Where do you start to dissect Saturday’s all-around debacle by the Detroit Red Wings in their 4-1 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins?

Coach Todd McLellan decided to start at the top. As in his top forward line.

Recently, their performance has left him wanting more. Much more.

“I didn’t think that line had anything going early in the game, and I’m not sure they had anything going in Pittsburgh, so we tried something different,” McLellan said.

“I’ve probably been thinking about [making the U.S. Olympic team] my whole life.”

Dylan Larkin will live out his dreams with USA Hockey at the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics 🤩 pic.twitter.com/aRZP8lMeZE

— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) January 3, 2026

During the game, he expressed his displeasure with the unit by dropping rookie Emmitt Finnie from the line with Dylan Larkin and Lucas Raymond in favor of Marco Kasper.

“Kasp, in the past, obviously, last year, he’s proven that he could handle it, so we made that move,” McLellan said.

It didn’t make any difference. Between them, Larkin (one), Finnie (one), Raymond (none), and Kasper (none) managed two shots. Each of the quartet who skated as part of that line finished the afternoon as minus players. Finnie was minus-three, while Raymond was minus-two. Larkin and Kasper were each minus one.

Red Wings’ Best Players Not Playing Their Best Game

Raymond has scored one goal over the past 15 games. His last three goals all came on the power play. He hasn’t scored 5-on-5 since November 29.

Larkin has three goals in 12 games. Of his last six goals, the Detroit captain has scored twice on the power play and twice into an empty net.

Finnie has four goals over his last 23 games. Since the end of November, he’s accounted for only two even-strength points.

McLellan doesn’t see the unit doing the things that were making them such a successful line earlier in the season.

“There’s a lot of skating going on right now just for checking purposes,” McLellan said. “Their extended cycle time, their extended O-zone time where they gain energy, they don’t expend energy, is not there right now, and they’ve got to get that back.”

That old saying about a team’s best players needing to be their best players came to mind. And the best player on the ice was a shining example of that analogy.

Can we talk about how much Sid is taking Emmitt Finnie to school in this back-to-back @HunterHodies

— ARAnalytics (@ARAnalytics) January 3, 2026

“(Pittsburgh captain) Sidney Crosby, I think, was plus four or five in this series,” McLellan said. “He scored the first two goals the other night, and was on the ice for the first one tonight.

That happens.”

McLellan knows that his top line carried the team to much of its early success. He needs to see that level of contribution again being delivered by his key talent.

“We have had real good nights where our best players have been better than the other teams,” McLellan said. “So I’m not letting anybody off the hook.

“We’ll see how we respond.”