Sunday afternoon’s Detroit Red Wings game brought back memories of an infamous Dennis Green quote, with a touch of Huey Lewis mixed in for good measure.
A 5-1 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks extended Detroit’s season-high losing streak to three games. But things are much worse than they appear.
Over that three-game span, the Wings have been outscored 10-2. The power play is 0-for-11, and the penalty kill is 2-for-6.
“The whole special teams battle, it was so downhill for us,” Red Wings coach Todd McLellan said. “It wasn’t even close.”
Speaking of downhill, dig a little deeper into the Red Wings’ recent history and the slide grows even steeper.
Red Wings Looking All Too Familiar
Since an impressive 5-1 start that made the team the talk of the NHL, things have gone steadily off the rails. Detroit is 4-7 over the past 11 games. Two of those four wins were shootout victories.
They’ve scored two goals or fewer in five consecutive games. Meanwhile, four or more pucks have found their way into the Detroit net in three of those five games. The power play is 1-for-20 in the past five games.
Before Sunday’s loss, the Wings had won five in a row over Chicago, outscoring the Blackhawks 21-10.
Lately, though, the Red Wings have been reminiscent of that well-known soliloquy from former NFL coach Green.
They are who we thought they were.
With former coach Jeff Blashill in town coaching the Blackhawks, the Red Wings opted to take a page from the Huey Lewis songbook and go back in time.
The maladies afflicting the team are familiar failures. Terrible on the penalty kill. Too easy to play against. Not scoring five-on-five and refusing to drive to the net.
Larkin Shoulders Blame For Red Wings Flaws
“Not good enough,” Detroit captain Dylan Larkin said. Scorer of the team’s lone goal Sunday, Larkin still sought to shoulder the blame for their misgivings.
“I have two back doors in two nights and zero goals to show for that,” Larkin said. “That’s on me.
“People look to me to score and look to the big guys to score, and I think I would point the finger at myself.”
Larkin nets his 9th. #LGRW pic.twitter.com/hkfPGDMsy2
— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) November 9, 2025
McLellan thought it was admirable that Larkin was willingly taking the bullet for the team. He also thought it was patently unfair to single one player out for responsibility.
“You could have lined a bunch of players up tonight and asked them the same question,” McLellan said. “So yeah, he wears the C, he’s got to answer for the group, but there were a number of them you can talk to.”