Luc Robitaille was anything but happy about being a healthy scratch Thursday night.
Red Wings coach Dave Lewis made the move–the first of Robitaille’s 624-goal career–because of the winger’s recent scoring slump.
Robitaille, who has gone 15 games without a goal and has only two in his last 38 games, didn’t score in Sunday night’s 4-1 loss to the Vancouver Canucks in Detroit.
Robitaille’s frustrations continued: He had five shots on goal and was one of five Wings to hit a post or crossbar.
Robitaille, who turns 37 in less than a month, told the Detroit News on Friday that he was “upset, a little bitter” about Thursday’s benching.
“I’m a player, I love to still play, so naturally, I want to play,” he said. “I’m not happy about this. I work hard every day. I want to play. “I respect Dave as a coach, I do, I just don’t think I needed to sit down. I need to play.”
Robitaille told the News that he hasn’t had a talk with Lewis about the benching, but the coach thought he made the right move.
“Each player has a passion or fire; I just wanted to throw gas on Luc’s fire,” Lewis said. “It was a harsh thing to do. It’s the most difficult thing I’ve had to do since becoming coach.”
RESULTS, SUNDAY’S SYNOPSIS
N.Y. Islanders 4 at Atlanta 1 Alexei Yashin had a goal and an assist as the Islanders ended the Thrashers’ and Bob Hartley’s 3-game winning streak.
Philadelphia 4 at N.Y. Rangers 2 Michal Handzus, taking advantage of a Mark Messier turnover, broke tie with 5:04 left as Flyers rallied from 2-0 deficit.
Vancouver 4 at Detroit 1 Dan Cloutier made 33 saves in the Canucks’ first regular-season win in Detroit since Feb. 6, 1997.
