For the most part, Detroit Red Wings coach Todd McLellan was appreciative of his team’s performance on Saturday in a 4-2 loss to the Boston Bruins.

“I liked our game,” McLellan said. “I thought we did a lot of really good things.

“I think if we play that game over again and get a little puck luck around the net, we score a few more.”

Then McLellan touched upon the Achilles heel of the game plan, the denouement on the night, if you will.

“Obviously, we don’t want to give up three,” McLellan said.

Obviously.

And certainly, not in the manner in which the Red Wings surrendered those three tallies.

Softly. Simply. Easily.

McLellan often refers to the need to avoid offering the opposition easy offense. Saturday, the Wings served it up on a silver platter.

The first Boston goal came during a five-on-three power play.

“The first one’s a gift,” McLellan said. “The way they get to the five-on-three, I’ve seen it happen before, but not very often.”

Eight seconds after David Perron was called for high-sticking, Red Wings defenseman Moritz Seider air-mailed a puck the length of the ice. It kept on going, right over the end glass and out of play.

That’s an automatic delay of game minor infraction, so off to the sin bin he went to feel shame.

“Very dumb mistake by me to get Boston on a five-on-three,” Seider said.

Red Wings Gave Too Many Gifts to Bruins

Overall, as McLellan noted, the Wings were delivering the goods. They pelted 43 shots on the Boston net. Jeremy Swayman, though, was absolutely splendid in the Bruins’ goal.

“We knew that we were going to have a high shot volume, and I think we did,” Red Wings forward Lucas Raymond said. “We had a ton of looks. You just gotta put it in.”

It was in their D-zone coverage where the Red Wings weren’t putting in enough due diligence in the third period after grabbing a 2-1 lead early in the frame.

What a shot from Elias Lindholm 🚨 pic.twitter.com/3HPidUW6ay

— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) March 22, 2026

About two minutes after Alex DeBrincat gave Detroit the lead, Red Wings forward David Perron failed to get the puck out of the zone past Boston defenseman Mason Lohrei. Seconds later, Elias Lindholm beat Detroit goalie John Gibson with a sharp-angle shot to make it 2-2.

“We’re an inch away from getting a puck out,” McLellan said. “That’s got to get done.”

On what would prove to be the game-winner, the Wings just kept collapsing back toward their own net until they were fishing Nikita Zadorov’s shot out of the back of it.

Red Wings Just Caved In

“We just caved into our end,” McLellan said. “Our D man didn’t gap up and give Zadorov credit. He used our D (Simon Edvinsson) as a screen at the other end.

91 LIGHTS THE LAMP!!!! pic.twitter.com/Kc89FKBabq

— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) March 22, 2026

“I think we can play that a lot better. And we’ve got to eliminate those from our game because we’re not scoring enough night in and night out. And for me, it’s a very simple neutral zone forecheck.

“Our D can gap up. We just kept drifting backwards and deeper and deeper, and all of a sudden he’s using you as a screen. And we can handle it better.

“Is it disappointing? Yes. Can we fix it? Yes. Do we hope that we erase that from our game? For sure, we do.”

Here’s the thing, though. It’s Game 70. Shouldn’t those things have been fixed by now?

If the Red Wings aren’t able to repair this malady, they’ll be fixing to watch other teams in the playoffs again this spring.