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Home sweet home? Maybe not |
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For most teams, coming home would create a feeling of warmth, the outpouring of positive vibes.
For the Detroit Red Wings, about to embark on a three-game homestand starting with Saturday's game against Pittsburgh, home is not where happiness is found this season. At 7-10-3, the Wings are the worst home team in the NHL’s Eastern Conference, and if it weren’t for the 5-14-1 Colorado Avalanche, Detroit would be the worst home team in the NHL.
You have to go all the way back to 1985-86, when Detroit was the NHL’s worst team, to find a Red Wings club that failed more than they succeeded at Joe Louis Arena, going 10-26-4.
“It’s not going our way right now and just got to keep battling through,” Detroit captain Henrik Zetterberg said.
That might be easier said than done for a team that is certainly enduring a crisis of confidence, with just 11 wins in their last 34 games.
“I think we know that if we play the way we should and we want to, we can be a good team,” Detroit forward Gus Nyquist said. “We’ve had stretches of showing that and being a really good team.
“I think a lot of guys in here are maybe squeezing their sticks, not producing the way they wanted to over the course of the year. But you’ve got to be stronger than that. You’ve got to mentally strong and get past that and make sure you’re doing all those other things right and make sure you’re helping your team out in the way you can.
“We’ve got half the season left, so we’ll stay positive and go win some home games.”
With Detroit eight points out of a playoff spot, there’s no better time like the present for the Wings to kick it up a notch.
“If we’re going to make a push here and get into the playoffs, something’s got to happen here pretty soon and we’ve got start winning some games, four out of five or whatever, seven out of 10, something like that to push us up to the top and get us into a better spot to make the playoffs,” defenseman Danny DeKeyser said. “It’s kind of maybe make-it or break-it time.”
Like Nyquist, DeKeyser sees flashes that this Wings team can be that team to make such a seemingly unlikely rally, but it’s a matter of bringing it every night and not just once every three or four games.
“Some nights we look like we did against L.A. (a 4-0 win Jan. 5),” DeKeyser said. “We look really good, scoring goals and stuff, and then come back the next game and give up six (in a 6-3 loss at San Jose. “Consistency hasn’t been there for sure. That’s something we got to try to change as well.”
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