On a record (losing) pace

The longer this Detroit Red Wings season goes on, the longer it gets. Well, at least from a suffering standpoint. With an 0-7-1 slate in their last eight games, the Wings will look to avoid becoming the first Detroit club to lose nine in a row in 32 years when they face the Anaheim Ducks on Friday. Then again, they are already the first Red Wings team to lose eight in a row in 32 years. The Wings have sought to put a spin on their latest run of setbacks, noting that four of them were one-goal losses. But it must also be noted that in five of them, they’ve scored two goals or less. Publicly, they continue to put on a brave face and talk the talk, even if they continue not to walk the walk. “Regardless of where we are in the standings, it’s about coming in and doing it right every day,… defenseman Niklas Kronwall told Detroitredwings.com. “You work hard, and you get rewarded for it. If you don’t work hard, it’s going to show right away.… Kronwall was also brutally honest in his assessment of their overall performance during the current slide. “We haven’t been good enough here as of late,… Kronwall said. “It just hasn’t been nearly good enough when it comes to all the small details of the game – the stick battles, the positioning. And when we do get our chances, we have to make the most of them.… The last Detroit club to suffer eight consecutive losses were the miserable 1985-86 Red Wings, who went 17-57-6. This is not a team you want to have anything in common with whatsoever, other than that they got the first overall pick in the 1986 NHL entry draft. Of course, they used that pick to select Joe Murphy, but we’re pretty certain that if the Wings win the lottery and luck into No. 1 overall this spring, director of European scouting Hakan Andersson will be screaming Rasmus Dahlin at the top of his lungs. For future reference - such as later tonight, perhaps - the 1985-86 Detroit squad was also the last Wings to have a nine-game losing streak. And they were the previous team to this season's club to have at least three losing streaks of six or more games. The 1985-86 Wings endured the following skids: 9 games (Feb. 8-28, 1986) 9 games (Dec. 4-26, 1985 8 games (Oct 12-27, 1985) 7 games (Jan. 7-19, 1986) There was also a six-game losing streak that season, for a total of five losing streaks of six or more games. Prior to the debacle that is this season, the Wings had endured losing streaks of six or more games just three times in the previous four seasons: 2016-17 None 2015-16 None 2014-15 6 games (Dec. 10-21, 2014) 2013-14 7 games (Nov. 4-19, 2013); 6 games (Dec. 7-17, 2013) The last time the team lost more than nine games in a row was in 1981-82, when the Wings dropped a franchise-record 14 games in a row from Feb. 24, 1982-March 25, 1982. Now there’s something to look forward to. Follow me on Twitter @asktheduffer