By Mike Whitaker
DETROIT – Detroit Red Wings head coach Todd McLellan has led his club to a pair of seven-game winning streaks in less than three months time, turning around their season from where they were at the Christmas break.
But right now, the Red Wings are sliding in the wrong direction.
Their 2-1 loss against the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday night was their third straight setback, and they’ve been leapfrogged in the standings by both the Columbus Blue Jackets and New York Rangers during this stretch.
Red Wings fans remain weary about this time of year, considering that they’ve gone on extended losing streaks in the month of March in each of the last two years that effectively destroyed their chances at the postseason.
How does McLellan help alleviate some of those bad feelings from creeping into the dressing room and affecting player performance?
“”When I quickly look around the room, there’s not a lot of players that were here for that, there were some coaches that weren’t here for that,” McLellan said. “Every year is different. You can drag baggage good or bad along with you. You right your own story and we’re writing our own right now.
“We have guys who should have learned from last year and we have new people who don’t even know what happened last year,” he continued. “We’re our own entity and we’re trying to write it that way.”
Several players from last season’s roster are still with the team, including familiar faces like Dylan Larkin, Lucas Raymond, Patrick Kane, Moritz Seider and J.T. Compher.
But there has been a considerable influx of youth who have become regular roster players, including Simon Edvinsson and Marco Kasper along with the promotion of Elmer Soderblom.
It’s going to be a battle from this point on for the Red Wings, who have the toughest schedule of all 32 NHL clubs based on opposition winning percentage.
It also doesn’t help that the Ottawa Senators, Montreal Canadiens and New York Islanders are right behind them in the standings.
The journey to get back into a playoff spot begins on Thursday night in Detroit against the Utah Hockey Club; puck drop is scheduled for 7 p.m. Eastern Time.
