mlive
DETROIT – The Detroit Red Wings have yet to surrender a five-on-five goal this season, but their penalty kill has been a major weakness, contributing to a 3-2 defeat against the Winnipeg Jets on Sunday at Little Caesars Arena.
The Jets capitalized on three power-play opportunities, handing the Red Wings their second loss in as many games. Detroit has now allowed four power-play goals this season, and the penalty kill unit has been a persistent problem in recent years.
"The penalty kill failed us," head coach Todd McLellan said. "And the penalty, unsportsmanlike conduct right after we get scored on, bang, they're up 2-0. We can't have that. Pretty simple. But the penalty kill let us down."
Winnipeg's first goal, scored by Cole Perfetti, came after Keegan Kolesar was assessed an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty to go along with an offsetting major for fighting Tyrel Bauer. However, it was J.T. Compher's unsportsmanlike infraction for abuse of officials following that goal that led to the first of two goals by Kyle Connor, putting the Jets ahead 2-0 at 14:36 of the first period. Connor struck again at 5:41 of the second to make it 3-0.
"First (Jets goal) was a lucky one," McLellan said. "Second one was a penalty that we didn't need to take. Third one was off a rebound. So, we'll keep working on that, try to fix it."
Forward Emmitt Finnie echoed his coach's frustration. "You're not going to win games when you give them three on the power play," Finnie said. "I feel like we didn't give them much offensively five-on-five. You know, I thought this game we were better five-on-five O-zone plays. So just clean up the special teams."
The Red Wings clawed back into the game with goals from Viktor Arvidsson (power play at 16:52 of the second) and Finnie (4:56 of the second). They had chances to tie in the final minutes and finished with 35 shots, an improvement from the 22 they managed in Friday's season-opening 2-0 loss to the New York Rangers.
"I thought five-on-five, we created more tonight than we did against the Rangers," McLellan said. "A lot of looks that just (needed) a little bit of polish, even at the end there. Just find a way to finish. The power play was ragged early. I thought it got better as the game went on."
The penalty kill, however, remains a glaring issue. Since the start of the 2024-25 season, Detroit's PK ranks last in the NHL at 73.4 percent.
Key Analysis
While the Red Wings have been solid at even strength, their special teams—particularly the penalty kill—have been costly. The team's inability to stay out of the box and kill penalties has put them in early holes, and fixing these issues is crucial to turning their season around.
Originally reported by mlive.