DETROIT \u2013 Dylan Larkin\u2019s name would be near the bottom of the list of culprits for the Detroit Red Wings\u2019 struggles offensively and on the power play.<\/p>\n
But the captain took one for the team following Sunday\u2019s 5-1 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks at Little Caesars Arena.<\/a><\/p>\n Larkin blamed himself for losing key faceoffs on a power play that went 0 for 5 and for not burying some chances at even strength in a game where his team registered 45 shots on Arvid Soderblom.<\/p>\n \u201cStarts with the faceoff, which I take most of the time, and not winning them,\u201d Larkin said. \u201cAnd we\u2019re going down 200 feet and that\u2019s on me and got to win the first battle of the two minutes. Last year when we were good (on the power play), this year even when we had it going good we were winning those draws and attacking and getting the kill on their heels.\u201d<\/p>\n The Red Wings (9-7) are 0 for 13 on the man-advantage in their past four games and 1 for 20 during a 1-4-0 stretch.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have a good power play, and we have the personnel,\u201d Larkin said. \u201cWe showed it not just over a few games, but over years. We just got to figure it out. We got to go over (the boards) with a purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n The Red Wings aren\u2019t producing much five-on-five, either. They have scored two goals in the past three games and six goals in five games.<\/p>\n \u201cI have two back-door (chances) in two nights and zero goals to show for that,\u201d Larkin said. \u201cThat\u2019s on me. People look to me to score and look to the big guys to score, and I think I would point the finger at myself and try to put the puck in the back of the net in those key situations and off of good plays.\u201d<\/p>\n Larkin, however, scored the Red Wings\u2019 lone goal, his team-leading ninth \u2013 nobody else has more than four \u2013 to tie it at 1-1 at 4:19 of the first period.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s noble that Dylan is leading that way and stepping in front of the proverbial bullet,\u201d coach McLellan said. \u201cBut you could have lined a bunch of players up tonight and asked them the same question (why they\u2019re not scoring).\u201d<\/p>\n The Red Wings have a mandatory day off Monday before two practice days leading up to Thursday\u2019s home game against Anaheim. They have a lot to do.<\/p>\n \u201cOur power play\u2019s scrambling, our penalty kill needs a polish up,\u201d McLellan said. \u201cOffensively, we need to get polished up, which puts a lot of pressure on us defensively and on the goaltenders.\u201d<\/p>\n The Red Wings ranked fourth on the power play in 2024-25, driven by a top unit that returned intact (Larkin, Lucas Raymond, Alex DeBrincat, Patrick Kane and Moritz Seider).<\/p>\n \u201cEvery season\u2019s its own. You have to re-establish things,\u201d McLellan said. \u201cYou just don\u2019t show up and put your equipment on and say, \u2018Hey, we got a good power play.\u2019 Our power play basically from Day1 has been pretty average to this point. We haven\u2019t had a lot of highs yet on it. We\u2019ve scored some important goals, but not near enough.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, there\u2019ll be a lot of discussions over the next few days of what we do with the units.\u201d<\/p>\n Nate Danielson, recalled from the Grand Rapids Griffins Saturday to make his NHL debut, <\/a>was part of a youthful second unit that included Marco Kasper, Emmitt Finnie and Axel Sandin-Pellikka, along with veteran James van Riemsdyk.<\/p>\n \u201cThat (second) unit probably had more legitimate opportunities than the first unit, and they don\u2019t get a lot of time,\u201d McLellan said. \u201cMaybe they need more.\u201d<\/p>\n If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement<\/a> and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and\/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DETROIT \u2013 Dylan Larkin\u2019s name would be near the bottom of the list of culprits for the Detroit…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":282753,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-282752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=282752"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282752\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/282753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}