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Red Wings frustrated with slump, but not looking for excuses

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during the third period of the NHL game at Gila River Arena on October 12, 2017 in Glendale, Arizona. The Red Wings defeated the Coyotes 4-2.

Christian Petersen

Detroit Red Wings captain Henrik Zetterberg put it bluntly after Thursday’s loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning.

“We aren’t good enough to win games and that’s why we lost six in a row,” he said.

We knew the Red Wings probably wouldn’t be a playoff team again this season, and now they’re mired in a 0-5-1 stretch and stuck near the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings. The negative possession numbers (via Corsica), constant penalty taking (tied third-most in NHL with 54) and inconsistent play make that 4-1-0 start seem forever ago.

Andreas Athanasiou’s presence back in the lineup will help, but there are plenty of issues here for head coach Jeff Blashill to try and fix. For starters, he’s turning off the line blender off for now. So the top six will see Zetterberg stay with Tomas Tatar and Gustav Nyquist, while Athanasiou will continue playing with Dylan Larkin and Anthony Mantha.

“We have guys who’ve been elite in this league and we need them to step up and be elite. We need guys, and we have them, to step up and make plays,” he said via the Detroit News.

Blashill is hoping to try and find chemistry in his lines as his seat warms up. His name could be found near the top of “First NHL Coach Fired” lists before the season and his chances of staying in the job certainly haven’t improved through 11 games.

Detroit’s next two games give them a shot at snapping this slide, however. Saturday night they visit the Florida Panthers, who have lost four of their last six games and then have a Halloween home date versus the winless Arizona Coyotes. There are no excuses right now.

“I look at the next game. We better have confidence. There’s no reason not to have confidence,” Blashill said. “We have tons of belief that we can win. To me, not having confidence is an excuse. Penalties are an excuse. We’re in the no excuse business. Let’s find solutions here... Are we frustrated? Sure, we’re frustrated, but it doesn’t do anything. Let’s find a way to a solution right now.”

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Sean Leahy is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @Sean_Leahy.