Betcha didn’t know you had a lot in common with the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday afternoon.

You were watching the league-leading Colorado Avalanche make their only appearance of the NHL regular season at Little Caesars Arena.

So were the Red Wings.

“They won 5-0,” Detroit captain Dylan Larkin said following Saturday’s setback against the Avalanche. “And we were just kind of watching.

“They got to what they like to do, and we kind of just watched a little bit. There are some really good players over there, and they got it easy.

“And then they executed and capitalized when they had their big chances and scored.”

It’s happening later than usual but the Detroit #Redwings slide from first place has started, I anticipate another year of not making the playoffs.

— Bobacheck (@Bobacheck) January 31, 2026

Where do you start with this debacle? First of all, it was quite the wake-up call for the Red Wings. A clear message that, for all the progress made this season, they are still far away from matching up with the NHL elite.

Plenty Of Work For Red Wings To Do

“Disappointing” was the first adjective that came to mind for Detroit coach Todd McLellan.

Then he proceeded to itemize the level of disappointment that was evident in his team’s performance.

“A lack of energy,” McLellan said. “A lack of drive, a lack of execution. You can’t have all of those things disappear at one point and expect to have success.

“I didn’t think we skated well at all. I didn’t think we passed real well at all, which affects your skating. And then when it was time to do some of the harder or the heavier things – battles, 50-50s, loose stuff, the four-foot races – they were much better than we were.

“So we got to fix something.”

Worst week of hockey the #RedWings have played in 2 months, and it’s highlighted the glaring needs, plural, that Detroit needs to attempt to address at the trade deadline.

This is a good hockey team, but as currently constructed they’re nothing more than 1st round fodder. #lgrw

— 🪩🎉 New Year (Same) 〽️ario 🎉🪩 |#BLM (@NotLuigi89) January 31, 2026

That’s three straight losses for the Red Wings (0-2-1), their longest downturn since a four-game slide (0-3-1) in late November.

Another loss presents the opportunity for Tampa Bay, atop the Atlantic Division, to pull further away from Detroit. It enables Montreal and Buffalo, the chasing teams closest to the Red Wings, a chance to inch closer.

That’s the nature of the sporting beast. Every day, some team loses while other teams win. And in this season, with so many teams bunched tightly together, circumstances can go from good to bad in an instant.

“No one cares from the outside,” McLellan said. “The rest of the hockey world doesn’t care. We have to care. We have to get it back on track. No one feels sorry for you.

“This is what it feels like to be in a battle and in a race, and that’s good for us to be in it. But the fact that we’re in it, we have to respect the opportunity that we have, and we haven’t done a good job of that lately.”