In Detroit, the visiting Nashville Predators smothered the Red Wings’ offense in a 5-2 win on Tuesday night.
David Rittich made 14 saves in the win.
Michael Rasmussen and Robby Fabbri scored for the Red Wings.
“I didn’t think we were ready to play hard and compete at a high level tonight,” Detroit head coach Jeff Blashill said. “They wanted those two points more than we did.”
Roman Josi, Ryan Johansen and Dante Fabbro each had a goal and three points in the Preds win.
“That’s a good team that has been playing really well, but I felt like we were able to control all 60 minutes,” Josi said. “I know I wouldn’t want to play against our forwards when they are forechecking like this.”
The Predators improved to 14-10-1.
“We feel like we have very good depth and we saw that tonight,” Nashville head coach John Hynes said. “[Harpur] had been playing on his conditioning stint in Milwaukee [of the American Hockey League], Myers always does a good job of staying ready and David always steps up when we need him to play.”
Nick Cousins and Eeli Tolvanen also scored for Nashville.
“Every time we got into their zone they beat us down low,” the Red Wings’ Dylan Larkin said. “They made it hard to get to the net and get off shots, and I think we need to learn from that and take some of that intensity into our game.”
The Red Wings dropped to 13-10-3.
“We’re not winning enough face-offs and our [penalty kill] forecheck hasn’t been good enough, so we’re spending too much time in our zone,” Blashill said. “That means if we make one mistake, it goes in the net.”
Alex Nedeljkovic made 28 saves in the Detroit loss.
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