DETROIT—If Sunday’s rout of the Seattle Kraken had seemed a bit too easy for the Red Wings, perhaps it’s because it was. Coach Todd McLellan said as much in the immediate aftermath of that outing, saying his team’s effort was too “loose” for his liking. He’d cautioned that Detroit would need a practice it didn’t have to straighten out the issue, and instead, on Tuesday night, the Red Wings allowed a cavalier effort to snap their winning streak in a 6–3 loss to the visiting San Jose Sharks.
The confidence that defined that seven-game winning run manifested as something different Tuesday. As McLellan put it, “It was almost like we were entitled to win and when it wasn’t going for us, just a little bit of a sag. Human nature, but something we gotta fight through.”
Rick Osentoski, Imagn Images
According to defenseman Moritz Seider, the Red Wings “over-complicated” their game early, allowing the Sharks to take a control they would never relinquish, even if Detroit threatened a comeback. Per McLellan, the Red Wings allowed the worst of the Kraken performance to recur, saying, “I thought the third period against Seattle the other day showed up in the game today. We were sloppy in that third. We gave up quite a bit. We started the game that way. We didn’t break pucks out very well. When we did enter the offensive zone, we wanted to play East-West, cross-court, not a lot went to the net. Then you give up the short-handed goal and that really sets you back.”
Nico Sturm scored that goal, with 2:19 still to play in the first period. It came after the Red Wings had played their best hockey of the night over the back half of the first period, only for that effort to be undone and the deficit doubled when the Detroit power play that had fueled the winning streak conceded.
When the third period began, the Red Wings appeared primed for a comeback, backed by a Little Caesars Arena crowd that remained boisterous despite the score favoring the visitors. Instead, William Eklund scored 26 seconds into the third to make it 3–1 San Jose. Twice over the 19:34 that remained, Detroit scored to pull within a goal, and twice the Sharks responded within two minutes to restore their two-goal cushion, before Mario Ferraro buried an empty-netter with 1:38 remaining and the winning streak was…