Three takeaways from Red Wings' 5-1 loss against Penguins

After a night to remember, the Detroit Red Wings had a day to forget.
Coming off Saturday's 5-1 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets, in which everything seemed to go right, the Red Wings dropped their first game of the preseason, 5-1, to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Sunday afternoon in a game where everything seemed to go wrong.
Jeff Carter opened the scoring for Pittsburgh just 3:45 into the game, and the Penguins controlled the game from there. Though Detroit would score a 5-on-3 goal at the end of the first period to cut the deficit to one, the Red Wings couldn't capitalize on the momentum and, by the end of the second, the Penguins led, 4-1, on their way to a victory.
Here are three takeaways

Berggren in, Rasmussen out

Just a few days ago, Jonatan Berggren was practicing in an orange, non-contact jersey. Just minutes into Sunday's game, he was getting into fisticuffs with Brian Dumolin.
Turner Elson jumped in to fight Dumolin, not wanting Berggren to get hurt, but that was a fairly emphatic way for Berggren to return from an injury suffered during the NHL Prospect Tournament.
Berggren, Detroit's 2018 second-round pick, played 13:32 minutes, finishing with two blocked shots and an otherwise blank stat sheet. Though it's likely he'll start the season in Grand Rapids - being hurt during training camp and preseason doesn't help the chances of a player who would have been on the bubble - he's got a chance to make an impression now.
"Good to get Berggy in," Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said. "I think he's got a lot of ability. I think it'll be an adjustment just to the small sheet, learn how to get to the inside. But good to get him in."
On the other end of the spectrum in terms of availability, Michael Rasmussen didn't make the trip to Pittsburgh. Blashill said Rasmussen had "a little tweak" and could miss the next few preseason games, but didn't expect it to be a long-term issue.

Defensive growing pains

As a power play came to an end for the Red Wings early in the second period, Pittsburgh's Kris Letang skated out of the penalty box with no Detroit players near him. All it took to create a 1-on-1 chance for Letang was a pass up the seam from John Marino, and when that chance came, Letang buried it.
That breakdown is the sort of thing the Red Wings would like to shake off as preseason rust.
"They do a good job in transition offense," Blashill said. "I didn't think we did a good enough job handling that."
Sunday's game as a whole falls under that category for the Red Wings' defense. Goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic let in four of 23 shots. The Red Wings let in a Kasperi Kapanen goal on a Pittsburgh power play and another one off an odd-man rush. There were mistakes that, during the first three preseason games, were a lot less common.
"Ultimately, guys, this is what the preseason's for," Blashill said. "I certainly don't pass a whole bunch of judgement on everybody in this short period of time."
For a team like the Red Wings, young and in the midst of a rebuild, these games happen - especially in the preseason. The important thing will be learning from it.

Long days

Although the Red Wings are rotating their game rosters to avoid playing anyone on back-to-backs, the effects of playing a day game in a different city just hours after playing a night game in Detroit were evident.
Before Saturday's game, Blashill touched on the toll stretches like this one - in which the team plays three straight days - takes on the coaching staff.
"If there was a time I was gonna spend the night at (Little Caesars Arena), it would be through the exhibition stretch of training camp," Blashill said. "It's certainly the most taxing part of the season for the coaching staff. I remember my first one as an assistant, I was like, what just happened?"
During the regular season, teams don't play this many games in this few days - Detroit's preseason schedule features eight games in 11 days. But with a condensed schedule and larger rosters, they can get stretched to the limit during camp.
"It's great for us, because then once the season starts, it almost feels calm," Blashill said. "So we do a lot to be as prepared as possible."