Red Wings aim to put ‘foot back on the gas’ against Flyers

The Detroit Red Wings’ four-game road swing got off to a strong start, but the momentum hasn’t translated to the remainder of the trek as the team heads into Tuesday’s trip to face the Philadelphia Flyers.The Red Wings improved to 8-1-0 in their previous nine games when they topped the Florida Panthers 5-2 on Thursday. Dylan Larkin registered two goals and an assist, while Patrick Kane and Marco Kasper each had a goal and an assist.Everything was looking bright for the team until the Tampa Bay Lightning defeated Detroit 5-1 Saturday — a setback that was followed by Sunday’s 4-1 defeat in Dallas in which the Stars scored three times in the first period and never looked back.Now the Red Wings head back north looking to avoid a 1-3-0 road trip.”I think it’s a mentality thing. You’ve got to be sharp in practice, sharp in morning skate,” said Detroit goaltender Alex Lyon said. “It’s easy when you go on a good run like that (recent winning streak) to maybe take your foot off the gas. It always seems like maybe some things start to creep in, at least personally for me, those last few games we were winning, and now they’re showing up.”Now you’ve got to put the foot back on the gas. It’s a good learning lesson that you’ve got to have the foot on the gas all the time.”Red Wings coach Todd McLellan knows that his team can’t win every game, but he certainly doesn’t want to lose as a result of sloppy errors and mental mistakes.”From my perspective, we look at it from the defensive side and what we gave up. Some real egregious errors by individuals again, and the whole group pays the price for them,” McLellan said.Meanwhile, Philadelphia enters with some momentum after going 4-0-1 in its previous five games — most recently, a 3-1 victory in New Jersey on Saturday. Bobby Brink scored the go-ahead goal in the third period, while Samuel Ersson needed to make only 12 saves to earn the victory.

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