DETROIT _ The Detroit Red Wings came out of the first period with twice as many shots as their opponent, and then out of the second period trailing by one goal.
Friday's game against the Buffalo Sabres at Little Caesars Arena was magnified by how miserably the Wings had been faring, incurring one loss after another.
Their hard work was nullified by Sabres goaltender Linus Ullmark, who turned away 37 shots to hand the Wings a 2-0 loss.
Goalie Jimmy Howard was pulled with three minutes to go in regulation, and the Wings were able to play 6-on-4 when the Sabres took a penalty with 2:10 to go. After about a minute's worth of passing, Filip Hronek tried a slap shot but the Wings suffered their seventh straight loss to drop to 3-10.
There wasn't much special teams play through 40 minutes, but the Sabres showed the Wings how it's done on their second man advantage, passing the puck to set up Sam Reinhart for a 2-0 lead. That came early in the third period. The Wings didn't help their cause with another penalty near the midpoint _ they killed it off, but it cost them two minutes to stage a potential rally. When they went on a power play of their own, Ullmark denied their best chance, turning away a Hronek slap shot.
About five minutes into the first period, Valtteri Filppula grabbed a loose puck at his own blue line and raced up ice. Filppula isn't one to go to his shot but he had no option on a breakaway but to try to put the puck in the net. Linus Ullmark got a piece of the puck, and a defender cleared away the rebound. That was one of a dozen shots the shots Wings put on net in the first period, desperate to create offense after scoring just nine goals in their previous six games.
The Wings earned a power play less than a minute into the second period when Hronek drew a high-sticking call on Victor Olofsson. The first power-play unit featured Andreas Athanasiou with Anthony Mantha, Dennis Cholowski, Givani Smith and Filppula. Athanasiou fired a shot from the left circle, but otherwise the unit was quiet. So was Dylan Larkin's group with Tyler Bertuzzi, Taro Hirose, Mike Green and Hronek. The Wings never threatened, blowing a chance to gain momentum. Instead, the Wings fell behind midway through the period when Jake McCabe scored on a wrist shot while Olofsson screened Jimmy Howard.
With the absences of Luke Glendening (hand, 2-to-4 weeks) and Justin Abdelkader (lower body, day-to-day), the Wings called up Smith, a high-energy forward from the second round of the 2016 draft. Smith had a good start to his 2019-20 season with the Grand Rapids Griffins, producing two goals and two assists and seven penalty minutes in four games. Smith was slotted onto the fourth line with Jacob de la Rose and Christoffer Ehn. Smith was also penciled in to play net-front on one of the power play units. Smith did a good job forechecking and providing energy, and sent a puck on net from the right circle in the first period.
