Groundhog Day On Ice

Actor Bill Murray, in character as Phil Connors in the 1993 cult classic Groundhog Day, offered the following observation: “When Chekhov saw the long winter, he saw a winter bleak and dark and bereft of hope.… No. he wasn’t referencing the Detroit Red Wings’ season, but he sure could have been. Take a hard look at the 2016-17 and 2017-18 Red Wings campaigns, and there most certainly is a Groundhog Day feel to the comparison. They can’t win at home - heck, right now, they can’t win anywhere, mired in their second six-game losing streak of the season following Thursday’s embarrassing, lopsided 6-3 setback at the hands of the Montreal Canadiens at Little Caesars Arena. “We have them where we want them to be in the game and then slowly we let them work themselves into it by making some mistakes, not sticking to what we should do,… Wings captain Henrik Zetterberg told Mlive.com. “All of a sudden, it’s in our net a few times.… As of today, the Wings no longer occupy a playoff position, and there’s a realistic chance that they won’t again this season. The hopeful feeling created by a 4-1 start has long since vanished, much like last year’s 6-2 beginning rapidly faded into oblivion. A soul-crushing 3-10-3 run on home ice last November-December greased the skids for Detroit’s first playoff absence since the 1989-90 season. Currently in the midst of a stretch that will see them play 13 of 15 at home between Nov. 11 and Dec. 15, the Wings are 2-3-3 so far at LCA. “The thing is when we’re playing good, we’re good,… Zetterberg said. “But when we’re playing not so good, we’re terrible. When we’re playing bad, we have to be better. We have to be more solid. “You won’t have everything you want every night but you have to be able to live through those nights and play through those games. We’re not doing that right now.… Their big guns aren’t scoring, and the Wings can’t keep the puck out of their net. The excuse that they were in most of the early losses of this skid has faded from reality after this setback came on the heels of a 4-1 defeat handed them Tuesday by the Los Angeles Kings. They’ve blown leads in all six games during their current slide. The Wings have given up at least four goals in five of their last six games and haven’t scored more than three goals in any of their last seven games. “We can’t let four, we can’t let five goals in either,… Zetterberg said. “We’re not a team that’s gonna score six goals or five goals and expect that we’re going to win the game.… Somewhere, off in the distance, you can hear the faint sounds of Stevie Nicks warbling about how it’s all so “hauntingly familiar.…