{"id":546618,"date":"2026-04-08T03:03:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T03:03:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/546618\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T03:03:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T03:03:11","slug":"red-wings-drop-the-ball-against-blue-jackets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/546618\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Wings Drop the Ball Against Blue Jackets"},"content":{"rendered":"

Coming off the back of a heartbreaking loss to start their final homestand of the season, the Red Wings <\/a>hosted the Blue Jackets at Little Caesar\u2019s Arena, hoping to gain back some ground in the Eastern Conference Playoffs race. <\/p>\n

Tonight, they dropped the ball, letting a team that was literally running into themselves<\/a> take the win, with Zach Werenski scoring the deciding goal in the shootout for the Blue Jackets to take the game 4-3.<\/p>\n

Sisyphus by any other name<\/p>\n

The Red Wings, in what has become a troubling pattern, let in one of the opponent\u2019s first shots of the game. After turning the puck over in front of John Gibson in net, the Red Wings left Danton Heinen uncovered, and he snapped a shot into the top corner of the net behind John Gibson just six seconds past the two minute mark of the game.<\/p>\n

It would take a penalty ten minutes later for the Red Wings to truly respond, with Dylan Larkin burying his own rebound for a power play goal, and his 31st of the season. The Detroit captain hasn\u2019t quite looked 100% himself after returning from his knee injury<\/a>. However, even having Larkin at 60-70% is leagues above what the team looks like without him. <\/p>\n

Larkin would get his next point assisting Justin Faulk as Detroit took their first lead of the game after the veteran defenseman shot up the middle of the ice and outmaneuvered the two Blue Jackets trying to cover him.<\/p>\n

Faulk<\/a>, returning to the lineup after missing the last two games, looked solid for the team back in his usual spot on the second pairing. However, like most things with this Detroit team, it was not to last. Under five minutes later, David Perron\u2019s penalty gave the Blue Jackets a power play opportunity to match the score, and it was Michigan native Werenski, potting his 22nd of the season knotting things back up before the second intermission.<\/p>\n

Faulk would pot his second goal of the game in the third, seemingly for the game winner, as the Red Wings held a 3-2 lead until the final 30 seconds of the game. Adam Fantilli would play the spoiler, sneaking one between the top of Gibson\u2019s elbow and the pipe, sending the two teams into overtime, and later the shootout, where Werenski would net the game winner.<\/p>\n

Takeaways<\/p>\n

The Red Wings were unable to close out a must win-game. Despite great performances from Faulk and Larkin, both of whom had two point nights Detroit couldn\u2019t get out of their own way to win a game, letting repeated mistakes pile on to help lose the game. At the very least, they secured a point tonight.<\/p>\n

Key Stat<\/p>\n

Detroit held the lead in tonight\u2019s game twice. Neither got to the five minute mark before Columbus would respond. This is also the second game in a row<\/a> where the Red Wings have given up a late lead to the opponent and collapsed after battling for the first 57 minutes of the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a tough time of year. It\u2019s important to close out games, extend games.\u201d Said Faulk. \u201cIt\u2019s not a good feeling right now to have that happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Turning Point<\/p>\n

The Blue Jackets pulled Jet Greaves late in the game, and the Red Wings were unable to clear the puck without icing it. The Red Wings didn\u2019t score in the minute that he was out, and after three faceoffs won, it was the one that they lost that allowed Columbus to tie things up and force overtime.<\/p>\n

Up Next:<\/p>\n

The Red Wings have their final home game of the season, hosting the Philedelphia Flyers on Thursday night at 7:00 p.m. Eastern.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got a point, and that point may keep us alive. You know, there\u2019s still points on the table.\u201d Said coach McLellan. \u201cWe\u2019re in must win territory now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Coming off the back of a heartbreaking loss to start their final homestand of the season, the Red…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":546619,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5108],"tags":[3644,5180,897,230,5179,595,5,1821,4,3358,2566],"class_list":{"0":"post-546618","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-columbus-blue-jackets","8":"tag-blue-jackets","9":"tag-bluejackets","10":"tag-columbus","11":"tag-columbus-blue-jackets","12":"tag-columbusbluejackets","13":"tag-dylan-larkin","14":"tag-hockey","15":"tag-justin-faulk","16":"tag-nhl","17":"tag-red-wings","18":"tag-zach-werenski"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116366868842229534","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=546618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546618\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/546619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=546618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=546618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=546618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}