Todd McLellan to Detroit Red Wings: If you’re not working, you’re useless

TAMPA, Fla. — The Detroit Red Wings have an easy scouting report to pull up next weekend.

When they host the Tampa Bay Lightning on this coming Saturday, it should still be a fresh memory how poorly the Wings fared in their first outing of the season against their divisional foe. Certainly coach Todd McLellan did not have much positive to say after watching his Wings drop a 5-1 decision Saturday at Amalie Arena, letting the Bolts have time and space down low to seemingly score at will.

“I thought we were in position a lot of times to prevent, and we just didn’t do our work,” McLellan said. “Say you’re at your desk but you’re not working, then you’re useless. It’s one thing being there, it’s the other thing getting the job done.”

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McLellan didn’t share that feedback with players immediately after the event, though.

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“I don’t go in too often after a game,” he said. “I think sometimes you can be too high or too low and you say things that you can’t take back. I’d like to think it through, talk to the rest of the coaches, and watch it again.

Rewatching it will show the same thing: Andrei Vasilevskiy, a world-class goaltender, made 39 saves, so it wasn’t like all the Wings did was play defense. The problem? They barely played defense at all.

“It didn’t feel like we spent so much time in our end, we just had some breakdowns when we did,” Patrick Kane said. “I thought we did some good things as well, getting pucks to the net, getting some chances. But a couple too many breakdowns.”

The Bolts scored from Cam Talbot’s doorstep two minutes into the game — and essentially, the Wings never mustered a response.

“From the first goal, that kind of set the tone for us,” said Lucas Raymond, who scored on a power play. “It’s a huge part of our game and didn’t get it done. We didn’t reach our standard by any means, and it’s on us. We need to come prepared every game.”

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The power play, which had clicked at 50% the first 10 games under McLellan, went 1-for-6, and the penalty kill, 1-for-3. So the Bolts handily won the goaltending and special teams battle. But more than anything, it was the Wings’ play around the paint that nettled McLellan.