Why the Detroit Red Wings learned a big lesson from the Nashville Predators in a 5-2 loss

The Detroit Red Wings were left to admit they got schooled: Literally and numerically.

Dylan Larkin couldn’t wait to get to St. Louis, because Thursday's game against the Blues offers a chance to show the performance against the Nashville Predators was an aberration.

“We’ve been playing good hockey, won five games in a row,” he said after the 5-2 loss Tuesday. “We just didn’t come out and execute. We have to forget this one quickly and we have two more teams from the west, and we’re on the road. We’ve got to set our focus on that. Those are huge games for our hockey team.”

OUCH: Detroit Red Wings' win streak slams to a halt in 5-2 loss to Nashville Predators

The bright spot in the Nashville game was Givani Smith, whose fight with Ben Harpur created momentum leading to a goal by Robby Fabbri that made it 2-1 midway through the second period. But the Predators killed any comeback hopes with a goal early in the third period and left the Wings to explain why they were outshot, 33-16.

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“Every time we got in their zone, we were getting mauled,” Larkin said. “They beat the crap out of us down low with their D and made it hard to get to the net and get shots and get in the slot. Maybe something to learn from that, take that intensity into our game.”

Larkin said Smith, “stood up and did a good job,” in response to the Predators taking liberties. But that doesn’t explain why the Wings were so flat from the very start.

“In the first period they out-competed us, they were more physical than us,” coach Jeff Blashill said. “They’re a big, strong team, hard on the forecheck. But the first was as poor a job as we’ve done in terms of competing and being ready to play. They wanted those two points more than we wanted those two points in the first.”

The Wings (12-10-3) had earned a bit of swagger over the past two weeks, and they gave themselves a chance when Fabbri scored. But Nick Cousins had all the space and time he needed, left alone in the slot, to score 2:33 into the third period, and that was that.

“The goal is a tough one early in the period, where you’re kind of fighting it anyway,” Blashill said. “It was one of those games where for me, we needed to find a way another goal, get that tied, and have some momentum build up. Instead it went the other way.

“It’s unfortunate, we can’t come out and play the beginning of games like that. We get down 2-0, and for any team against a good defensive team, that’s a tough hold.”

Blashill called it a “learning experience … on making sure that we’re at our best every night.”

Contact Helene St. James at hstjames@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @helenestjames. Read more on the Detroit Red Wings and sign up for our Red Wings newsletter. Her book, The Big 50: The Detroit Red Wings is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Triumph Books. Personalized copies available via her e-mail.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Red Wings get lesson in intensity at 5-game win streak's end