Maybe coming back home for a bit can help the Red Wings rebound from what’s been an ugly 48 hours.
The Wings capped an utterly forgettable two game road trip Thursday with a 7-2 loss to the New York Islanders.
The Wings (5-3-0) saw their five-game win streak come to a crashing halt — and are now in the midst of a two-game losing streak that was mostly deserved.
Dylan Larkin scored a third-period, power-play goal cut the Islanders’ lead to 5-1. It was Larkin’s sixth goal and extended his point streak to eight games to begin the season, tying the longest of Larkin’s career.
Emmitt Finnie drew his fourth assist and seventh point, tying Finnie for the NHL rookie-point lead with Islanders defenseman Matthew Schaefer.
Jonatan Berggren added a late third-period goal, his first goal of the season. Michael Brandsegg-Nygard drew an assist, the first point of his NHL career.
BOX SCORE: Islanders 7, Red Wings 2
But that was it for any sort of bright spots.
“Lack of execution, lack of showing up here with a game on the back-to-back, we just made it very easy for them and they capitalized,” Larkin told reporters. “We just chased it (the game) and let it get more and more out of hand.
“To a man it wasn’t good enough.”
Similar to the night before, a 4-2 loss in Buffalo, the Wings had many more stretches of sloppy hockey — along with some unfortunate breaks — than clean hockey and got away from had fueled the win streak. Falling behind early and missed defensive assignments hurt the Wings, as it did in Buffalo.
“We didn’t make it hard on them,” Larkin said. “We made it easy for them.”
Tony DeAngelo scored just 2 minutes, 5 seconds into the first period and the Islanders were off and rolling. DeAngelo skated down wing unchecked and converted a pass from Anders Lee past goaltender Cam Talbot (22 saves).
The Islanders outshot the Wings, 11-5, in the opening 20 minutes while taking a 2-0 lead. They extended the lead to 5-0 after two periods.
“Our sort-out coming into our end was non-existent,” coach Todd McLellan said. “They found the fourth man, they found the third man, they scored off rebounds. Areas that we’ve worked on and tried to put time into or correct, or thought we corrected after game one, they showed up again.”
Emil Heineman had two goals, and Jean-Gabriel Pageau, Kyle Palmieri, Mathew Barzal and Simon Holmstrom added Islanders (4-3-0) goals, while goaltender David Rittich stopped 29 shots.
Palmieri’s goal was typical of the breaks that have been going against the Wings the last two games, compared to how they were going their way during the win streak. Defenseman Ryan Pulock lifted a shot into a maze of bodies in front of Talbot, with the puck bounding off Palmieri’s skate and past Talbot.
“They created turnovers and were really good off the rush,” McLellan said.
The Wings host St. Louis Saturday, before playing in St. Louis Tuesday, which begins a five-game road trip.
tkulfan@detroitnews.com
@tkulfan
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