Sluggish Red Wings Falter Again Early, Lose 5-1 To Penguins
· Yahoo Sports
The Detroit Red Wings used all the right kind of words and phrases following their 5-3 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday.
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Alex DeBrincat called their slow start "unacceptable". Lucas Raymond said they needed to play "with more desperation".
Those words rang hollow on Tuesday evening against the Pittsburgh Penguins, who raced out to a 3-0 lead and a 14-5 shots advantage in the opening 20 minutes of play en route to a 5-1 win at PPG Paints Arena.
— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) April 1, 2026
Once again, the Red Wings were plagued by a slow start against an opponent that, like the Ottawa Senators and Philadelphia Flyers, had played the previous night.
The Penguins scored barely four minutes into the game on their first shot of the night, courtesy of Rickard Rakell.
Former Red Wings forward Anthony Mantha haunted his old team minutes later by increasing the lead to 2-0, giving him 30 goals in a season for the first time in his career. Egor Chinakhov then gave Pittsburgh a 3-0 advantage late in the frame.
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For the second straight game, goaltender John Gibson was pulled in favor of Cam Talbot, who played the final 40 minutes.
While team captain Dylan Larkin scored on a rebound at 3:17 of the second period, Pittsburgh kept them off the scoresheet the rest of the way and later went up 4-1 thanks to Justin Brazeau.
A tally from Noel Acciari would cap the scoring for the Penguins in the third period.
The Red Wings entered March well aware of their struggles during the month in past seasons and said all the right things about delivering a different result this time around.
Just like their words after the loss to Philadelphia on Saturday, their actions didn't match what they ultimately delivered on the ice.
The Red Wings have eight games remaining on their schedule. While there is still a path to the playoffs, their margin of error continues to shrink.
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