They’re cooked in this division. The third period is why.

This is the first Red Wings post from Points & Pennants: Detroit Sports, a companion to the show, not a transcript. Detroit first. The league second.

The Red Wings are 7–10–3, 17 points, last in the Atlantic after 20 games. Thursday in Sunrise they led the Florida Panthers 4–1 and lost 5–4. That’s five straight losses, and they still don’t have a win on this four-game road trip. Next is Tampa Bay, Saturday, November 14, 7 p.m. ET.

They’re cooked in this division, right now. That’s the honest word for last place, five in a row, and a blown three-goal lead. It is also a November funeral if you use it to close a twenty-game season. They can play — they led 4–1 on the road against Florida. The blame is third-period management, and it belongs on the players who sat in it and on a coach who called for mistake-free hockey and didn’t get it. That’s a problem. It’s not a eulogy.

Florida scored first, Sam Reinhart at 3:52 of the first. Fifteen seconds later, J.T. Compher tied it, his third of the year, with Moritz Seider and Mazur on the assists. Andreas Englund scored at 13:14, his first of the season and his first NHL goal since October 17, 2024. Seventeen seconds into the second, Lucas Raymond, his seventh, from Copp. Marco Kasper, his first of the season, from Wallinder and Seider. That’s 4–1. You’re on the road, in Florida, and you’ve got a three-goal lead. Then you sit on it.

Gustav Forsling made it 4–2 at 19:42 of the second, the warning, not yet the collapse. The collapse is the third. Anton Lundell at 2:32. Lars Eller at 16:29. Lundell again at 17:20, 2:40 left, 5–4. Four unanswered. Gibson and Schmid, 24 saves each. Seider had two assists and watched the lead walk off the ice.

Compher said they sat into it, and they lost momentum. Todd McLellan said they’re still learning, they took a penalty 30 seconds into the third, and they needed mistake-free hockey. Those are their words. “Still learning” can be honest for Thursday. It has a shelf life. A team that can go up 4–1 on Florida can play. A team that hands it back in the third has a management problem. Those can both be true. “Cooked” pretends only one of them is — unless you’re using it the way we’re using it, for this division, right now, and not as a year-end poster.

The last two weeks are not a one-night story. November 2, they beat Florida, 5–3, on the road. Then they lost at Tampa, 2–4, Brayden Point with two. Then Vegas at home, 1–2. Then Colorado, 0–4. Then St. Louis, 2–3. Then Thursday. That’s five in a row after one good night in Sunrise. Three of the last four have been one-goal games. That’s a team that’s in them and can’t close them. Thursday is the loud version of a stretch that’s already been losing.

The Atlantic, from Friday’s snapshot: Tampa Bay 13–4–2, 28 points in 19 games; Montreal 12–3–4, 28; Boston 13–5–1, 27; Ottawa 12–6–2, 26; Florida 11–7–2, 24. Then a drop: Buffalo 20, Toronto 18 in 21 games, Detroit 17. Five teams at 24 or more. Then a hole. The bottom is bunched, and bunched is not buried. It is also last place, and the people above them are not waiting around. Carolina is running the East at 15–3–2, 32 points. That’s what the top looks like while Detroit is trying to get a point on this trip.

Seider has a goal and 12 assists, one of the few numbers that’s been consistently useful. Albert Johansson is out, undisclosed, per the AP preview — not a diagnosis, and not an excuse for Thursday. Point was listed out for Tampa Bay in that same preview. That’s a listing, not a prediction he sits, and it is not a reason to start feeling good about Saturday.

Saturday, 7 p.m. Eastern, at Tampa Bay, is the last game of the trip. Tampa already beat them 4–2 on November 3. The AP had Detroit 3–7–0 in its last ten, 2.6 goals for, 3.3 against, heading into this game. You don’t get a parade for a Saturday point. You also don’t get to treat this like a throwaway, because the Atlantic table is already leaving them behind. If they play Saturday the way they played the third period on Thursday, this trip is a wipeout. If they go in and take a point, or two, then the funeral can wait. After that, they come off the trip and we grade the whole thing: Colorado, St. Louis, Florida, Tampa. Four games. That’s the body of work.

The test: Saturday at Tampa Bay, 7 p.m. If Detroit comes out of the last game of this trip with a point, or two, and a third period that holds, then “cooked” has to sit down for a week. If they get run, or they sit on another lead, we don’t throw out twenty games, but we stop pretending Thursday was a one-off. The trip gets graded as a trip. We will not change the question after the horn.

Sources

• Official Red Wings recap, Nov 12 at Florida
• Associated Press NHL Glance, Nov 13, via WFMZ
• AP preview, Nov 13, via WTOP

Independent fan commentary. No team or league affiliation. No guaranteed result or betting recommendation.