Coyotes, Red Wings enter matchup struggling to score
DETROIT -- The Detroit Red Wings and the Arizona Coyotes are both coming off shutout losses.
Detroit hosts Arizona on Tuesday night at Joe Louis Arena. The Red Wings (13-12-4) lost 1-0 to the Philadelphia Flyers in overtime at home on Sunday. The Coyotes (9-14-5) lost 7-0 to the Penguins in Pittsburgh on Monday night.
The Red Wings have dropped the first two games of their five-game homestand and continue to struggle at home (2-7-3 in their past 12 and 6-7-3 overall). They have only 20 goals in their last 12 games at home.
Offense is the main issue for the team, which ranks 26th in the league in goals per game (2.28). And part of the problem is a lack of shots. They rank 29th at 28.1 shots per game.
"We just got to do a better job of going to the net and shooting more pucks," Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill told www.mlive.com. "We were passing up shots (against Philadelphia). I think the shot attempts after the second were almost even. We had three times the zone time as them in the first (period), but we don't end up outshooting them because we don't shoot the puck enough.
"So we got to decide if we want to shoot the puck, we got to decide if we want to go to the net. It's been an issue here for three years, five-on-five offense, and we got to decide if we're going to change it. Until we do that, we're not going to score enough."
Detroit not shooting enough goes back to when Mike Babcock was the team's coach in 2014-15.
"We have to drill it, we have to show it, anyway we can to try to make sure we do that," Blashill said. "I don't know if it's that easy, but that's what teams do in the league that score.
"We played one tonight, we played one the other night in Columbus. They don't over-pass, they don't over-make plays, they shoot the puck and they go to the net hard. That's just the NHL today."
The Coyotes have lost seven of their past eight games (1-4-3). Mike Smith allowed four goals on 22 shots before being replaced by Louis Domingue, who made nine saves on Monday night.
"They're struggling at their execution," Arizona coach Dave Tippett said. "There's a standard you have to play to in the NHL, whether you're a young guy or a veteran. We didn't play or compete at an NHL level tonight. That's the score you get and that's where we're at."
Forward Josh Jooris played 8:46 in his Coyotes debut after being claimed off waivers from the New York Rangers on Sunday.
"We have to be way better than how we just played," Arizona defenseman Michael Stone said. " ... I think we have to learn from this, learn that every team is good in this league and you can't take any nights off, no matter who you're playing."
