The Red Wings had issues all over the ice throughout their series against the Lightning, but ultimately goaltender Petr Mrazek will be blamed for his blunder late in Game 5.
With just under two minutes left in the third and the score tied at zero, Mrazek ventured out of his crease to try and play the puck behind the net. He didn’t get enough on his clearing attempt and the Lightning scored the only goal of the game.
That’s a tough way to end a series. Sometimes all it takes is one mistake to completely transform a game and that’s exactly what happened here when Mrazek didn’t get enough mustard on the puck.
Blunder aside, blame should fall across the roster. The Red Wings barely made it into the playoffs and their matchup against the Lightning showed that they were a Cup pretender as opposed to a legitimate contender.
The club has a lot of work to do over the summer. Pavel Datsyuk has likely played in his last game and it may be time to change some of the rest of the old guard based on this ugly showing in the first round.
