Puck management key for Red Wings in first of pair vs. Blues

The Red Wings departed Detroit earlier this week riding a five-game winning streak. They'll make a brief return Saturday following two losses.

That's when Detroit will play the first game of a home-and-home with the St. Louis Blues. The Red Wings dropped a 4-2 decision at Buffalo on Wednesday, then got pummeled 7-2 by the New York Islanders on Thursday.

"I think a lack of showing up here with being on a back-to-back, we just made it very easy on them and they capitalized," Detroit captain Dylan Larkin said. "And then we just chased it and let it get more and more out of hand. It wasn't good enough (Thursday), and we didn't execute. We didn't execute a back-to-back here, sticking to our strategy and making it easy, playing a simple game."

Red Wings coach Todd McLellan compared the outing to the team's opener, when it lost to Montreal 5-1.

"Our puck management through the neutral zone or in the offensive zone led to multiple rushes going the other way," McLellan said. "They found the fourth man, they found the third man, they scored off rebounds. Areas that we've worked on and tried to put time into or correct, or thought we corrected after game one, they showed up again."

McLellan's club will embark on a five-game road trip after Saturday's contest, beginning with a rematch against the Blues in St. Louis.

Larkin will carry an eight-game point streak into the home game. He scored on a third-period power play against the Islanders, increasing his season point total to 13 (six goals, seven assists). Rookie and Larkin linemate Emmitt Finnie has accumulated three goals and two assists in the past three games.

Patrick Kane has missed the past three games due to an upper-body injury but could return to action this weekend.

The Blues also will try against Detroit to bounce back from consecutive losses on Saturday. Los Angeles edged them in overtime, 2-1, on Tuesday. Utah topped them 7-4 on Thursday.

St. Louis trailed the Mammoth 4-0 and rallied to pull within one goal, but the Blues couldn't finish off the comeback.

"Don't like our response after we gave up the first goal," coach Jim Montgomery said. "The rest of the first period was very lackluster. Then I liked the way our team played after that. We built something, we improved our intensity, our habits got better. You're down by four goals, it's going to be a tough task and we got it close. Unfortunately, we had opportunities on the power play to tie it up. We weren't able to do it, they got a power play and extend the lead. That sealed the game."

St. Louis has given up five or more goals in all three of its regulation losses.

"If you're looking at the season, we're giving up too many goals," Montgomery said. "It's not the same line, it's not the same D pairings, it's not the same people and it's not the same part of our structure that's failing at the moment. Right now, we just have to improve our intensity."

The Blues won both of their matchups with the Red Wings last season. Jordan Binnington allowed just one goal in those two games.

--Field Level Media