BOSTON — The Detroit Red Wings ended practice with a little gathering on the ice at TD Garden, not that much needed to be said.
They know they must compete better, Thursday when they take on the Bruins, than the uninspired effort put forth at Montreal.
“We were just bad,” defenseman Moritz Seider said. “It was a tough one for us. But I think we’re done. We turned the page and are really excited for Boston.
“We have two more on this road trip and I think we’re hungry and we want to get these four points.”
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The good news is that Tyler Bertuzzi will reinforce the lineup after sitting out the first part of the trip, which began at Toronto, because of his unvaccinated status; he’s their leading scorer and a dervish of energy. There’s little news regarding Dylan Larkin, who has not practiced with the team for three days while dealing with a personal matter. Bertuzzi, who has six goals and three assists in seven games, practiced on a line with Robby Fabbri and rookie Lucas Raymond.
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The Wings were still smarting from being beaten, 3-0, by the Canadiens.
“We go out and we address it, which we did,” coach Jeff Blashill said. “We go out and practice to make sure that we’re getting better. Players have to go out and execute at a high level.
“Now, that doesn’t guarantee wins. It’s a hard league. We’re going to play a really good team. But we have to make sure we get back to playing the right way, meaning: hard to play against, tight checking, with tons of emotion and tons of compete.”
Overall the Wings (4-4-2) have had a good start, but atop the list of concerns is team defense (34 goals allowed, 29th in NHL) and the power play (14.3%, 25th). The Wings converted their on man advantages their first two games, but since have gone 3-for-28, or 10.7%.
“You have to be patient, judge things over a long period of time,” Blashill said. “That long period of time isn’t 10 games. We’ll continue to work at it and try on a nightly basis get better at all of our stuff, including our power play. But I don’t know that it’s time to judge now.”
Overall the Wings (4-4-2) have had a good start, but atop the list of concerns is team defense (34 goals allowed, 29th in NHL) and the power play (14.3%, 25th). The Wings converted on their man advantages their first two games, but since have gone 3-for-28, or 10.7%.
“You have to be patient, judge things over a long period of time,” Blashill said. “That long period of time isn’t 10 games. We’ll continue to work at it and try on a nightly basis, get better at all of our stuff, including our power play. But I don’t know that it’s time to judge now.”
Seider, who runs one of the units and averages north of three minutes a game on man advantages, expressed optimism things are about to change.
“Getting better puck retrievals I think is going to be key for us,” he said. “Sooner than later, we will get our chances and we will look really good.”
Contact Helene St. James at hstjames@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @helenestjames. Read more on the Detroit Red Wings and sign up for our Red Wings newsletter. Her book, The Big 50: The Detroit Red Wings is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Triumph Books. Personalized copies available via her e-mail.