DETROIT – Coach Todd McLellan saw a team Saturday playing the way he wants his team to play in every game on the schedule.

But it wasn’t his team.

“The Pittsburgh team was everything we wanted to be tonight and weren’t,” the Detroit Red Wings coach said. “They started on time with an intensity that backed us off. They were faster than we were. Smothered us in three zones and checked for chances. Won the faceoff battle. Won the board battle. They won the net battle.”

Those were all accomplishments McLellan expected his team to achieve Saturday because that’s how they played when they were 11-3-1 in December.

“We didn’t do any of them,” McLellan said. “So we got exactly what we deserved.”

What the Red Wings deserved was a 4-1 loss to Pittsburgh, with the Penguins leaving town with a home-and-home sweep. Pittsburgh beat Detroit 4-3 in overtime on New Year’s Day. This is the first time since Nov. 29 that the Red Wings have lost two games in a row.

The Red Wings’ season-low 12 shots on goal are a reminder that while they may have started the day as the No. 1 team in the Eastern Conference, they have flaws that are exposed when they don’t play at their best. Despite their improvement, this is a team that isn’t going to win games when their execution is mediocre or worse. Today, it was the latter.

“We had one shot on goal by our defensemen, (Axel Sandin Pellikka)…we had six of them play,” McLellan said.

No Offensive Help From Defense

When the Red Wings are feeding off their speed and energy, there is plenty of firing the puck and getting the puck back, and breaking teams down.

There was none of that against the Penguins.

“We didn’t get any of that from the top, but I’m not sure the forwards were doing the work to open up the ice for them either,” McLellan said.

These kinds of losses are a reminder that the Red Wings, besides needing near-perfect execution of their game plan, probably need increased scoring.

Right now, Detroit’s No. 1 line, centered by captain Dylan Larkin, isn’t scoring at the same rate it did earlier in the season. The Red Wings like how their youngsters are playing, but they are not appearing on the scoresheet much, particularly Nate Danielson and Marco Kasper. Emmitt Finnie is minus-7 with no points in his past five games.

With Patrick Kane just returning from injury, the No. 2 line isn’t quite in sync. These are times when you need a secondary scorer to rise up. As poorly as Detroit played in this game, the Red Wings were only down one goal in the third period.

Changing Lines

McLellan replaced Finnie with Kasper, hoping to find a spark. Kasper played well with Larkin and Lucas Raymond. But nothing clicked today. Two empty net goals sealed the Red Wings’ fate.

Ultimately, a better overall performance is what the Red Wings needed most in this game. If the Red Wings had played more effectively, they might have found the tying goal.

But in the bigger picture, this game shows again the Red Wings might still have to use the trade market to find some secondary scoring, or maybe a top-six scorer, to help this team find the net on nights when they are not at their best. Some teams win when they are not at their best, and those are the ones that contend for the Stanley Cup.