Well that about sums it up
Shutout for the eighth time this season, Detroit Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill uttered one sentence after Wednesday’s 2-0 loss to the St. Louis Blues at Joe Louis Arena that while stating the obvious, completely capsulized what a depressing campaign it’s been for his hockey club.
“You’ve got to score more than zero to win,… Blashill said.
Precisely. And any way you do the math, no matter how you crunch the numbers, the sum total for the Wings might as well be absolute zero, because this team is going nowhere this season.
The Wings lost their fourth straight game. They are 2-6-4 in their last 12 games. Last in the NHL’s Eastern Conference, they are nine points out of a playoff position.
“It’s definitely coming down to the end here,… left-winger Justin Abdelkader admitted. “It’s frustrating for sure, getting shut out.
“I thought we had some chances but didn’t make it hard enough on their goalie.…
Early Deficit Another familiar story for the Wings - they found themselves quickly chasing the game. The Blues opened the scoring 2:06 after the opening faceoff, the 35th time Detroit has surrendered the first goal of the game this season.
“We have,… Blashill said. “That’s a fact. You can’t hide from that. We’ve given up way too many first goals.
“It makes it hard. Then you’re playing from behind and you can’t afford another mistake, or we need big saves.…
Called To The Office As soon as they got Gus Nyquist into the principal’s office, he cracked under the pressure.
Tuesday, Nyquist had his hearing with NHL player safety regarding his high stick on Minnesota’s Jared Spurgeon in Sunday’s game against the Wild.
Ever since the incident, Nyquist went out of his way to assure all that the high stick was merely an accident. But under cross-examination Tuesday, he broke down and admitted it was nothing but retaliation for the cross-check he’d taken to the back moments earlier from Spurgeon.
The end result was a six-game suspension for first-time offender Nyquist.
Howard Setback Recovering from a knee injury, Detroit goalie Jimmy Howard encountered a second setback that will once more delay his recovery.
The plan going forward is for Howard to return to AHL Grand Rapids for a second rehab stint during the last week of February.
Howard hasn’t played an NHL game since Dec. 20.
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