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During the 1972-73 NHL season, the Detroit Red Wings missed the playoffs by two points. That season, they lost once to the first-year New York Islanders, who finished 12-60-6, twice to the Atlanta Flames, another first-year expansion team, and suffered two defeats and a tie at the hands of the woeful California Golden Seals, who won just 16 times all season. They also played to a trio of ties with the Vancouver Canucks.
That’s 14 points given away to the NHL’s four worst teams. That’s how you miss the playoffs.
Why the history lesson, you may well ask. Because it is very relevant to what the Wings are currently doing - throwing away points that will come back to haunt them.
Wednesday’s 6-2 loss to the Edmonton Oilers at Little Caesars Arena marked the second straight game and the third time during Detroit’s five-game homestand that the Wings dropped a game to a team that played the night before. The Oilers were hammered 8-3 on Tuesday by the St. Louis Blues. They’d lost three in a row and surrendered 18 goals in the process.
They should have been easy pickings.
“This is tough loss,” left-winger Tomas Tatar said. “We didn’t play good enough. We didn’t execute. We weren’t above (the puck). They had a lot of two-on-ones, three-on-twos. It just wasn’t good enough.
“When you play like this it’s hard to expect to win.”
Sunday, the Colorado Avalanche came to town off a 5-2 loss at Nashville the night before. Down 3-1 with seven minutes to go in the third period, the Avs rallied for a 4-3 overtime victory.
Evidently, the Wings learned no lessons from that setback. Just as they didn’t learn last season that giving away points to bad teams, especially on home ice, is a fatal flaw if the playoffs are in your plans.
Detroit finished its five-game homestand barely above .500 at 2-1-2. But a 4-3-3 overall home record is nothing to get excited about. Last season, the Wings went 17-17-7 at home, their worst home slate since the 1985-86 season, and missed the playoffs for the first time since the 1989-90 campaign.
“We still have a pretty long homestretch upcoming,” Tatar said. “We have to win these home games. We know how important is that.”
Why Howard?
Blashill opted to play Jimmy Howard in his fifth straight game, a puzzling decision on two fronts. Petr Mrazek blanked the Oilers 4-0 at Edmonton with a 36-save shutout performance on Nov. 5.
Howard has played some sensational games against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden, where the Wings play Friday. It’s his home state and he always gets fired up to play in New York.
Wouldn’t it have made more sense to give Howard Wednesday off and go with Mrazek, then come back with Howard on Friday?
Oh, Mrazek did play Wednesday, entering for Howard at 14:22 of the second period after the Oilers’ fourth goal. Howard, by the way, has allowed seven goals in his last 39:34. That’s a 10.67 goals-against average.
“We certainly weighed it in our decision,” Blashill said. “There’s certainly a lot of thought given the fact (Mrazek) had played real well in Edmonton.
“With that said, I also thought Jimmy has been great here throughout the season. He was rolling around one of the better save percentages in the league and has established himself as a real good goaltender this year and we just felt that was the right way to go.”
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