, but even more proud of the way we defended the rush and the way we closed the middle of the ice,” Tourigny said. “That was a really tough challenge, a tough team to do that against… I think (defenseman Mikhail Sergachev) was really good. Cooley’s line, they were something else. They were really, really good. And really, I think it’s a huge character win.”
–Field Level Media
