A pair of struggling Eastern Conference teams in desperate need of a win will square off in Detroit on Tuesday night.
The Columbus Blue Jackets have lost six straight games while the Detroit Red Wings have dropped six of their last eight. Both clubs are trying to revive their fading playoff hopes.
Columbus (38-27-12, 88 points) lost at home to the Winnipeg Jets 2-1 on Saturday. The frustrated Blue Jackets held a team meeting following the defeat.
“I’ll just keep our conversation in here because we’re a better team than what we’ve shown and just talked about it,” Blue Jackets defenseman Zach Werenski said. “We’re not eliminated. We’re still in it and I believe in this group. I believe we can get it done and it’s just doing it.
“I mean, we did it for two months. The last two weeks obviously haven’t gone our way, but it’s in the room and it’s on us to just pull it out and get it done.”
Columbus’ offense has stalled during the slide, scoring a total of 10 goals.
“We create the second most chances on the forecheck in the entire league,” Blue Jackets coach Rick Bowness said. “Yet we want to get inside the blue line and make cute little plays against good teams that aren’t working. And they’re not working. So, I have to get after them. They’ve got to change their mindset.”
Werenski believes the team needs a singular mindset on Tuesday.
“We can’t worry about what other teams do or whoever we have after Detroit,” he said. “Our focus just has to be on Detroit, and after that we’ll figure it out.”
The Red Wings (40-29-8, 88 points) rallied from a 4-1 third-period deficit to tie Minnesota on Sunday. But Patrick Kane, who scored the tying goal, took a damaging tripping penalty which led to Kirill Kaprisov’s game-winner for the Wild with 1:51 remaining.
“We get the comeback and take a penalty 150 feet from our net not even in the play. It hurts,” Red Wings coach Todd McLellan said.
Minnesota built its lead by scoring four goals in the second period with the first one coming 18 seconds after the opening faceoff.
“Fifteen seconds in we win a draw and we’re getting scored on because we’re lollygagging around and don’t advance the puck,” McLellan said. “Now it’s in our net. Our team right now, as soon as it doesn’t go our way, we crumble for a while, then we pick ourselves up from the mat but it’s too late. We did it again (Sunday). A pattern.”
Detroit has five games remaining and might need to win them all to end a nine-year playoff drought.
“(We need to) play like we did in the third period more of the game,” Red Wings center J.T. Compher said. “We gave ourselves a chance. If we start better, it makes a little easier on us. The way we played in the third, we have to play for the rest of the games remaining.”
Detroit won its first meeting with Columbus this season on Alex DeBrincat’s overtime goal on Nov. 22. The Blue Jackets pulled out a 6-5 shootout victory in the second matchup on Dec. 4.
