Helene St. James

Detroit Free Press

NEW YORK -- Jeff Bllashill had a list ready.

Sunday's game between the Detroit Red Wings and New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden ended up in a 1-0 overtime loss for the Wings when Kevin Klein scored at 1:59. Had the game gone to a shoot-out, Blashill just might have had something up his sleeve.

Saturday's 3-2 shootout loss at Ottawa left the Wings 1-5 in skills competition this season. Don't blame it on goaltenders; no one is scoring -- not Gustav Nyquist, not Brad Richards, not Pavel Datsyuk. Henrik Zetterberg isn't even in the top three rotation.

"It's frustrating," Blashill said. "We've got to score. And the guys who went are guys who have really good numbers, historically, in their careers and in the last three years. Nyqui has had a tough go of it this year.

"As a decision maker, you say, do you keep playing the probability that at some point he's going to score based on numbers, or do you take a break? It's a little bit of leap of faith sometimes because there's not a lot of sample for other guys. Justin Abdelkader I don't think has had a chance in the NHL. So it's hard to say what he'd do, but at some point we might have to switch it up because we're not scoring."

Asked if had something ready for Sunday, Blashill nodded. "Oh yeah," he said. When asked who might be on it, he gave a "no comment."

With 22 games left on the season, it's entirely likely there'll be another shoot-out for Blashill to show his hand.

Contact Helene St. James: hstjames@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @helenestjames. Check out our Red Wings Xtra app on Apple and Android!