There’s no player on the roster of the Detroit Red Wings who can match the winning resume of three-time Stanley Cup champion Patrick Kane. So when he speaks about what it takes to succeed in the NHL, you’d best listen up.
Just the other day, Kane was assessing the club’s performance during their current six-game losing skid. He’s not at all impressed with what he sees going on with the team.
“Just the details of our game, effort level, compete,” Kane said. “I think when you outwork, when out out-compete your opponent, you increase your chance of winning that game. It just hasn’t been there for us.”
It’s somewhat startling to hear the effort of the Red Wings being questioned. Even during the dark days of the rebuild under GM Steve Yzerman, rarely has the team’s work ethic been seen as an issue.
Kane is seeing a work rate of late with the Red Wings that ebbs and flows.
“I thought we had a good effort in Vegas,” Kane said. “We just haven’t really had that consistently.”
It certainly wasn’t in evidence Tuesday at Buffalo. The Sabres went ahead of Detroit 4-1 during the opening period.
Slow starts are becoming a trademark of this Red Wings team. Kane, for one, is at a loss to explain why this is so.
“I don’t know,” Kane said frankly. “You can make a bunch of different excuses I guess. But it just wasn’t there. Obviously when you have that type of start, you’re down 4-1 in the first, you’re trying to get something going.
“I think we had some momentum in the game but just not enough obviously. We can harp on the same things over and over but our starts haven’t been good.”
Other Red Wings Also Raising Concerns
Kane isn’t the only Detroit player sounding the alarm over their recent underwhelming effort. Defenseman Moritz Seider is another who’s raising concerns about the team’s inconsistent approach.
“It’s been too shaky when you look at the whole season,” Seider said. “We had a terrible December followed up by a really strong January and now we’ve struggled a little bit. We just got to come together as a team and really dig in together to make it a great season.
“It’s not OK to lose anymore. Now we just got to come away with points.”
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