Helene St. James | Detroit Free Press

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Chastised by their leader, young Red Wings vowed to bear down on their lessons.

As the Wings tip further toward a young lineup, growing pains are inevitable. This past week has been a particularly challenging stretch, with mistakes leading to deficits leading to losses.

Friday morning saw Anthony Mantha admit just how bad he’d been the night before, when, after a 4-0 loss to Vegas, captain Henrik Zetterberg said there was too much poke-and-hope in some teammates, that they need to learn to play the right way. Zetterberg didn’t name names but the criticism fit Mantha and Andreas Athanasiou in particular, and Mantha owned it immediately.

“Oh for sure,” he said after an optional skate at Nationwide Arena Friday. “It wasn’t a good game for me. I made two big mistakes and it’s in the back of our net. I need to be sharper.”

Mantha has shouldered public criticism before, including last November when coach Jeff Blashill said that he "has got to be way better. Way better. It's not OK to just be a passenger when you are given the opportunity to be an impact player."

The latest was earned after he lost the puck to Vegas’ William Karlsson leading to a shorthanded goal, and then let Cody Eakins free-wheel in Detroit’s zone leading to a 3-0 deficit.

Athanasiou, who was on for the first and fourth goals, acknowledged a need to heed Zetterberg’s criticism.

“He’s talking to us as a group,” Athanasiou said. “Any time you have someone like that speaking out, it’s a little bit of a message to make sure you’re ready for the next one. If there’s one play where you can bear down a little more, it’s going to make a huge difference.”

It’s rare to hear Zetterberg call out teammates, but as a guy who has exemplified being a two-way player his entire pro career, the sloppiness from the young players who will be taking over the team clearly grates. He spoke of how they need to learn to play complete games after carelessness with the puck Tuesday led to an overtime loss in Boston, and again Thursday when he said that “poke-and-hope might get you 35-30 goals, but you will never win anything.”

“He was the best player on the ice, so when you are the best player on the ice, you can say things like that,” Blashill said Friday. “From his perspective, he knows what it takes to be great, he knows what it takes to win. It doesn’t surprise me he spoke up to make sure that message was loud and clear."

Blashill often talks how great NHL players separate themselves by how hard they work every day. The Vegas loss wasn’t just on the young guys — “there were mistakes made throughout,” Blashill said. “But I do think we have to have understanding as we put more and more young guys into our lineup, we have to have an understanding that it’s a growth process. Dylan Larkin is growing. Mantha is growing. But it’s a continued approach.

“We have some young guys that want to be great. They’re willing to listen and learn. Doesn’t mean they are going to be instantaneously great, but they are willing to listen and learn.”

Mantha wants to be counted on, that much is clear. It’s a matter of him realizing what he has to do to reach that level of play.

“I need to keep learning,” he said. “No one is perfect. As a young guy, there is so much to learn about and to bring your ‘A’ game every night.

“Larkin and I talked about it, AA also, we want to be better. We want to be good.”