Coach Todd McLellan appreciates the resilience of his Detroit Red Wings.

That being said, he’d much rather that they chose to start games on time.

Sidney Crosby, folks. pic.twitter.com/yQLgxDJyQp

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) January 2, 2026

In each of the club’s past two games, the Red Wings dug themselves a 2-0 first-period hole. At Pittsburgh on New Year’s Day, they battled back to forge a point in a 4-3 overtime loss.

Saturday on home ice, they weren’t so lucky. Down 2-0 again in the first period in the rematch with the Penguins, Detroit would go on to suffer a 4-1 setback.

Bryan Rust opens the scoring with his eighth point in his last six games! 👏

📺: ABC pic.twitter.com/8yCAqBEQ7f

— NHL (@NHL) January 3, 2026

As much as he admires the never-say-die approach of his team, McLellan would prefer his team to embrace the concept of playing with a lead.

“Well, the resilience thing, you know, what I was trying to say in Pittsburgh, I hope it came across that way, is that it’s an exceptional quality to have to be able to bounce back and deflect and dig in when you have to dig in,” McLellan said. “But if you’re in those situations, usually something’s happened to require that. And the starts to some of our games have put us in those situations.”

In 22 games this season, the Red Wings have surrendered the game’s first goal. They are 9-10-3 in those games.

Detroit has trailed after one period in 16 games. Impressively, they’ve battled back to go 8-6-2 in those games.

Big Difference When Red Wings Show Up From The Start

On the other hand, when the Red Wings score first, they are 15-4-1. And when they are ahead after 20 minutes, the team’s record is 10-1-0.

“You know, we had that miracle where we were down by four (to the St. Louis Blues) and came back (to win 6-4),” McLellan said. “We can reflect on that and say, whoa, pretty resilient team. But what led up to that?”

You know the answer, but McLellan is going to explain it anyway.

“Our starts haven’t been where they need to be,” the coach said. “I think our team has to be a little more direct to start with. We need to establish how we want to play, or try to establish that way instead of feeling our way into the game and figuring out how it’s going to go.

“I don’t want to take anything away from the guys for being resilient, but again, you have to address some of the problems.”

The Red Wings are in Ottawa Monday night, a rink where they are 1-6 in their past seven visits. Puck drop is at 7:30 pm. It would be in the Wings’ best interest to be ready to go from the start.

If you keep digging yourself into a hole, it’s inevitable that eventually, you’re going to get buried.