DETROIT – Marco Kasper was slapped with a 10-misconduct in the second period Thursday after trying to get at Adam Boqvist. He squared off with Tony DeAngelo late in the game in his first NHL regular season fight.

Kasper was frustrated, not only by the Detroit Red Wings’ 5-0 loss to the New York Islanders, but his entire season.

After flourishing the second half of his rookie season, Kasper is experiencing an epic sophomore slump. He has three goals and no assists in 21 games.

“It’s frustrating for me. I wanted to do something,” Kasper said. “You got to go out and try to do something every game — compete, hit, score a goal, fight. Emotions sometimes get the best of you, and that’s what happened at the end there.”

Kasper started the season centering the second line with Alex DeBrincat and Patrick Kane. He recently moved to the wing on the third line. During Friday’s practice he rotated with Michael Rasmussen on the fourth line, perhaps a prelude to being scratched Saturday against Columbus (1 p.m., FanDuel Sports Network), though McLellan said no lineup decisions were made.

Kasper has no points and a minus-7 rating in his past 10 games. His turnover led to Mathew Barzal’s goal in the second period that put the Islanders ahead 3-0.

Coach Todd McLellan said it’s obvious Kasper’s confidence isn’t where it needs to be.

“It’s difficult when you’ve entered the league and a lot of good things have happened for you and then you come back and all that momentum goes away,” McLellan said. “But confidence isn’t something that’s in your back pocket and you just lose it at the mall or leave it in your car. Over time it erodes and you’ve got to find ways to stop the momentum and get it back.

“And you know he’s frustrated, got in a fight at the end of the game, maybe that will trigger it. But I know, he knows, his teammates know he’s a better player than what we have right now. So, everybody’s got to participate in cracking that, starting with Marco. And then the coaching staff and his teammates have to help him. But we need the best from him. And right now, he doesn’t look like the same player.”

Needless to say, Kasper expected to take a step forward after producing 19 goals and 37 points in 77 games.

“It’s definitely not easy,” Kasper said. “You’re going to get frustrated and I’m not happy with how things are going personally. All I can do is just go out and practice, stay on the ice, work on things, work hard, and then go out in the game, try to build confidence with little things, make the simple play, make a hit, stuff like that.”

Teammates know a young player’s path isn’t always linear.

“He’ll find his way out,” Andrew Copp said. “I think he’s going to be just fine. He could score a hat trick tomorrow, and we could be moving on from this conversation. It’s a weird league. One game can make the change, and we have all the faith in the world in him.”

Said Kasper: “We have a great group of guys in here. You can talk to anybody and they’ll help you.”

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