Both teams downplayed the significance of Thursday’s showdown for first place in the Atlantic Division between the Detroit Red Wings and Tampa Bay Lightning, but after the Lightning hammered the Wings 5-1 for their franchise-record ninth straight home-ice win, perhaps it’s time to dig a little deeper into whether the Wings are fighting out of their weight class.
With 65 points, they sit tied with the Montreal Canadiens one point in arrears to the Lightning, but when you break it down between these three divisional contenders, it doesn’t add up well for Detroit.
In four meetings this season with the Lightning and Canadiens, the Wings are still in search of their first win. They gained a point from a 4-3 shootout loss to the Lightning Nov. 9 at Joe Louis Arena and another via a 2-1 overtime setback Oct. 21 at Montreal, but the two regulation setbacks handed the Wings were significantly one-sided.
Montreal pounded the Wings 4-1 Nov. 16 at the JLA. Combined with Thursday’s loss, that’s a 9-2 goal differential in the two losses.
Certainly, the Lightning looked faster and more determined than the Wings in Thursday’s tilt.
“The first period was actually not bad,… Detroit captain Henrik Zetterberg said. “We came out and played good. Then the second and third we can just scratch from our memory.
“It didn’t go our way. They came out and scored three goals, one shorthanded. Then in the third it’s game over.…
Detroit coach Mike Babcock agreed with his captain’s assessment.
“I thought that might have been our best first period in a while,… Babcock said. “The puck just went in the net tonight. Let’s be honest. It was in the net every time they shot it and so you’re down by, not quite a touchdown, but a chunk right off the get-go.
“We just had a good run here. We won six in a row. We got spanked here tonight. Let’s get back, have a practice tomorrow, get regrouped.…
Babcock was certainly left impressed by what the Lightning bring to the ice.
“Elite, elite skill,… Babcock said. “I think they’ve build up a ton of young kids. There’s not many lines in the league like (Tyler) Johnson, (Nikita) Kucherov and (Ondrej) Palat who are two and then you’ve got (Alex) Killorn on your third line.
“I think they’ve got a real special group. They’ve got a nice back end, they’ve got a big goaltender (Ben Bishop), so they have a real opportunity for a long run it looks like.…
Overall, Detroit is 9-7-6 versus Atlantic Division opposition this season, but dig a little deeper and the numbers grow worrisome. Eliminate their victories against the dregs of the division – Toronto (two), Ottawa (two) and Buffalo (three) – and the overall number drops to 2-7-6.
“This is not the first elite team we’ve played this year, but they were good,… Zetterberg said of the Lightning. “We gave them a lot of free chances tonight, too and obviously was a big game, a division game.
“They won this one and we’ll see them again.…
Floodgates Open The Wings have surrendered 17 goals in their past four games, but had won three of them up until Thursday, when their sudden defensive shortcomings finally caught up with them.
Zetterberg felt that they’ve been able to win while not maintaining a tight ship in their own end has played into making it a more problematic situation.
“I think also when you are winning a lot of games, sometimes you start to cheat a little bit and that’s when you go away from your structure and teams will score on you,… Zetterberg said. “We’ve got to learn from this and get back to playing the way we should and we’ll be fine.…
Starting goalie Petr Mrazek was chased from the net for the second time in four games, Tom McCollum turning in a scoreless third period.
McCollum was also taken aback by the team’s sudden defensive shortcomings.
“It’s definitely not a characteristic of this team but at the same time I think it’s just a few things that we need to sharpen up and we’ll be back on track,… McCollum said.
It’s the first time a Babcock-coached Wings team has surrendered four or more goals in four successive games since Dec. 17-23, 2010.
Dec. 17, 2010 Detroit 1 at Chicago 4 Dec. 19, 2010 Dallas 4 at Detroit 3 (OT) Dec. 22, 2010 Vancouver 5 at Detroit 4 (OT) Dec. 23, 2010 Detroit 3 at St. Louis 4
“We can only cheat ourselves for so long,… Detroit defenseman Niklas Kronwall said. “There’s a lot of things that need to be better and needs to be improved.…
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