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They shoot, they . . . . don't score |
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They shoot . . . and they don’t score.
The 27-37-11 Detroit Red Wings share more than a similar record with Monday’s opponent, the 27-37-12 Montreal Canadiens. Both teams are also afflicted with the malady of being unable to put the puck into the other team’s net.
The Wings have scored 192 goals in 75 games. The Canadiens have scored 192 goals in 76 games. Those two clubs, along with the Buffalo Sabres (174), Arizona Coyotes (186) and Vancouver Canucks (197) are the only NHL teams yet to ascend to the 200-goal plateau. Not surprisingly, all five teams will be watching the Stanley Cup playoffs on television.
“I think overall we are playing good but we don’t score enough goals,” right-winger Martin Frk assessed to Detroitredwings.com. “We are right there and they just score on us. It’s usually like five, six minutes left in the game and now we have to come back. It’s a little bit tough.
“It would be different if we could score a couple of goals ahead and have a better feeling going into the third period, instead of going in all these tight games.”
This insight isn’t exactly breaking news to anyone who follows the Red Wings, and it certainly isn’t a new flash to those in the Detroit dressing room.
“It’s just the same thing every night,” Wings goalie Jimmy Howard said. “It’s like Groundhog Day for us right now.”
On a positive note, at least there won’t be six more weeks of this through which Wings fans must suffer. Just seven more games.
And on those occasions when they do score, such as Saturday’s 4-3 loss at Toronto, the Wings are the gift that keeps on giving. In the last five games when they’ve tallied three or more goals, the Wings have surrendered at least four goals in every game and are 1-3-1 over that span.
“It’s nice to see that the puck goes in for us at least,” Wings captain Henrik Zetterberg said after Saturday’s loss. “But now we’ve just got to find a little better mix of it, I guess.
“There was a few turnovers that cost us, or odd-man rushes I would say. We’ve seen it before.”
Penalty Phase
The situation is so dire, the Wings can’t even score when given a free shot at it. Frk missed on a penalty shot in Saturday’s loss, another familiar trend for the Wings.
When Justin Abdelkader scored on Tampa Bay’s Andrei Vasilevskiy earlier this season, it ended an 0-for-8 drought on penalty shots for the Wings, 0-for-9 if you count Zetterberg’s failed attempt in the 2010 playoffs.
Frk’s failure was their second penalty-shot miss since Abdelkader’s brief success story.
Date/Player-Outcome/Opponent/Goalie
March 24/18 Martin Frk-NG at Toronto (Frederik Andersen)
Jan. 3/18 Andreas Athansiou-NG vs. Ottawa (Craig Anderson)
Oct. 16/17 Justin Abdelkader-GOAL vs. Tampa Bay (Andrei Vasilevskiy)
Dec. 14/15 Tomas Jurco-NG at NY Rangers (Henrik Lundqvist)
Nov. 5/14 Gus Nyquist-NG at NY Rangers (Henrik Lundqvist)
Jan. 4/14 Justin Abdelkader-NG at Dallas (Dan Ellis)
Oct. 2/13 Cory Emmerton-NG vs. Buffalo (Ryan Miller)
Nov. 11/10 Mike Modano-NG vs. Edmonton (Nikolai Khabibulin)
May 4/10 Henrik Zetterberg-NG vs. San Jose (Evgeni Nabokov)-x
Apr. 9/10 Darren Helm-NG at Columbus (Steve Mason)
Oct. 13/09 Valtteri Filppula-NG at Buffalo (Ryan Miller)
Dec. 15/07 Pavel Datsyuk-NG vs. Florida (Tomas Vokoun)
x-Taken on Stanley Cup playoffs
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