y Drew Sharp

TAMPA – Trust the process, insisted coach Jeff Blashill as the Detroit Red Wings approach their first must-win game just two games into the playoffs.

Evoking calm while standing at the precipice of calamity, Blashill maintains that this is a close series between two relatively even teams. Just do the right things a little better in tonight’s Game 2 than in the Wings’ Game 1 loss, and Blashill can remain true to his word.

But trusting the process involves a little more than tightening up the middle of the Red Wings’ defense or putting more traffic in front of Tampa Bay goalie Ben Bishop.

It means trusting that the Wings have sufficiently erected the right bridge connecting an aging past with a youthful future. The Wings need better play from everybody. But, specifically, it’s time for the transitional young veterans who’ve been around for the last three to four years to make a more significant impact.

Justin Abdelkader was the Wings’ best player in Game 1 on Wednesday. He scored a goal. He threw his body around.

But unless Gustav Nyquist and Tomas Tatar do more than simply shake their heads in frustration as to why they aren’t doing more, the Wings will lose this series.

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“You can’t make the puck go in,” Blashill said Thursday. “But you can control the process to give yourself opportunities.”

The Lightning is the deeper team. And it’s missing its best player.

The Wings still think there are more benefits in retooling on the fly rather than rebuilding from the rubble as Tampa Bay did. But that strategy only works if the organization makes the right decisions on those young internal talents in their middle-to-late 20s.

They invested close to $50 million in long-term extensions to Abdelkader and Nyquist this season. Tatar’s under contract through the end of the 2017 playoffs before becoming an unrestricted free agent.

They’re the bridge connecting Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk to what could become a promising future in the next two or three years with rookies Dylan Larkin, Andreas Athanasiou and Anthony Mantha. But if they struggle again and the Wings, once again, cannot advance beyond the first round, it will — once again — call attention to general manager Ken Holland’s recent decision-making.

Nyquist has twice scored 25-plus goals in the regular season. But in 31 career NHL playoff games, Nyquist has only three goals. He’s still 26. The Wings like to say he’s “only” 26. There’s still room for growth.

The 25-year-old Tatar has 69 goals in the last three seasons. He has three goals in 13 Stanley Cup playoff games.

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“I’m trying to find a way to win a hockey game right now,” Blashill said. “Whether that goal comes from Nyquist, whether it comes from (Luke Glendening) or whether that extra goal comes from somebody else, it doesn’t matter. We need to score one goal more than our opponent. Do we look at each player’s play and say you’ve got to do better? Absolutely.”

The Wings’ problems extend beyond a lack of scoring. They’ve too easily surrendered the puck in their own end this season, placing even more pressure on an overall goaltending situation that is average at best.

And they were alarmingly soft on the puck from the face-off circle, losing their first 11 face-offs against Tampa Bay and not winning their first draw until midway through the first period on their first power play.

But like his head coach, Zetterberg remained confident that the Wings will respond accordingly Friday night. Panic is never an option in these situations. The playoff road team always views the first two games in a best-of-seven series as a single entity. Get the split and maybe get the momentum.

But avoiding an early two-game series deficit means finding help from those no one’s found in the playoffs.

Contact Drew Sharp: dsharp@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @drewsharp. Check out our Red Wings Xtra app on Apple and Android!

Wings vs. Lightning

Tampa Bay leads, 1-0

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