Red Wings meet, try to remedy their woes

Gregg Krupa, The Detroit News
The Penguins' Patric Hornqvist checks the Red Wings' Xavier Ouellet off the puck during the third period Saturday night.

Brooklyn – The Detroit Red Wings play the New York Islanders Sunday night in their fourth back-to-back game of the season, after a tough, dispiriting loss Saturday to the defending Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins.

A team meeting Sunday morning and another later in the day was in order.

After achieving a 3-1 lead in Pittsburgh, the Wings yielded four goals in third period, when they have lost games and relinquished leads frequently both this season and last, and now they face an evening start against one of the more disappointing teams in the NHL this season.

Asked about his team heading into the game, Jeff Blashill said its strong leadership is an important factor, as well as getting back to a tougher mental approach that leads to harder play, greater pace and fewer mistakes.

“It’s a mentality we’ve talked about since the beginning of the year and we think we can do better than we did last night,” Blashill said Sunday afternoon.

“I think we’re reminding them through talk and video clips and the ways that we try to use to communicate with our players. We had a meeting here this morning about a few things, and we’ll meet again today.”

Blashill said the team is fine, despite blowing a two-goal lead in the final frame when their position in the standings, lying outside the playoffs, means points are at a premium even in early December -- in part because they have given so many away.

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“Well, I think we’re good,” Blashill said. “We have great leadership, and we’ve got to focus on coming here to win a hockey game.

“As I said last night, once a game is over, it’s over. You learn from it, you pick things out of it and you move on and you try to get better from it.

“So, that’s our focus, to try to come here today and play better than we did last night and try to win a hockey game.”

Defenseman Brian Lashoff and forward Tomas Nosek were recalled from Grand Rapids Friday night, but Blashill would not say whether they would play against the Islanders.

And while he has said the Wings may avoid starting Niklas Kronwall, with his troubled knee, on consecutive days, he said all lineup decisions will be made after the pregame warmup.

Petr Mrazek is expected to start in goal.

The Red Wings did not have a scheduled morning skate Sunday. But Blashill said Andreas Athanasiou, Jimmy Howard and Alexey Marchenko skated.

The other injured players – Justin Abdelkader, Tyler Bertuzzi, Darren Helm and Brendan Smith – remain farther from returning, he said.